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MICHAEL COWELL INTERVIEW RUBBER CITY NOISE INTERVIEW

C.A.N.S. INTERVIEW

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How did CANS come into being?


  The name CANS - Central Asian Nervous Systems came to me after having a history class just before a biology class in high school. We were learning about Central Asia in history and then about the nervous system in biology. I had been smoking a lot of marijuana and taking LSD the prior weekend. In front of me on my school desk was a book about William S Burroughs and his "cut up's ". I often read Beat Generation books and Dostoevsky in my classrooms instead of the required readings. During lunch break "Central Asian Nervous Systems" came into my mind. I saved  that in my internal hard drive to be used in the future. 20 years later I needed a name for the music I produce. CANS seemed right for the times due to all the conflict and damage being done in Central Asia. Musically speaking CANS is just the latest name given to my 25 years worth of home recordings. 
 I was a 4 - track cassette tape kid , and an improviser. I use anything and everything I can get my hands on to record. Most of my work is done without much thought and usually in one or two takes. CANS is a moniker , something to mark the music by. A stamp. Before that it was Testicular Manslaughter , that one came to me while in Drivers Education Class !


Where do you draw your inspiration from?


  Headphones! Headphones are my private sanctuary. Headphones are my personal space and that space is just the way that I like it. It may be selfish and slightly  narcissistic , yet I prefer to be alone and to work alone. After being a part of so many bands that have broken up it just has to be this way. You can always depend on yourself right ?
   Analogue electronics and home recording are allot more reliable than a group of boys who have to work and go to school. I would like to get a drum kit , bass , guitars and amps
and make some records that way in the future. That is how I started out. It is just difficult to keep that gear together after moving around a lot and always being on a limited budget. 


  I usually don't listen to much new music because I tend to use that time to create music instead , which may or may not be good , I don't know.Bands that have changed my life and defined my sound are Richard H Kirk , The Fall , Jah Wobble , CRASS , Velvet Underground , Ceephax Acid Crew , rare and out of print Hip - Hop and Jazz , Mac Dre and the Hyphy sound from Oakland and I still listen to a lot of 70s Dub Reggae and Prog Rock rarities. 



 
Orlando's DANA YOUNG is the mastermind behind the psyched out industrial electronica of C.A.N.S. Black Forest asked Dana about his past projects,inspirations and his plans for the future....
 ©BLACK FOREST 2014
C.A.N.S.
Tell us about your side projects,projects you were in prior to CANS and any other stuff you have been involved with...


    My first band was The Niguel Hills Jr High School Band. I played and studied snare drum there by the beach in Orange County California. My second band was probably the most successful as far as distribution and plays. It was when I was 12 and played in a group called The Electric Shoes on the television series The Wonder Years. I played bass and was taught to play by Billy Swan of The Kris Kristofferson band . The other members were Allen from Punky Brewster on drums , Joshua the little kid from Rivers Edge on guitar and vocals , Fred Savage on guitar and me as Niel Rhodes on bass guitar. After that I got into a serious highschool band called The Kate Moss Express with Nicholas Dvorkin on bass who has spent the last 20 years buying records for Rasputin Records on Telegraph Ave in Berkley , California and a genius guitarist named Mark Fazio who has flown well under the radar ever since. Mark is wealthy and does not like any social interactions. He has never used Myspace or Facebook and has never wanted to. Yet he is the most talented guitarist that I have ever heard play. After that I played in a group called Silence Fiction with Heather Porcarro (her dad wrote a lot of Michael Jacksons Thriller LP and played the synths , also the founding member of TOTO) , actor Ethan Embry / Randall , Shan Sanford , and Nicholas Dvorkin. That was short lived yet good. Then in 2004 I moved in with John Maus and was asked to join Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and toured extensively with Animal Collective on the 2005 US tour. Soon after that I made Testicular Manslaughter and toured by myself through Europe by way of support from an Irish Record store in Cork called PLUGD. 
   Now I continue to work with Nicholas Dvorkin of Oakland , CA aka The High Evolutionary , Paul Von Aphid from Russia , Alex Colonelxs and Kaiser Schnitt Amboss Laszlo in Italy,Kevin Rutmanis ( COWS and Melvins and Tomahawk ) in his band Hepa / Titus ( Amphetamine Reptile Records ) and a few other people by way of singing or making beats.
  I recently started a new set of songs as The Plagiarist that I have a vision for and have yet to take the time to realize it. It will be in concept a completely visual and aural  sample based deal without copyright concerns. The goal with that is to truly plagiarise everything I want and put it out for free.


Whats the music scene like in Orlando?


  I really don't know. I moved here from Los Angeles about 4 years ago and have not yet fell into any scene. 5AM Records is cool and they are here and make allot of Boom Bap Hip Hop. Matt Kamm is great and the dudes from Yip Yip as well. Dan Reeves puts on some cool shows that I get to play.
  The Full Sail kids can be found at Stardust Video and Coffee and are all pretty cool. I find it easier to book shows in France for myself than here in Orlando.
  Just saying. Los Angeles is my home town and i could book shows every week there. Orlando is a tough cookie to crack and I don't care to do the groundwork needed to network shows here. Frankly I recommend that any band on tour skip Orlando , you will not enjoy playing music here , sincerely...


Do you gig regularly? Have you got any Shows, Tours for the future coming up you want to tell people about?


  I gig a few times a year here in Orlando at small shows usually Noise Artist shows. Noise seems to be the best scene here in Orlando. I have a tour in the works starting in Spain and ending in Ireland by way of a lable I hooked up with called SPVPV - Sociedad para la Promoción de la Virtud y la Prevención del Vicio that is based in southern Spain. I have played all over the US and Europe in the past. It seems to come in waves , like some years allot and some years nothing. 2014 is looking pretty well though.


Do you have any interests outside music, art, film etc. ?


   I am an avid fisherman , I recently started fly fishing which I find to be amazing. Here in Florida the best things to do are to explore the great outdoors and fishing here is world renown. I love to surf and skateboard and help friends out with whatever they have going on.
  I have two kids that are a constant source of joy and a never ending list of things to do with them. We have season tickets to Disney World and go there a few times a month. I paint , edit video , have a degree in 3-D animation and grew up in Hollywood as a child actor. I was in the movies , TV , commercials and films. I still read the occasional script and would love to act again if something great presents itself.


Any other artists/labels you would like to recommend to our readers?


  Aural Sects Label , Clan Destine Label , All the artists that have contributed to the CANS Label / Collective Soundcloud are hand picked and well worth a spin. Part Time Punks Club and DJ David Orlando aka Boss Harmony (Punky Reggae) in LA can be heard worldwide on KXLU 88.9 Los Andgeles on the web.
  Cirque Du Minimalist is a label that I love , it's a German Minimal Techno crew that makes the kind of music I love to work by. Allot of great music from South Africa Len Cockraft and Garreth Dawson have a band called Tannhauser Gate that I love and Witchboy is rad. AUZ has a great thing happening as well. PBS Melbourne AUZ plays allot of great new music and can be heard online as well. DJ Ryan Knowles has a show on Tuesdays 6-7pm on 87.6 KISS FM in Melbourne , AUZ as well called Neo Faux Show. And DJ Mike Texbeak is always on top of the new underground electronic music. I rely on those DJ's for finding new music and the LA dudes for the rare and out of print stuff. I DJ'd vinyl for 10 years in LA and gave it up after moving here to Florida. I had to sell my records because they would not fit on the plane !!!


What are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future?


  I am currently designing my live show for the upcoming EU tour for SPVPV - Sociedad para la Promoción de la Virtud y la Prevención del Vicio. As a one man band one must rely on backing tracks to supply the main source of songs. I am getting instrumental vinyl records made for DJ's to play while I do the singing and melody lines on synth , guitar , and bass at the shows. So , getting the vibe and costume and presentation ready and rehearsed by April 2014 is top on my list right now. When we get these opportunities to travel and play it is very important to come correct with a proper show. 
  I am also working on a Mini DVDr to be released through Aural Sects quite soon. It will contain 2 gigs of music recorded over the past 2 years. A lot of the songs that did not make it onto releases and such. I think it will sell for around 10 - 15 bucks and have well over 100 tracks on it. A few videos as well.
  The future ? ..... , expect more CANS and The Plagiarist and live shows I suppose. I am always looking for new gear and such that often reshapes my sound. I really only use hardware synths so , hopefully I can score a few more this year...