Somewhere in the middle of Crossfade's interview with drummer Ryan Welch, Mr. C. of Churchill's Pub interrupted to say that he's taking this Friday off because of Rat Bastard's three-day International Noise Conference. He said the people that come to INC are a bunch of hippies and they stink. We agreed. But we're still going.
For his part, Welch is curating a pre-INC show and performing on Thursday with Rick Diaz as Hahahelp. The self-taught Welch only claims to be "half-ass good at drums." That's not believable, considering he plays with Dino Felipe, and his solo project Mean Dream is usually the best of the night.
He also works alone on Flux Forces, out with Tom Anderson Productions, a project he described as just him and his keyboard making dark new wave, "channeling my 16-year-old self."
We talked to Welch's 24-year-old self at Churchill's about Miami, garage, and the INC pre-show.
New Times: This Wednesday is the Noise Conference pre-show, and you're curating it? Who put you in charge?
Ryan Welch: I don't even know. Rat just asked me to do it. I think INC has been going on 6 or 7 years, and Hahahelp has played the last five. So Rat asked me a few years ago, back when the News was thriving; I did the first pre-INC show there. Last year, I did it at La Cueva, and this year I'm going to do it at La Cueva. It's kind of a pain in the ass. But it's kinda fun, I guess.
Who should we be excited about?
I'm excited about Rick, who's in my band. He's playing as Cool Tones. He's my buddy. I like Slashpine, who are awesome. They're like one of the only black metal bands that I know about. I'm kind of like fucking ignorant about metal in Florida. Eli's got a new band with Gyr and it's called Gyr and the Doodle Town Pipers. There's a lot of shit. Everything's good.
What's the future of the noise scene in Miami?
Actually, I think it got really popular again. There are so many bands popping up in Miami.
Now don't get me wrong, man ... Jacuzzi Boys are good. But it's like bands just pick up guitars and then the next week, it's like... I was talking to my friend Jeff about how if you do a certain thing, some people just like it because of the genre. They're just nerdy like that. And right now, garage rock is, like, fucking jizzing all over the goddamn place.
And so, what was I saying? As far as noise goes, anyone can put a microphone up to an amp. Or spend a bunch of money on pedals and shit. The only reason we got sucked up into noise is that we started a band and we just wanted to be what we always want to be as kids. Like Nirvana, rock out. My band has been around for like five years, and we've had practice sessions maybe, like, three times. We never practice. When we first started out, we sounded crazy, just totally improvised and all over the place. And we just didn't know what we were doing. We were just trying to be awesome and rock and we got caught up in the noise scene. I never even really knew about noise until I moved to Miami.
What do you think is going to happen with music in Miami next?
It's kind of out of the way to come to Miami. And bands that do live in Miami, we do it because we have to do it. Whether they get paid, whether it fucking pays off. Music in Miami will always be here. Florida in general birthed a lot of good metal and punk and shit like that. If people want to take notice, fucking magazines like Spin and Vice and shit, even better. Because the DJ kind of rules here. The DJ owns shit. Hang the DJ.
Dick Hammer's Late Night Inferno Presents Pre-International Noise Conference Fun Time. La Cueva, 801 SW 5th Ave., Miami. The show starts at 9 p.m. and ends at 2:30 a.m. Those performing are Echolalia, Dyslexic Postcards, Self & Other, Kenny Millions, The Electric Bunnies, Meat, Doersam Feat. Steve Bristol, Rare Fruit, Gyr & The Doodle Town Pipers, Nags Head, Viking Funeral, Kooltones!, Passion, This Heart Electric, Holly Hunt, Slashpine, and Amanda Green.
Note: Why should we go to the show? Ryan says, "It's free, above a liquor store, and there's rad bands."
Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.
