ICA's first partners for the program will be the Miami Music Club, a nomadic space for hosting music, sound, and performance art around Miami. The MMC will curate three events for the ICA, each
For the first event, the out-of-towner MMC has selected is the Philadelphia-based Noah Anthony, who has been subverting the status quo of techno via his experimental output, Profligate, for years. He'll be joined by locals Sharlyn Evertsz and Dim Past. In advance of Anthony's upcoming performance, we chatted with the oft-elusive artist for some probing discussion about genre, found sound, and writing pop songs in the avant-garde sphere.
Miami New Times: “Profligate" as a noun is defined as "a licentious, dissolute person." The music certainly has the abrasion of industrial textures, but sometimes there are very familiar-sounding songs with sweet melodies buried inside. How do you reconcile this outer shell of lo-fi or aggressive noise with the plainclothes songs distributed therein?
Noah Anthony: I think it's a combination of two things. It's an attempt to express the sound I'm usually hearing in my head, and it's the way I process my sound. I'm usually always just trying to write a good pop
The first track on Abbreviated Regime has a guitar line. What got you interested in using a decidedly analog instrument in the midst of all these broken, electronic loops? At
I guess it's just not something I really consider. I'm just trying to write a good song regardless of what the genre is. I definitely like to incorporate different influences into one track and just experiment with different styles and see what works and what doesn't. I usually just go with my gut instincts and I do enjoy that internal debate
Traveling
Well, Profligate came out of my first solo project called Night Burger which was pretty minimal and overall nasty sounding. I just wanted to get away from vocals and structure since I had only been in bands up to that point. After a couple years, things started to change and I was adding vocals and kind of writing straightforward songs. That's
Profligate with Sharlyn Evertsz & Dim Past. 8 p.m. Saturday, June 11, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, 4040 NE Second Ave., Miami; 305-901-5272; icamiami.org/miamimusicclub.com. Tickets cost $10 via eventbrite.com.