Foetus Interview

By Daniel Rolnik On April 5, 2011

Photo of JG Thirlwell by: Magda Blaczuk

JG Thirlwell is an artist and composer known by many names including Foetus, Manorexia, and Steroid Maximus. When he isn’t writing the score to the animated series The Venture Bros on Cartoon Network, he’s creating compositions for the Kronos Quartet as well as his own albums. Never one for a nostalgia trip, JG Thirlwell is all about progressing.

Daniel Rolnik: What are the keys to surviving successfully as a musician/composer who only does what they want to do?
JG Thirlwell: If there were one answer to that, everyone would do it. I can only talk about the way I do it. I tend to work in a few different areas, but they are all connected with sound, music, or art. I do sound installations and occasionally sound design for websites. I license my works, have a record label, perform live, write commissions, do remixes, design my own artwork, and I’ve done voice-over projects. I work pretty long hours and usually have several projects going on at the same time. While composing for the Venture Bros I might also be working on two albums.

DR: What’s your favorite album by The Residents and have you ever seen them unmasked?
JG: It’s hard to choose just one…Third Reich and Roll, Meet the Residents, Fingerprince, Eskimo, and Duck Stab are among my faves. I have been behind the velvet curtain of the Cryptic Corporation. However, being a gentleman, one never reveals what is beneath the eyeball.

Photo of JG Thirlwell by: Taylor Crothers

DR: Where is your go-to studio?
JG: I use my own studio for nearly all my work, Self Immolation Studios in Brooklyn [NY]. I recorded the Manorexia chamber album at Eastside Sound.

DR: What’s your setup for composing?
JG: If I’m writing a string quartet, I will write it in midi via Logic using string samples (usually EW strings), and then either save the scores as pdf’s or output them as midi files. If it’s a simple part or overdub I create pdf’s of the charts and send them to my musicians to make sure they can read them. But, when I’m writing a large piece for an ensemble like the Kronos Quartet, I sit with an arranger who puts everything into Sibelius. I then assemble a quartet to play the piece, and make some changes to it once I’ve heard it performed live. Those changes are inserted into the Sibelius charts that I send to the Kronos Quartet to look at – who may have some comments and tweaks when they see the score. I’ll rehearse with the Kronos Quartet and we’ll talk about the way certain sections will be played. When I’m hearing it in rehearsal, I might continue to tweak some sections, change notes, lengthen, or even discard parts.

Photo of JG Thirlwell by: Marylene Mey

DR: What’s a custom piece of audio gear you’d like to have built for you?
JG: A three thousand foot Aeolian harp.

DR: What film soundtracks are you currently listening to?
JG: I’ve been listening a lot to an album of Alfred Schnittke’s film music, Lalo Schifrin’s score for THX 1138, and old standbys like Don Ellis’ French Connection scores. I recently guested on a show for East Village Radio where I DJ’d soundtracks for a couple of hours, you can hear the stream here

Photo of JG Thirlwell by: Maya Hardinge

DR: What are your opinions on the advancements in sound for film?
JG: I don’t go to the cinema too often. I’m terrified of getting bedbugs.

DR: How did you learn how to conduct and compose for an orchestra?
JG: I don’t read music, but I can count! Steven Bernstein [musical director for JG Thirlwell’s Steroid Maximus project] gives me conducting tips and I try to cue as much as possible. My count is a bit wacky because I count my 2 to the right and 3 to the left, instead of the other way around.

Photo of JG Thirlwell by: Fabien Leca

DR: What’s your most memorable nightmare from having to deal with a tape machine?
JG: I have mostly happy memories with tape to be honest, but once I worked with an engineer who sliced some tape off a reel and it ended up in hundreds of pieces on the floor. I used to work with three ADATs [24 tracks] and those machines were notorious for going down. If you wanted to have 24 tracks at all times, you always had to have one spare machine. In the pre-midi and sampling days I used to work with tape loops and would pitch them using the varispeed of the tape machine.

DR: Do you feel as though we’ll start to see a rise in interactive music with the advent of technology?
JG: Yes, I think we are seeing a lot of interactive music and alternate controllers. I’m not planning any interactive musical experiences at the moment. I have done some sound installations, but they weren’t interactive.