Interview to Cumsleg Borenail (2024)

Cumsleg Borenail is an experimental, IDM, Noise, vaporwave artist from UK. 

Also he is the founder of Borenail Records.

https://cumslegborenail.bandcamp.com/

https://borenailrecords.bandcamp.com/

https://linktr.ee/cumslegborenail

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Lkq6hB2nbtf3G4Bbg7R3A

https://archive.org/details/@borenail_entertainment

https://whatjoyisthereinliving.bandcamp.com/

https://frishprence.bandcamp.com/

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

Hey, the original name was Ploist Drencrom, but it just didn't sound right to me. Drencrom from Clockwork Orange?? I think? It lacked that punch I was looking for. I came up with Cumsleg Borenail and I think it has a better flow. I had a remix track on BBC Radio 6, they couldn’t bring themselves to say the word ‘Cumsleg’ so settled on ‘Seesleg”. Plus, Borenail; kind of reminds me of Withnail from that classic British film Withnail & I;. You know, the eccentric and alcoholic actor? It gives the name a bit of that same kind of quirky, unpredictable vibe. Most tracks I wrote jump from genre to merging with another genre.

- What equipment do you use for create music?

Gear4music Fretless bass, Eagleton electric bass, Akai MPC One, Elevation acoustics guitar, Violin, Serum vst, reaper, Tx16wx, mooer harmonic square, korg kaoscilltor, Donner electric guitar, Saxophone

Yamaha PSR-340 as midi keyboard. All of the above are sampled, chopped up, repitched into something new. The running theme of cheap hardware, the MPC an exception, runs through Cumsleg Borenail.

Cheap, British, Pay as you go, nasty.

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when you started to make music?

I began with classical piano training from the age of seven to eleven. I eventually became obsessed with the electric guitar, from exposure to Nirvana and Guns ‘n’ Roses. Even though I was raised on Godley & Creme. Then finding myself in the derivative world of metal bands for the next decade. This period,while partly fulfilling, followed a secret history of 15 years, culminating in the birth of Cumsleg Borenail around 2022. I’m nearly old.

Initially, I experimented with popular genres like Vaporwave and Ambient, but found my attempts consistently sounding nowhere near the confines of these established styles. My work, though attempting unique, struggled to find its place within these existing frameworks. I couldn’t stay ambient for more than a single track and in vaporwave hated going through 80s city pop samples. 

Kept plugging away, I embraced a more balanced approach, seamlessly blending samples, analog and digital equipment, and even incorporating AI-generated sound effects. This layered approach allows me to explore uncharted sonic territories and cultivate a fairly distinctive sound. Not ambient!

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

Throbbing Gristle (The use of imagery and sound are inspirational and I always have an album on in the mix of everything else I consume. Albums like Mission Of Dead Souls are perfect. It is something I plan to do when playing live. All original and improvised), Coil (A Throbbing Gristle offshoot never fail to reach a new level with every release, even post mortem. I do think about the look of their corpses, not sure if they were cremated), Van Der Graaf Generator (mostly their 70’s output but the reform in the 2000’s was even more complex. Recently saw them in Bath forum. My back ached in the seats.), Nine Inch Nails (Only the downward spiral and broken. The rest is just nostalgia to those albums), Psychic Tv (First two albums are superb, the acid house and beyond not so much so), Giacinto Scelsi (The structure and space of all compositions are masterpieces).

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

So pretty much anything off Irregular Patterns ( https://irregularpatterns.bandcamp.com/ ), just started getting into Mortality Tables (https://mortalitytables.bandcamp.com/) and Third Kind records (https://thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/ ) and finally Adventurous Music (https://adventurousmusic.bandcamp.com/ ) who don’t have a bad release. Underground work has waymore heart. More perceived meaning and context.

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

The grey British skies crush my soul in a temporary body and I am fine with that until I am reborn in a future genealogical slant. An equivalent to Adonai operates a frequency that holds our body parts together. Hobbs leviathan provides me a system of worship and taxation.

- What is your favorite album/ep composed by yours? And why?

“An Occidental Felo-De-Se” due to the leaps in my confidence in vocals, production and the general “quality” of the work. Which, from my home studio, seems great to me. Granted me an assurance overall that I could produce a piece listenable to my ears if not anyone else’s. The earlier work on 60th listen seems a great task. Tiring. 

Occidental : “Is an adjective that means "of, relating to, or characteristic of the Occident or its natives and inhabitants"; The Occident refers to the western part of the world, especially the countries of Europe and America. The term occidental is often used in contrast to oriental, which refers to the eastern part of the world.”

I am here, raised here, stuck here.

Felo-De-Se: “Is an obsolete legal term derived from Latin, meaning "felon of oneself"; It referred to a person who had committed suicide. Under English common law, suicide was considered a felony and was punished by forfeiture of property and an ignominious burial. The concept of felo-de-se was abolished in England and Wales in 1961 with the passage of the Suicide Act 1961. However, the term is still sometimes used colloquially to refer to suicide.”

Humorous that post mortem your punishment still stands. That’s very British.

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

All the music platforms and streaming sites bring someone from somewhere.

- Any news for 2025?

One definite live gig and my usual album a month.

LATEST RELEASE: "Birds With Vertigo"(with Sammy J Matthews):

https://cumslegborenail.bandcamp.com/album/birds-with-vertigo

Interview to Cosmic Disruption Orchestra (2024)

 

CDO (Cosmic Diruption Orchestra) is an experimental, dark noise, industrial, lovecraftian 

ritual dark ambient artist from UK. 

https://cosmicdisruptionorchestra.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/CDOritual/

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

CDO (Cosmic Disruption Orchestra) started out as a response to my interest in the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. This changed into a Noise project (more of this in the next answer): the interaction between different noise elements such as rhythm and/or texture. Now it is about a more ‘traditional’ approach looking at different styles like Metal and Jungle. But next year may be different as I feel I’ve covered what I can so far this year.

- What equipment do you use for create music?

I started using Adobe Audition but it was limited (by bad programming) regarding the plugins it was able to accept which was limited. Since the start of this year, I have been using Tracktion Waveform. I am able to record with a couple of digital interfaces but that has been limited so far.

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when  you started to make music?

In 2016 I recorded my first EP experimenting with something close to Cold Wave and Minimal Electronica. A second EP followed in the next year showing that I had advanced my creativity (listening to it now feels strange but refreshing). A longer release ‘Awakening Through Dream’ appeared in 2018, where I start using glitch techniques as an integral part of the music creation process along with longer track times. ‘Unnameable Vistas’ was released in the same year showing an affinity for surrealism. ‘From The Stars’ in 2019 is unmistakably  (both visually and in music) a nod to Lovecraft and film soundtracks (including the use of lower frequencies) on top of the surrealist tone. Also in the same year, I released ‘The Longed For Journey’ continuing on from the previous album. And in 2020 before the hiatus ‘Beyond Dreams And Wastelands’ was released where noise was used as something to be imposed on the listener where frequencies clash amongst each other. In late 2023 ‘Caressed By Angel Wings’ appeared marking a new interest in making music by myself and the last album on which I would use Adobe Audition. In 2024 there were the albums ‘House of Curiosities’, ‘Aion’, ‘ Fall of the Digital Empire’ and ‘Ramshackle, misfits and malarkey’ (the last here being a collection of unused ideas and tracks which didn’t seem to fit). Closing the year was a compilation of remixes/interpretations ‘Shadows and Like Grains of Sand REMIXES’ where 2 tunes from ’Ramshackle..’ were used and abused.

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

In no particular order: Aphex Twin/AFX/Polygon Window/The Tuss, Nurse With Wound, Nine Inch Nails, Rock/Metal, Autechre, Kryztof Penderecki, early Jungle, there are many others.

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

I listen to artists whenever I can although there’s nothing specific as I have either wanted to create music like that which I’ve heard or I’m amazed by the creativity of these artists and I feel that I could improve what I’m creating.

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

Yes, as I mentioned earlier, there’s the music but also the social and political landscape which doesn’t look so stable as it should to me: I’ve never been a fan of authority figures who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near positions where they can negatively affect the majority.

- What is your favorite album/ep composed by you? And why?

That’s a difficult question to answer as each release has paved the way for where I am at the current time.

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

Bandcamp as it offers a free service but also a paid version. Also, they appear to like promoting artists who are less well known and they are not taking alot of money for themselves when it should go to the artists instead.

- Do you play live? How was the experience?

I had been in groups that played live before but even though it was fun and exciting I always felt like the songwriting process didn’t let ideas move the group forward. I prefer CDO as a studio only project.

- Any news for 2025?

I’m starting production on a new album trying to use a different approach but I’m not sure how it will turn out (I don’t work to a plan as such, just create what I feel at the time and it can be a very spontaneous way of making music or any type of art). 

I would like to make an actual collaboration album where ideas are exchanged and both or all musicians turn the others ideas into something away from the original idea. That would provide a different creative environment for me in that it would be a challenge and provoke a new and exciting way to work.

Interview to Berg Stresser (Kosmische Clutharachán)(2024)

 

Kosmische Clutharachán / Bergstresser / Secluded Interval is multi genre composer. Mainly  Ambient, Post-Rock, Experimental, Indie, Postmodern Jazz, Avant Garde, Dub, Electronic, Noise & Improvisation genres. From California, US.

- What is the meaning and the concept behind the name of your music project?

Thank you for inviting me to do this interview. I really appreciate it.

Currently, I have 3 projects: Kosmische Clutharachán (aka: Kosmik Leprechaun), Bergstresser and Secluded Interval. 

Since 1995, Kosmische Clutharachán has been the project I've worked with the most and it also has the most releases (43 albums as of the date of this interview). I'd somewhat loosly describe the sound as "experimental, psychedelic, electronic, indie, noise". The project's previous name (Kosmik Leprechaun) was inspired by the unofficial mid 1970's German krautrock supergroup, The Cosmic Jokers.

In 2021, I changed the name to Kosmische Clutharachán, intending to reflect a more mature side of the project, and with more thought put into the composition and production standards. I chose the German spelling of "kosmische" over "kosmik". And, the old English-Irish word "clutharachán" was chosen to distinguish it from the better-known word "leprechaun". Clutharacháns and leprechauns are similar, but not exactly the same. I relate more to the former, rather than the latter.

Kosmische Clutharachán / Kosmik Leprechaun (Bandcamp): 

https://kosmikleprechaun.bandcamp.com/

The 2nd project I have is a raw, lo-fi, heavy, guitar-driven, instrumental noise-metal thing called Bergstresser. I started that in 2022, and I've recorded 3 EP's available under that name. 

Officially, the word Bergstresser is an Americanized form of the German word "Bergsträsser", which is a topographic name for "someone who lives by a mountain road". But, for me, Bergstresser means something akin to "breaking a pathway through miles of solid bed rock, mountains and icebergs". The name also has an unintended psychologial edge to it that I enjoy, with "stresser" being part of the word. 

You might think that with all these German names and words that I, myself, am German! But, no. I'm not. I was born in the United States. I have no known German ancestry that I can account for. Nothing in my DNA shows anything specifically from that region of Europe. I just simply love Krautrock and Stockhausen, man. Both of those things are very very German!

Bergstresser (Bandcamp): 

https://bergstresser.bandcamp.com/

The 3rd project I have is a somewhat melancholy, instrumental, electronic pop-oriented thing called Secluded Interval, which I started in 2023, and I have 3 releases out under that name (all of which can be found at the Kosmische Clutharachán / Kosmik Leprechaun Bandcamp page). To me, the name Secluded Interval simply means "music made in isolation", which is essentially what it is, really.

Secluded Interval (Bandcamp): 

https://kosmikleprechaun.bandcamp.com/

Other than those 3 projects, I've also been involved with tons of other projects. I can't mention everything I've done in this interview, because it would go on for days. But, much of that material has been released, independently. But, a lot of it, especially my really early stuff, has been lost to time and will probably never be heard again, unless the unlikely happens and someone finds the actual cassettes and CD-r's that I released from 1993 to 2005 and gives them to me to re-release. I just don't have them anymore.

- What equipment do you use for create music?

My chief instruments are guitars, bass, drums, synthesizers, keyboards and computers. I used to sing. But, I don't do that anymore. I typically record using a Tascam DP-01 FX digital 8-track machine. And, I program and edit everything using Ableton Live on my laptop. For effects, I use a single multi-effect guitar pedal and whatever else is available, via software. For mastering, I use Audacity. For instrument amplification and studio monitering, I use a large JVC HX-GX7 stereo system with built-in subwoofers to get the job done. If it's late at night and I'm creating music, I use headphones.

- Tell us a little biography about your project, when you started to make music?

Started playing music in 1984 when my parents gave me an acoustic guitar for my 8th birthday. In 1985, they gave me a synthesizer. I didn't know how to play my instruments back then, so I just made noise, which drove my mother crazy. My grandmother gave me my first electric guitar and I started recording my earliest solo stuff on a couple of boomboxes in 1988. In 1989, I formed my first grindcore band while in middle school. Later, in high school, I released my first home-dubbed cassettes through my label Hot Damn! Tapes (which later became known as Completely Gone Recordings). In 1994, I got my first 4-track cassette recorder, prompting me to start taking my music a bit more seriously.

Completely Gone Recordings (Bandcamp): 

https://completelygonerecordings.bandcamp.com/

- Who are your main music and artistic influences?

The list has changed over the years. As of today, I can say I am still influenced by Arnold Schoenberg, early Ash Ra Tempel, Can, early Blue Cheer, Cocteau Twins, David Axelrod, EPMD, Eric B. & Rakim, Erik Satie, Flying Saucer Attack, Frédéric Chopin, God, Godflesh, Gong, György Ligeti, Herbie Hancock, Iannis Xenakis, Jesu, John Coltrane, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk, Men I Trust, Merzbow, Meshuggah, Miles Davis, My Bloody Valentine, early Napalm Death, early Public Image Ltd., Rocketship, Slowdive, Slug, early Soft Machine, Stereolab, Sun Ra, early Swans, Syd Barrett, early Tangerine Dream, Techno Animal, The Velvet Underground, Third Eye Foundation, early WuTang Clan and stuff like that.

- What underground artists from the netlabel scene do you like?

There's a lot of them. Off the top of my head, I can definitely say that I like Anthony Osborne, Antoine Trauma, Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi, Barbara Brogi, Copperhead, Devin Sarno, EISENLAGER, Fernando Bocadillos, Filmy Ghost, Hell Seb, Humanfobia, I,Eternal, I.v. Martinez, Jaime Munárriz, James Hoehl, Kontrolled Demolition, Lefterna, LR Friberg, Martin MarK, Mean Flow, M.NOMIZED, Night Mode, nordBeck, Quint Baker, RDKPL, Sean Derrick Cooper Marquardt, Secant Prime, Sound_00, Thomas Park, V, Vulnerlogocentrism, WHΛLT THISИEY, Wilfried Hanrath, Yaka╧anima and etc.

- Do you have some influence from your country in your music?

You know, if I'm honest, not too much. While I love a lot of the music from the 1950's until the mid 2000's, most of the current music from my country doesn't excite me. It seems like nearly all of the music I like comes from everywhere but the United States (except for jazz, which I still love). I don't know if it's because I've lived here my whole life, and therefore I've become jaded to music from my own country. But, for whatever reason, I just can't get into many artists from the states these days. I don't find a lot of the current culture in my country to be very interesting, sadly.

 - What is your favorite album/ep composed by you? And why?

That's a good question. I don't know. I guess I would probably say my most recent material is usually my favourite. Some of what I've written over the years is exactly the kind of music I've always wanted to listen to. So, it's a success in that regard. But, there's some stuff I've recorded which is just dreadful for me to listen to, and I hesitate to even mention those albums. Lol.

- What are your preferred music platforms/websites? Why?

When I first began uploading my music online, I did it via the Internet Archive, where artist's can't really make any money for their work. After 10 years of doing that, someone suggested I release everything on Bandcamp. He was right. Bandcamp actually pays the artist's who earn via their platform a proper sum of money, while protecting their copyrights and dealing with shenanagans. There's nothing quite like Bandcamp at the moment. As for promotion, I just post links to my releases on Facebook. I also publish music videos on Completely Gone Recordings' YouTube site.

Completely Gone Recordings (YouTube):

https://www.youtube.com/@completelygonerecordings

- Any funny anecdote in the composition of a track or an album?

I know for a fact that many utterly ridiculous things have happened over the years, with regards to my music and label. One recent example I can share... A few months ago, I released an album on Completely Gone Recordings by an artist that I like who shall go unnamed in this interview. On his album was an unlicenced sample of a Carl Crack vocal from an Atari Teenage Riot track. Assuming the sample was cleared, I didn't think much about it at the time of releasing the album. But, maybe a month, or so after the album's release, Alec Empire (Atari Teenage Riot's mainman) himself emailed me, inquiring how the artist and label was granted permission to use Carl Crack's vocal sample. After realizing what had happened, I ended up apologizing to Alec Empire and the track with the sample was scrubbed from the album. Luckily, Alec was a gentleman, and he let it go without another word. It could've been a disaster, though. I gotta' watch it. I mean, the last person I wish to irk is Alec Empire!!

- Do you play live? How was the experience?

I've played gigs since 1994. Most of my experiences performing live has been generally positive. I would love to perform some gigs with a group right now. But, it's become quite unfeasible to play live music nowadays. Just the cost of setting up a simple 3 hour time slot for a band to run through their set a couple of times at a local rehearsal studio is so overpriced, many of the studios I used to frequent have closed down because few musicians can afford it anymore.

- Any news for 2025?

Just going to keep moving forward one day at a time and hopefully release some genuinely rad sounds along the way. That's the goal.

- Do you want to say anything else to your listeners?

Yeah, definitely. I want to say thank you for interviewing me. Thanks to everyone for checking out my music, really. Thanks for listening and showing all the support. Thanks to my friends, family, collaborators and everyone I've worked with in the past. And, obviously, thanks to the people for buying my music. You know? Really appreciated. 

Lastly, keep an open mind about everything. Don't be too hard on yourself. Be creative, if the spirit moves you. And, if you don't already know... be kind to animals and to vulnerable people in society, man. That's all I have to say. Peace.

LATEST RELEASE: "Moonrise":

https://musiquemoleculaire.bandcamp.com/album/moonrise