Signifying Something

Content note: This episode includes discussion of addiction, overdose, and chronic illness (diabetes) of Safie Flato. In the podcast episode, Safie Flato discusses their transition to a non-binary identity and reflects on their past as a former drug addict. They promote their podcast, urging listeners to support via Patreon or Venmo and committing to putting out one episode per month into the near...

(This episode was originally released October 8th, 2021) On today's episode, Steve Flato speaks with Matt Weston. Steve and Matt discuss Matt's musical upbringing; his time studying with Milford Graves and Bill Dixon at Bennington College; his time in Chicago in the mid 90's; and Matt's trajectory over the course of his career. Weston plays percussion and electronics, and has performed throughout...

(This episode was originally broadcast September 2nd, 2021)   Steve Flato talks with Christina Carter (Charalambides) on today's episode of Signifying Something. During a terrible period of loss from 2008 to 2014, Christina created some of her best solo music. Much of it remains unheard to a large audience as they were released in very small editions on CD-R and never released digitally. Steve and...

(This episode was originally broadcast August 23, 2021)   On today's episode of Signifying Something, Steve Flato talks to Johnathan Cash (aka Sunk Cost). Johnathan formerly played under the alias Breakdancing Ronald Reagan. Since moving to Hollywood, Johnathan has been recording under the alias Sunk Cost; a love letter to Japanese and American harsh noise and experimental electronics. Eschewing t...

(This episode was originally broadcast August 17, 2021)   On today's show, Steve Flato speaks with Seth Graham. Seth Graham is a Ohio based visual artist, composer and co-owner of Orange Milk Records with an academic background in Philosophy. He focuses on compositions which highlight tropes across a broad range of musical genres using midi data, Max MSP and samples. His intention is to manifest i...

Steve Flato sits down with artist and musician Jen Kutler to discuss her piece “In Loving Memory of Being Touched”. Jen Kutler is a multidisciplinary artist that often works with queerness, femininity, and intimacy. Her performances feature many of her instruments incorporated with immersive field recordings to explore common and discrepant experiences of familiar social tones in immersive sound a...

(This episode was previously broadcast on August 14th, 2020, however, the interview was recorded in October 2018)   On the show today, I’m joined by Keith Rowe, who was a founding member of AMM, a free improvisation group from the mid-1960s. With him is Jon Abbey of Erstwhile Records, who over the last 20 years has seen his label closely intertwined with Keith’s work. Since the late 1990s, Erstwhi...

(This episode was originally broadcast May 17, 2017) id m theft able is a performer and improviser from Portland, Maine. He sits somewhere in between the areas of noise, free improvisation, sound poetry, and performance art by using voice, found objects, and electronics. He has given hundreds of performances across 4 continents in settings ranging from the scummiest of squats to the fanciest of fe...

(This episode was originally broadcast April 25, 2017) G Lucas Crane speaks with Steve Flato on today’s episode of Signifying Something. Crane is a sound artist, performer, and musician whose work focuses on information anxiety, media confusion, and new performance techniques for obsolete technology. He is one of the co-founders of the experimental art and performance space the Silent Barn, locate...

(This episode was originally broadcast on March 30th, 2017) In my work) there’s this sort of underlying belief or tenet that whatever sound we’re hearing probably has a lot more going on with it than we’re either aware of or are giving it credit for.” - Sarah Hennies Today’s episode is all about identity and understanding yourself through your own creations. Sarah Hennies joins us and premiers the...

(This episode was originally published in March 2017) David Kirby is a software programmer by trade and a musician primarily working in the medium of cassette tapes, making rhythmic tape collages that surprise and confuse. He describes his work as “an open air experiment exploring psychophysical defecation in virtual spaces.” Using handheld recorders, he manipulates and molds his sounds by physica...

(This episode was previously broadcast March 15, 2017).    Matthew Revert is a writer, musician and designer from Melbourne, Australia. His music has been released by labels such as Kye, Erstwhile Records, No Rent Tapes and caduc records. Today he joins us on Signifying Something and presents an outtake from an upcoming LP, entitled “borntwo”. Fear, risk, and expressivity are the themes that Matth...

(This episode was previously published in 2017)   Lea Bertucci is an interdisciplinary artist, composer and improviser working with installation, sound, and projection. As an instrumentalist, she focuses on an electro-acoustic preparation of the bass clarinet that heavily utilizes speaker feedback. In recent years, her projects have expanded to site-specific compositions for electronics and instru...