Sire Languish Says Paul McCartney Could Be ‘Responsible for the Death of Art’
“I don’t have doubts about something I’ve committed to.”
-Garrett Bussanick
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Garrett Bussanick is arguably the consummate metonymy for experimental black/ death metal, in that he breathes an inextinguishable fire. It’s all-consuming, too; his flames of fury have fired up projects like the active Sire Languish and Aeviterne; as well as his past bands Tombs, Flourishing, Arson, Cardiovascular Sub-Hypothermia and El-Ahrairah.
Pull to God EP is Bussanick’s first solo record, on which he performs all instruments and – thus – presumably bares his soul in full (if he believes there’s such a thing as a soul). Spring Effete issued the four-song release roughly a month ago, and The Bad Penny caught up with Bussanick soon after that.
Below is our conversation, conducted via email.
Many thanks for answering some questions about your new project and its debut EP, Garett. For starters, why did you decide to launch Sire Languish instead of evolving Aeviterne and your other projects so they could incorporate the new ideas/directions you wanted to pursue artistically? Did you want to keep the identities of Aeviterne and the other projects intact? Or did it boil down to a personnel issue?
For the most part, I see the music on Pull to God as not quite suitable for Aeviterne, and so yes, keeping identities intact is the main reason for Sire Languish. And I don’t look at Sire Languish as an evolution compared to anything Aeviterne has done. I see it as different, yet related, ideas funneled into a separate offering.
Nearly everything that both bands have released thus far has been conceived over the same (long) time period, so Pull to God is not truly new compared to anything Aeviterne has released. Ideas collecting dust not fit for Aeviterne have finally found use in Sire Languish. It’s worth noting that Flourishing, Aeviterne and Sire Languish all derive from a band I joined many years ago, Cardiovascular Sub-Hypothermia. There’s a through line connecting all of these bands, with CS-H being the blueprint.
What challenges have you encountered in launching a new band versus the previous times you did so? Conversely, can you describe the thrill – what it feels like and what’s behind it – of building a new band from the bottom up?
I wouldn’t say I think in those terms exactly. It just comes down to having the songs and recording that make the cut, which is really the only challenge, and thrill. Not to say there aren’t what I’d call logistical challenges: the humbling drum recording experience, the very intermittent and drawn out mixing process, or even handling the manufacturing of the CD. I do feel a closure having put these ideas to bed, finally. I probably can’t overstate that! Otherwise, it’s familiar terrain – putting out the first recording of a metal band.
Are some of the ideas you’re executing with Sire Languish ones that you jotted or otherwise made note of over the past however many years, with the expectation of following through with them if and when a new project more suitable for them materialized?
That’s the case for most of the recording. As mentioned above, depending on what you call old, most or all of it is. I’m not sure when I had the idea to officially go ahead with this particular solo project, but definitely most of the music on the EP precedes it. There’s at least a half-realized Sire Languish full-length in the vaults which I do plan on seeing through to release. It’ll just take time.
How would you summarize the mission statement of Sire Languish – and, for that matter, the mission statements of Aeviterne and your other artistic endeavors?
My thought here is that both bands are still works in progress, so it’s still early for what I’d call a mission statement. Things have been hinted at by both, but more time and recordings are needed to conclusively arrive at something like that. Related perhaps is the musical mission or parameters: not sure if it’s entirely accurate, but I’ve been looking at Sire Languish as a place for more accessible ideas.
Along with Aeviterne, they are the two projects I have going at the moment, and so I look at it like this: There is melody in Aeviterne, but it’s usually not very featured or overt. And as that band progresses with the new material that has been taking shape, I see it likely becoming even less featured or overt.
But more accessible/melodic ideas do arise that I think are worth using, and so here we have the Pull to God EP: a first step in something with different constraints that allow for what I consider those more melodic or accessible ideas.
Feel free to ignore this question if you’ve already answered it in response to one of the others, but what side of your personality, creative self and/or musical abilities does Sire Languish reveal compared to your other projects, and in what songs on the debut are they most apparent?
“Sow of Nerves” particularly, or the second half of Pull to God, it becomes clear why Sire Languish exists. Also, the EP is the first time I’ve played drums on a release, and I appreciate that there is room for advancement in this area.
Are Aeviterne through?
Not at all. A lot of work has already happened for album two.
Aeviterne’s first EP was titled Sireless and your new project is named Sire Languish. What’s goin’ on there?
The word was circulating in the idea bank for a while. The phrase “Sire Languish” came together quite a bit before the title of the Aeviterne EP ever came about. And it always stuck with me. If not clear, the propagation-related meaning of the word “sire” is being used (in both cases).
At what points did it feel liberating to write and record on your own, after so many years with Aeviterne? And at what points was the experience terrifying?
I wouldn’t say there’s any feelings of liberation. The genesis of this music is the same as with Aeviterne. However, the eventual difference is that in Aeviterne, my demos go through a second demoing process where our drummer/co-writer Ian and I rewrite and refine all of the instrumentation to completion. It’s not terrifying, but putting something out into the world as the sole band member is a new experience.
Even though Sire Languish is a solo project, did you bounce your ideas and/or demos off friends and/or solicit their advice? If so, who were those trusted souls?
I’ve never felt the need to do that. If an idea strikes me, I’ve always worked on it until I think it works (if something about it didn’t at the outset); otherwise the idea would get abandoned or filed away for future consideration. In other words, I don’t have doubts about something I’ve committed to.
I realize it’s “Sire Languish” and not “Sir Languish,” but all the same, would you rather spend a day with Sir Paul McCarney or Sir Mix-a-Lot – and why?
Paul McCartney can be considered extremely polarizing. Some would say he is a genius with massive influence on modern art and culture. Others would say he is, in part, responsible for the death of art and culture, a key figure in the morphing of art into meaningless commercial entertainment, and his contributions are a logical phenomenon in a sequence of events that started a few hundred years ago when science began displacing meaning in our lives in the West.
Snag Pull to God on Sire to Languish’s Bandcamp page.
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