by Scott McKeating

It didn’t really hit me so much as dawned on me slowly.

In spite of the vast swathe of recorded material attributed to me, I have always strived to make every single release have its own unique voice and identity. Every release has contributed some new angle to Birchville Cat Motel’s story and I hope this has provided listeners with a far more rewarding experience that merely getting MORE Birchville Cat Motel. Over time, my need to continually change, reinvent and reinterpret my vision was clashing with some of the more unreal expectations people had of me as an artist. 'Chi Vampires' was a brilliant album that I am very very proud of... therefore I have no intention of trying to make another one. That makes perfect sense to me. Unfortunately people want another one...and the answer is still no. Not interested. I seem to have made a few albums which hit the nail on the head so solidly that they created a little bit of a rod for my back. It began to seem like everything I did was being compared to these albums which I felt was not really fair on a creative level seeing as I was not trying to make 'another one' of any of these albums. Over time it seemed that the very name I went under was becoming a hindrance and it began to dawn on me that maybe Birchville Cat Motel had completed its work. Maybe I had already made the records I wanted to make. I think that the latest slew of records... Our Love Will Destroy The World, Chi Vampires, Birds Call Home Their Dead, Bird Sister Blasphemy, Gunpowder Temple of Heaven, Seventh Ruined Hex, Four Freckle Constellation and the upcoming 'final release' 2LP 'Blitzkrieg Eternal Return' are my best work. They embody my vision of music as close to how I hear it in my head as I think I am likely to get. Mission accomplished. I lay down the name and I am very happy. Happy, yes...finished, hell no.

Yes, of course. But what am I going to do? Make the same album over and over again? Some people might like that but I’m afraid I would get no joy out of that at all. At the end of the day I consider myself an artist not a popular entertainer and on a creative level, bravery always wins in the end. There are enough Birchville Cat motel records I think (cue stifled laughter).

But there were other forces killing off Birchville too like downloading. I know there is some value in sharing music around and I have certainly benefited from that as an artist. I am also totally cool with music being put online via legit sources once the editions have sold out and people no longer have the opportunity to get the full experience but its so disheartening to see your album available for free the DAY AFTER you put it out. Am I really the only person who thinks this? I sweated blood and paid through my nose for some of those records so that they would be the best musical experience I could make with the limited resources at my disposal. And then you see it all reduced to another meaningless file, the lowest form of musical experience, before people even get a chance to hear it as it should be heard with context. I don’t hate downloading, but I feel frustrated that it tore holes in my vision of what the music should be, and it tore a hole out of my label. In the end I was working extremely hard against an unwinnable situation and things had to change. But I guess the people responsible would claim they are doing me a favour and I am acting like the 'Lars Ulrich of New Zealand Free Noise' so I don’t take it too seriously...they might be right. However, for me the whole online-music thing is an incredibly vast swamp of bullshit that smells too bad to swim in.

No No...the change of moniker is not about downloading... like I said, its about a change of attitude. I’m not suggesting that my personal decisions about music are going to change the world or anything, its just I feel that I'd like to take a step in the right direction for my own music. I’m sure Justin Timberlake will step in the other direction along with most of the world, and that’s fine. I have no desire to hold the world back from whatever it wants to do. Of course people are going to rip my stuff to the net, but I guess all creative people at one time or another inevitably realise that their artform is worthless to most people. I don’t feel bad about that. I can accept, or even enjoy that a lot better if I know I have released a worthwhile recording on a format that I care about. Maybe someone will really love that recording because of that decision, the way I loved certain records as a teenager. Nobody's going to love a puny uploaded file...they might like it, or maybe find it interesting, or be able to list it on their 'what I’m listening to now' blog. But they wont be able to LOVE it. These people are cursed. So much music, so little love. It’s sad. But I don’t mind...people can make their own choices as long as they actually have a choice. In future I’m going to try my best to give people that choice.

Oh I don’t know. But it resonates with all the things I like...God, Apocalypse, Death, Sex, Plague, Joy, Blood, Fire, Loneliness, IronFuckingMaiden. I like long band names too – kind of statements of intent rather than cute catchy sound bites for radio.

Yes of course... you think me a slackarse? Haha. Look out for these...

Polished Glass Autobahn 7" (Dirty Knobby)
Yellownirvana 7" (Tresemet Records)
Sadnessfinalamen split 7" w/Bark Haze (Krayon Recordings)
Stillborn Plague Angels LP (Dekorder)
Carnivorous Rainbow LP (Melted Mailbox)
Blondesummer Snowqueen LP (At War With False Noise)

Well the process itself wont change much but the sounds I value within a recording will hopefully be allowed to embrace a wider (or perhaps just different) range of possibilities. I guess we will just have to see how it evolves. Over the past few months I have noticed a definite shift OUT of Birchville Cat Motel and a dawning of a new aesthetic. Slowly this band is already becoming a distinct thing of its own which proves to me that the move I have made is a wise one and on a more practical level, it has completely rekindled my enthusiasm for recording, evident in the torrent of new stuff that I feel is good enough to be released.

Another big change, kind of in line with my grizzle about gratuitous downloading cheating the listener, is that I intend to release, if not all, then certainly the vast majority of material on analogue formats - vinyl and cassette. Now people can download as much Birchville as they want and when they are ready to risk a proper musical experience (based on what they hear via mp3) they can step up to Our Love Will Destroy The World. Am I being too pointed? I apologise. I personally feel ripped off by mp3s as a listener and I want to distance myself as much as possible from the digital world of music.

Nope. Well, not really. Celebrate Psi Phenomenon will continue as a 'ghost label' releasing sporadically where warranted but I will launch a new label in line with the new aesthetic of my own music making. I’m trying to find a way of doing LPs but its proving extremely difficult from New Zealand (we have no vinyl presses here...they were tossed into the harbour by the big companies when CDs came out to fuck the little labels/ competition and force everybody to buy their newfangled imported CDs). More realistically, I will be releasing high-quality, factory-produced cassettes with 'object' packaging in very limited editions. I crave a more personal approach to the label and again, I want to make things that can’t be reduced to files.

Surely you jest?