Interview – Wood Between Worlds
11.10.14 by Mike Haley

Wood Between Worlds is a pretty fantastic new label out of Austin Texas, run by Joshua Bradshaw. After receiving WBW’s first five releases in the mail, and jamming them multiple times, I decided to get in touch with Mr. Bradshaw for a quick conversation about the label. We “spoke” on an internet social media site called Facebook. Here it is.

 

Thanks for sending the tapes over.

Glad they arrived. I say this because I had a really morbid experience with a guy who ordered a tape a few months ago – it never arrived because his postman sucked. So I followed up to see if he wanted another copy or a refund. Months went by, so I sent another email a week or two ago and his sister emailed me back that he had died in a motorcycle accident and not to worry about the issue. It was fucked.

Jesus. That’s intense. What tapes did he order?

That was the ATOP/Ryan Harris split.

I don’t know why I asked that.

Why not?

So that was released for the Austin Cassette Fest, right? How did that go?

The fest was a lot of fun, Randall put together a pretty cool event. I didn’t exactly sell tapes like hot cakes but I sold a few, traded a few, met a bunch of local tape labels – Fleeting Youth, Red River Family (great local black metal label), Accrue, Monofonus Press, Ritual Tapes. Turnout was great too.

Are ATOP and Ryan Harris both from the Austin area?

Ryan Harris is from Austin, I think Tyler specifically, but he moved to Florida right before that. I actually never got to meet him IRL.

What about ATOP?

ATOP is from Dallas, I know him from a forum I frequent called watmm.com

Did the split come together specifically for the fest, or is the label something you’ve been planning on doing for a while?

Actually that’s a good question, I had only put out one tape at that point from my friend’s band, Play By Numbers, and I was like – I think I could do a split for the fest. At that point Ryan Harris wanted to put out a tape for my then planned label. Atop had a bunch of music he’d throw up on Bandcamp and even internet archive years ago. Musically they both had some similar vibes, and Ryan had told me he was sitting on like, 400 tracks. So I was like, shit, well, lets do a C30. I had 20 something of those C30 tapes laying around so we came up with that. I think it was less than a month before the fest. It was all via email too. I still haven’t met Cody (ATOP) IRL either. I know Jason (Rorqual) from watmm as well. He’s from Louisiana. I met Anthony (Spiricom) briefly at the festival, I’m going to see him sometime next week.

So Play By Numbers was the first release? I was a bit confused because the ATOP/Harris split doesn’t have a WBW release number.

Yes that’s correct, I put “ACF” for Austin Cassette Fest. If it keeps going on I plan to do a split tape every year.

Well, let’s back track a bit to release number one then. Tell me a bit about Play By Numbers.

Play By Numbers is a band from Austin, TX. The main dude behind it, Carter Francis, is a really close friend of mine. Before I even thought of the label I floated the idea of doing a cassette for them, which he and the other guys were very down with. They otherwise just throw their music up online, maybe some CD-Rs. By the time I got the mastered tracks Austin Cassette Fest was coming up so I decided to debut the cassette release there. It’s kind of hard to pin down jammy electronic space rock stuff but I dig it. we all liked the way it sounded on tape, so I decided to make it the first release on the label. In hindsight, it’ll easily be the poppiest release on Wood Between Worlds.

It definitely has a different look and vibe from your other releases. You think WBW is going to focus on more darker/haunting material going on, or just whatever tickles your fancy?

It is the oddball of the bunch. The darker look and vibe so far was a bit of a coincidence which is why I put it out this autumn, right after Halloween. At first I was like “alright, I guess I just became a Tri Angle Records/witch house label” but I’m not too worried about it. My main goal is to put out experimental and instrumental music – ambient, drone, and synth-heavy stuff. Artwork for the next batch is the big unknown at the moment. If there’s one goal I have in the future, it will be trying to recruit local artists. I winged it with the artwork for the releases so far. Except Play By Numbers, they sent me those graphics.

So are you going to release mainly Texas based stuff?

Not strictly, no. It will probably be that way for awhile. For now I’m drawn to anyone who is putting out good music that’s either been unreleased or self-released stuff that’s just kind of floating around online. That said, I think all of the releases I have in the works are TX based guys.

What’s behind the interest of releasing tapes by people who have little to nothing out?

I suppose I have this odd desire to have them put something out in a tangible format. I’m down with putting out a tape for an established artist, I just think it’s something for the future. Starting off I found the idea of putting out “new” artists appealing. It’s a mutual thing too – Ryan and ATOP were stoked to have a split tape out there.

Was the split one of the first actual releases for them?

It’s the first for ATOP

I noticed on the WBW Bandcamp that it says those splits were “hand duplicated at 1x speed from type II high bias (CrO2) master tape”. Do you home dub all of your stuff in real time, and plan on keeping it that way?

Yes. In fact to catch up a bit I just bought a 8-way A/V splitter box and some more decks. So far I’ve been using a Realistic tape control center coupled with 3 Sony dual decks. This most recent batch was dubbed from the digital masters, but, yeah, both the C30 split and the PBN release were dubbed from actual master tapes. I don’t think I’ll ever use NAC [National Audio Company]. Nothing personal, I just like doing these myself. It’s fun getting the levels right and hearing the decks click when they’re done.

Is the DIY aspect important to you?

It is, yeah. In fact my interest in tape labels and cassettes was a gradual thing but I also had this weird crisis as a music fan and listener where I just kind of found myself tired of all of the hyped, PR-heavy new music I was passively listening to. As I started listening to and buying tapes I felt an urge to try this myself. As for making the tapes themselves, I want a certain level of quality to them. I’ve avoided duplicator machines for that reason.

Are there any tape labels that you got inspiration or ideas from for WBW? Someone you looked at and thought “I want to do something like that”?

Yes. Ctatsu and SicSic early on. Their music primarily. I had planned to do more collage-y stuff as artwork like Ctatsu. I might return to that when I put out anything that gels with that. I’ve been very impressed by Holodeck as well. I want to step up my artwork on the shells as well, I Had An Accident does some cool stuff. Ritual Tapes, which unfortunately has gone on hiatus, did some cool tapes with clear Jcard with laser ink. Randall of Graveyard Orbit has been putting some tapes out like that. He does his stuff in real time as well.  In fact, he recommended the A/V splitter box to me. (Feel free to edit some of those “as well” endings. LOL.)

It’s fine. You’re doing a great job. Just don’t fall off your motorcycle.

LOL. I shouldn’t LOL, but I LOL’d. I’m a dark humor kind of person.

Like the Batman with Michael Keaton?

Yeah, totally had Batman swag as kid.

Who is your favorite Batman?

Keaton. There’s a YouTube video comparing him to Bale saying the same line: “Shut up you’re going to jail” or something.

I’m an Adam West man.

Hahahaha.

I’m leaving all of this in. In fact, we can just talk about Batman instead of the label if you want.

Well, my label is called Batcave duplication. *frantically changes social media information*

What does Wood Between Worlds mean?

It’s a reference to the Narnia series, The Magician’s Nephew specifically. It’s a linking room in the book, a forest that connects all of these worlds/universes. I always liked that concept. There’s an Adventure Time episode with a room like that, too. The name came to me though when I was in New Mexico. There’s a cabin my wife and I visit in the summer in a town called Cloudcroft. Cloudcroft sits in the Lincoln Forest in SE N.M. and it’s sandwiched the Tularosa Basin to the west and drier badlands to the east. When you drive down to the Tularosa Basin you see White Sands and in 15 minutes you go from an alpine forest at 8,000+ feet to high desert. We actually toyed with the idea of moving out there and I thought it would be cool to have the label reflect the location. Well, alas, we’re still in Austin, TX but the name stuck with me. I like the idea of all of the tapes I put out being little sonic worlds. In a literal cheesy visual, the idea of these musical worlds being in a wooden tape holder sealed the deal for me. “Wood Between Worlds.” Lastly, the venn diagram visual came to me. It’s a pretty flexible logo, I plan to tweak it with each batch, or at least every season. The three elements – outer space and ocean waves with a forest in the middle will stay the same.

That’s really going to throw off the Batman direction I was going to take this interview in.

You could say the Batmobile lost a wheel, as far as this interview has gone.

Haha. I was going to ask about the new batch you just released, and to compare each tape to a Batman villain. But instead I’ll just say: Tell me about the new batch you just released.

Ryan Harris is Baby Doll…

Spiricom is the hardest for me to describe, in a good way. It’s got a hypnotic vibe to it, reminds me of Gatekeeper or Demdike Stare in that way. There’s a sense of epic scale to the way it sounds. Like dub techno meeting drone ambient. I heard Rorqual awhile back, we were discussing chopped and screwed on watmm and he posted a track he recorded inspired by the genre. It’s a drone ambient release but with these snippets and subtle samples of chopped and screwed music in there. It’s nice and deep, and I had a oceanic association with it personally. After all Houston, where this music is from, sits on the Gulf. Ryan Harris is straight up darkwave and horror synth. He recorded those tracks in 2010. He had two albums prepped but felt more inspired to put that one out after seeing the artwork I was doing.

Give me the raw details on these three new ones. Titles, lengths…

Spiricom – s/t C47
Rorqual – sei/ci C32
Ryan Harris – Endless Shadows C47

Need track titles as well? I can copy and paste those if you want from Bandcamp.

You giving me shit? Because I can cut your mic.

Well I’LL JUST YELL THEN!

In a calm, clear voice, tell me this. What kind of editions did you do for these?

Run of 50 for each, digitally unlimited. They’re hand-numbered on type I Kingdom tapes. I bought those from a Baptist church who then asked if I wanted to go to their Sunday service. They’re loaded with TDK tape though, so I was happy at how they sounded.

Did you go to their service?

No.

Maybe they’ll let you set up a merch table.

Yeah, they’d love ATOP’s stuff. “Hey, what’s ATOP stand for?” ‘Akkad the Orphic Priest’ “Oh…How, uh, nice”. I went to their website, in fact I’m pretty sure it’s a “the earth is 6,000 years old” church. Kids were dressed like it was a bad Pioneer Day event. It was one of those Baptist Churches. But hey, they had tapes on Craigslist and I was in the market.

A short term relationship.

Another day in America.

So, what’s coming up on the label?

ATOP sent me his next album, “777,” and I’m really excited for it. It’ll be a C45. Three tracks total. It’s quite cosmic in scope, exactly the kind of music I imagined putting out when I came up with the label. That’s the most readied one. I have some artwork already in mind for it. In fact it was intended for this recent batch but I didn’t want to rush it. Spiricom has another album prepped. It’s a lot more ambient and musique concrete oriented, akin to the Caretaker project by Leyland Kirby. It’s called “Out Hands Were Tied.” Ryan Harris has another album ready and there’s another artist I have in mind to add who knows Cody (ATOP) who goes by Fond Phantom. So as you can see, for now I’m sticking with the same artists. I’m focusing on promoting this batch for now but I’m going to say the next batch would be late December/early January. A winter batch essentially. That one will be a C77 as well, type II. Not sure on the lengths of the other ones, but I imagine C45 or C60.