Broadcast. Volume 7. Issue 2.
Qmusic network newsletter.

Q-Music Member Profile

KETTLE

By Craig Spann

Trying to explain what exactly Kettle does is no easy task. Sure, he may loosely be described as an electronic artist - but it's soundscapes, not thumping beats, that have become his trademark.

In a nutshell, Kettle devotes his time to creating sounds that most of us would not even think of. Hand Kettle one of your disused household applicances, and chances are he will harness the radiation it emits to create a truly unique sonic feast. Whether you call it new music, sound art or non-music sounds, you can't help but marvel at what Kettle, and artists like him, create.

"When I was a kid growing up in Boonah I was more intreested in the static noises you would get out of radio than actually using it to listen to music. I really got into sun spot activity" he says. "I just suppose I never grew out of that."

From those beginnings, Kettle has developed an anything goes philospohy to creating the noises he loves - he's even now trying to develop a wearable organ that changes its sound as its user moves around.

"The trick though is trying to design it in a way that you don't get electrocuted when you're wearing it... I'm working on that," he says. "There are just no limits as to what you can do."

To many, people like Kettle are at the cutting edge of music as an art form and he has worked overtime to foster and promote Brisbane's emerging sound art community. From June 1998 to July 2000 he was the presenter/programmer for Atmospheric Disturbnaces, th eexperimental musicians and sound artists show on Brisbane's community radio 4ZzZ FM. He has also been performed and spoken at a range of events and electronica-inspired festivals including the National Independent Electronic Labels Conference 2000, the Electrofinge Festival (1999 and 2000) in Newcastle and this years Liquid Architecture in Melbourne.

But now he has taken his work one step further to become curator for Small Black Box, a monthly performance space at Metro Arts (109 Edward St., Brisbane). He says Small Black Box has been launched to foster a community, for both artists and audiences, dedicated to experimental music and sound art in Brisbane. With access to all areas of the Metro Arts building, artists will have a diverse variety of to hold performances or installations - from a traditional theatre or studio settings to carriageways, stairwells and foyers.

"We want to free up sound artists to perform their work the way they want," he says. "This kind of work does not always lend itself to the conventional type of performance arrangement - a lot of it is much more interactive."

He says the project was also, in part, inspired by an attempt to "abduct" sound artists from interstate.

"Talking to people interstate, I knew they were keen to tourup here, and there is a growing community into this type of work up here, but there was no real established space for them to perform," he syas. "So setting up Small Black Box was in part a way of creating something concrete."

To find out more about Kettle's work, your best bet is to check out his website. http://listen.to/kettle