Spotlight: PLUGGER Wants You To PLUG In
Music has always been about stretching the boundaries of sound and that’s exactly what’s behind the concept of PLUG, a new musical concept created by the artist collective known as PLUGGER. What started out as just one face behind the movement has now expanded to many, and the clan grows daily. So what is a PLUG? And how is it incorporated in the music? The idea of a PLUG is to recycle old sounds and rework them into something completely fresh and unique. It’s about elevating preconceived notions about music and allowing your mind to think beyond our pre-constructed cerebral boundaries.
For their first full-length album, entitled This is Not a Record (Sunrise Edition), PLUGGER explored unknown crevices in the music of classic rock greats, such as Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and The Rolling Stones. While one may be expecting to hear classic rock, PLUGGER delivers something entirely different, thought-provoking, and inspiring in itself. The Sunrise Edition is the first release of five different versions of the This is Not a Record album, with Sunset, Daylight, Morning and Night in the works. The themes of each album correspond to the musical aesthetics that have been tailored for the release. We were lucky enough to chat with the founding member of PLUGGER and talk about how the PLUG concept, the expansion of PLUGGER, and the PLUGGER interactive live shows.
*WARNING: This interview contains explicit content. NSFW.
RP: Hello! Tell our readers about the musical genre PLUG and how you became interested in this concept.
PLUGGER: I’ve always been interested in freedom. In finding every possible escape from our finiteness. The main purpose of a life should be finding peace – infinite inside finiteness (and always enough sex and wine). That is why the PLUG fits perfectly into this view. You can set free the soul of a musical concept and then re-assemble it in infinite ways. Looks like a nerdy thing but it’s a good mantra to follow! And hopefully sex and wine will always follow!!
Haha! Was PLUGGER just one person at first and if so, how did it become a group project?
At the beginning it was just me- Plug1. But the nature of the project is about being open. Everybody can be a part of it and we encourage everyone out there looking for the same things to be part of our conspiracy. We will shortly make available our manipulated soundbanks for everyone to do his or her own plug. And we grow bigger everyday. It’s like inviting people over for dinner…if the food is good, atmosphere is sexy, nobody leaves the party. As a matter of fact, there’s always loads of people at my place!!
In a recent interview, you credit the book Music is Over by Lorange Sadbaars for providing you with clarity on how to approach building the PLUGGER project. Can you expand on that? What exactly did you learn that made you have that “aha moment?”
Lorange Sadbaars, by reporting his meetings with remarkable Axel Sodo, was able to write down a scheme to follow—a scheme for music and for life. That’s why it’s totally that type of “a-ha!” book. Too bad they both vanished in the haze… but I guess good things have to be short and come to an end. To start all over again, without stopping. I never succeed in doing this in bed…that’s too bad but hopefully will get there eventually!
From that same interview, you state that, “MUSIC ended in 1974 with Kraftwerk.” What makes you say that?
Autobahn was the very last extreme fracture in music conformism, and so powerful that it had offspring that transformed it into a new world of electronic music. After that, we just had repetitions of wonderful amazing things and few very important innovations like hiphop, rap, and so on… Let’s put it this way (for those people who like to study music in books) punk was just a marketing provocation, the Rolling Stones were the real thing. I had a friend that once used to say, “Have you ever tried to lick a p*ssy with panties?” There you go…something like that…
How do you handle copyright infringements, plugging songs from the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, etc? Is there a loophole around it since the songs were entirely re-created and sound nothing like the original? Or are you waiting to see what becomes of it and will remain anonymous until then?
We are contributing every single drop of our sweat to their sweat. We want to demonstrate that there’s something intangible behind the candelabra; a Plug for everyone to enjoy. If that’s not enough, we can discuss it with Mick Jagger at a dinner table. I’m sure I’m going to convince him! Plus…we do not make any money out of it…so…
You perform immersive audio/visual live shows that the audience can interact with via a mobile app. Tell us more about that technology. What exactly is the audience interacting with and what are they creating?
We developed a special smartphone app to let the people play their own show. We look for infinity inside finiteness—a live set can be as static and stiff and cold as steel. If you push the button on our app, the music and the videos will respond in real time to create a unique texture of sound and images, different every night. Our aim is to play only with the crowd, without the aid of any music from us. It is our ultimate goal, and the killer app for live events helps us organize this kaos and make it into harmony. …That is what I wish also for my private life!!
What’s the future of this new music genre, PLUG?
You are the future of Plug. Try it, and if you enjoy, just start. A whole new world is out there to be f*cked!
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