the hum / By Bob Doran

Different

Mochipet, plus girlie-grass, John Lee Jr., African reggae and 7 Walkers

(April 1, 2010)  We caught up with David Wang, aka Mochipet, in Miami where he was performing at the 25th annual Winter Music Conference, a big deal in the mushrooming electronica/dance music world. Where does Mochipet fit in?

“I’m all over the place actually,” he notes before detailing the myriad sub-categories blooming in electro-dance music. “In the beginning it was just dance music, then more ambient experimental stuff came in. Dance music fractured into dubstep, breaks, fidget, electro-house, whatever you want to call it. I kind of do a mix of everything. I think I have ADD musically. I can’t really adhere to one thing too much.”

Mochipet. Photo by Lichtfaktor.

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His entrée to electronica was the computer his Taiwanese dad bought him when he went off to college. “I started writing electronic music — it was pretty rudimentary stuff. This was back in 2000, so the technology was like semi-minimal. There was very little RAM, very little memory, so you had to use minimal stuff to make a lot — whereas now it’s pretty much limitless — you can do whatever you want.”

In high school he’d played guitar and drums in metal bands and jazz bands, but this was different. “It’s less real time. When you’re playing an instrument, it’s like you and the instrument at that moment, whereas with electronic music, it’s pretty much all nonlinear, so you can work on a specific part, put it together, then put another part together. You’re constructing something piece by piece as opposed to creating something on-the-fly.”

Of course playing his electronic music live requires some on-the-fly improv. “It’s like being a DJ I guess,” he figures. “I have a lot of pre-made parts in my computer that I can trigger — they fit together, you can stack them on each other. It’s like DJs, but with 20 different songs at once. Depending on the crowd, I’ll go one way or another — each show is different.”

Different in what way? Find out Saturday when Rebel Bass Collective presents Mochipet with S.F. dubstepper Siren and DJ T-dUb at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. (For more of the Mochipet interview follow the link from the Hum online.) Here.

My songwriter FBF (Facebook Friend) Morgan Magpie Corviday messaged me a reminder about the Sisters with Strings show Thursday, April 1, at the Arcata Playhouse with “The Vintner’s Daughters (MelodyWalker‘s all-girl string band) and The Singing Nettles (my all-girl string band) — 9 women, 8 acoustic instruments, lush layered harmonies, folk/Americana covers and originals (5 songwriters between us)…” Melody describes it as, “a night of femme-folk and girlie-grass.” (Is “girlie” politically incorrect coming from a woman?)

Also on April Fool’s Day, another femme-centric event: KHSU continues celebrating its 50th year with a Thursday night series at Humboldt Brews, each show showcasing the music of the station’s local programs. The Monster Women, The Brendas and Mister Moonbeam (not female, a one-man-band) theoretically connect to Mad Dr. Matt’s Alternative Therapy, Boy Wonder’s Hot Circles (Saturdays, 7-9 and 9-11 p.m. respectively) and The Buck Calhoun Show (Wednesdays 10-midnight).

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