Tim Smolens (High Castle Teleorkestra – bass/co-producer)
SPB: What stands out to you the most, today, when you listen to your first record?
Smolens: My first album was with a band we called Don Salsa which was my high school band. The album was called Koolaide Moustache in Jonestown. Some of the members of Don Salsa went onto form the core of Estradasphere. I was very lucky to have parents that were very supportive of our music habit and they furnished us with recording equipment that allowed us to record 24 tracks (which for 1994 was pretty amazing). We had 3 Alesis ADAT's linked together that recorded digitally onto VHS tapes!
The thing that stands out about that record is how absolutely INSANE it is. Being wide-eyed high school kids that had started out playing the ‘80s glam rock of the day, then grunge, and were eventually led down the "wrong path" and had grown quite obsessed with Mr. Bungle's Disco Volante album. While usually when a band tries too closely to mimic some particular influence, the result is simply lame. In this case, probably because we were barely more than kids, the adventurous, psychedelic music had an almost innocent and endearing quality that just works and avoids all the trappings of wearing your influences on your sleeve. Trey Spruance once told me something to the effect of (paraphrasing)..."that Don Salsa album is the only time I've ever heard Bungle be a good influence on someone. You should hear how many tapes we get of bands trying to do funk metal with a Patton-wannabe singer."
The 1st song called "The Deck" is about 30 minutes long, non-repeating, and was recorded in about 40 separate sections. It was eventually archaically edited together (pre-computer editing) by pressing play on a DAT tape machine with the mixed segments and transferring to another DAT tape, trying to press play at the right time, doing it over and over until the rhythm of the transition was close enough to be acceptable. We were lucky enough to have it mastered at the world famous Bernie Grundman Mastering which has done some of the biggest records ever and, coincidentally, mastered Disco Volante. My dad happened to have a friend who worked there who did it for free.
The song included 100s of tracks. We would record 22 tracks and fully commit to a stereo mix (something I would never do now) onto the remaining 2 tracks, then fill up 22 more tracks, and again mix to 2 tracks. We would do this as many times as necessary until it sounded how we wanted it. I can only imagine how much fidelity was affected by so many transfers.
For a bunch of young hooligans what we pulled off was remarkable. There is a huge diversity of styles, really interesting utilization of noise in a musical way, absolutely wild and unconventional arrangements, persistent humor that avoids the trappings of mere novelty, and all coming together to create a fantastic but VERY abrasive listening experience. I am pretty sure my parents ended up regretting getting us that recording equipment as the music was a million miles away from anything they could possibly relate to. My dad would utter phrases such as "that is complete cacophony," or "this has no future." In hindsight, at least commercially speaking, he was pretty much right!
Hear "The Deck" by Don Salsa:
Tim Smolens has also played with Estradasphere, ISS and Don Salsa.
