What is a Noise Complaint?
A Noise Complaint is a free, live noise show meant to bring attention to issues the artists regard as salient. Multiple artists are encouraged to play. If there are 2-4 musicians, it is possible to have a full potluck situation where each musician can have a niche in the mix and play all at once.
Ideally, a Noise Complaint’s various artists will have moments to “solo” or play their own set entirely, because there is something wonderful about the range of what artists can make when their approaches are as unique as the artists themselves.
Some Background: …what is noise music?
Noise music is a broad genre that is a bit of a catch-all for all sorts of sounds, especially those typically considered non-musical or even deemed worth avoiding.
Despite the harsh possibilities, noise textures can also be subtle, ambient, and lush in unexpected ways.
Noise music is also associated with a number of art movements, such as the post WWI surreality of Dada, the sample-lovers called Musique concrète, and being in good company with those exploring atonality or any other variation of liberation from the typical constraints.
But, perhaps the delightful and brief “Dadaist Manifesto” will be fun and informative:
Are laptops/tape/etc. ok?
While laptops are accepted, it is hoped that artists are generating their material on the fly and not relying on an entire arrangement. The spirit of a Noise Complaint is to have the musicians take some modest risks in trying something a bit new.
Anything goes for sound-making, but it is most exciting to try to make things on the fly with fellow artists.
How much stuff is involved?
Depending on the space, setup time, and number of artists, the amount of gear is variable. However, 1-2 bags is a rule.
Wait… Rules?
Hey, noise shows are anything goes for texture, but there can still be constraints for performances for one reason or another. It might seem like noise shows are the musical equivalent of anarchy, but bear in mind anarchism is about the absence of rulers and arbitrary power structures, not about the absence of rules altogether.
Noise shows can quickly get out of hand with feedback or multiple artists cranking through independent amps set to eleven as a measure to hear themselves play.
While this can genuinely sound cool (with adequate hearing protection), overly loud bursts of sound are not very nice if they exceed the threshold for injury for unprepared audience members and artists.
Most of the following rules are guidelines that can be considered in cases to cut down on those grisly outbursts so that people can enjoy the textures of the entire performance without being jumpscared by a feedback loop kicking off.
- Play somewhere public
- No contact mics, or limit contact mics to being in the mix only when in use. BUT: These can go crazy with feedback. (One of my first shows was a headache-maker until I worked out a contact mic based instrument was the issue.)
- One final mixdown. A “back of house” volunteer can better manage multiple artists and isolate feedback. Some mixer setups allow for frequency niches to be carved out at this mixer. Multiple speakers and multiple contact mics is pretty chaotic, so having one funnel for all signals allows for an explosion of noise to be managed quickly from one point.
- Encourage monitoring with headphones. Many musicians will instinctively turn up their main mix unless they can just turn up a monitor and trust “back of house” to let their material through.
- Ideally, a silent-disco setup could loosen the no contact microphones constraint, as the output would be isolated from the input, and it solves the monitoring issue.
- Potentially, AGCs (Automatic Gain Control) could augment the “Back of House” responsibility as used in karaoke could be used to keep a ceiling on the dB of a show.
- Bring 1-2 bags of gear, try to have one effects “unit” and one sound generating instrument or “unit” of gear. Or one “familiar” piece of gear and one “unfamiliar” piece of gear.
- Try for battery-operated gear, use existing power outlets nearby, or use a “camp battery” used by car campers. Attach that to a solar panel, and you can become ungovernable.
- Each artist will need one final output to the “back of house” mixer.
- Artists may want to bring their own powered mixer to control their own gain and monitor themselves (optional)
- Speakers don’t need to be large or especially powerful for Noise Complaints, if anything, they are intended to happen anywhere, so portable speakers are the name of the game.
- So far, mixing everything down to mono and feeding to one speaker reduces complexity in setup considerably.
Summary
In summary, my hope with these free noise shows is to showcase the textures and variations of noise, ideally to people who have no expectations of what it might be about. So when the harsh or bursty performances occur, it would be ideal if the intensity never exceeds the pain threshold.
Any music can be played loud. Noise music is often loud by it’s nature, but since any music can be played at any volume, “Noise Complaints” are ironically not intended to cause a noise complaint to be made. I suppose the idea is that if some wild authoritarian were to make such an eponymous complaint on the basis of avant-garde music triggering their hate reaction, then give no breath to this vapid complaint by carefully abiding by loudness restrictions. This might have something to do with the fact the first few “Noise Complaints” were renegade park shows…
Until Next Time
Make art, and please consider making art with others. If you are about to fuss about an unfortunate social situation, well you are in luck as in making art you can make some new friends also making art.
Exercising one’s creative capacities, regardless of current level of skill, is a special experience and like the best things in life, it can be done for free. Use less AI.
Photo Credit: Original photograph taken by Hussein Kefel on June 23, 2008
