Interview: Bill Converse

While Austin’s Bill Converse has been a fine selector known for his top-notch techno and electro mixes, it was in a veritable electronic music desert. (Texas has rarely been hospitable to dance music culture outside of outliers such as Dallas’s early ecstasy hotbed, Starck Club.) It feels like 2016, however, is when the world finally catches up with him. His 2013 cassette-only release Meditations/ Industry has been repressed on vinyl by Dark Entries, and back in March, Resident Advisor tapped Converse for a podcast, meaning that the strange electronic pulses that emanate from deep in the heart of Texas might soon be heard throughout the world.

Are you from Texas originally?

I’m from East Lansing, Michigan, but I’ve lived in Texas half of my life. The day I turned 15 was the day I moved to Austin with my family. That was in 1998. A few years before that, I was exposed to techno in Michigan. There was a weekly radio show, The Mechanical Pulse, on the college station at MSU. They played Detroit techno, industrial, Chicago stuff. DJ Horsepower was one of my favorites. My sister had also been dating a DJ who gave me a mix called Psychotrance, a mix series that Moonshine used to do. Half of it was okay, there were some old Orlando Voorn and old Dave Clarke tracks. That was the first techno I was exposed to. My favorite at that time was Drop Bass Network, a hardcore label out of Milwaukee. They did gabber.

Drop Bass Network is now legendary for bringing over Daft Punk for their first shows in the US.

They also brought over I-F and Aphex Twin, even. I never went to any of those shows they put on in Milwaukee as I was still too young and it was too far away.

Were you already into music as a teen?

Not really. I had been playing drums and listening to Top 40 rock and hip hop. Electronic music was the first step into my own musical path. I moved to Texas at a fairly transitional time in my life, the middle of high school. At the time, the music scene in Michigan and the Midwest was vibrant. But when I moved down here, you could hear “electronic music,” but you couldn’t hear anything even close to what was happening in Chicago and Detroit at that time.

Did you feel alienated from music in Austin?

I felt fairly alienated. [laughs] I went to an open turntable night once. I played some DJ Rush records and some weird shit. It wasn’t very well received. After that, it wasn’t even until 2004 that I even started playing shows around Austin. I met one or two people, but no one was really into electronic music. Most of the people who were into it, it was because I had gotten them into it; they were my close friends. Now it’s a little bit different.

Was it weird to play electronic music in a place without an electronic music heritage or history?

I felt that way in the past, but now – because of how easy it is to tell what’s going on in any part of the world – it’s not so alienating anymore. There are a lot of people that are at least paying attention to good, underground music coming out of Europe, New York, Detroit or whatever. The internet certainly plays a part.

When did you feel it was shifting?

Probably around 2005. Discogs was how I kept up with the records. I still buy stuff online. When I first moved to Austin, you could find some good stuff digging in the shops. No one else was trying to buy the records I was trying to buy back then. There’s still some good disco stuff in the bins but there’s not much techno and house. There’s not even that many record stores to choose from.

Without a shop or a scene, do you ever get the feeling that you’re making music in a vacuum?

No, but only because there’s a handful of freaks down here now. Mostly weirdoes from the noise scene or punks that are tired of what they’ve been doing. Electronic music is new to a lot of people, so there’s folks that are coming at it here from a different angle. It’s interesting to have people bringing these different backgrounds to electronic music. But there’s still not a lot of people.

I will say that at that time, being in Austin, you couldn’t see what was happening elsewhere. However, the guys in Dallas that run Down Low Music, they were doing some good stuff. They did all sorts of great work: Danny Wolfers, $tinkworx, Nebraska, The Connection Machine, Plastic Sleeves. Back when there was nothing else going on in Texas in the late ’90s through the ’00s, they were holding it down.

What’s the biggest party you’ve played in Austin?

Umm... We don’t have that many large parties down here. The opening of Cheer Up Charlies down on Red River may have been the biggest party, but a 200-person party is few and far-between. There’s a place here called Tamale House.

The old Tamale House off Airport Boulevard?

That Tamale House closed, but the family opened downtown. In what they now call “the entertainment district.” I never go out over there but Tamale House throws parties now and usually a hundred people come out. There are risky DIY venues, but it’s still risky and it’s still small. The city is pretty prohibitive with their noise ordinances and zoning. Just trying to find a venue is so difficult. Potential lofts and artist spaces become unattainable due to real estate. I wish I could say there were more fun house parties, but there’s not a whole lot going on. It’s a small but healthy scene and it’s definitely growing, so it’s an interesting time. There’s a handful of people frustrated at the lack of venues so we’re doing it ourselves. Dallas has a lot more going on.

You originally released Meditations/ Industry on cassette under the name WWC. Why did you change from your initials to your name?

I didn’t want to use my name and it was ambiguous. But it reminded me of WWF (World Wrestling Federation, now known as WWE) so for the reissue I just changed it to my name.

What was the set-up for recording the album?

I didn’t have any time constraints and it was a collection of tracks I made over the course of two years. I transferred everything from tape to computer. It was all hardware, all analog gear that I had been collecting slowly over the years. It was easy to get some crazy gear here in the early 2000s. I had a Roland MC-202 that I traded for a polyphonic Yamaha CS-60, which was a really good deal for a $3000 synth. It was easy to get gear back when rent was much cheaper in Austin.

It was tough to get into a workflow. I toyed around with 808s and 909s and just loved the hands-on approach to them. Now it’s a luxury to have gear like that. That kind of hardware is more expressive for me; I can wrap my imagination, creativity and ability to communicate those ideas in a hands-on work environment. I like the idea of editing digitally but I haven’t done it yet. Editing on tape is tedious work and I usually record straight down to two-track.

I like to start and finish each track in one go, to just record through like it’s a live performance. When I have the 303, drum machine, sequencer patterns arranged and an idea of how I want to go thorough it, then I just hit record. It’s more or less a jam, five to twelve minutes, depending on how I feel or if I lose track of time. I end up making really long tracks.

What led you to record it all yourself?

It was an inevitability. I had been tired of DJing and it just felt like it was time. It was a daunting task to save up for all the gear: mixing board, synth, et cetera. It takes awhile for anybody, I guess. Buying records also made it difficult for me to save up and buy these pieces of gear. I try not to buy records, but I still buy too many of them.

From the song titles, “Sea Bering” and “Inward Fathoms,” I get this Drexciya feel, especially being in a landlocked place.

I didn’t go for that sound intentionally, but their sound definitely inspired me over the years so I gravitate towards it. But anything with an aquatic feel, I’m drawn to.