The first time audiences see Tristan Shone, aka Author & Punisher, they’re as transfixed by his heavy engineering instruments as they are by his doom-drone-industrial fusion. Yet he stresses that every element is essential to how the machine works. “I’m sure I could make a lot more money if I were a lot more ridiculous.” Catch him tonight at Sidewinder.
Shone is the latest musical orphan adopted into Phil Anselmo’s Housecore Records family. Playing the Housecore Horror Festival for the second year in a row this past weekend in San Antonio, he broke out material Melk en Honing, produced by the Superjoint/Down frontman. Live, it proved a long remove from the axe attacks that dominated the Fest’s third iteration.
Shone makes every instrument, from the spinning copper controller to the drum machine activated by a modified heavy lathe. So which came first, the engineering or the music?
“The music,” states Shone simply.
He played music through school while growing up in New Hampshire, “some sludgy, Neurosis-y, Melvins-y type of band where I was writing and playing,” but gave that up for a career with Boston-based engineering firm Corning. He tried to start another band, but couldn’t make it sync up with a hardcore day job. That’s when he started hanging out with artists at MIT’s Media Labs, and became interested in kinetic sculptures.
His friend and mentor, Chris Csíkszentmihályi, helped start him down the path to art school and designing sound machines. Finally he merged engineering, music, and sculpture. Roundabout career path?
“It was a very natural process,” counters Shone. “I wanted to make noise-making machines that were very physical, but I didn’t want to be pressing play any more on my backing track.”
His machines are one-of-a-kind, but that doesn’t mean they’re hard to use.
“These are supposed to be in the vein of designing objects or interfaces,” he says. “That’s what I’ve done in labs. I work on making systems that are intuitive for users to use for microscopes or for automation systems in semiconductor labs. I feel that I have a good sense that, if you want to achieve a certain goal, you design it in a certain way.”The current tour finds Shone collaborating with openers Kira Clark and Keith McGraw, aka Muscle and Marrow. As a independent and independently-minded artist, he’s normally wary about sharing the stage.
“I get a lot of guitar noodlers who want me to join their band, but I really wanted to have a vocalist because of what Phil and I did on this album with harmonies,” explains Shone, who caught the duo at Stumpfest in Portland. “[They’re] a heavier version of Portishead, which is exactly the kind of thing I’m jealous I’m not making. If I could get those guys to join my band, I would do it in a heartbeat, because they have the same sensibilities.”
This article appears in November 13 • 2015.