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Black Mold (Chad VanGaalen) - "Metal Spider Webs"
Black Mold is the electronic project of 2009 Polaris Finalist Chad VanGaalen. Debut LP Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz (out 8/11 via Flemish Eye) is a collection of instrumental sounds created mostly via acoustic instruments, bells, vintage analogue/hand-built modular synths, etc. See, for example, the lovely, otherworldly cello explorations of opener "Metal Spider Webs." We asked Chad about it.
Why did you start Black Mold? Black Mold is sort of a side of me that has always been there, but not always on my albums. I really just wanted a way to put out the kind of music I have been making from the start, and have it be really whatever it wants to be. There have been many different projects along the way -- it just happens that Black Mold is the project that surfaced first.
Is there a narrative for "Metal Spider Webs"? How'd you come up with the title? "Metal Spider Webs" is a story of how toys are made. I had a dream where Santa had a toy train coming out of his vagina loaded with toys (wait for the video for this song!). I came up with the title when I jammed a metallic plastic LEGO cobweb into the corner of my basement stairwell where I go to smoke tweezoids, throw away scrap wood, and trip out on potato bugs.
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