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Yes Poisoned Dreams, as well as the trilogy, is very deeply routed in Lovecraft's "Cthulhu mythos". That particular release is based on three stories: Dagon, The Call of Cthulhu, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I have been a fan of Lovecraft's work since the 80's and was introduced to his work by watching Re-Animator and From Beyond as a kid, I really wanted to know who in the heck was writing such screwed up stories. The stories themselves were much deeper and darker than those films so getting to read his work was a whole different experience altogether, and a much more fulfilling one for me.

Poisoned Dreams was a big challenge for me, and one that I knew I couldn't execute at the time I decided to take it on. This process was a many splintered thing so I'll break it down as evenly as I can. In 1998, shortly after my first CD, Scorpio, was finished I began working on my second CD called Between the Twilights which was a challenge because it was also a theme album that was all melded together. It was a concept that I was very interested in and I was very inspired by the successful reception of Scorpio. It was a very different release in many ways and it was the first piece of work I did on computer, prior to that I had worked solely on cassette and digital multi-track recorders and added effects that I made and drowned my sounds in. So the sophomore CD was much lighter, to me apparently, and much more meaningful on a personal level. I was so incredibly excited about it and it changed my personality for the better, it was like being a little kid waiting for Christmas morning.

At that time I lived in southern Florida and I had moved with my family to Seattle, WA. I couldn't find work for eight months, not for my lack of trying, and I felt incredibly removed from the world and myself. There were other issues in my life causing stress and it all fell apart... I had a pretty severe nervous breakdown or meltdown, call it what you will. It was like something waking up inside me that had laid there dormant and completely overwhelmed me form the inside, it was the most horrific experience I have ever had. So that experience alone conditioned me, in an artistic sense, to adapt Lovecraft. To have experienced that kind of darkness and isolation really helped me understand the themes and logic of Lovecraft's work. That and recovering through a 3 and a half year depression afterwards and working in retail all the while, I came to Richmond, VA and met some of the planets lower life forms. I had so much bitterness, resentment, and anger inside me and being treated lower than dogshit by my boss made me want to make everyone disappear in a most horrible way. There was one guy I had met who was such a piece of crap that every time I was near him I had to walk away because he made me feel such intense hatred for him. He was the kind of person that enjoyed hurting people and I cannot stand that on any level, and I would often feel like I wanted to physically hurt him. At that point I became re-acquainted with Lovecraft and it just clicked with me. Poisoned Dreams was my catharsis and I poured those hostile and saddened emotions into the release. Interestingly enough, as Karma goes, he was shot and killed downtown last year sometime. It's amazing how the energy you put into the universe comes back to you, oh well... and no I wasn't the one who shot him nor do I wish that I was .

So to wrap this all up it was easy and hard because I had the experience and emotions that fed right into it but I didn't know how to execute it at first. My friend Jesse Sola (of Numina) and I worked on three pieces together and he really helped me guide it to where I ended up taking it. His collaboration was invaluable to me. Since I didn't get to enjoy the release of Twilights or really help promote it as well as I feel I should have I decided to come back with my guns blazing (as it were) and really grab people's attention. Twilights didn't do so hot at first and that fueled my taste for textures adapting Lovecraft. It was also someone elses framework with an enormous following and I was a bit nervous at first, but after reading his stories and researching his life for a year and a half, I knew I could do it with the push in the right direction from Jesse. Bryin Dall's involvement came about because he and I had been reacquianted with one another in 2000 when he did the re-mix of "Angels" for the Butoh compilation from Middle Pillar and we stayed in touch since and became good friends. He has a wonderful and very powerful voice and I had heard his Golden Dawn project and I knew I needed him to chant for me. It all came together nicely and I had a great deal of fun putting it together, but it was a lot of work. Hope that answers your question (laughs).

3.There have been many Lovecraft inspired films throughout the years (most of them bad). Have you seen any that you thought were worthy of any praise at all? If so, did this help evoke a mood when writing your music, or did the books have the biggest impact?

As far as films that I like go, I thought John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness was really cool and I loved the recent < EM>Call of Cthulhu from the H.P. Lovecraft Society, that's the best adaptation yet. I also like John Carpenter's The Thing which is the story "Who Goes There?" which was based on At The Mountains of Madness... that film is a masterpiece. However, in terms of a film that actually inspired the release... Stuart Gordon's Dagon inspired me in the fact that they took Dagon and The Shadow Over Innsmouth and bookended them to achieve a larger story, I hadn't looked at them that way before and that's what I decided to do with my release. However, I wanted a much darker and sinsiter feel to my adaptation as I just don't see how it could really be successfully interpreted otherwise.

4. What equipment are you currently using? Do you prefer hardware or software ?

Right now I have my Korg M1, which I have had since the beginning, within which I do lot s of sound designing. I also have an Alesis QS6 with which I wrote and performed the vast majority of Between the Twilights. My friend Matt Wenniger and I recorded Poisoned Dreams on Digital Performer (software) and I can honestly say that working with software can be liberating depending on what project I am using it for, it was essential for the Lovecraft trilogy I'm doing now. But my roots are in hardware and I miss that style of recording, and I'd actually like to return to it at some point.

5. Are you involved in any other musical ventures outside of "The Unquiet Void"?

Oh yes I am! Tara Vanflower just recently expressed her surprise at how prolific I have become lately and I responded by saying that if projects were children than I need a cryptonite condom! I have the second installment in the trilogy which is finally done, then I have VIZIONZ (www.myspace.com/v1zionz) which is a project I am doing with Craig Pillard of Methadrone, and I love working with him on it, and then there's BoneDaddy (www.myspace.com/bonedaddyband) which I want to continue from the 90's but I just don't know when I'll get to it or if I'll get back to it. There's one other project I have in the larval stage which would be a collaboration with Tara Vanflower and a friend named Bill from a band called Lockup Lexia whom I ran into on Myspace. That's gonna be really messed up though, I look forward to it.

6. How did you get signed to Middle Pillar?

Scorpio had just been released on AlterCulture Records and prior to its release I had sent a CD-R copy of it to Middle Pillar without knowing that they weren't even a label at the time or were just about to start Middle Pillar Presents. I had been advised that AlterCulture was going to have to cease and at that time I got an e-mail from Kevin Dunn who expressed a lot of interest in the Unquiet Void based on the copy of Scorpio I had sent. The e-mail basically invited me, if I was ever interested and legally unattached, to join the ranks... so I did. That was an incredibly flattering moment for me that someone liked what I was doing enough to ask to release my music. I visited the Middle Pillar site and I liked the overall presence of the label and decided it would be a wise move for me, and it was. James and Kevin are really wonderful guys with wonderful vision and I'm really happy and comfortable being a part of Middle Pillar.

7. I saw some pictures on your website of you performing live. Do you perform many live gigs? Do you find this a challenge since it's only yourself on stage? Are you able to do any cool visuals to add to the atmosphere your trying to project?

The 2004 Middle Pillar Party was the first live performance of The Unquiet Void ever... I was really nervous but I pushed past my fear and did it. It's funny, looking back I remember even the bouncer congratulated me - that was a really special evening for me. I want to play more live shows but working on an associates degree in graphic / web design makes that a little difficult at the moment, but I only have a year left. I think it would be a challenge for me personally being one man on stage but I think it's entirely possible. As far as visuals go, I would need help with that at this stage in the game but I am totally working up to doing more liv e shows. I really wanna do one in Providence, RI (birth and deathplace of H.P. Lovecraft) as I have something special in mind for those folks, I'll get there.

8. If I were to rumage through your cd player what would I find you currently listening to?

These days I listen to a lot of 4th Sign of the Apocalypse, Golden Dawn, Thee Majesty, Numina, Lycia, Gary Numan, David Bowie, SoulWhirlingSomewhere's Eating the Sea, Depeche Mode, Methadrone, Mirror Reveals, Kobe, Renaldo and the Loaf, Devo, Echo and the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch's Candleland, And One, VNV Nation, Cindytalk, anything and everything early 4AD, 80's new wave, The Family Guy Live in Vegas CD, early The Cure, Legendary Pink Dots, Loretta's Doll, Psychic TV, And Also The Trees, Fields of the Nephilim, Tones on Tail, Nitzer Ebb, so many others... oh yeah, and this ban d called The Unquiet Void too. ; )

9. Since your music could easily fit into a soundtrack genre, are there any composers that influenced you early on?

Well, I remember really being inspired by Loretta's Doll, Legendary Pink Dots, (4AD) Clan of Xymox, Elliot Goldenthal (the Alien3 soundtrack), Graeme Revell (I love SPK), Martin Gore... I think that might be it.

Jason Wallach / The Unquiet Void
www.theunquietvoid.com

Also Check out:
www.myspace.com/theunquietvoid has a clip from the forthcoming CD, The Shadow-Haunted Outside,
as well a clip from each of the other three albums.