Interview with Aaron Ross & Matt Comeione

Synopsis: A “sensory assault” video of the song “Christofascist” by the band Nervous Gender Reloaded—the high priests of synthpunk. The video is a collage of appropriated mainstream cinema and TV, processed through an analog video synthesizer. No digital effects whatsoever. Aaron Ross is the director of the video and Matt Comeine is the instrumentalist for Nervous Gender Reloaded.

IAG: What’s the origin story of this collaboration?

MC: Aaron and I went to CalArts together and have remained friends and colleagues ever since. We reached out to Aaron to see if he was willing to collaborate, and provided songs from our album "Milking the Borg". It was determined that "Christofascist" would be a timely piece to utilize with the current political climate in America.

AR: Nervous Gender was on my radar at CalArts in the early 90's. In particular, their hit singles "People Like You" and "Cardinal Newman" got some play in art school circles. Fast forward 30 years to 2022, my genius composer friend Matt released an album with Edward Stapleton, the high priest of synthpunk. It took a couple of years for me to catch up with them in my creative practice. We are all 1000% on the same wavelength aesthetically and philosophically.

IAG: What's the context behind the song "Christofascist"?

MC: A piece by Louis Andriessen called "Workers Union" was the initial inspiration for the song. The relentless forward motion, immutability, and discord create an uncomfortable setting--oppressive and violent. Repetition of the refrain "Christofascist" rings out like a religious mob calls out a sinner. Although brief, the lyrics portray an individual on their crusade, realizing his or her ultimate shortcomings, and ultimately opting for suicide.

IAG: Matt, did you give Aaron any initial parameters or suggestions, In terms of the aesthetics of this video,?

MC: We were well aware of Aaron's previous work and completely trusted that the result would fit with our desired aesthetics. When we received the initial cut of the found material and general layout, we were ecstatic with the direction the project had taken. We began collaborating on the process of incorporating the warning, titles and credits to be a part of the piece, as opposed to bookends to the work. For this, we additionally composed introductory music to accompany the opening warning.

AR:: In a few extended Zoom meetings and emails, we figured it out. From what Edward told me, the key theme of the lyrics is martyrdom. This gave me excellent direction, leading to an efficient process for choosing source material. I designed the title sequence, Matt helped with typography and created intro music. Later, at the final cut stage, Matt gave me several outstanding suggestions on editing.

IAG: I'm intrigued by the decision to solely use analog visual effects here. Was that something you consciously set out to do, or did it just work out that way?

AR: Analog video is a great passion for me, and has been ever since the late 80's. Until about 2012, video synthesizers were extremely rare. Access was limited to students and faculty at elite art schools, or through a few artist residency programs. Today it is possible to own a video synth, thanks to enlightened companies such as LZX Industries. The synthesizer is a more immediate, tactile, embodied experience than working on a computer. In the analog domain, strange loops and happy accidents happen every day. It's what an artist lives for. But I am not religious about this. I mix and match analog and digital where appropriate. Source material for these collage works is 24 frames per second. I used the computer to interpolate the frame rate to 60 fps. This matches the smoothness of the analog system.

IAG: Technically speaking, how did you achieve that look?

AR: The short answer is: through a collection of about ten different analog video synthesizer patches. These are mind-bending effects where I have a crazy level of control. Some of the effects are: solarization, color cycling, posterization, inversion, etc. I use oscillators and random generators to create patterns of order and chaos, superposed on the source material. All in real time, jamming with the synth. You can check out my YouTube to learn more.

IAG: Aaron, I'm equally curious about your other film, "reality_collapse". Did you use the same FX techniques as you did for "Christofascist"?

AR: Yes, both films followed the same video pipeline. Source material bumped up to 60 fps. Then through the video synth. Edited on the PC, with minor cropping and scaling, but almost no color correction. For "reality_collapse", I created the music on the computer. The picture and sound co-evolved; I bounced back and forth between visual and auditory modalities.

IAG: What was your process for selecting the source material? Where did you find it?

AR: Of the Nervous Gender Reloaded songs, "Christofascist" stood out to me as something I could sink my teeth into. After the first meeting with the band, I knew exactly what material to use, like The Handmaid's Tale, Man in the High Castle, and V for Vendetta. I also needed something related to the KKK, which led me to Spike Lee’s masterpierce BlacKkKlansman.. The brilliant scene of the Klansmen watching The Birth of a Nation inspired me. Perfect material to exploit the Kuleshov effect. In my remix, the Klansmen watch people suffer and die in other movies, other universes. They react like it's Mystery Science Theater 3000. That's some primo juxtaposition right there.

IAG: Lastly, what are three films that have strongly influenced your work?

AR: For my collage work, the strongest influences are:

• "Mongoloid" - Bruce Conner, 1978

• "Beautiful World" - DEVO, 1981

• "The Decay of Fiction" - Pat O'Neill, 2002