For more than two decades or so, Scott Cortez has been wrangling, warping, and coaxing all manner of gossamery textures from his guitars and effects pedals and recording them onto his trusty Tascam 4-track. He began experimenting with loops and sound in high school and made textural ambient guitar music. Expanding on an idea that had first been embraced by mbv and eno, he has made a career out of heavily treated guitar drones and noises. one of the largest misconceptions about lovesliescrushing concerns their music itself, people mistakenly assume that they use keyboards or synthesizers to create their otherworldly sound, the music is created with just voice and guitar. cortez uses a combination of techniques, both lo-fi and digital, to create a unique sonic palette. he is fond of mutating the guitar till it is barely recognizeable, regarding it as a mere tone generator. he also utilizes various methods and materials for preparing the guitar. scott has been known to abuse his guitars with chopsticks, rubberbands, nails, knives, forks, vibrators, paintbrushes, or metal rulers to bow strings, anything to change the timbral quality. lovesliescrushing formed in the spring of 91 and began playing shows in michigan. in the spring of 92 they moved to tucson and finished bloweyelashwish. the cassette version of bloweyelashwish came out in 93 on projekt, but that was a remix from the earlier self released version from the summer of 92. noise bliss, culled from a 4 track. Lovesliescrushing occupies that musical terrain that combines the like of My Bloody Valentine, Seefeel, the Cocteau Twins, eno, MAIN, and zoviet france. Scott Cortez is now playing noise pop guitar for STAR.
PRE 2005 BIO:
LOVESLIESCRUSHINGPERSONNEL
lovesliescrushing is the duo of scott cortez[guitars] and melissa arpin [vocals].
THESOUND
lovesliescrushing became notorious for crafting beautifully strange music using only a 4 track, voice, guitar and effects.
one of the largest misconceptions about lovesliescrushing concerns their music itself. people mistakenly assume that they use keyboards or synthesizers to create their otherworldly sound, the music is created with just voice and guitar.
scott uses a combination of techniques, both lo-fi and digital, to create a unique sonic palette. he is fond of mutating the guitar till it is barely recognizeable, regarding it as a mere tone generator. he also utilizes various methods and materials for preparing the guitar. scott has been known to abuse his guitars with chopsticks, rubberbands, nails, knives, forks, vibrators, paintbrushes, or metal rulers to bow strings,anything to change the timbral quality. the digital methods are a recent development and are used primarily for arranging tracks and minor treatments, most of the sonic alterations occur before it is commited to the hard drive.
HISTORY
in the winter of 1991 scott met melissa, after she stalked him for a month. they went out on a date on suggestion of a mutual friend and became a couple immediately. tired of borrowing everyone else's 4 track, melissa bought scott a 4 track, reverb, and a delay pedal. he helped her by convincing her to drop out of law school.
the early material consisted of instumental guitar pieces, a continuation of early experiments scott had been doing since 89. melissa did not consider herself a strong vocalist, because of this she did not sing on the tracks. scott had a few friends attempt to sing but was frustrated with the lackluster results. melissa finally volunteered her services, she added one pass of vocals to a new song, the track was valerian, it was perfect. the band was born proper. months later melissa and scott left the cold climes of michigan and the burgeoning spacerock scene to drive across the country in search of a home. they stopped once they got to the desert expanse of tucson and started anew.
debuted in april 93 at the beautiful noise festival, met sam rosenthal and signed to projekt soon after.
the seminal debut album, bloweyelashwish, was recorded in a cramped tucson apartment, a useless mini-fan blowing on a half naked body drenched in sweat. the music was a mix of polarities, delicate crystalline notes, light blurry swathes of sound, slathered in thick slabs of fuzzy distortion. guitars deconstructed to emulate tiny chinese music boxes, and jet engine roar. spinning swirls of melody, loops galore.
NEWALBUM
the newest album will take the band into unfamiliar territory as they experiment even further. this time around cortez puts down the guitar and uses only their voices to create the signature atmospheres.