Extragavanza Spotlight: Talking with industrial metal artist Author & Punisher

by | Nov 5, 2015 | MUSIC

This Friday night we’ll see the inaugural Extragavanza event held across The Broadberry, Strange Matter, and En Su Boca.

This Friday night we’ll see the inaugural Extragavanza event held across The Broadberry, Strange Matter, and En Su Boca. There’s tons of must-see bands on the bill from DIIV down to Soda Bomb, but perhaps the most interesting act performing this Friday would be the one man industrial metal act known as Author & Punisher.

Author & Punisher came onto the scene in 2004 from the mind of mechanical engineer and musician Tristan Shone. Since that debut, Shone has mesmerized metal fans worldwide with his unique take on the genre while also bewildering concertgoers with a sonic experience that’s completely unparalleled in today’s music scene. A typical show sees Shone under a musical mask he constructed himself while he’s surrounded by various instruments and boards that have all been either custom built or retrofitted to best fit his modular, “mad scientist” set-up that varies from city to city depending on the venue and his own state of mind.

There’s plenty of other one man bands in music’s past and present, but none are able to pull off a compact show and a coherent sound with the conviction and authenticity that Shone does. Both of these qualities make it hard to dismiss his music as a gaudy gimmick, especially when you consider how shockingly organic the sound that comes through is. Shone himself admits it’s something he strives though even if he’s not entirely sure “organic” is the right term.

“Basically, I try not to play with tracks that have preordained sequences so I’m playing a minimal amount of stuff along with the performance. For whatever reason, even though it’s on time, it loses its natural drag and fluctuation in time signatures that a lot of doom metal is meant to have. It’s like a band getting a session drummer rather than having their drummer they’ve had since they were 16 who’s bad and good at the same time.”

Shone is very much a musician on stage, fully improvising and altering melodies at a moment’s whim. “Because I play all the instruments, I can stop and start, embellish here and there. You’ll hear the song and the melody, but it’s always going to be more aggressive and wild live.” It’s hard to imagine melody being a strong point of Shone’s music and live performance, but it’s not only integral to each composition, it’s also the notable part of his latest record MELK EN HONING, something Shone attributed to producer Philip H. Anselm. “Philip being a vocalist really helped me make the vocals more prominent and I had no problems with that. If you looked to my first two records, there’s a lot of singing going on there that’s very clear. I toured with Phil and I think he thought I was just doing noise, but when heard the melody in the studio coming out, we quickly changed course.”

The end result is a record most are calling the most accessible from Author & Punisher’s catalogue. It’s eight tracks of intense music that any metal fan would find joy in, even if it’s still not from the typical source a fan would expect. “Playing live, the fans are always more cynical. I would say bands are a lot more accepting of me because they hear the songwriting and can tell it’s not just a gimmick, but there’s just a big thing for fans to overcome. They see something that is new and has a different look and this wall comes up. That’s the biggest hurdle: those cynical metal fan who write me off without ever hearing the music.”

Counteracting the natural reaction to his show is something Shone is deeply aware of and although he does have specific songs he knows can turn a crowd around, he’s also more fixated on fulfilling his artistic need each show as opposed to making a fan out of every single person. “I come from the Neurosis and Melvin school of thought – whatever we think is right is right. We’re the artist and we came up with it. I watched those King Buzzo shows from the early 90s where he would just do noise for 45 minutes and then play one song. I think that’s what he wanted to do and that’s what I feel. This is my eleventh year so I’m not really worried about losing some people.”

He may not be considered with losing fans, but Shone is shockingly honest about the early success he thought he’d attain in his cocky youth that ultimately never came to fruition. “I think I thought things would be easier than they were. It’s a lot more difficult than I first thought. I’ve had some videos get on Wired magazine or various blogs and news sites that I thought were going to cause an explosion and ultimately didn’t. That’s fine and a lot of it has to do with the inaccessibility of the music so to say. If I’d been playing dubstep during that dubstep boom that happened. Things would be a lot different now, but that boom also ended and I would have been stuck with that. I guess in that regard I’m glad I’ve just stayed with the music that I grew up with and ultimately enjoy.” It’s a testament to the deep artistry that Shone brings to the table under the Author & Punisher moniker. The sound of music has definitely shifted in a myriad of directions over the years, but it’s never been fueled by anything but Shone’s own personal desire and curiosity.

But the big question remains for Richmond fans: what should people expect for Friday’s set at Strange Matter? “I try to make it a full sensory experience. We’ve got full visual set-ups and my own speakers. I think it’s going to have a lot more unexpected turns than people would think. There’s not a lot of repetition. I almost try to grab onto people’s ears and scream into their face a little bit more as opposed to being subtle. There’s nothing subtle about the set-ups I use and ultimately that’s what you should expect.”

We’ll see just how unsubtle and surprising Author & Punisher can be this Friday night.

See Author & Punisher and a bunch of other bands this Friday night at The Extragavanza. Tickets are still available for this three venue, fifteen band mini-festival. $30 gets you into all three venues, $20 gets you just in to The Broadberry early set, and $12 gets you just in to the later Strange Matter set. The late set at En Su Boca is free to all ticket holders. For information on the entire night’s line-up and set times, click here.

Amy David

Amy David

Amy David was the Web Editor for RVAMag.com from May 2015 until September 2018. She covered craft beer, food, music, art and more. She's been a journalist since 2010 and attended Radford University. She enjoys dogs, beer, tacos, and Bob's Burgers references.




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