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Collapsing Scenery has dedicated itself to being much more than the sum of its parts -- that is to say, the duo feels compelled to highlight injustices and point out the hypocrisies and insanities of the modern era. Vocalist Reggie Debris shared his thoughts on what is at the core of the Collapsing Scenery ethos:
"Don and I started this project during a time (2013/14) when it seemed that the Left had completely capitulated and resigned itself to the world order that first stirred under Carter, blossomed under Reagan and Thatcher, and reached a depraved apotheosis under Clinton and Blair. 9/11 then radically scrambled politics and rendered an entire decade of discourse frantic and dumb. We were left under Obama with a zombie Neoliberalism that dragged its desiccated corpse in a well trodden circular path laid out by 40 years of degraded politics and failed theory.
"In this era of drone warfare, austerity, and deportation, felt a massive opening for political art. Aesthetically, we were drawn toward analogue electronics, firstly for sonic reasons but also because we were eager to learn new instruments and felt that the sound of us creating on unfamiliar gear would communicate a sense of discovery and urgency. Dance music has always been a good backdrop or jumping off point for selling the bitter pill of contemporary politics."
Collapsing Scenery is the meeting of two fertile and febrile minds, Don De Vore (Ink & Dagger, Lilys, The Icarus Line, Amazing Baby) and Reggie Debris. Together they straddle the gap between music, art, film and politics, seamlessly moving between each with the same ease at which they traverse the globe, soaking up experiences and immersing themselves in different cultures.
Since they formed in 2013 "under a pall of paranoia and disgust" they haven't stopped moving. They've recently collaborated with Jamaican dancehall legend Ninjaman, Beastie Boys producer/collaboratorMoney Mark, and no-wave pioneer James Chance. The band also has remixes out or on the way from Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle), Jennifer Herrema (Royal Trux), Uniform,Youth Code, Brian DeGraw (Gang Gang Dance), Oliver, and more.
A conversation with them recalls stories of recently recording a 'goth-dancehall' track in Jamaica, sailing their soundsystem into Britain for a series of shows, visiting occupied territories in Palestine on fact-finding missions, recording their debut album on a remote ranch in Texas and soaking up rays in Corsica - and that's in the first five minutes.
Their forthcoming debut debut album Stress Positions is a glorious collision of futurist electro, glacial goth tones, techno, post-punk and chillwave recorded using analogue electronics: samplers, step sequencers, synths and drum machines. Aesthetically it initially recalls the early pioneering synth-punk of bands such as Human League, Screamers and The Normal, when the most forwarding thinking punks looked to the twenty-first century. Dig deeper however and it reveals an articulate and highly politicised collection that's far from mired being in nostalgia for the recent past. Quite the opposite: Stress Positions is a forward-looking album with strong state-of-the-world lyrical content. In the tradition of so many defining electro duos - whether Suicide, Pet Shop Boys or Underworld - Collapsing Scenery's architecture is entirely of their own creation. They've built their own world and live in it. All are welcome.
Collapsing Scenery's inception can be traced back several years when New York-based artist/musicianDon De Vore and musician friend and LA resident Reggie Debris collaborated in programming events with D'agostino and Fiore gallery on the Lower East Side, beginning with a video installation which lead to a month of music and visual programming called 'Rebuild Babylon' which in turn evolved into a travelling residency series.
Out of this came Collapsing Scenery, the musical wing of their collaboration. Don De Vore is a mainstay of some of the US's most exciting and important contemporary bands, having played in Ink & Dagger, The Icarus Line, Amazing Baby, Giant Drag, Sick Feeling, Souls She Said and Lilys. He is also a curator for Brooklyn arts space Trans Pecos. Joining him on vocals is debuting vocalist and lyrical collaborator Reggie Debris, a veritable human riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
The pair exist to challenge and subvert perceptions in the worlds of outsider art and political protest. And have a great time while doing it. A more recent 2016 artistic residency in New York saw Collapsing Scenery create a psychedelic immersive art installation that incorporated projections, layers of colourful plexi-glass, a reading from Genesis P-Orridge and a performances from De Vore and Debris (meanwhile in a clash of the old and new the gallery upstairs hosted a Picasso exhibition).
While some bands claim to be exponents of the DIY ethic, Collapsing Scenery are entirely self-sufficient, sonic buccaneers sailing the seas with piratical intent. "Playing in a traditional rock venue in any given city is my idea of hell," says Debris. "We want to play in basements, warehouses, garages - and travelling with our own sound-system, power supply and visuals, that's exactly what we do. Not being beholden to club, promoters or the existing way of doing things is important. We're 100% self-contained."
Collapsing Scenery offer a new vision for how a modern band can be. They're not even a band - they're curators of a series of planet-planning events, expressions, exhibitions, albums, installations, journeys, adventures and parties, all operating outside of the confines of the tired traditional industry.
Collapsing Scenery are artistic explorers pushing into bold new futures, then. Join them.
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