How did you get started playing and what can we expect from a Special Agent show?
I went to college for acting and playwriting at UNT, and got into the punk scene there when I was 20 by going to shows and also doing spoken word with punk poetry collectives. I didn't actually start playing music until I was 22. I had played piano as a kid and always loved music, but I was neck deep in writing and performing and academics.I had been going through a deep depression where I felt words were "failing" how I was feeling, like no words could describe how lost and fucked up I felt. As someone who relied on words for everything from school to their main artistic focus, you can imagine how troubling that could be. I heard Pharmakon for the first time that year, because she released Bestial Burden in 2015, and as soon as I heard "Body Betrays Itself" I said "that is EXACTLY how I feel" and immediately put an Arturia Microbrute on credit I did not have and that was that. Whether in public or in private since then, I haven't stopped trying to transmute my being with sound and expression.
At a Special Agent show, you can expect a 100% cage-free artisan catharsis, complete with video game samples and two nerds putting their whole egodeathussies into giving you something that you've (hopefully) never seen before!
Influences?
A lot of my approach to performance comes from my theatre background. I was super attracted to fronting a band because it's the same as being an actor: on-stage, this heightened version of yourself...I take a lot of influence from the idea of "controlling the stage" which is a big part of Acting 101. I love Brechtian theatre, hyper realism, and a lot of avant-garde work that leaves the actor super naked in front of you emotionally, and that's how I want to feel when I play since performance is where I place all of my emotions. In terms of artists I would have to say that Pharmakon, Suicide, and The Cramps play a big part in how I approach fronting. Well, if Lux Interior was into total sonic assault and the shedding of the psyche. Hanging out in the noise and experimental scene in DFW during a peak time really influenced how I view non-structured sound and performance as well and I like to carry that raw and all-encompassing energy into when I play live in anything I'm doing. House of Tinnitus shows at the old Rubber Gloves, many house and basement venues all the way up to the things they were doing at Pariah and Crown & Harp. I got exposed to so many different types of performers that ended up becoming either friends or bandmates or artistic peers in some fashion (or all three!!). There is so much talent and weirdness here and I was really lucky to fall into the freak scene at a special time.
What are you listening to right now?
It's getting cool out, so I always end up in a big shoegaze mode: Slowdive's Soulvaki is basically on repeat from October to January. Cold weather is a big time for ambient music for me as well, so it's just Grouper and the Dirty Beaches Water Park OST on a loop as well. I'm always all over the place...currently it's been a lot of The Crystals, Belong, D.I., Martin DuPont, Hotline TNT, Crash Course in Science, Hunx & his Punx, and many "relaxing Nintendo music" youtube compilations. The Smiths are my favorite band of all time, so they are always in rotation and will be ad infinitum. The local music scene has been rising from the grave and I'd be remiss not to mention some acts I've really been digging: Bog, Total Sweetheart, Heavy Baby Sea Slugs, Ozone, Python Potions, Sybil, Diet Tea Other Cola, Kolga, Jake Schrock, and Neuromania.
My bandmate Patrick has a midas touch in just about every project he's in, so obviously I keep his work on deck: Duskseeker (his solo project), Seres, and Oil Spill!
Visit Lauren for their latest gigs.
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