SCHALLFRONT presents
MICHAELBRAILEY
MICHAELBRAILEY is based between Manchester (UK) and Hamburg (DE). His work - often foregrounding text, screens and voices - has filtered contemporary anxiety through systems of data transfer, computation, evolution, body tension, ecology, ekphrasis, and love.
Michael has hosted on radio stations including NTS and ma3azef, and has been written about in publications including Dazed, FACT and AQNB. He has also worked with physical performance group SHOAL, guitarist Callum Coomber, The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, electronic artist Sam Kidel, soprano Juliet Fraser, ensemble The House of Bedlam, and queer-dominated DJ collective boygirl. He has shown work at Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Snape Maltings (UK); ZKM, Kampnagel, LICHTHOF Theater (DE) and elsewhere.
He curates VIRTUALLYREALITY, an events series programming adventurous new music and performance in Manchester since 2017. Michael is currently studying for a Masters in Multimedia Composition with Alexander Schubert at HfMT - Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
© Photo by the artist
INTERVIEW
SCHALLFRONT: Michael, how did you come to be involved in experimental electronic music?
MICHAELBRAILEY: ‘Being involved in experimental electronic music’ means more to me phrased as ‘being in an experimental electronic music community’. After moving to Manchester (UK) from the quiet English countryside, the queer electronic music scene taught me to love myself more deeply and see myself in new refractions. I’m forever grateful for that.
In your bio you mention about your work that it "has filtered contemporary anxiety through systems of data transfer, computation, evolution, body tension, ecology, ekphrasis and Love." This seems to use a synthesis of technological, scientific, and somewhat more esoteric approaches to dealing with the modern world as we live in it. Could you describe how you draw on this diverse group of methodologies as a filter to realize your artistic vision?
MICHAELBRAILEY: I’m trying to become more aware of the intertwining of systems: ecologies, epistemologies, computational models, systems of labour, weather patterns, orbits, evolutionary histories… In recognising the interconnectedness of our world-system we can pinpoint our location (emotional or otherwise) more succinctly, finding presence, security, sense of self…
As a curator and a composer, could you reflect on how your artistic processes in both composition and curation influences one another?
MICHAELBRAILEY: Following VIRTUALLYREALITY’s online SS21 series ‘The Long Triumph’, curation has grown to require more empathic skills. Listening, learning and re-learning are important things that I hope to make more present in my own work.
‘Composer’ is a difficult word for me with its entrenchment within (European) (colonial) musical history. The more-conscious socio-political climates of experimental electronic music subcultures make me reflect on this daily. To be a composer now requires a direct reckoning with(in) these contexts. This is exciting to me.
The theme of our concert series is “reverie(s)”. This relates to a certain dreamy characteristic, how does this play a role in your music?
MICHAELBRAILEY: I’ve never really experienced a large connection to dreams or dreaminess. The want to be closer to someone - to transcend distance, to be like a light-beam - has rippled through the electronic music I’ll be performing at SCHALLFRONT for sure; but being present, feeling connections and being grounded feels much more important now.
As we have experienced in the last years with our extraordinary situation, art can often be used as a pleasant escape from reality. On the other hand, art can be used as a medium to bring reality into a more understandable and relatable form. The analysis of the dream itself can be used as a way of understanding and processing our struggles in a safe and non-real environment. Do you use either of these methods in your music and how might they be used?
MICHAELBRAILEY: Thinking of art as a pleasant escape brings to mind two forms of white capitalist hedonism - Classical Music audience behaviour and mainstream EDM European/North American festival audience behaviour. Two conservatisms. Conflating these is becoming interesting to me because of my own personal histories with both.
I don’t find processing reality to be an escapist tool; it’s necessary, all-consuming, stress-inducing. Bringing reality into a more understandable and relatable form isn’t easy when you take it seriously.
I believe there is a danger of saying ‘safe’ environments or spaces. As organisers we can only aim for ‘safer’ spaces. I believe strongly in the importance of this extra ‘r’. There’s nothing non-real or ‘dreamy’ for me about these environments - this is the reality we choose, the reality we need. If anything these are hyper-real, oracular, futuristic, manifesting, life-giving spaces.
How does interaction with artists and listeners, either directly through collaboration, through conversation, or by attending concerts influence you as an artist?
MICHAELBRAILEY: I love to interact with audiences and hear how my work has touched them. That is always my most treasured part of performing live.
What is your vision for your artistic development?
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