ARTIST * OK HOUSECAT * UNITED STATES

Billy Prosise spends his days singing songs, teaching kids, creating things, and trying to make all the sounds that he has never heard before..

What is your inspirational source?

I CREATE to prove that I EXIST- the stagnant are invisible; the empty-handed disappear.

 

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How did you find your own style to create your work?

GLORIFY THE ARBITRARY.

 

 

What is your favorite synthesizer to create music?

I create SYNTHESIZERS out of MUSIC.

My favorite keyboard to record is definitely the Casio SK-1.  Even unmodified it is a beautiful instrument- the SK-1 flute sound with portamento is one of my favorite sounds of all time.  And the modified SK-1 is a ferocious, uncalculated purveyor of bizarre sound. There is a seemingly unending number of possible mods, allowing for some ambitious designs- I’ve covered things like toasters, hummingbird feeders and hamster tubes with buttons, switches and knobs and wired them to connect to the keyboard to mangle the sound.

 

 

 

Tell us about your circuit bending projects?

Currently I’m finishing up a Yamaha VSS-30 sampling keyboard (pic below). Instead of installing all of the switches, buttons, and knobs onto the keyboard, I used hamster cage supplies to build a colorful control panel that scrambles the sound into your favorite oblivion.

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How do you experiment with the sounds?

I like to see how far things will bend before they break.
It’s fun to connect things that aren’t meant to be connected just to see what happens, and to create unlistenable sounds just for the sake of hearing something that you’ve never heard before. There is a very visceral appeal to extreme noise, and I like the challenge of taking the cacophony and shaping it into something to which you can tap your toe or sing along.

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How is your creative process when creating a sound piece and circuit Bending?

My creative process is scattered by necessity, as my attention span is about the same as the kids I teach.  Sometimes I’ll look at something, immediately have an idea, then put the whole thing together in a few days. Other times, I’ll open something up, put it on a shelf, then stare at it for weeks before a design materializes. The one constant is my hands: they are always busy. I am always creating something, inspired or not, because what I make will not exist otherwise.