The industrial collaborators discuss death doulas, Hot Snakes, and creating music for a declining world

Transmission 286: Interview with Deaf Doula

Jim Coleman and Ev Gold have spent decades negotiating the abrasive frequencies of New York’s underground, Coleman through Cop Shoot Cop’s percussive brutalism and Human Impact’s refined aggression (here is our interview with Human Impact), Gold through Cinema Cinema’s experimental frameworks and GoJuMo’s sonic investigations. Their new collaboration, Deaf Doula, introduced via their debut single “2057”, strips away the familiar coordinates of their previous work and replaces them with something colder, more patient, and considerably more unsettling.

Title: 2057
Artist: Deaf Doula
Genres: Ambient, Electronica, Industrial Music
Description: The industrial collaborators discuss death doulas, Hot Snakes, and creating music for a declining world

Deaf Doula emerged in New York City, developing material that took shape during the pandemic and later expanded into a wider creative partnership. The group’s debut show took place at Pianos NYC on 16 November, presenting the material through real-time processing and an extended instrumental setup.

Featured image: Michael Jung

How did you start this collaboration? When did your personal pandemic experiments merge with Ev’s, and when did it become “Deaf Doula”?

Jim: Ev and I connected through the Martin Bisi Experience. We had both worked with Martin through the years. I had a project called This Wilderness, and we ended up playing a show with Ev’s band Cinema Cinema. Sometime later, Ev reached out and sent me some rough synth-based tracks he was working on and that led to this body of work.

Ev: I had amassed nearly two albums worth of music that sounded like none of the other stuff I had experience with creating. I was excited and I was also lost. Finding it hard to get perspective on the material, I needed someone to bounce it off. Someone to listen, someone to help me find a way forward with it. It was then that I stumbled upon one of Jim’s albums (2023’s “Light” released under the Filer Coleman moniker) and I knew that he was the person to reach out to. I was fortunate that the “Bisi-experience” as he put it, was one we shared, and that lineage afforded us a trail to follow.

What’s the meaning behind the name “Deaf Doula”?

Jim: I have an ongoing group text with Robert O. Leaver (This Wilderness) and Phil Puleo (Swans) where we just constantly come up with and iterate band names. I came up with Deaf Doula there. I have been interested in Death Doulas for some time and researched what would be required to become a Death Doula. Being a kind of point person and a connector in that process seems so vital and necessary, yet so underutilized. Changing the name slightly to Deaf Doula just kind of made sense in terms of sound and music, and the creative cycles. Somehow also this music is more than aural in our approach, it’s a more visceral sensorial approach.

Ev: When we were searching for a name for the project and Jim suggested Deaf Doula I was really stunned, as I had been obsessing over a song called “Death Doula” by the band Hot Snakes, for months at that time. I would listen to it at least twice a day. When Jim sprang in with, “let’s call the band Deaf Doula”, I knew immediately it was meant to be.

“2057” is described as “future tripping.” What current anxieties or events inspired that specific, bleak vision?

Jim: I’ll let Ev speak to this from a perspective of lyrics. But it doesn’t take a huge imagination to envision a rather bleak future. We’ve gone past the point of no return in terms of living within acceptable limits of greenhouse emissions. There’s a collective societal refusal to accept the reality, even as large parts of our communities are devastated by floods and fires. The sad reality is that profits come before people when governments are tools of corporations, special interest groups and ultra-wealthy individuals. Governments of the world today are not of and for the people. In the U.S. currently we have a government that is refusing to allocate and distribute funds to feed people in need, even though the funds are available. A large part of the population is being used as pawns in political power struggles. Anyway, I could go on and on about this for way too long…

Ev: It’s not hard to see a future that would be deficient in basic human needs. We already have conditions as such in parts of the world today. “Removed from the queue, taken out of view” is one of the lyrics that speaks to the way we choose to not look at those problems that are already here.

“2057” is very bleak. Does the rest of the album stay in that darkness, or does it explore the “hope” mentioned in the bio?

Jim: It’s funny, I acknowledge that “2057” is bleak, but I feel the hope in this song as well. There is a spaciousness and lightness present in it at times. But the album does more overtly explore themes of hope. The first half of the album is a bit more intense, whereas the second half finds its way into a more meditative calm.

Is there a common theme or narrative across the entire album, or is it a collection of separate vignettes?

Jim: I wouldn’t say there is a distinct theme or narrative for the album, though it does very much create an insular world for the listener to inhabit.

Ev: Yes, the album creates its own world. We had 15 songs completed and pushed and pulled to cull that to the nine pieces that fit together best. Not a specific narrative but moves along an auditory arc meant to sway and lull you to a near-deaf experience! (lol)

How has the current political situation influenced the sound of the project?

Jim: Oh, I’m tempted to dive right back in there again!!! While the album is not overtly political, the feel and texture of it are totally contemporary and shaped on the current social and political realities, both within the US and worldwide. And I’ll just say that I feel strongly that being creative in these times is both a survival tool and a base line act of rebellion. I don’t accept the world the way it is, so I’m going to create my own damn reality!

Ev: The darkness of present times has seeped into every breath we take. A great lack of love, understanding and care for our fellow human has thrown shadow on the day. Having hope is almost as much an act of rebellion as it is to make as much art as possible.

What were the biggest non-musical inspirations for this album? (e.g., books, art, political events).

Jim: Witnessing the lack of humanity and long-term vision in the world around us. Finding hope, connection, love, and support in local communities. Being a parent. Being in a committed relationship. Hanging out with my cat. Looking at the sky.

Ev: “The Age of Spiritual Machines” by Ray Kurzweil was something I was reading around the time I started working on this stuff. I was also going through an odd phase of alternating between “The Master” and “There Will Be Blood”, both Paul Thomas Anderson films, as my background TV-fodder at that time. Dealing with the death of my dog and the birth of my daughter have also deeply informed me during this time.

The bio mentions “tactile experimentation.” Can you give an example of an unusual sound source or recording technique you used?

Jim: I often will describe what I do as manipulating sound, as opposed to being a musician. I’m always fucking around with sounds, stretching them, micro sampling them, playing with their relationship to other sounds. This takes place in a mix of hardware and software, acoustic and electronic, with sources both found and created. “2057” includes the sound of children in Gaza trying to get food. But it could be mistaken for children in a playground. It’s also cloaked in reverb, giving this sonic distance akin to reading about the realities of that in the news – it’s kind of theoretical, and can easily be misconstrued.

What was the creative process like? Was it mostly remote file-trading, or did you write together in the studio?

Jim: We live in different locales, so it was mostly file trading. In this coming week, we are finally getting together in the same space to make noise and prep for our first live show. Looking forward to that!

What does the “electro-acoustic hybrid” setup for the live show actually look like on stage?

Jim: I’ll be using a mix gear. Some of the basic tracks will be manipulated in a hardware version of Ableton Live (Push standalone to be precise). My set up also includes this weird feedback generator by Audrey, on OP1F, and Soma Labs Lyra, some delays and distortion, a 2-string instrument called a Dvina that can be picked or bowed, and a melodica. Other instruments I’ve used on the album include a Hammond, a hurdy gurdy, a french horn, along with a variety of other electronics and synths.

Ev: I will have a bit of a Frankenstein set-up. Utilizing my guitar rig set-up that I use in Cinema Cinema. That band is a duo, no bass player, so I bi-amp my board out to guitar and bass amps. Looping and processing sounds off that board but will also have a Ray Manzarek-like dual keyboard set up with my MOOG Grandmother and with a Novation synth. I plan on using both arms and legs all at once, while putting the vocals through a new Death by Audio effects box. It is going to be fun! Sunday, Nov 16th at Pianos in New York City, for the Stereo Mandrax series.

What’s the long-term vision for Deaf Doula? Is this a one-off project or a new, primary focus for you?

Jim: We are currently looking for the best way to release the full album. We would welcome the opportunity to bring this music out to the world live. And we have the makings of another album already well in motion. So – yes, we see this as having more life and longevity!

Ev: Deaf Doula is here to stay! We have an additional EP’s worth of material ready now and we have the basics for the next record already in a folder on a supercomputer in a submarine under the coral reef.

Photos courtesy of Deaf Doula

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