EbE404 Premieres CARTHAGE Remix Ahead of Cortisol LP

Transmission 410: Interview with EbE404

EbE404 is a Minneapolis-based post-industrial and dark ambient artist. Growing up surrounded by New Wave synthesizers and a mother who worked as an audiologist, the project’s sound draws on an early fascination with resonance, timbre, and the physical properties of sound itself, treating listening as a subconscious, environmental experience rather than a fixed composition. The music of EbE404 sits alongside reference points like Coil and Throbbing Gristle, and folds in imagery of technology, surveillance, and algorithmic control set against the anxieties and rhythms of daily life in Minneapolis.

Title: Grass Time
Artist: EbE404
Release Date: 2026-07-31
Genres: Ambient, Electronica, Industrial Music, Techno
Label: GIVE/TAKE

“Grass Time” arrives as the project’s first official release in three years, appearing on the Flora single via GIVE/TAKE in three versions: the “Anti-Fascist Disco Mix,” the “Counterpoint Mix,” and a closing “Single Edit.” The “Counterpoint Mix” is remixed by CARTHAGE (read our interview with CARTHAGE), the post-metal and shoegaze project of Damian B. of khost, translating the original through a colder, more spectral register that pulls the track apart and lets it settle somewhere between analog warmth and static. Retrofuturista is premiering this remix today, ahead of the single’s release on July 31st and the forthcoming full-length Cortisol.

Who were your earliest influences, and do you still hear them today? 

 Sound is something that has always deeply affected me. As a child, I got a lot of ear infections and was fortunate enough that my mother was an audiologist. I remember sitting in her office and playing with a tuning fork, listening to how it resonated on different surfaces and modulated as it moved through the air. That was magical to me. Musically, I remember lying in bed one night and hearing “Dream Weaver” by Gary Wright and feeling the world change around me with sounds I had never heard before swirled through the air. Growing up with New Wave also made a big impact with what could be done with synthesizers. The most wonderful moments- musically or otherwise- are when I hear something sonically that I’ve never heard before.

What first drew you to post-industrial and dark ambient sound? 

The only thing I love more than music is really the sound itself. These are the sounds that have surrounded me or lived in my head for as long as I can remember- fragments of timbres and barely perceptible hums and drones. Anxiety and anticipation inside your own head. The whines of cicadas in the woods. The eerie silence of a heavy snow storm. With this music, there’s a level of subconscious communication and connection with the world in ways our limited senses don’t normally allow. This means the listener, their environment, their mood, their memories- all become part of the experience. The song doesn’t matter as much as the moment and act of listening itself- that’s why EbE404 isn’t about people or personel, it’s a combination of every person, machine, and element in the chain that leads up to that moment of listening when the music is born into a unique memory and life of it’s own with the listener.

How has Minneapolis shaped your music, if at all? 

 Minneapolis is an amazing city and I love it deeply. It’s home. The culture of arts, music, and diversity are an amazing melting pot and our weather makes people…”unique”. We sit in -35 windchills and build art installations on frozen lakes, after all. Beyond that, Minneapolis has gone through it, and the way our community has stood up and fought back is beyond inspiring.  I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world, but I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

You mention “robots and digital warlords with evil intent”, where does that imagery come from? 

 So much of our lives are being driven and dictated by pathetically small men using their technology, algorithms, AI, and platforms to fight their cultural, political, and economic wars against us. The Attention Economy has been weaponized against us and now even the things we create for joy, expression, and community are being stolen and used against us. Reality itself is being altered in real-time by all of this. At the same time, we are somewhat captive to this technology for communication and distribution of our words and art. The people reading this are staring at a screen, after all- that’s just part of modern life. There are a lot of things we can do to resist, but one of the most important is to anchor ourselves in tangible, physical reality. Five things you see, four things you can touch, three things you hear, two things you can smell, one thing you can taste. 

Do current events directly shape your writing, or more subconsciously?

 I live in the area where George Floyd, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti were murdered. Our government has declared cultural and economic war on us. I’ve been labeled a “domestic terrorist”. But we fight back daily with our love, diversity, and decency. The upcoming release of “Cortisol” is really the sound of living in all of this- the constant hum and rhythms of anxiety, anger, and fear as well as the act of looking for joy, courage, grace, and beauty amongst the incursions while trying to escape the technocracy. There were moments when I would be working in the studio, hear the whistles outside and drop everything to grab my own whistle and phone to chase ICE away from my neighbors. Fighting these fascists literally became part of the creative process for this album.

What art, film, or writing has been feeding your process lately?  

 I believe creativity and originality are glitches. We are all merely products of our memories, experiences, and influences. When we go to create something, we conjure and emulate all of those things- but then it goes wrong and things get mutated and mangled, and the output is a unique result of that processing. So, it’s tough to say what has been feeding the process recently as I feel things randomly bubble to the surface like memories from an unreliable narrator. Did I really hear that, or is my brain making it up- that kind of thing. I constantly surround myself with abstract music and art to try to tap into those subconscious aquifers of creative inspiration. Some recent favorites are “The Formless Irregular” compendium from Babs Santini, “TG Berlin” boxset from Throbbing Gristle, and the 1984 film “Decoder” and its soundtrack.

Why was Damian B. the right choice to remix “Grass Time”? 

 I really love the CARTHAGE album that came out last year. Damian and I hit it off when we met around that time and we really connected over a lot of common musical tastes and influences. So it was a wonderful opportunity to find out what this would sound like translated through Damian’s ears, and I utterly adore the result. The track has a fantastic and unique feel to it, and there are a couple of moments that hint at some of our mutual influences that felt like an inside wink between us. I love having that brought into the mix. In fact, the track hit me so intensely it changed the concept of how this single was going to be released.

What’s it like hearing your own track reworked by someone else? 

 It’s always an amazing and humbling experience to hear how another artist translates and interprets your work. We did this before with “Ripple”, which was a remixed version of the “Inrush” album. Again, like the randomness and mutation of influences and experiences, having that same kind of influence from someone else applied to a track gives you a glimpse into another mind, another reality not explored, and alternate universes. It’s an honor and privilege to have such amazing creatives lend some of themselves to this music to create something new and better.

It’s been three years since your last release—what changed for you in that time? 

 So much and yet so little. There have been personal changes, gains, losses, and growth. We’ve lived- and are still living- through a war with our own government and it’s been a process to really internalize that there are a significant number of people who do not believe that people like me have a right to exist. That radicalizes a person- but not just towards resistance and anger, but towards love, joy, and radical empathy. That can feel like an odd thing for somebody who makes such dark art to say, but I look at that as a way to channel and acknowledge those parts of our reality. I’ve come to really internalize the fact that nothing really matters beyond being a good and decent human being and trying to make life a little better for everyone when and wherever you can.

What’s next for EbE404 after the album?

 Absolutely no idea. The way these albums are born is not necessarily with intention, but more like those old “magic eye” posters. A lot of things are created and splattered about in a messy blur, then you stand back and relax, let your eyes go blurry and detach from reality a bit, and eventually an image emerges. You never realize the journey you are on until you get to the destination and have a chance to see the whole picture with hindsight and context. We’ll all find out together!

Photos and images courtesy of © EbE404

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others