HOST-A NOISY,DARK AMBIENT COLLECTIVE THAT IS ESSENTIAL. HERE LIES AN INTERVIEW WITH NATHAN JENKINS.

 

HOST-A NOISY,DARK AMBIENT COLLECTIVE THAT IS ESSENTIAL. HERE LIES AN INTERVIEW WITH NATHAN JENKINS.BY MARK JENKINS.

Everyone is well aware that Nathan did play in one of Australia's most diverse and superb extreme metal bands, The Amenta. But not so many, know of his glorious work in HOST, a band described accurately as:

For more than a decade, dark noise act Host has served as a vessel to explore the modern mysteries without the superstition of the Old Aeon.

Captured sounds, broken images and modern allegory all come together for an intense, unsettling, all embracing journey.

Personally, I have adored this act since their early releases and finally got to see them as a support act on the recent Mayhem 40th Anniversary show in Melbourne. And they blew my mind, for quite a stern and opinionated crowd, HOST held the audience in their palm and crushed them. Host frankly has a ridiculously deep and substantial catalogue that is free of basic music structure excess and focuses on a commitment to the finest dark ambient noise foundation it excels in.

I thank Nathan for his time and effort in our interview; he was inspiring, and his intellectual answers showcase the vivid skill and craft this collective has. 

Enjoy this powerful conversation.

Interview with Nathan Jenkins of HOST and previously The Amenta:

You have a wonderful, creative career so far, not many dull patches- what made you dive into the artistic world?-As you are a creator of so many palettes-talk us through the beginnings and what drew you in and key influences or guideposts?

My earliest memory of something that falls in the traditional artistic arena would be sitting with an art teacher in primary school who said to me when drawing that I should never try to outdo a camera for realism. It will never win. I should instead try to think about what a drawing can offer that a camera cannot. I think this has really stuck with me as an underlying value, it’s not about the technical skill, but the embracing of a medium and creation of something that does not yet exist.

As for beginnings, growing up in an isolated country town, I had to keep my mind active; making things became both habit and mental ballast. From here I had a pretty standard evolution of my creative interests, predominantly using traditional instruments such as guitar and bass.

A clear point where my interest in more experimental creations escalated would have been 20 odd years ago while working with Timothy Pope and Erik Miehs in The Amenta. Specifically during the Virus and N0N periods.

Timothy and Erik are extremely talented songwriters and work incredibly well together as a unit, my main contribution was that of a performer, which freed me to experiment visually for the creation of a series of videos to accompany the Occassus/Virus release.
This was definitely the starting point for years of further exploration of what was possible with a more experimental approach to sound and video.

More recently, as a software engineer by profession, the natural next step was for me to explore generative video and audio. Both in code and physical devices, i’d consider this melding of these fields a clear driver for the creation, and continuance of HOST.

 

HOST supported Mayhem on their staggeringly brilliant 40^th anniversary tour, but the audience was utterly blown away by your exquisite performance, how did you find the shows and audience reaction?

I honestly wasn’t sure how we’d be received, especially given the varied elements that can draw somebody to a band like Mayhem. In my view, there are two distinct beacons that draw people towards Black Metal. One group is captivated by the overall atmosphere and tone, the dark and unpredictable environment created by the sound while others gravitate more toward the traditional execution techniques, like equipment, blast beats, chord structures and scales.

Personally, I’m in that first camp. My initial fascination with black metal came from hearing these sounds and having no idea how they were created, the mythos behind those who created the works.
I approached these shows assuming those in the second camp would have zero interest in what we do,however, we were pleasantly surprised by the response, so either I was way off with that assumption, or that cohort only represents a small portion of the audience.

Give us the background of HOST and its aims, particularly post The Amenta; obviously uncompromising acts, but very stylistically different.

HOST has existed in shifting forms since around 2010. Under that banner I’ve produced audio recordings, performances, written texts, images, video, code, physical installations, and hand‑built instruments. When I talk about the project’s aim, I use the phrase “exploring the modern mysteries.” Our brains are now trained to skim the shallows, yet many of us still crave deeper meaning, you can see it in the prevalence of conspiracy theories or the hunt for hidden numerical patterns in ancient texts.

With HOST I try to create works that invite listeners to look beneath the surface, and, importantly, to recognise that beauty and mystery still live in our own time. We don’t have to rely solely on the symbols of past cultures.

HOST does something I adore, creating a perfect intersection between art and music,thoughts on this and also discuss the artworks that HOST has attached to their releases?

I’m glad that resonates with you, I definitely see HOST more as a performance and visual art framework than a band. Sometimes the core of a work is an image, a sentence, the construction of a new instrument, a live performance inspired by a recorded work.

Because of that, I don’t see the most important aspect of HOST being to release a sequence of items that all contain ‘a) Audio, b) Unique Titles for Each Track, c) Unique Album Title, d) A Cover Image’ Where everything else that comes, live performances, video, merch etc is to help market those units.
If anything, I see the recorded works as accessible introductions to the broader suite of work and ideas. A HOST work can be a piece of code, a sentence, an image, a performance, or a generative framework. The medium shifts according to what the idea demands.

An Immutable Law: A Study on the Unspoken Order is a fantastic work in every manner, first talk us through the title, it’s meaning and what was the audio focus for this release, I found it to be dramatic, grim and suffocating.How does it differ from the previous releases?

Thank you. First to touch on the title. I like to view the words attached to HOST works more as a framework or guideposts rather than final statements with explicit, fixed meaning.

I’m still exploring the title to find meaning myself, and I expect this interpretation to keep changing over time, for now it has surfaced an acute awareness in the long standing patterns and systems that govern our behaviour. From the individual level up to the scale of our entire species. Our actions clearly show we adhere to these Laws, yet we seem to have a (willing?) ignorance of this when we set our expectations for the anticipated outcome of courses of action.

After a period of hibernation, at least in terms of recorded audio, An Immutable Law emerged as an urgent work that quickly developed a clear identity. Its purpose was to create a vehicle for the current three‑piece assembly to work together. I have collaborated with the talented N.R. for many years (HOST live percussion for more than a decade) and with the legendary Australian vocalist L.O.N.S. (voice on G06/H17), but the three of us had never previously worked together.

The result, I feel, is one of the more human, or organic, works in the HOST catalog.

 
You are very much not a MUSICIAN restricted by genres, whilst HOST to my ears sits well within the drone/dark ambient space there is real obvious Industrial and Noise as well as post punk colours in the mix-as well as influences what is involved in the creative process of constructing a HOST release?

Definitely, we are all products of our influences, and my listening covers a range of genres, industrial, noise, black metal, classical, hip hop, pop, martial, goth and countless other genres so i’m sure that all has influence in one way or another. However I feel a large chunk of inspiration for HOST comes from non sound sources. Light, buildings, words, tech, people, systems. It all finds its way into how I approach creation.

As for the creative process of a recorded release, there really is no fixed approach and it can differ from work to work. However over the years I’ve learned that with a HOST recorded work i’m best to not get in the way of myself. I try not to overthink things, I embrace the urgency a work demands and try to bring it to life before logic interferes and sees it stagnating.

So if anything, I could say the most consistent thing in the creative process of a HOST recorded work is a sense of urgency and a deliberate attempt to avoid chasing precision or perfection.

 

What do you think you can achieve creatively in live spaces that you can’t in your recordings and vice versa?

Live performance is definitely my most enjoyable medium of HOST. I feel that there’s an undeniable additional value we attribute to anything delivered face to face. I often use the analogy that when comparing a HOST live show to a recorded work is like watching church on TV. While it does serve a purpose and does have value, it is an entirely different experience.

What a recorded work offers that a live performance does not is privacy and control. A recorded work allows the listener to take a more personal approach to what they take from the work without the influence or distraction of others.

What do you consider to be the most valuable resource for the work you do?

Time. Ensuring time is available to immerse myself in my work,using deadlines as self imposed constraints and keeping in mind that one day my time will be up.

How do you feel that economic structure impacts creativity?

As I touched on above, I feel time is an essential resource for creative work. Not just having time, but also having time based limitations. Pursuing creativity is often, but not always, traded against the hours we need to cover our material needs. But I do not see today’s economic systems as some new thief of time. Every era has balanced survival against creativity. I think this constraint is an important part of the creative process.

I like to think of markets as modern temples. Where cultures strongly tied to primary production offered grain or blood to secure survival, we now perform offerings of austerity or stimulus to appease the market. For artists, the results of these offerings (whether real or imagined) translate directly into how much surplus time we’re granted, or denied to set the constraints of our work.

 

Your live performances are quite energetic, but ritualistic and sombre. How have you cultivated your physical presence during performance?
I have a long background in what you could probably refer to as ‘dramatic ritual’ and I believe this experience highly informs the approach I take to performing with HOST. I would say that the cultivation over time would be a brutal gardening. I’ve learned that when crafting a HOST performance, any movement, gesture, action that has no purpose should be pruned away, Therefore the impact of something as simple as raising a hand can have profound effects.

What do you feel like you embody as a performer when you’re on stage?

In the current assembly of HOST I’d say my place on stage has a clearly delineated role, it’s one of a conductor, someone guiding things along, keeping elements aligned. However intentionally not being a point of focus or drawing the audience's attention away from the work as a whole.

Have you utilised AV modes such as film/projections during performances?, because it seems a perfect fit.

Definitely, a lot of HOST performances have included projected visuals, however when using visuals live I approach them in the same way I approach sound live. There needs to be real time control to allow for the work to evolve in whatever way is necessary for the time and place.
I don’t have a projection of a movie or prebuilt timeline of visuals playing on the back of the stage, but instead I build tools that allow me to manipulate the visual footage live. As such i’ve developed a suite of tools (both physical and digital) that allow me to control things like source imagery, colours, speed, movement etc while on stage, just as i’d manipulate and create sound. These tools can also react to live audio, allowing the visuals to evolve organically alongside the sound.

However recently I’ve found myself on a journey of abstraction with visuals, initially I was working with clearly identifiable scenes and imagery as my source material, over time however this has grown more and more abstract to the point where the traditional ideas of visuals or projections might as well just be pixels or lights. As such, I’m currently working on a new iteration of tools that allow me to ‘play’ lighting live, alongside playing projections and sound.

How would you define your voice as an artist?
That’s a great question, and one that I think can only ever be answered in hindsight. My body of work will keep evolving, and so will my voice. If I had to succinctly describe where that sits right now, I’d say it’s a voice that creates discomfort and curiosity through uncertainty and hints at a higher purpose.

What artists keep your fire burning?

What truly inspires me is seeing any artist creating with passion. However, I should elaborate on my definition of ‘artist.’
I know the word will usually invoke images of painters, musicians, writers etc but I use that title for anyone who recognises that something can be transformed and then acts on that impulse.
Carpenters, gardeners, architects, cleaners, urban planners,writers of an organisation’s constitution. Anyone acting on the impulse to transform and create.If they’re driven by the excitement of bringing something into the world that didn’t exist before I find them hugely inspirational.

What is next for HOST, on the live front or releases?
We don’t have any plans for new recorded works in the immediate future, but we have been working on several live works that we plan to perform, as a three-piece, later this year.

 

Any music, film or books you would like to recommend?

I could reel off a long list of favourites, but it feels more useful to explain what I look for. In both film and books I’m drawn to works that may not have clear resolutions or follow clear linear timelines. They leave me thinking about the work long after the closing credits or final page. They continue to resurface and be reframed with new experiences.

On books specifically, whatever the topic, the simple act of picking up a physical book has real neurological value. Our daily environment trains us to jump between tasks and skim information, yet deep focus offers different rewards. Reading a traditional book, even a ‘trashy’ fiction keeps the brain wired for more than high speed information sorting. That alone is worth the time.

Final messages or musings for the community out there?

Thank you very much for your thoughtful questions, they’ve been a pleasure (and challenge) to answer.  Anyone reading this who’d like to know more about HOST, follow our work on either facebook.com/hostobject or instagram.com/hostobject . Pick up our physical and digital works at https://www/hostobject.com

IF THIS DOESN'T INSPIRE YOU TO CHECK THIS GLORIOUS ACT OUT, THERE IS NO HOPE FOR YOU. THEIR WHOLE FUCKING CATALOGUE IS MAGNIFICENT-CHECK IT OUT ASAP AND SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS.

(Live photos-images 2,4,5, and 8 were by Dan McKay on the recent Mayhem 40th anniversary show in Melbourne)