SIDE A | by Brad Staples

A Peculiar Medley from Bad Straples



I began reaching through with Music using Words and my voice box. My friends and I began a group. I was able to purchase a PA system, microphone, and vocal effects processor with the money my grandmother left for me. Spent every cent on equipment and still have every bit of it today. However our band Covert Void was short-lived and still missed. When I was younger my grandfather had a detuned grand piano and a really nice Casio keyboard. He began to collect them and I began playing them. For my graduation gift he gave me two old Yamahas. I began to experiment with the keyboards and my effects processor. Running two second loops, using the cheesy drum programs, playing the two keyboards simultaneously, and recording this all on cassette. Just like my grandfather, I started hoarding keyboards. Using my voice with Poetry laid over the loops, it was limited. I had many more aspirations that needed to be manifested. Teaching myself to better play the keyboards I finally invested in a loop pedal and drum machine. I would create entire tracks by swapping out keyboards, drum machine, guitars, hand drums, voice, and any other instrument that would have been sitting around. My good friend would extract the tracks through his computer interface. He did this for all of the Proto- album. Any time my loop pedal's memory capacity would fill, I'd drive out to his place and we would record. He eventually chose a different Spiritual path and did not like my Abstract themes pertaining to God. It was the track Gaia v.3 with Anna Lee, that he became offended and refused to record further. It was in the morning when God turned back on us, only then were free from the beast we invented... This sentence burnt a bridge of Opportunity. I had to build a new one. Eventually my great friend Cody Ely (V36A) and partner in SVU donated a laptop to me. I've always been Technologically Inept but I needed to continue. I gained a simple DAW and began teaching myself. It was extra convenient because at the time I was working at a Porn shop. When I was selling dildos and pornographic film passes, I was learning how to operate the system. From there I continued practice and polishing methods. I bought an interface so as to upload my hands-on material. For the past two years I've been alternately Homeless or staying in Temporary Shelter but I won't give up. Making Music allows me to emulate my Heart, Soul, and Mind. I will never surrender my dreams. The dream to speak to (even just a handful of) humans who understand the tongue of my music. It's a Thrill and I am blissfully enthralled. Mr. E, The Fit, Cody Ely, V36A are all the same man. Sobriquets and project names. We met at the gigantic corporation of Caterpillar as welders. I was 20 and he was 18. We were weird looking kids. He was a quiet guy but I would compensate for the dead air by blabbing on over weird tangents. We would climb buildings in Peoria, Illinois, shoot video footage, cook pig brains, and venture to Chicago to an Industrial bar know as Neo's. At the time he had strict musical diet of Skinny Puppy. I heard his cassettes of Noise, guitar, vocals, and drum machines. It was fascinating. We jammed with his arsenal of pedals and noise guitar and my Frankenstein setup. In the beginning Our Musical Differences caused some division, it now works to our advantage. 90% of our conversations pertain to Music. His music developed into his digital work know as V36A, which has always blown my mind. Throughout our friendship, Mr. E has always been A Light Of Hope. He has pulled me through some of the messiest times. I am Chaos and he is Order. We finally acquiesced to collaborate with our material. It started with V36a's vocals and Bad's loop pedal, now we shape material digitally. We are taking off in an excellent direction. Communication is key. We are about 40% finished with our EP. He and I are both fiercely committed to Music and Laughter. Both of which helps to kill the doldrums and Spiritual taxation. We share the same wave length and develop our music based on Emotional settings. Music is a Universal tongue that cannot be severed. With our first outbreak, we opt to make vinyl prints and distribute flashdrives with the album along with Art Work and writings. Very thrilled to take our second step as SVU. Covert Void was my first walk around inside Musical Development. This involved two other members of the band Cody Searle or Chode (guitar) and Rick Streeter (drums). After my grandmother perished and left some money for her grandchildren, I bought a PA system, microphone, and vocal effects processor. I performed vocals through the processor and studied dictionaries to create lyrics. Our name was, initially, The Void To Coverted Void, and ultimately ended as Covert Void. It began with tracks like Conclave which was based on Catholic priests molesting altar boys. There was another high pitch song about the goddam Aflac duck. Another track pertaining to my neighbors dog that frequently defecated in my yard. In spite of our Youthful fantasies, we parted in very strange directions but still speak of coalescing one day. Our time was, sadly, short-breathed. The name Bad Straples (Brad Staples) is a play on words known as Spoonerism. I've always had a Deep Intrigue for Vocabulary. My music began when my grandfather donated two old Yamaha keyboards and then taught myself to play them. After sometime I decided to hook up the keys to the PA system and processor. Accumulating more keyboards along with a drum machine and loop pedal, I decided to haul my gear wherever Electrical outlets could be spotted. I would improvise sets at 24 hour laundromats, Parking garages, and Public parks. All of this has been recorded on cassette (I have a bag full of recorded tapes). After V36A (Cody Ely) granted me a computer I experimented with some DAW programs. At the time, as I said, I was employed in a Porn shop and had plenty of time to get acquainted with the software. Throughout the course of making songs with the loop pedal I have collaborated with: Chode, V36A, Josh Wills, Anna Lee, Tadd Steinfeldt, and Morgan Voyles. All of these people have inspired me to never drop your dreams and to forever be yourself. Lately, I've been more focused on Digital Production but still carry the feel and traits of my loop pedal creations. Many songs have been influenced by Disease, Alchemy, Spirituality, Gaia, Heart Break, Misery, Drugs, and the abuse of the word Love. Looking forward to further Creation and Collaboration with Beautiful Souls. I still do collaborate with Josh Wills (J618UA). He remixed a few of my tracks with his very own Archaic, Dark, Dance Zest. We have much of the same feel towards Music and This World. I remixed his track Ambient Temperature by placing keys, synth, more drums, and vocals. Currently working on another one of Josh's works. Also, with my very good friend Cody in SVU (Straples Vega Unit). He edited one of my loop pedal tracks and tossed on Skinny Puppy-esque vocals and lyrics. He is doing his thing for now and so am I. We have many more walls to knock down. Many more things to scream of. In the Future, I wish to split my Live/Analogue Music from the Digital/Electronic into two divisions.

System Of A Down

ATWA

Depth

The Music

Desire To Burn Down

The System

Rebellious

The Mars Volta

Son Et Lumière

Worldview

Psychedelic

Mind Fuck

Angst

Abstract Poetry

Robot Ninja Dinosaur Bastards

Wings Of Steel, Sword Of Viking

Fucked Up

Seabound

Castaway

Rich in Content

Aquatic

Celestial

Hope

Code 64

Finding Me

Alienation

Melancholy

Large-Hearted

Unicorn Kid

Dream Catcher

Animal Collective

Summertime Clothes

Shirtless

Shoeless

Feeling Freedom

Type O Negative

Love You To Death

Am I good enough for you?

Unabashed

my own personal self esteem conflicts

Clint Mansell

Together We Will Live Forever

Life

Spirituality

Immortality

Lachrymal

dumpster food and wine

Owlright

Xhit

Humble

+

The Magnetic Fields

The Desperate Things You Made Me Do

most miserable

+

Robot Koch

Hard To Find

Dying Carousel

this

miserable winter

+

Groundislava

TV Dream (feat. Clive Tanaka)

Truly Elegant

Original Sound Waves

Romantic Nostalgia

+

Aphex Twin

Avril 14th

Incessantly

a legendary melody

+

Bad Straples

Ordo Chaotica (Mix and Mash)

Digital realm

SIDE B | by Cody Ely

Father told me I started Drumming at three, who grew up teaching me until I was around 10 when I started experimenting with bass, then guitar. Growing up surrounded by Music really shaped my mind to the point that I depend on it to function. He taught me all he could and jammed with me frequently. He lives in Washington State now (where I wish I was), but we still talk and swap tracks and ideas back and forth. Nothing really happened between Birth and the age of 15 when I recorded my first solo effort on tape, a mixture of Noise and Effect drenched Indie Rock (and only guitar), a couple years after I really started to get into Music on my own. My biggest influences at the time where Sonic Youth and The Cure, which reflect through the tape I made (that I also destroyed after getting mad that it wouldn't play in my stereo). I was smart enough to rip it into MP3s beforehand - one of the very few smart things I did during my Teenage Years. Past 15 I started jamming with friends and began exploring heavier genres like Metalcore, thanks to its prominence in the Music scene at the time. Metalcore was Popular enough to rub off on me allowing me to even have friends and a band; that, and the fact that my girlfriend was kinda popular. From Metalcore I ventured into more Technical waters where it apparently became too Arduous to play with me, seeing as how SVU is my first band since that time - the age of 16. From this age onward I felt Very Alone, Musically. I continued my solo effort ever since, trying out everything from Country to Jazz to Sludge Metal, and occasionally made recordings; few very good, and fewer publicly available. Around the age of 18 I discovered the Industrial genre and it changed my life. Also at 18 I met Brad, who changed my life further. Since then My Musical Loneliness has eased enough to be Bearable. By the time I turned 20 I had given up Hope of ever being in a band as I used to, and moved exclusively to working on and off with Brad, while critiquing each others tracks in the mean time, having moved to an all Digital format. I never produced one consistent sound, outside of the usual Industrial tinge everything had - the variety within my digital portfolio is the same. Eventually Brad and I put the majority of our brains together and created StraplesV36AUnit - SVU. The name came from some Quick Brainstorming and Boredom while being forced to watch Law And Order: SVU with my wife. I wasn't going for a Pervy-Creepo image, even though I would find that to be hilarious. In the future my only goal for SVU is to keep it Alive. It's such a great way to make Music that I don't know how I've gotten along without it. The Fit is the first thing I ever did. From Inception it was meant to be an alias just so I had something to release my music under (I like names, so an alias was essential). The Fit survived from around age 14 (2004) to age 19 (2009). I gave it up because it had a Traditional instrument format to me, and making Electronic Music under it didn't feel right. From there I became Cody Vega, but that lasted about a year before I gave that up on grounds that no one was actually going to start calling me that instead of my real name, so I switched to Vega, and remotely afterward changed the spelling to V36A. Since that time I've been on local College Radio twice, released a total of 18 tracks, including an EP, and have played zero shows. As The Fit I played around 4 shows. The Fit was mostly me on guitar, playing any genre I felt like. Mothman was technically a side project from The Fit, because I always loved the idea of being in a band and harnessing that incredible Live energy. Doing what I love and playing what people love are two separate things though. At first I was pretty relaxed and just wanted to play Weird Music and Noise on my guitar with two cool dudes, but by the time Mothman fell apart I was composing everything and making my band mates feel like they had a job. We did manage to at least get a 3 song demo out to a friends label (that did just about nothing to help us). Mothman played something around 5 shows. Mothman was primarily Metal, including most strains surrounding Thrash. Sleep Quartet was a concept Britt Brady came up with. I always thought he was cool, especially since he introduced me to an enormous portion of Influential Music that helped shape my growth. We recorded two songs (in an actual Professional Studio!) and played no shows. We would have went farther had it not been for two of the members flaking off. Sleep Quartet was Britt Brady, D.J. Hannah, Chris Anderson, and me. It was a reversal of how I'd pictured being in a band, but it was more organized so I enjoyed it no less than other projects or one time Jam sessions (which there were a lot of... no links). V36A is the replacement of The Fit and is evidently a black hole for me to throw my hard work into. I have played zero shows as V36A and probably won't, unless I ever get DJ gear and more than one person (my best friend Brad) to ever care about my music enough to see it live. I have released 18 tracks (I think) under the alias, including one EP that I released on the first of August 2012. V36A has been on Bradley University Student Radio twice, and ICC Student Radio once. I am very Meticulous, but succeeding in controlling it enough to slap out a tune and not work it into a Stale Death. It's been evidently Effective seeing as how SVU is over 100% times more Proficient than anything else I've had a role with in writing. I am a Christian, a full time welder at Caterpillar, a dad to my one and a half year old son named Layne Edward Ely (after Layne Staley of Alice In Chains, and Edward Scissorhands I guess), a husband to my wife Kari Renee Ely, a home owner to my rad house, a cat owner to my Satan spawn cat Gestapo, an SUV owner, and many less important things. I live in Pekin, IL., whereas Brad lives in Peoria, which is around 15 minutes away (across the Illinois River). I was born in Federal Way, WA. and wish I could go back everyday. I moved to Washington in November of 2010 but moved back December 9th due to spontaneously falling in Love with Kari, and complications with my Father. I've missed the place double since then, most of all Seattle. When I went there it was like I had laid in bed after a long day of hard, retarded work. My Family makes me just as happy, in a different method obviously, but my long term goal is to move us to Seattle. I like Abstract Art, Industrial Music, Utilitarian/Industrial High Fashion, Portlandia, climbing buildings in the industrial of Peoria, writing Satirical, Surreal Eraserhead-esqe screenplays, and dressing in thrifted dress clothing in my off time. I think that's about all I can write without hemorrhaging. This list is obviously really slimmed down, and very pathetic.

Sonic Youth

Wish Fulfillment

Weird

Creep

go-to Summer

Dead Kennedys

Insight

difficulty identifying and trying to fit in

My innate frame of mind set me far apart from everyone I knew at the time

Skinny Puppy

Smothered Hope

reuniting with a long lost friend

Emotionless

Young

Alice In Chains

Would?

get large doses of meaningful affection

Venetian Snares

Circle Pit

Emotions

Myself

Natural

Comfortable

a constant outlet

Excitement

Lorn

Cherry Moon

Life

Teenager-dom

Friendship

the most elongated sad affair

It is extremely uncool to have people abandon and treat you like you don't exist

Trentemøller

Shades Of Marble

Cesium_137

Slowdraw

Light

Clark

For Wolves Crew

Axis & Trank

The Scent (Current Value Remix)

I was a young, young guy when I first heard. They had so much morethan anything else I'd listened to prior (and)., the words, the voice, the. They ignited a flame in me that torched myand lit the way to some off-the-wall,, teen years. This song though is myfriends and I would listen to it in my father's garage and talk all night about starting a band. And we did for awhile. Everything lives and everything dies.... The best introduction tracks into an album ever.the album, blew my fucking,to pieces. Before this, I listened to primarily, and otherstuff.'sbelted out like apumping out the strangest,sounds through his guitar. This develops a killer album.First I listened to, to whome I still adore, butis-cracked out. This was the first tune I ever heard from this group. They are bat shit nuts. The name of the group itself represents theirfeel. The boops, blips, and crunchy bleeps. I acquired a computer from my good chumand then began utilizing a. Many of these buried tracks sounded like this (omitting my any sense of accuracy or knowledge, a much lesser grade).I've listened to this track many, many times over, it is still. Not your averagegroup. Nearly each track brings anenvironment reflecting thebodies. This is a song to epitomizeI'm very partial toto whom spawned, which is how you may describe. This track emphasizes that feeling ofand. Brings me back one of my previous relationships with amodel to whome loved me. Ultimately, I realized that our love was not eye-to-eye. And that killed me.More boops and melody. Beautiful song that transforms ainto a. Great song to drive and get lost with.An amazing group! An amazing song too! Everytime I listen to this, I reminisce on being, and drenched in; running through the woods with no obligations and. The vocalist here shouts and whispers, intonations as though he were in a tribe. Throw in a littleandinstruments withloops, and you havehad the perfect vocal box to arrange the stage for this. The words,, sung so, harmonize within. It is at the same time the guitar that screams beautifully to compliment the end of the track.From the film... A deeply loved film that ties in these properties:, andwork that chokes myducts each time I listen to it. This was a song that aesthically tied me to my recently deceased relationship. Put this track onto a mix for her and left in her car. This was after she kicked me out to the streets. Lived on a wholesome diet of... Really adds to thesterotype.. Blips. Lots of them. An underrated duo who produce top-notch,. If you haven't heard them, check out, it was the first piece of material I heard and it was a great, great introduction. The artists themselves arebut committed to producing fantastic work.A terrific chorus to sing to when you're beside the one who makes you. Very direct song. Great vocals that bring out the depth of his words. Yet another song that clings to this piece of shit season.Recently got hooked on this artist.sounds similar to awith a bouncy beat. An interesting listen. It has attached itself to my soundtrack forhas a sound that cannot be in any way emulated (closest contrast might be). His music sounds like he perhaps chopped and screwed an early 90'stape, spliced it with angame console, and squeezed in somebeats.and. This track hits me hard withOne of my hyper evolved friends taught to me how to read... Specifically for this song. It conjures myriad memories (which I'm sure that happens to any other fan who has pummeled this work into themselves), good and not-so-good. Regardless,birthedwithThis is a mash up of several tracks I've created. It's found at the tail end of thealbum. Creating this was finite (based on my lack of knowledge at the time), yet strongly stands out from the tracks I've made. Setting down the Analog looping tracks I've made and marrying them to a. Adding computerized drums and tones was a challenge but a fascinating feat. This has led me to be very excited about re-facing other artists sounds.(an amiable native to) and I have teamed up to tweak each others tracks. Ultimately he and I plan to merge onto a new path.My youngestdays of anysignificance, and my mentality towards relationships at the time was kind of. I didn't have a normal relationship with my Mother - I was extremely reclusive because of her smothering - so I craved affection from girlfriends. I loved beinganyway, but being that way made me known as a. That shaped my life completely. (: Myalbum)Me. I resonate with these lyrics heavily; reference my first paragraph. But, at the point inI started to get intoI was having far more. I was popular then, for a short while.First got intoby this song. First getting into Industrial was like realizing my life purpose or something. It meshed with me so well that it felt like I was, or had been cured of. It was near the time I metas well, who introduced me to a whole slew of new Industrial sub-genres. This was a weird time, I worked third shift and dated an unpleasant girl, so I feltyetat the same time.is the main theme for this song/point in my life. I had recently entered a new relationship that I was very unsure about, mostly because I had just ended a very serious and traumatic one the same day, so the void in my heart was appropriately large. I felt desperate to find something to hold on to, and. Plus, I'm akid so I had the additional resonance ofand. Normally I despise Nostalgia.Free-for-all of. I think Brad introduced me to this music, which I am eternally grateful for. Up to that point I had used bands likeandto let loose, buttouched much deeper for me. I feel like I'mwhen I binge on VS.and, probably because it'sfor my frustrations and, and an open door for myhad calmed down by the time I heard of this guy. My list is highly abridged, by the way. I had son and got married by this point, so this encapsulates the slowdown fromtowith ties and. The biggest Emotional pairing, however, is with the fact that at this pointhad all but forsaken me. Easilyof my life.Unrelated to my life, this song is just plain great. It makes me very happy I haven't completely turned my back on guitar and my love ofThis song hit me the hardest all around out of all the albums by them that I care to listen to. It's definitely something about the drums, maybe the way it turns into a regular type ofbeat. I totally don't understand what singer man is saying, but it makes me think of how beautiful and laborious relationships can be. The chorus makes me think of the first glimpse ofcoming out of a bad point in a relationship.This song has great significance to me because I unconsciously played it on my way to see my now-wife after she told me she was pregnant, and again on the way to watch her give birth to my son.also used to be a vent for me when I was feelingI am hugely intoand. It's developed through my life with my progression to harder and harder genres, but I feel like this particular region () is the dead end of it all. This remix blew my rectum apart. I wore it out and I still have deep feelings for it - that's how much I like it.