Interview : A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Dustin O'Halloran)

1. Your first musical memories?
Listening to the church organist play Bach.

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
Best: Leonard Cohen Live 1968.  Worst: U2 (courtesy of Apple)

3.The first record that you lost?
Lost so many I cant keep track

4. Is Drone the traditional music of the 21st century?
Why not?

5. According to Simon Reynolds, Brian Eno has opted for “word-images” in order to create a type of music that rouse emotions, rather than simply express a feeling through lyrics. Do you share this idea, or are you producing instrumental music for other reasons?
Lyrics are so grounded to the human experience, and instrumental music is much more free to express that what cannot be expressed in words. As I get older I am more interested in these deeper and more universal languages.

6. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
In 50 years we will be singing hymns for the end of humanity as our glaciers melt. And in 5000 years the earth will once again enjoy the sound of only its spinning neutrons.

7. Did you choose ambient music for its refusal to engage with an accepted type of virtuosity?
Are we ambient music ? We just make music that please our ears.

8. Your favourite album to have a drink?
The Sinking of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars

9. Your dream collaboration?
David Lynch

10. The record that freaks you out?
Pink Floyd - The Wall always gave me the creeps even if its really great.

11. Is ambient music is at the heart of an unstable state of equilibrium between structure and entropy?
Our structures are very composed. We think a lot about this

12. The film that tickles your creativity?
The Color Of Pomegranetes by Sergei Parajanov

13. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
The Homeless Wanderer by Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou

14. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
Enjoy the silence.

15. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
Kafka on The Shore by Murakami

16. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Yes. While on hallucinagens

17. How would you like to die?
Sleeping of course.



A Winged Victory for the Sullen will play live next thursday at La Fleche d'Or, Paris.

photo by Nick & Chloé