Triumph In Blog

Who is the man behind the curtain?

If you are reading this, then let me say: welcome to Triumph In Blog. As promised, this blog is going to contain the myriad thoughts and musings of one Daniel K, the enigmatic impetus behind Triumph In Black, the brightest new star within the bored-at-work-so-I’m-making-music-now scene online. Most of these thoughts are going to be disorganized and in a stream of consciousness, mostly for my own sake: once I’m rich, famous, and taking 14 xans a day, I want to be able to look back on these writings and have a Slumdog Millionaire type flashback of my entire life as a musician. Well, “musician,” you know what I mean. Up until now, I’ve only really made midis using my computer, but there’s certainly more to come. As a matter of fact, I will be writing a short post about that soon–first though, I have seen fit to include a brief interview with myself. A way of introducing myself as an artist to those unfamiliar. If you’re curious (and how couldn’t you be?) please take a look below:

So, who is “Daniel K?”

“Me? Well, I suppose we can start sort of analytically. I’m a Caucasian male, about 6’1″, brown hair, early 20s, average build. Last seen heading west on US40.” [laughter] “If you want some more vivid imagery: bad skin, scruffy facial hair, a big rat’s nest of head hair, not quite reedy enough to look like Shaggy from scooby doo, but just hippie enough to have gotten detained in the 60s for suspected socialism. Wears glasses, metal t-shirts, shitty jeans. I’m an Indianapolis native, from the west side, and I went to IUPUI for mathematics and computer science, back when it existed I guess. I’ve been absorbed in music my entire life, so has my whole family, and after working at an office job for less than a year, it occurred to me that I needed to be making something, rather than just sitting around. Being from the suburbs, I have the luxury of comfort to the extent that if I don’t force myself to do something with my life, I could just sit around and forget that I’m alive until I’m dead. So I probably don’t look or act anything special, at least not at first glance.”

You seem to resent the suburbs, is that so?

“I suppose I would say I do, yes. It’s kinda conceited to hate the fact that I had it easy growing up, and that I live off of superprofits or whatever. I think that’s kind of a teenager’s way of looking at things, but then again there’s something to it, right? It’s very easy to become tranquilized when you have no real existential threats to your comfort zone, and sometimes I feel like I’ve gotten pretty used to being scared, and paranoid. Part of this blog and my music is a need to put myself out there and try some things that might not work, so I can actually get a sense of perspective. But at the same time, it isn’t all just whining. I like to think I have some inspiration in my work.”

What inspirations specifically? And from where? Just music?

“No, no, not just music. Mostly music though, but there are many contributors to the Triumph In Black mindset, if you will. My first release, for example, has a lot of different DNA helices in it, not even just music as we tend to think of it. I would say that some of the biggest inspirations for it would be Laurie Spiegel, Delroy Edwards, and Grouper, but there’s other, sillier stuff in there too. Pilotredsun, he’s in there, Dream Theater, they’re in there, Red House Painters, Aphex Twin, even shit like the Minecraft soundtrack was pretty inspiring to me when I was filling in the details. I like to think my tastes are “eclectic,” which is a polite way of saying they make no sense.”

So, do you have any particular heroes in art?

“For sure! I would say the most uncritical among them is Dave Brockie. The first time I heard Gwar I was about 15 or so, and it introduced me to the idea that things made to be shocking, gross, or sophomoric didn’t have to be low-rent. No matter how stupid your ideas were, you could give yourself to them and actually believe in something, and it could transcend. Brockie was a guy who everyone thought of as an idiot heroin addict, except for people close to him who knew how committed he was. Completely self-made, and never stopped working. He built a whole universe up from gross-out joke videos on MTV. Who else could do that? Besides him, David Lynch is also a huge inspiration to me, even though he only tangentially makes music. I was first introduced to him as a filmmaker when I was about 17, and seeing things like Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive just rocked my whole fucking world. I had no idea movies could be like that, and then there was so much other stuff on top? His paintings, his writings, his music–it all spoke to me, that gnawing horror underneath the surreal veneer of cheap, kitschy crap. It represents the America I’ve lived in my whole life. There are others, but those are the two that jump out the most.”

“If you want some bands and stuff, just to get a sense of what drives my musical ideas, I will say that most of what I’ve grown up knowing is 80s New Wave. I’m all about decades, most things I listen to are in a 1970 to 2004 sweet spot, probably because my parents are Gen X. Oingo Boingo, The Police, Talking Heads, The B-52s, Tears for Fears, DEVO–all that stuff is very dear to me. As I got older, I also came to love XTC, The Smiths, New Order, and New Model Army, there’s a lot of British stuff in my diet. Obviously on the metal side too, because as a teenager I really fell in love with Iron Maiden, and eventually Bolt Thrower. In that vein, I also love Type O Negative, Sodom, Pantera, Testament, Death, Master, all sorts of shit. I really love Swans too, which is only sometimes hardcore, and there’s plenty of electronic I love, like, I grew up with Daft Punk and Zapp and Justice. There’s a lot of stuff to track, so maybe one of these days I’ll just make one of those Topster things of all the albums I grew up with, just so you all know what I’m working with.”

So, you have a variety of influences. What direction(s) will Triumph In Black be going in?

“No idea, really. Like I said, I will make a separate post with some clues as to where I’m going in the near future, but I have many ideas with no consistent through line. I know I already answered that last question and then some, but I will also mention that bands like Ween, Primus, and They Might Be Giants are huge parts of my life, and I always admired how they didn’t stick to any one sound or genre. Just whatever they felt like at the time. But it’s not about throwing darts at a board, you have to give yourself to every idea individually, no matter how disparate all the ideas are together. This first release, Isserley, is kind of soft electronic, very weepy, but I also have machinations to make larger, more sweeping ambient compositions, heavier, more abrasive hardcore albums, and I even have some rumblings of new wave, bass-oriented songs in the works. Maybe I’ll add words or lyrics at some point! Probably not.”

Why not add lyrics? And, what do you mean “bass-oriented?”

“Well, let’s hit that second part first. By “bass-oriented” I mean “intended for bass guitar, as that’s what they were written on.” I’m primarily a bass player in analog terms, not that I’m a very disciplined musician in general. I’ve never really liked performing in any way shape or form, and the writing/producing world is where I feel like I get way more mileage out of my ideas. I tend to get in my own head, and I have trouble maintaining a purity of vision when other people are involved. I’m not antisocial, and I like to collaborate, but talking about my own music conceptually to other people and letting them have input on it gives me hives. Plus, I struggle to explain it a lot of the time” [laughter] “But I am a bassist, if you will, and I can play shabby guitar a little bit too. Plus, a little piano. And tenor saxophone when I was in middle school! But, that kinda brings me to your other question, and the answer is that I don’t really like to sing. I’m not a practiced singer, I don’t have a lot of range, and I’m just not generally that good at it. I’m also bad at creative writing, at least with regards to lyrics or poems or whatever. I could do spoken word I guess, but come on. Everyone does that when they don’t know what else to do! I think it would be more honest to just let my songwriting speak, because it has more to say anyway.”

Do you want to collaborate with anyone? Do you admire anyone in music *not* from 50 years ago?

“Absolutely, and don’t let the tongue-in-cheek cynicism fool you. Obviously my first release included a little help from my brothers, Josh and Matt, who advised me on the mixing and mastering of the first two tracks. More serious collaboration though, that would be harder, but not if it was me helping someone else with their ideas. I can do that. And there are many people out there with good ideas! I think the most obvious person who springs to mind is Lex Walton, who is all over bandcamp and stuff. She and her partner Emerson are really talented writers and producers, and their demented noise rock bullshit was an eye-opener for me when I was starting out making some of my own stuff. They’re way off the wall, super original. Check her out on bandcamp, “Youth Against Satan,” she also has a blogspot and an instagram, all sorts of stuff.”

Did she pay you to say that stuff?

“No, but I wish somebody would pay me to do ads. I probably would. I mean, she and I are twitter mutuals I guess, so I could just tell her I said it. “

You have a page on twi-I mean, X.com, the everything app? Where should we be following Triumph In Black?

“There’s no official Triumph In Black twitter, at least not for now. Advertising is the half of this battle I’m not too good at, but at present there are these pages: This blog, the bandcamp, the soundcloud, an instagram, and a youtube (which has nothing on it presently.) As interest mounts over time, I hope, I will probably make more things. I was considering a twitter, and probably begrudgingly a tiktok as well. If this ever makes a profit, I could put things on spotify/apple music too, but you have to be sort of willing to get ripped off to do that.” [laughter]

Do you expect this to make a profit?

“No, no. And I don’t much care if it does. I have a day job actually, so this is more of a pet project for now. I care about it, making music is one of few things I really believe in in my life, but until there’s a noticeable audience for my work, the costs mean very little. I’m fine with keeping things cheap and available, I just want people to hear this stuff, and I want their feedback. I probably won’t put stuff out super often, then, but I don’t care. As long as I make it, as long as I can render an actual vision, and if even one person hears it and recognizes it for what it is. It’s sort of pedantic these days to be steadfast about how money doesn’t matter, because unfortunately it does, but my current position isn’t so tenuous. I make this music because I like making it, and I think it’s nice.”

So, in closing, is there a mission statement for Triumph In Black? Is this going to stick around?

“I sure hope so!” [laughter] “I try not to think of Triumph In Black as a project, with stated goals, but I’m young and things could change. I intend for this to be the umbrella under which I store all of my many ideas from now into the divine beyond, but we’ll see. I guess if I were to have a mission statement, it would be this:”

“Fuck This Gay Earth.” -Daniel K.