Bio: I've been making music since i was 6 and received my first guitar. As a young teen, i used to compose something like synth-pop on cheap keyboards plugged into my dad's guitar effects pedals. My friend Jason and i were in a cover band in high school, though we sometimes tried our own tracks. During college, i discovered that electronic music was a passion and started doing rudimentary sampling, drum and sound looping, and 4-track recording. Sometimes, these were used for sound installations in art projects. Since 2002, most of my production has been computer-based, integrating programmed sounds with live instrumentation. Because of the tradition of using whatever i had and being admittedly low-tech, 2002-2006 productions were under the name AViD:advances in obsolete technology. Making them helped keep me sane through graduate school.
Since then, i've been trying to be more improvisational and less straightforward, so newer productions have the moniker mental health consumer.
Looking back on all those tapes and even recent CDs i've made, the errors of amateurism are very noticeable to me, which gives me hope that i am improving as an artist and not making the same mistakes now (or at least with less frequency!). Making music really is a labor of love, something that I share because i hope the music connects on some level with you.
A bunch of my music is now shared via my netlabel, Believe In Billy Records
as well as Myspace
Original Productions as AViD|advances in obsolete technology:
2002 Fighting Chance (LP)
2002 Maybe Laughing Nervously (LP)
2003 Extremophile (LP)
2003 Chiaroscuro (LP)
2004 Everyone's Looking, Nobody's Buying (LP)
2004 Now I Was Desperate Enough To Listen (LP)
("The Midnight Sun")
2005 Upside of a Downturn (LP)
2006 Concluded (LP)
("Understatement")
2006 Junk Food Culture (EP)
2006 AViD: 2002-2006 (compilation, continuous mix)
Also, in late 2007, I contributed an AViD track, "Sidewalk Dramas" to an online compilation of electronic tunes created by members of the Underworld music forums, which you can check out here:
"Dreamgirl, I'm Desperate For You" compilation
I also designed the cover artwork, which is here:
2008 Promises & Regrets (2LP)
Original Productions as Mental Health Consumer:
2006 Help Us Help You (half live)
2006 Post-Defense (LP)
2007 v.o.i. (LP)
2007 Recovery (LP)
sample track: Recovering the M.I.A.s
another new track, "The Other Side of Town", on myspace
2008: Backtrack (LP)
("Ask the Right Question")
2008: Fit For Purpose (LP)
new tracks on myspace: "Four Minute Mile", "Split" and "Complex"
2008 - "The Measurement Spoils the Data" (EP)
Continuous mixes (click!)
REMIXES by AViD :
Tori Amos: Strange Little Girl 4:31
Laura Bailey Love Taught Me
BT: The Revolution (teleform remix)4:39
Gustavo Cerati: Cosas Imposibles (impossible day mix)5:25
Chemical Brothers:
Not another Drugstore/Under the Influence
Chemical Brothers: Star Guitar(supernova remix) 5:58
Coldplay: Don't Panic (buoyancy mix) 4:37
Coldplay: See You Soon
Coldplay: Warning Sign
The Cure: Close to me/Inbetween days 8:14
The Cure: Cut Here
The Dandy Warhols: Bohemian Like You
The Dandy Warhols: We USed to be Friends
Fatboy Slim: Retox
Folk Implosion: Natural One (unnaturalone mix)4:59
Fluke: Bulley (bulley remix)
Fluke: Groovy Feeling (at least make compare) 9:29
Fluke Vee Six
Genesis: Keep it Dark 5:27
Groove Armada: Superstylin'/Final Shakedown
Jamiroquai: Supersonic
Keane: Is it any wonder?
Knapsack: Shape of the Fear 4:53
Moby: xtreme Ways 4:42
New Order: Regret (club is flooded)
Paul Oakenfold: Ready, Steady Go
The Orb: Little Fluffy Clouds (wahwah dancefloor)4:02
Orbital: Frenetic (114 inverse mix)
Orbital: Halcyon (iconic mix)
Poor Old Lu: Bliss Is (harder than you thought) 4:34
Radiohead: pack'd like sardines in a crush'd tin box/
where i end and you begin 5:28
Radiohead: Idiotique
The Rapture: Olio
REM: King of Comedy (c.t.b.c.i.e.o.m.m.s.l.) 5:27
U2: Zoo Station (open cages mix) 4:16
Underworld: Bruce Lee (lifekid) 4:31
Underworld: Dinosaur Adventure 3D/King of Snake 6:53
Underworld: 8 Ball (dark and happy mix) 8:06
Underworld: Luetin/Airtowel (throw in the airtowel) 7:59
Underworld: Momove (slow catalyst) 5:02
Underworld: River of Bass (co-produced with Gambit)
Underworld: Rowla (crow lane mix) 4:13
Underworld: Rowla (mix 2) 5:12
Underworld: Something like a mama (guitartalk) 7:18
Underworld: Tiny Clicks (bigger beats)
Remixing and additional production by B. Ruskin 2002-2007, except "River of Bass", remixed with G. Thelen, 2004
Toiling away in the "studio" ;)
