Where did it all originate for ClockDVA?
Adi Newton: Clock DVA originated in 1978 by Adi Newton and Steven James Tumer (R.I.P.). Our intentions were the continual experimentation of electronic sonology. Dvation And evolution. Initially based in the United Kingdom but have become independent of time and space.
For Crying Out Loud: How would you describe the progression of ClockDVA through the years?
Adi Newton: The progression of ClockDVA is akin to the process of negentropy, in that all factors are relevant to the outcome of Clock DVA's recording.
For Crying Out Loud: What do you feel has been the band's biggest accomplishment over the years?
Adi Newton: I think that we are currently working towards this. The work has only just begun. The past is part of the present accumulation of energies that are being fused on new aims.
For Crying Out Loud: Man-Amplified was such a highly advanced album. When you write songs, where do your ideas come from to create music so advanced?
Adi Newton: The process of creation is always for us a different one, in so much as we are continually endeavoring to devise new techniques, applications and methods of composition, production of sound, structure etc. Ideas are born from other ideas that are in a continual advancement and development, in the course of research one finds more and more and so ideas expand into other ideas. In this process one is always developing the aspects of creativity.
For Crying Out Loud: Does critical analysis get in the way of your creativity?
Adi Newton: I think that critical analysis can be a bonus. In that it can make dearer some of the principles and concepts, and in doing so can illuminate other aspects.
For Crying Out Loud: Do you hope your music influences people?
Adi Newton: I am very pleased to hear my influence in other people's work. But it is not a primary concern. We are in the process of expansion for our own artistic desires, this is the fundamental, what occurs after this is really secondary. But obviously it is a bonus for us too.
For Crying Out Loud: What are your favorite pieces on Man-Amplified?
Adi Newton: Dark Attractor and Memories of Sound. Maybe this is partly due to the fact that they are more in the form of sound pieces rather than songs 'per se'. But saying this I do like Axiomatic and Heuristic and NYC Overload. It is very difficult to mention all the specifics or reasons why but I feel it's such an important intuitive, heuristic thing, in some senses beyond analysis and definition.
For Crying Out Loud: A new album entitled Film is in the works coming this spring. How will this album differ from Man-Amplified?
Adi Newton: I'm afraid the title Film has been dropped at this stage. It was a working time we adopted early as an alternative to the much used expression TBA since the concepts, theories and research have focused on more specific areas. These being metaphysics, technology, soul and artificial intelligence.
Technology as a means to enhance and restrict information, hidden implications inherent in the space program, the questions of extra dimensional intelligence and the written concepts of J.G. Ballard. The album has now been titled Sign The album is more to do with feeling and emotions than the clinical precision of Man-Amplified.
For Crying Out Loud: What is your opinion about playing live? What visible elements are ClockDVA using in their performances?
Adi Newton: Currently we are looking at the way we do live performances. We are looking towards new ways and new techniques although the specific details cannot be given at present. We have always used a strong visual element in all our shows from 1978 onwards.
For Crying Out Loud: How do you want the crowd to feel when they are at a ClockDVA show?
Adi Newton: To be visually and audibly lifted to a new realm of perception in all senses. For Crying Out Loud: Do you feel Contempo International will further your musical horizons?
Adi Newton: I hope so as now we have been building up the profile for the last two years and Contempo has been very dedicated to my success of ClockDVA.
For Crying Out Loud: Now you've put together a video-collection of all your cybernetic clips from, Buried Dreams & Man-Amplified. Could you talk about this and how you adapt your music to the video imagery?
Adi Newton: We use a number of techniques when we apply visual images. For us the visual side is a separate element that can be enhanced with sound, but each video we have worked on takes a specific theme and is developed in this way. The Compilation of Man-Amplified and some of the videos produced for Buried Dreams is entitled Kinetic Engineering and will be available in April 1993.
For Crying Out Loud: Tell us more about your side project The Anti-Group? What is that all about?
Adi Newton: TAG - The Anti-Group was initiated in 1985 as a means of diversification from the format normally associated with groups. The Anti Group can adopt any number of personnel and techniques. Between 1985 - 1992 TAG have released four albums, these include the Mentological Series and Digitaria which is an ambisonic recording. TAG have made a number of live performances which include "The Museum of Contemporary Art" - Florence, "The ARS Electronica", a symposium on Virtual Reality, Austria and the Atonal events in Berne.
Currently three albums are in preparation including Burning Water a 35 minute film and soundtrack that explores the boundaries of visual interpretation. To summarize the work of TAG is to limit its conception. That is that there are no defined limits within the context of art. TAG represents a research and development project, working in areas such as psychophysics and mentological engineering.
For Crying Out Loud: What was your reaction to the rumors of Jeffrey Dahmer listening to Buried Dreams when he was picked up by the police?
Adi Newton: Initially I was quite surprised but then it occurred to me that as an individual there is no legitimate reason for him not to listen to Buried Dreams or for that matter any other recording that is commercially available. I suppose the context of Buried Dreams opens it to interpretation of any kind.
For Crying Out Loud: What are your impressions of music in general?
Adi Newton: I think that music in a general sense is ninety-nine percent without content and idea. The remaining one percent is the interesting side of things that is generally ignored and rather more difficult to obtain. There seems to me like a very limited number of groups or individuals that are operating in the field of sound which we could refer to as exploratory and interesting and which is amplifying the field of sonology.
For Crying Out Loud: Where would you like to see the technology of music go in the future?
Adi Newton: I would imagine that sound eventually will reach a new form of sonic realization. Where science augments the introduction of systems that will enable music in its broadest sense to be experienced and felt in a physiological and psychic way.
For Crying Out Loud: As you must go forward, how do you analyze the future of ClockDVA?
Adi Newton: I see ClockDVA in the pursuit of this sonic realization described above.