Mark Alan Miller has spent decades devoting his energy to recording and producing other people’s music, no matter what the sound or style — folk singer-songwriter Pamela Means, rock guitar giant J Mascis, the old-school Young@Heart Chorus.
But now Miller is making time again for his own sonic art — politically charged, hard-hitting “electro body music” recorded under the name Out Out. He just released his first long-play album of original songs in nearly a decade, Swan/Dive?, on the Toronto/Helsinki-based label Artoffact.
Miller celebrated by playing his first full-band show in 22 years, at the new Off the Map space at 84 Cottage St. in Easthampton, last Saturday. I spoke with Miller the night before the presidential election, when such Out Out lyrics as: “This is the desecration of our democracy/ fear, greed, hate, lies” were ominous enough already, especially married to the apocalyptic thunder of the music.
Swan/Dive? isn’t a concept record, but a thread of warning runs through the album, from environmental pollution (“Sold Yourself Out”) to the minefield of modern media (“Shut Up,” “Falsified”). The latter song includes the line “You believe everything you read/ all true when it’s in the feed” and has the tense refrain: “Open your mind,” all while the music underneath is pounding like an unrelenting jackhammer, hissing like a lit fuse rushing to its destructive end.
Out Out’s music has been labeled “Industrial,” sharing elements with bands like Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Skinny Puppy and the early ’80s era of Cabaret Voltaire.
“When things started getting danceable and a little bit funky, but still having a hard edge, that’s when my ears really perked up as a teenager,” Miller said, speaking about his influences. “I’ve always loved electronic sounds since I was a little kid. Anything weird and odd, I’d want to know how it was made.”
Miller began recording at age 13 and has been a go-to engineer and producer in the Valley since the early ’90s, when he worked at Slaughterhouse Studios, a small stark structure all by its lonesome down an Amherst dirt road, nearly hidden by unchecked vegetation. He lovingly describes the old place as “a disaster. No matter what we tried to do to make that building nice, nature wanted to reclaim it.”
He eventually became the studio’s owner, later moved the business to a more hospitable space in Westhampton, and then started fresh in April 2012 with Sonelab in Easthampton (which he co-owns with Justin Pizzoferrato). That’s where Miller recorded Swan/Dive?
Miller started performing his music live in late 1988, doing solo shows with his sequencer and synthesizers, and he briefly put together an Out Out band circa 1993 to play gigs in New York City and around New England.
After years away from stages, Miller decided to give performing live another go.
“The guys who are backing me up, all of them have an immense amount of live and studio experience, they’re all great players and quick studies. It was part of the reason why I said, ‘Yeah, I think we can do this again.’ It gave me enough confidence to try it.”
For the first time ever, Miller will simply sing, and he’ll be joined by Mark Schwaber and Anand Nayak on guitars, Adam Kozak on electronics, keyboards and bass, and J.J. O’Connell on drums, most of whom make guest appearances on the new album.
Swan/Dive? along with the entire Out Out catalog, is available at outout.bandcamp.com.
Contact Ken Maiuri at clublandcolumn@gmail.com.
