Secret Mommy

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Secret Mommy
Born	1979 N. Vancouver, British Columbia

Secret Mommy is the Glitch-pop alias of musician and artist Andy Dixon. Beginning in 2003, during the final months of his full band The Red Light Sting, Dixon began cutting sounds he recorded himself into shreds of their former selves. Despite sometimes being seen somewhat as novelty music, Secret Mommy never fails to win respect from the most scrutinizing of critics, who often notice his infinite attention to detail and appreciation of sounds that billions a day write off as the ‘noise in the background.’

Contents 1 Background And Former Bands/Projects 1.1 Growing Up 1.2 d.b.s. 1.3 The Red Light Sting 2 Not just Glitch, Secret Mommy 3 Other Projects 4 Possible Influences 5 Influences 6 Ache Records 6.1 Catalog 7 List of Links and Sources

[edit] Background And Former Bands/Projects

[edit] Growing Up

Son of two accountants, Dixon was the creative spark in the family from early on. Growing up in the suburbs of North Vancouver, his parents were always extremely supportive of all their sons musical endeavors, allowing him to go on tours with his band for weeks at a time, often lending him money so he could keep doing so.

[edit] d.b.s.

'Andy Dixon' began play guitar and singing in the band d.b.s. around the age of twelve in 1992 with band mates Ryan Angus (bass guitar), Jesse Gander (Vocals) and Paul Patko (drums). Drawing from influences such as Metallica, and later Jawbreaker, he skanked, then thrashed and finally shredded melodic lines of post-rock/punk bliss. The combination of the DIY, ‘raw’ punk interest and vocal styling of Gander when combined with the metal-driven, art scene aimed vision of Dixon led to some of the most lyrically soulful and painfully brilliant music, the likes of which you are never likely to hear. The group decided to call it an end in October 2000 after over eight years, four full length records (CD) and an EP/CD release by the title of Forget Everything You Know, which, while their last, is widely regarded as their greatest and most mature effort during their time together. The members remain both professionally as well as socially close and Gander has said “It was just time” in regards to the reasoning behind the break up.

[edit] The Red Light Sting

Near the end of d.b.s., Dixon, along with future business partner Zoë Verkuylen and friend Gregory Adams of The Self Esteem Project started toying with songs under the name Hooray for Everything. Due to members leaving the group, the three took their songs to Paul Patko of d.b.s, who immediately took to them and agreed to sign on the project. The change in line up warranted a change in the band name to The Red Light Sting (they have also called themselves “The no light sting” in jest, after a ruff tour led to the breaking of all their 9 spinning red stage lights). Truly post-hardcore, the lead singer Adams shows that it is in fact possible to both scream and sing in the same song, well. Verkuylen, playing the keyboards requisite of the genre, brings an incredibly important dynamic to the bands overall sound, filling in for rhythm where many might simply place an additional guitar, while going further to offer sounds on her Roland Juno-60 that add a noise component to the mix, many times playing tones which are off key and dissonant. Dixon took his melodic guitar lines further and further as the band moved from noise core elements to post-hardcore and back again. Though Dixon was the leading creative force behind the group, Adams has been quoted as saying in [Discorder]http://discorder.citr.ca/features/03novredlight.html that when they were together, “the songs write themselves.” Sadly, after four years, The Red Light Sting disbanded, holding their last shows in Seattle and Vancouver in early September of 2004. There were two EP/MiniCD’s entitled 'And Our Love is Soaking in It', and 'Rub ‘Em Out', as well as a split LP with friends of recent fame The Hot Hot Heat and their final release 'Hands Up, Tiger', a ten song LP which came out less than a month before the band went their separate ways. But it was during this time that Dixon realized the potential of his computer in the auditory realm as his Secret Mommy project, something he had still been doing on the side till this point, though he released a full length Secret Mommy record before the final recordings of The Red Light Sting. A Secret Mommy-like breakdown makes an appearance on the opening song of the final Sting record, called We Put The Hot Tub In The Back Of A Truck. YouTube Video of Early Red Light Sting Performing a song called "Baconated Grapefruit" from the Red Light Sting/Hot Hot Heat LP

[edit] Not just Glitch, Secret Mommy

Having openly said in a Discorder Interview that he just wasn’t feeling it anymore. I’ve been anchored to home for the past while, because of business stuff. I can’t really leave the label to tour for six weeks, it would just fall apart… I find that the funnest point of a band career is the first year anyways, when you’re just starting to play shows, and building up to the point of getting recognized. But once you’re there, I start getting bored. For now, I want to not play in a band for a while. I haven’t not played in a band since I was twelve, and I want to wait and meditate carefully on what I want to do and who with.

Dixon thus began a more personal journey, seeking to fill a void left by other IDM and Glitch artists, namely creating music via a computer, utilizing collections of sounds, generally found in everyday life, then cut into flawless rhythms and melodies. His first full length record was released on the former label know as Orthlorng Musork of San Francisco, CA, a label know for their “laptop musicians” and “electro-punk” artist like Gold Chains. Mammal Class, the second full length release in the same year, this time on Andy’s own Ache records, employs samples of P!nk, Mary J. Blige, Andrew W.K., Britney Spears, elephants, Shania Twain, frogs, pigs, mouth harps, Justin Timberlake, acoustic guitars, French educational records, Arab on Radar, balloons, eating noises and a trumpet. Possibly some of the most interesting qualities about a number of the tracks found on this second release are the very self-referential aspects of the songs. For instance, track two called An Apple a Day Keeps The Mac Voice Away features one of the token artificial voices that came on Apple Macintosh computers to provide a more accessible computer environment to persons with bad eyesight. The particular voice he uses is called “Good News,” and is in reality more of a novelty voice than a practical one, as some might say for Mommy himself. Though here, Secret Mommy uses the assistive technology to provide vocals for the breakdown in his featured song of the album. There is a simple demonstration available to download that has been prepared which shows approximately what was done in order to create the “Mac Voice” in the song as well as the original track via the Secret Mommy website.Image:Secret Mommy Demo.rtf

For his third release, Dixon used samples from a trip to Hawaii, known as the Hawaii 5.0 EP (playing on the popular show Hawaii 5-0, but adding the “.” in order to make the connection to technology, commonly used in reference to version numbers, e.g. 1.2 or 4.0). The five tracks (hence 5.0) on this record feature a cut from the 50 Cent song “P.I.M,P”, including the steel drums heard at the beginning of the song. The Dixon track is respelled to say “S-E-C-R-E-T-M-O-DoubleM-Y”, out of the available sounds 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg provide. The sounds are sped up and slowed down using digital recording technology found in programs such as Pro-Tools and Reason 3.0. In this way he is mimicking the name dropping "hype factor" of hip hop by way of one of hip-hops icons. Making use of hand made hidden condenser microphones Dixon compiled recordings for his third full-length record Very Rec. All of the sounds recorded by Dixon for this effort were in places of recreation such as a tennis courts, a pool, soccer field, yoga studio, ice rink, Squash court, music room, dance Studio, Dojo, Daycare, Weight Room and Basketball court. This style of sampling from the natural world, the world around us may sometimes be referred to as “Organic Sounds.” Secret Mommy is planning its fourth release entitled "The Wisdom EP" composed entirely of the sounds made during the operation where Andy had his Wisdom teeth removed, to be released on Sublight Records in August 2006; as well as its fifth release, he is tentatively calling "Plays" which will be composed of sounds capture during recordings at The Hive in vancouver.

[edit] Other Projects

Andy is currently playing guitar and singing again in a group called Winning with twice former band mate Paul Patko on drums. Their debut album, This Is An Ad For Cigarettes, will be out in early 2007 on Ache.

[edit] Possible Influences

Andreas Tilliander Aphex Twin Autechre Boom Bip Cepia

Dabrye DAT politics DJ Scud Dntel

Fennesz Funkstorung Hrvatski Kid 606

Prefuse 73 Telefon Tel Aviv Tim Hecker Venetian Snares

[edit] Influences

• Mouse on Mars

[edit] Ache Records

While Andy Dixon is an extremely active member of the Vancouver, B.C. art and music scene, Ache Records will probably be his legacy. Seemingly working "not for profit", Dixon claims to have put every penny he has made back into the label and releasing more records. The most well known releases to date are probably the "Divorce Series", which bring to gether artist who have broken outside of their genre in a series of split 7" 45rpm records.

[edit] Catalog

• Hot Hit Heat S/T 7" (ACHE001)
• The Red Light Sting/Hot Hot Heat Split LP/Enhanced CD (ACHE002)
• d.b.s. "Forget Everything You Know" CDEP (ACHE003)
• Radio Berlin "The Selection Drone" LP (ACHE004)
• The Epidemic "I Am Completely Operational" CD (ACHE005)
• Chris Frey "Portraits 99-01" Book (ACHE006)
• JC "A Nation Turns Its Back And Gags" LP (ACHE007)
• Femme Fatale "As You Sow, So Shall You Reap" LP (ACHE008)
• Death From Above "HEADS UP" CD/LP (ACHE009)
• Kid Commando "Hold Kid Commando" CD/LP (ACHE011)
• Secret Mommy "Mammal Class" LP (ACHE012)
• Hella/Four Tet Split 7" (ACHE013, D/ONE)
• Secret Mommy "Hawaii 5.0" (ACHE014)
• Flossin "Lead Singer" CD/LP (ACHE015)
• Matmos/Die Monitr Batss (ACHE016, D/TWO)
• PIERS WHYTE "s/t" CD/LP (ACHE 017)
• DEATH FROM ABOVE You're A Woman, I'm A Machine LP (ACHE 018)
• SIGHTINGS / HRVATSKI split 7" (ACHE 019 / D/THREE)
• HEAVY PARTY s/t FREE MP3 EP (ACHE 020)
• Konono N°1 Congotronics LP (ACHE 021)
• SECRET MOMMY Very Rec CD/LP (ACHE 022)
• KID606 / KID COMMANDO split 7" (ACHE 023 / D/FOUR)
• RAUHAN ORKESTERI / LAUHKEAT LAMPAAT Sylissain oot CD (ACHE 024)
• V/A PROJECT BICYCLE CD/LP (ACHE 025)

[edit] List of Links and Sources

Bad Ass Magic - A creative art duo

Secret Mommy - The Official Secret Mommy Website

d.b.s. - The long since retired d.b.s. Website

Ache Records - Andy Dixons own label with information about all the above artists.

Winning - Andy Dixons newest band.

The Chemistry Designs - Andy Dixons solo design studio.

Discorder With Andy - An interview with Andy Dixon

Discorder With The Red Light Sting - An Interview with the Red Light Sting Before Their Breakup.

Ache Message Board - Where Much of the Information regarding upcoming releases of secret mommy and winning came from.