In 1997 I wanted to make a composition from nothing. At the time I wasn't interested in software synthesis or advanced algorithmic processing or whatever academic sound stuff everyone was geeking out about that week in my MFA program. I always liked the simplicity and immediacy of grabbing whatever was handy and making something interesting with it.

One day I walked into the public computer lab of iEAR Studios in the basement of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I plugged a 1/8 microphone into a Mac Quadra 650, hooked up some cheap battery powered speakers, stuck the microphone into my mouth and started recording direct to disk. Inspired by the wild sounds that felt like they wanted to bust out of the machine, I improvised a story about monkeys going crazy at the zoo. Everyone else in the lab hated me that afternoon.

Working in ProTools, I manipulated the source material very little when creating the final composition. Some fades and light EQ if any, really. Once the composition was done I went back to see if I could make it better with additional processing or mixing. Every time I touched it I made it worse. The sounds were great on their own.

Monkeyshit made a few concert appereances around the Bard, Bennington, Williams, iEAR circuit around that time but I don’t have the dates exactly. It was always a fun one to play loud.