Published in Ritsuko Issue 1 (COMING SOON)
M.E.S.H.’s James Whipple, now operating under the name Hesaitix (taken from the title of his 2017 album), chats with Ryan Simón via e-mail to discuss the surreal, sci-fi soundscape of Noctian Airgap, the producer’s first record in over five years and one of our favorite albums of 2024.
Artwork by James Whipple
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Ryan Simón: What’s next in male grooming?
James Whipple: Gotta get enough sleep so you don’t look like a weird beetle over 35. Head & Shoulders and American Crew pomade. That’s all I got.
RS: How does it feel to have a new album out after so long, and how did the decision to start this album come about?
JW: I had some medical problems in 2020 and then clubland was basically shut down for 2 years because of C*VID. I had been living in a bubble before that, surviving off of touring in a little underground niche. But I was kind of glad to step back and try to survive in other ways for a while. Underground music can be weirdly careerist but with low stakes. I did a party flyer a long time ago that just said SELBSTMORD STATT SELBSTPARODIE. I really don’t like doing the same thing over and over. I like to feel like every new project I’m learning how to do something from scratch. After I chilled out for a while I felt like I had less baggage and could try something again. Feels good.
The album started with some nostalgia for the music I listened to in high school, which was a weird mix of electronica that found its way to central coast California 5-10 years late, really overproduced American drum n’ bass, moody studio-focused British stuff… So I was just making the sounds I like to hear really. Not trying to subvert any paradigms you know.
RS: Switching your artist name from M.E.S.H. to Hesaitix, the title of your last album — this seems related to what you’re saying about returning to music with less baggage. What’s the meaning behind the name change?
JW: It’s easier to type on a phone. And I didn’t want an alias that was SHOUTY anymore, like, this is my N.A.M.E. and my music is ABOUT this and that, related to our CRAZY TIMES.
RS: Yeah all-cap acronyms are a pain in the ass to type out. What about “Noctian Airgap”? How do you come up with your album/song titles?
JW: One of the things I love about electronic music is you can sneak language in, in really minimal and simple ways, without overloading with capital-M Meaning. I don’t like when sound serves text too wimpily because it loses its autonomy. Sound is like a weird paleolithic Joker. And when you’re making new sounds from digital silence you’re interacting with that mystery if you’re lucky. So making titles is this difficult final step that I obsess over because it can either fuck things up or add a lot.
The album title is related to current developments in artificial intelligence but also suggests dislocation, night, spaces between places. Related a bit to a near death experience.
RS: That makes me think of how our mutual Petra Cortright titles her digital paintings with nonsense internet jargon (e.g., 2-SEXY “american psyco”_b*witched naked_dos.exe). The text there is virtually meaningless, just referencing/riffing on file name aesthetics — yet, her art itself, like your music, is so “info”-heavy; just layers and layers of digital info. “Cusp of Unknowing,” the title of your first song, I think characterizes this gap between info and meaning really well. Another friend of mine, the poet Aaron Fagan, noted that title’s similarity to The Cloud of Unknowing, a 14th c. work of Christian mysticism — so I’m curious if there’s a spiritual dimension to electronic music for you?
JW: That track started with this memory of waking up in a hospital at dawn after being unconscious for a while. I had no idea where I was and didn’t recognize the landscape out the window. There was a new flatscreen on the wall that just said HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES. There was a tone in the room, white noise with these high chordal frequencies embedded in it. It sounded like a choir but with no low end, no bass. Like it was happening far away through vast columns of air while also feeling very close. It ended up being a vent but every experience has its double.
Electronic music can create zones of pure contemplation and a lot of it has to do with the spatial aspect for me. It’s like building or discovering new territory in a larger psychic reality.
RS: Wild. That makes sense — your previous albums are similarly spacious, but much of the space in Noctian Airgap feels distinctly “ventilated.” Both very expansive and enclosed. I’m thinking of the near-far reverberations of what sounds like a vital sign monitor on the final track. On the technical side, was there anything you did different to create these songs compared to how you worked before?
JW: I was trying to make something less annoying. More repetition, groove, more hypnotic. Just kind of sanding things down more.
RS: What’s the story behind the “Imagine someone tries to steal your wallet” line on “Wallet / Face”?
JW: All the spoken word on that track is just reading through captions on the Instagram Explore page. I wish I remembered the wallet video, I think it was really fucked.
RS: At what point did the album feel complete and ready to release?
JW: I decided on the art at the absolute last minute. I did about 9 or 10 versions.
RS: What do you look forward to?
JW: Hampton Sides has a new book out about the third voyage of Captain Cook and I’m about to read the last part. I live for this shit.
