Cerca

Photo by James (@plasticarmy)

Meet Cerca

I have found no better tunes suited for my post-holiday state than the delightful experimental ambient sounds of Cerca (Darren Hoyt). Check out our latest interview as we chat with the musician about their 2020 release Khalum Zilam, among some other fun things.

A Self-portrait by, Cerca

Would You Rather

have the power to make things you touch turn invisible or shrink?

Hmm I'm a minimalist, but making things invisible could cross the line into depressing... I would love to shrink most things in my apartment but leave my kitchen studio like it is. It's a tight space full of instruments and cables but I like that messy environment when I'm recording. I also have a big papier-mâché loris head someone made for me and it's mounted on the wall staring back at me. He's my stern studio talisman and I wouldn't shrink him.

Some questions with Cerca

What was the creative inspiration behind your 2020 release ‘Khalum Zilam’?

A few years ago I was feeling a bit lost and did some solo travel through South America, Cambodia, Turkey, Eastern Europe. I made some recordings throughout all that with a tape machine, but also saw music and visited a lot of religious sites. In the last 12 months some things in life started to fall apart, even before covid started. I wasn't working and or leaving my apartment much. It might be a midlife crisis, but I started going much deeper into exploring more...spiritual concepts, I think...for the first time. And I realized that travel was a way to open up a bit and practice being more extroverted and saying Yes to things. Certain things on the record sound exotic to me without being tied directly to particular cultures.

A lot of what I'm saying here would have made me cringe 10 years ago, but it's ok. I realize now that a lot of that stuff seeped into what I was writing and thinking about this year. Somehow the experiences, sounds, and even cover art came together in a way that felt cohesive.

If your music was a sandwich, what would it be? Why?

I have a favorite Montreal-style deli up the street that piles all kinds of different stuff onto sandwiches. It's known to be pretty indulgent and I admit to layering a lot of indulgent sounds into my records. I'll link to the menu but their sandwiches are like schnitzel with maple bacon, tuna with harissa and capers, brisket with blue cheese aioli, za'atar chicken with tomatoes. They also serve a Hoyt Dog, so I've gotta love it, but I don't want to get into the Are Hot Dogs Sandwiches controversy.

Do you have a piece of musical gear that you find yourself returning to often?

It's not on Khalum Zilam, but on the electric records, I tend to use a particular backwards reverb pedal a fair bit. Sometimes it's prominent but usually buried in the mix. I'd say a lot of my songs are influenced by different kinds of drone music, but I'm too impatient for just drone. That reverb pedal has this particular "sucking" sound that jumps around in volume and adds a more curious sound.

When you are looking for things to sample what kinds of sounds attract you?

I'm aware it sounds ridiculous, but when I think of found sounds I gravitate to, most of which end up buried in the mix, I think of the Harold Bloom benchmark of "strangeness" in writing, "a mode of originality that either cannot be assimilated or that so assimilates us that we cease to see it as strange." I think of that when I think about found sounds. I've done a few tape loops of ordinary things that sound strange to me and stick out, like capturing bits of conversation on Khalum Zilam. But then again, sometimes it's just dumb luck, and I'll come back to a sound I ignored for 2-3 years and say "Wait, this actually works!"

When starting a new project where does a song typically start for you?

Nothing really original in my approach. Either I lie in bed late at night and hear a song idea almost all at once and reach over for a pen and paper to describe it, or I just screw around in the studio starting with a single instrument and start writing a piece at a time and hope it turns into something. For me, it helps to start with a technique or instrument I suck at (ex: Mongolian fiddle) because of the unexpected results.

What has been the most positive thing to come from your project Cerca since it’s invention?

It's been nice getting positive feedback from a couple critics I really respect. But the other is that it's brought me closer to my two oldest friends of 20 years. The three of us used to play in bands in Charlottesville, VA, but none of us live in the same town anymore. These days we're in a group chat all day sharing the music we're making and talking about ideas. Their projects are Carry and Dais Queue and they're really adventurous and unique. So the positive part for me has been staying in touch since the band broke up and continuing to push each other as we've gotten older.

What are your top five favorite animals?

1. Any kind of pitbull or staffy

2. Sloth

3. Crow

4. Loris

5. The Falkor from "The Neverending Story"

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

My only comment would be if your lifestyle will allow for it, make as many things as possible whether it's music or art or whatever with the limited time you have on earth, no matter how old you are. Save all of it, come back to it, start thinking of it in terms of finite projects. A lot of my favorite musicians these days are over 40 or 50 or 60. Ann Carson is considered a genius writer and didn't publish until she was almost 40. Make a body of work you'll remember fondly when you're sitting in the old folks' home.