A Look Inside The Wonderful Wavy World Of Peter Bark

By Sean Maldjian, Contributor

Peter Bark

A self-portrait by, Peter Bark

Would you rather…

every dog in the world be replaced by giant crabs or giant bats. Please explain your answer.

Giant crabs for sure. you could raise all the buildings up, and mostly avoid them. no getting away from giant bats.

Some questions with Peter Bark

What is the food you get delivered most often? Do you have a favorite place to get it from?

I don't get a ton of delivery food, but when I do order out I'll usually get pizza. I've been obsessed with this pizzeria called Papa's in Robbinsville ever since I moved back to Jersey. They put mustard on their pizza, and it's crazy good.

You dropped your album “Empty Rooms” back in May this year. How have you felt about the response to it so far?

I've been happy with the response! Especially the physical sales. We've almost sold out of all 100 copies which is pretty amazing to me. There's something really exciting about having these tapes knocking around out there in the world.

What is a word that does not get used enough?

I have no idea

I saw on your band camp that this was your first return to solo work in 2 years? What was it like getting to have complete control over a project once again versus working with others?

I've been making music for 12 years, and for the majority of that time I've just done solo work. One of my goals the last couple of years was to get out there and collab more, and I've found I really enjoy it. That being said, it was nice to do a solo project. My favorite part about working solo is that I can work at my own pace. I find that when I work on a project there's a definitive starting track and ending track. I'll usually get on a roll and make like 9, 10 tracks in a week or so and then I won't be able to make anything I like for a while lol. I like that solo projects represent a little slice of my life.

Who's the most interesting person you've ever met? What were they like?

That's hard to say, there are a few people who I find really interesting. One of them is my friend who is an incredible musician. I met him when I was working at a studio in my early 20s and he really took me under his wing. He started playing music as a child, toured in rock bands in the early aughts, played sax in a circus, and played jazz in south korea until he was kicked out for overstaying his visa.

What is the worst trend that has ever plagued music to date? Can it be salvaged?

I think one of the worst trends is the playlist meta on streaming services. I can only really speak from the perspective of someone who makes passive listening music, but for the genres I make you rely a lot on playlist placements. Most listeners don't seem to be that invested in the artists themselves and are more into the playlist as a whole. I also think that artists tailor their music to fit certain playlists which ends up heavily homogenizing the sound. I don't blame anyone for doing that, I've done it myself, but I feel like it stifles creativity a bit. It's ironic to me that the streaming services were meant to be in a sense the anti-radio... listen to what YOU want when YOU want to, but people have voluntarily reverted back to curated "stations". I don't think it will change, nor do I think it necessarily needs to, it just falls on the artists to find a way to stand out from the playlist.

What kind of gear did you find yourself coming back to throughout working on “Empty Rooms”?

Guitar for sure. I don't use a lot of guitar in my ambient stuff. Ableton is another piece of "gear" that was nice to use again. Most of the time when I write ambient music I'm literally just using Ableton as a stereo recorder, and maybe for some light fx processing. Empty Rooms was a nice return to both.

If you were writing a story what name would you give the villain? Why?

I have no idea, I've never written anything in my life lol

The release has a lovely illustrated cover featuring playful iconography. Can you tell us a little more about it?

I'd love to talk about the cover. All of the artwork was done by a super talented french artist named Gabe, mcblue_matter on instagram. He was doing some work for Inner Ocean and I really liked his style so I asked if he could do the art for Empty Rooms. I sent him over the project, and he drew all of those images while listening to it. I actually had the pleasure of hanging with him and his brother for a day a few weeks ago. He was in NYC and wanted to meet up. I suggested he come out to Jersey to get a break from the city, and we had a blast.

What is your creative process like when recording an album? Would you say it is more structured or improvisational?

The way I make albums is pretty streamlined now. Like I said before, to me there feels like a definitive "first" track. I'll make a track, and feel like this could be the start of something. Usually that energy will last for 10ish tracks and I'll keep making stuff until I run out of ideas. Once I've got a batch of tracks together I'll cut any that don't hold up to repeated listens. As for the actual tracks they're usually improvised. I'll sit and mess around on Norns or a synth until I've got something cool and then go from there.

Any Final Comments?

Thanks again for your time Sean! I actually have a couple other NJ artists I'd like to recommend to you. The first is twomoonsaway, my younger brother's band, and the second one is BOXSET TV, my high school friend. Both of them deserve more attnetion than they're getting imo