Hisham Bharoocha is like the grown-up version of one of those kids in school who was really good at calculus but also got all the girls and could draw really well and excelled at sports and knew how to work on cars all somehow seeming like he ultimately didn't give a shit. What we're saying is he's a ficticious teen archetype as filled out by countless sexually-frustrated middle-aged screenwriters. Just kidding, what we're actually saying is that he does a whole bunch of awesome, difficult things and makes them look simple. Doye. Right now he's touring Europe with his one-man soundscape project Soft Circle, but prior to that he's been involved with all sorts of good stuff such as organizing the Boredoms' 77 Boadrum show in New York last summer, being a member of Damo Suzuki's Network, practicing a meditation technique called Vipassana, and all of this is what he's been up to before you get back to the part where he played with Lightning Bolt and Black Dice. We went for a stroll with Hisham recently and asked him how he fits all this business into his day-to-day…VICE: As well as having played in a list of bands that make me cry with envy, you also balance a successful career in installation art. Do you just wake up in the morning and go 'Hmmm, today I fancy doing that" and just get on with it?
Hisham Bharoocha: It was all just a natural progression. I was a freshmen at art school when I met the Lightning Bolt guys and we just started to play together. Then I left that band and played around with a few other guys until Black Dice formed. After six or seven years I left Black Dice to move on started playing by myself. I'd been making art the whole time anyway, so it was never a case of making a concerted effort in one direction or the other.What's in the water in Providence? Just attending RISD these days seems to qualify you for coming up with something incredible and talent-ful.
There is always just a real sense of something happening there. When I was in school almost everything fun and backwards happened at Fort Thunder. Everything from heavy costume wrestling to extreme food fights and unbelievable haunted houses and mazes. I don't think anyone who passed through Providence during that period could say they weren't influenced by the art and music that was coming out of Fort Thunder. They were exciting times. When it was destroyed, that was sad, but it created a gap for different groups of people to create new spaces for performance and playing music or whatever.What sort of media do you like best outside of sound?
I like murals and making large drawings, paintings, or collages directly on the walls of a spaces. The idea of it being destroyed after the exhibition is interesting to me. Sort of like a sand mandala. I just love making collages, I am always making them. There is something so strange that happens when you find two seemingly disparate images and you try to create a relationship between them. How did you wind up organizing the Boredoms' 77-drummer show last summer?
I had worked with Eye before and I was tasked with helping choose the drummers. They also chose themselves by timing. I got over 3000 requests from drummers all over the world, and it was hard having to turn people down. I do know for a fact that all the drummers who did perform had an incredible time. I also had to organize the sequencing of all the drummers which was crucial to insure that the rhythm emanated from the center where Boredoms were playing and kept flowing steadily outwards into the spiral formation. I could talk about this one for hours but you'll just have to buy the DVD. I will say that helping set up 77 Boadrum was the most amazing experience I've had in performing music. I believe most of the people who were at the performance felt an overwhelming feeling of joy and peace, and it felt so incredible to feel that in a city like New York.What is Eye like to work with?
You'd think he'd be totally insane and all over the place but he's really put together. He's obviously totally out there as well, but when you talk to him he really focuses on every word you say. It's pretty intense to have him stare at you, his energy is like
electricity. I've been lucky enough to work with him quite a bit. The first time I really interacted with him was when I was invited to play one of his art openings in Tokyo. He heard me soundchecking and came into the room and stared at me for a bit, then said we had to play together. We both did solo sets then played together. After that we formed a duo called GaTax, but we've only played two shows so far. He is incredible to play music with. It seriously feels like there is electrical power he is harnessing from the depths of the planet and he's forging all the sounds from that energy. He was such a huge influence on me growing up that I feel honored to call him my friend, and that he trusts my decision making when it comes to collaborations like the Boadrum and GaTax is a big deal to me.You've also recently played with Damo Suzuki from Can. Who would win in Japanese out-music Top Trumps?
Damo tours around the world and puts together bands in each city he plays in, with musicians he has never played with before. He calls it 'Damo Suzuki's Network' and it's basically just him and whoever makes up the band that day. I put together the band for a one night show in Brooklyn at a space called Monkeytown. I got Brian Degraw from Gang Gang Dance, Dan Hogland from Excepter, Tres Warren from Psychic Ills, Arik Roper from Under Satan's Sun, and Jesse Lee from Rusty Santos. I'm a huge Can fan so it was a real treat to be involved with that. Damo told me his son was a sponsored skateboarder, I want to see him skate.I forgot to ask you about your meditation practice. Is that the secret to your magical art powers?
Maybe. Vipassana is the meditation practice that was originally taught by Gautama Siddartha, the guy behind Buddhism. The practice existed long before Buddhism turned into a dogmatic religion. The meditation is based on the observance of one's physical sensations and how the mind reacts to them.Sounds good. How's it work?
The first step is to take a ten-day silent meditation course. I highly recommend taking the course. It changed my life forever. You learn so much about how you have aversions and desires towards things, and how that causes pain in your life. If you want to read about it go to www.dhamma.org. I don't want to do a disservice by trying to explain it in a half-ass way. It's some heavy shit.JIRO BEVISCheck out Soft Circle's myspace page for their tour schedule and some songs.Listen: Soft Circle - "Shimmer"
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Hisham Bharoocha: It was all just a natural progression. I was a freshmen at art school when I met the Lightning Bolt guys and we just started to play together. Then I left that band and played around with a few other guys until Black Dice formed. After six or seven years I left Black Dice to move on started playing by myself. I'd been making art the whole time anyway, so it was never a case of making a concerted effort in one direction or the other.What's in the water in Providence? Just attending RISD these days seems to qualify you for coming up with something incredible and talent-ful.
There is always just a real sense of something happening there. When I was in school almost everything fun and backwards happened at Fort Thunder. Everything from heavy costume wrestling to extreme food fights and unbelievable haunted houses and mazes. I don't think anyone who passed through Providence during that period could say they weren't influenced by the art and music that was coming out of Fort Thunder. They were exciting times. When it was destroyed, that was sad, but it created a gap for different groups of people to create new spaces for performance and playing music or whatever.
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I like murals and making large drawings, paintings, or collages directly on the walls of a spaces. The idea of it being destroyed after the exhibition is interesting to me. Sort of like a sand mandala. I just love making collages, I am always making them. There is something so strange that happens when you find two seemingly disparate images and you try to create a relationship between them. How did you wind up organizing the Boredoms' 77-drummer show last summer?
I had worked with Eye before and I was tasked with helping choose the drummers. They also chose themselves by timing. I got over 3000 requests from drummers all over the world, and it was hard having to turn people down. I do know for a fact that all the drummers who did perform had an incredible time. I also had to organize the sequencing of all the drummers which was crucial to insure that the rhythm emanated from the center where Boredoms were playing and kept flowing steadily outwards into the spiral formation. I could talk about this one for hours but you'll just have to buy the DVD. I will say that helping set up 77 Boadrum was the most amazing experience I've had in performing music. I believe most of the people who were at the performance felt an overwhelming feeling of joy and peace, and it felt so incredible to feel that in a city like New York.What is Eye like to work with?
You'd think he'd be totally insane and all over the place but he's really put together. He's obviously totally out there as well, but when you talk to him he really focuses on every word you say. It's pretty intense to have him stare at you, his energy is like
electricity. I've been lucky enough to work with him quite a bit. The first time I really interacted with him was when I was invited to play one of his art openings in Tokyo. He heard me soundchecking and came into the room and stared at me for a bit, then said we had to play together. We both did solo sets then played together. After that we formed a duo called GaTax, but we've only played two shows so far. He is incredible to play music with. It seriously feels like there is electrical power he is harnessing from the depths of the planet and he's forging all the sounds from that energy. He was such a huge influence on me growing up that I feel honored to call him my friend, and that he trusts my decision making when it comes to collaborations like the Boadrum and GaTax is a big deal to me.
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Damo tours around the world and puts together bands in each city he plays in, with musicians he has never played with before. He calls it 'Damo Suzuki's Network' and it's basically just him and whoever makes up the band that day. I put together the band for a one night show in Brooklyn at a space called Monkeytown. I got Brian Degraw from Gang Gang Dance, Dan Hogland from Excepter, Tres Warren from Psychic Ills, Arik Roper from Under Satan's Sun, and Jesse Lee from Rusty Santos. I'm a huge Can fan so it was a real treat to be involved with that. Damo told me his son was a sponsored skateboarder, I want to see him skate.I forgot to ask you about your meditation practice. Is that the secret to your magical art powers?
Maybe. Vipassana is the meditation practice that was originally taught by Gautama Siddartha, the guy behind Buddhism. The practice existed long before Buddhism turned into a dogmatic religion. The meditation is based on the observance of one's physical sensations and how the mind reacts to them.Sounds good. How's it work?
The first step is to take a ten-day silent meditation course. I highly recommend taking the course. It changed my life forever. You learn so much about how you have aversions and desires towards things, and how that causes pain in your life. If you want to read about it go to www.dhamma.org. I don't want to do a disservice by trying to explain it in a half-ass way. It's some heavy shit.JIRO BEVISCheck out Soft Circle's myspace page for their tour schedule and some songs.Listen: Soft Circle - "Shimmer"