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Monday, July 11, 2016

"Doesn't Matter Anyway" an interview with Don Salamon of The Pleasure Holes

The Pleasure Holes is the latest project of Florida musician Don Salamon. His new album "Doesn't Matter Anyway" is a collection of ten lo-fi, noise driven, shoegaze inspired tracks full of glistening melodies and hypnotic undertones. We talked with Don about the music that first made an impact on him, how The Pleasure Holes came about, the making of the new album and his plans for the future. Be sure to check out all of his releases at thepleasureholes.bandcamp.com

CMM-What's the first music you remember hearing as a child and what artist made the biggest impact on you?

Don - The first music I remember listening to as a kid was some weird stuff my mom was into. Yanni, Deep Forest, one in particular I will still listen to October Project. I think the artist that made the biggest impact on me in general was David Bowie. I think for a solid 6 months I listened to nothing but Station to Station. After that it was just mining for all the gems he wrote.

CMM-When did you start playing music? What were the first bands you played in like?

Don - I started playing music around 15 years ago, it was mostly shit in the beginning, probably still is, but definitely rock. I was in a metal band when I was in the Navy named Muddy Helmet. Kind of a Pantera meets Mastodon deal. I just played rhythm guitar in that one. Other than that I have always done things myself which is good and bad.

CMM-What led you to start making music as The Pleasure Holes?

Don - The Pleasure Holes came about as a joke name I was telling my friend Nick about. I would always send him stuff I wrote through email, but that is kind of cumbersome so I set up a band camp account with that name. A guy named Henry, who is awesome, bought a track and that blew me away that people would actually pay money for things I made. I was encouraged rightly or wrongly by Renato from The Blog That Celebrates Itself and Simon from the Loose Cannon radio show to keep plugging away.

CMM-You just put up a digital version of your debut album "Doesn't Matter Anyway'. What was the writing and recording process like? Was there a particular mindset you were in when making the record?

Don - I tried to record as quickly as possibility. I am married with a kid so I never have much time. Plus my wife hates the music I make and I am into so that motivates me to get done quickly. Writing it was new to me because I have never sat down and stuck to a single genre or sound for multiple songs. I probably ended up with 20 tracks, and cut it down to 10 that I focused on making sound as good as I could. I am by no means a studio wizard so there are a lot of warts on it.

CMM-Any particular gear that you used when making the album?

Don - Gear wise I have a RME Fireface I used for the recording, on the from end is an ART MPA II preamp. Everything was recorded direct in for guitar and bass. The vocals I ran though either a SM58A or some sort of Gauge condenser microphone (not sure the model).For my sound the most important things are the ART MPA. That I use for all of the distortion by just overdriving it. Secondly, the guitar I use is a Dean Flame-o-matic with the Floyd Rose tremolo. This is cool because I can rest my hand on the bridge to bend the strings which I keep slightly out of tune. This makes the guitars chorus(y) all the time. The drums were all either done with EZDrummer 2 or played on a MIDI pad.

CMM-If you could score a film for any film director who would it be?

Don - Hmmm… I would score Police Story. It is an old Jackie Chan flick.

CMM-Any plans to play live with this project?

Don - No, I am a loser! I wish I could play live, but that isn’t in the cards for me.

CMM- HA HA. What else do you have planned for The Pleasure Holes?

Don - I’ll start focusing on my black metal project called UKO. for the rest of the summer, and then after that I’ll probably work on the other 10 tracks and write some new ones for a early Spring release.

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