We sat down with Aldo Giovanni, known in the music world as Memory Clap Acid to ask our seven questions. Here’s what he had to say.
1. Nice to see you, want to introduce yourself to the readers? Tell us a little about you and what you do.
My name is Aldo Giovanni. I do a music project called Memory Clap Acid out of Northern California. I make sludgy acid & other forms of raw electronic music. I guess I would consider what I do “non-genre”. I use my machines & computer to bash things out. The project sometimes involves me djing, doing podcast, yelling, crooning, screaming, you know playing live, etc.
I recently did my 1st livestream gig on twitch for this thing called Strict Tempo that this promoter/dj out of Seattle puts on. Vox Sinistra. It was the 1st time I’ve ever done anything like that. It’s was actually pretty damn fun. Engaging with the other acts, djs & people watching on the chat. COVID times you know. It was cumbersome at 1st then it was pleasant.
Other than that sometimes I do engineering, mixing, & mastering for my friends & homies bands & music related endeavors. The last thing I did was a trailer & soundtrack 7inch for my friends’ video game. Aquamarine. It’s some mobius inspired shit. Way more beautiful & tasteful than anything I do. I’m doing that kind of stuff less & less though. I’m not that good at it to be honest.
2. What’s the next big thing?
Oh man! So I’m doing this secret project that I’m not supposed to talk about. It’s with a couple of friends. They are both in or have been in what I consider high profile bands. One of them is just going to be an auxiliary member & just do studio work with us. I can’t really say anymore. But I’m really stoked about it. I’m working on ideas & base skeletons for it. Slowly feeding files to the other people involved.
Other than that I have a hand full of Memory Clap Acid stuff I’m chipping away at to be finished so that I can meet the deadlines. I’m working on a split with this producer called TNDR PNK. He’s out of Nebraska. They’ll be some collaborations going down on it too. One track’s gonna have Marshall Applewhite on it. Another’s going to have Cuerina Raw Dry on it. It’s going to be coming out on Clan Destine Records out of Scotland. Shout outs to Carl!
I’m also working on a split with my good friends Tuxedo Gleam. If you haven’t heard them I highly suggest checking them out. I’m also working on a handful of tracks that’ll be coming out on a bunch of V/A compilations. Just turned a couple in for Idleststates & Meta Moto. Working on one for SHISHI that my homie Bad Faith Actor got me involved with. Doing one for these rad dudes called Muga. They have a really killer release that The Black Lodge put out. They’re starting their own label called Absu out of Chile. There’s this other label out of Colombia called Analog Texture Records that the homies Panorama Lineal run. I gotta start working on something for them. I think that’s all I got going as of right now.
3. Where can we see/hear more?
You can find my music on Bandcamp & SoundCloud. I’m on all the scummy music platforms too. You know Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora I think too. I would definitely start at the Junted Bandcamp. My new album
!MIRA! will be coming out on there soon. Plus my other EP’s are on there as well. Junted 4 lyfe!🤘🏼 I would also check out The Black Lodge Bandcamp. Up North Records & Clan Destine Records Bandcamp too.
4. How are you adapting to the new remote world?
I’ve been doing the file sharing thing for a while. I was definitely an early adopter of Dropbox. The thing that’s changed is the in-person stuff with recording collaborators. There’s no jamming out on the synths & drum machines with friends right now. Plus, I’m pretty anal about people wearing mask. So, I’m not really inviting people over to my music space to record vocals n stuff. So, file sharing it is. It’s a lot of sending folders full of stems back and forth. I feel like the people in my music circle are making more & more music because we are all stuck inside but I know that’s not the case for everyone. Definitely been inspired to make fucked up & angry shit right now. Especially here in our country with all the social unrest. Civil Disobedience is the way to go. I feel like a ton of the dark and pissed off electronic music being made right now is sort of this generation’s version of protest music. At least that’s what it feels & seems like to me. But I digress. Yes, a ton of file sharing for collaboration right now.
5. Tell me a bit about the rest of your life, is creating the only thing you do with your time? Day jobs? Families? Secret identities?
Nah. I’m a pretty basic blue-collar dude. My secret identity is Display Guy at Trader Joe’s. I’m the head of the display team at my store. I basically do the planning & building of the store end caps with my team. It’s actually a really fun job. Plus, all the people I work with are rad. I do have a family. Lately we’ve been spending most of our time skateboarding. My 8-year-old son is super into it right now. I never thought in a million year that I’d be skating again. My younger brother is still into it. When he found out that my son was interested in it, he went out and put together a couple of
Toy Machine completes for my son & I. He remembered everything that I was into board wise. Spitefire wheels, Independent trucks, Bones bearings. It was really sweet of him to do. So yeah, we skate a bunch now.
Skate & Destroy!!!
6. What’s something that most people don’t know about you that you wish they did?
That I’m sober and that it’s possible to be a sober dude or dudette and still make fucked up side ways outsider music. But if being sober isn’t your thing & you feel you gotta try something to fit in. Try mushrooms. 👍🏼
7. What’s your favorite number? Any special reason?
That’s easy. Seven. Because you know.
If god is 5 & the devil is 6???? Well hell.....
Then that must make me 7. Right?????
