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The Northern Mirror: How would you describe your music?
Agriflex: Genre-wise I’d call it noisy breakbeat acid techno, but really it’s me taking inspiration and ideas from the past 40 years of electronic music that I appreciated and infusing them into my own sound. I’m also a LivePA which means that I bring out the studio equipment I used to make the songs to perform them on the original hardware.
TNM: When and how did you start playing music?
A:I started with piano lessons in my single digit ages, then had some classical guitar lessons as a teen despite only wanting to play power chords. I had an improv punk band with my neighborhood friends, we were called The Yuppies and put our album up on a datpiff clone. Then I guess I was 15 when I had the idea to learn how to make electronic music, then by 17 I had a drum machine, duosynth, and a mixer and was playing my best attempt at chillwave at the local metalcore shows. I’ve pretty much kept doing mainly DIY shows in the 11 years since then.
TNM: How many releases do you have, and what’s the best place to find them?
A:I have 9 albums, 4 EPs, 2 splits, an Origin game, and various compilation songs and remixes. Although it needs some updating, the best place to find most of my work is: argiflex.com/discography
TNM: What is your most recent release, and when is it available?
A: I just dropped a new album last week called Summer Is A Relative Term vol. 3. It’s the first official release I’ve done with my new live setup that I started using soon after moving to Fargo last year, and it’s full of dark summer songs for the sweaty night time rave. It’s also the third in a series of releases that are specifically meant to have summer type vibes. It’s a free download and just hit major streaming services yesterday!
TNM: How did your most recent tour come together?
A: Real haphazardly and with a lot of community effort. I play the American Babylon festival put on by Commodity Fetish Records and The Order Of Celestial Integration every year that it happens. Last year they trusted me enough to run the sound there, and asked me to join their co-op for planning the fest, so of course I’m going back this year! Once that was announced 2 or 3 months prior to the gig, I hit the ground running booking the tour with that as the anchor date. Well, 2-3 months isn’t really enough time to plan a cross country tour, so it’s got a lot more travel days than I intended, but hey at least I managed to use those days to pick up extra sound equipment make the ground shake at the fest 😈
TNM: How does your music relate to this issue’s theme? (Disability & Neurodivergence in Our Community)
A: As a neurodivergent individual I believe my art inherently relates to the theme even if it doesn’t address it head on. I’m both autistic and ADHD. The heavy pounding repetitive beats and acid lines really tickle the autism part of my brain and the ability to completely alter and uproot my arrangements and mixes of songs is really fun for my ADHD. Plus breakbeats in music really gives me the energy my ADHD wants. I’ve also found a lot of online community among other autistic, ADHD, and generally neurodivergent individuals, especially in the collective I’m in called Bepis Labyrinth that’s even been described as “seven autistic cats in a trench coat.” The community of like minded, understanding, and accommodating individuals like me has really helped a lot to feel less ‘othered’ by the world and its like family to me. Big shout out to all my online homies in Bepis, Bestie Mafia, Sober Addict and XOXO Gossip Boys.
Speaking of accommodating individuals, I also wanna give a shout out to the FM Accommodations Crew!
RRCC 