Rory Glacken tells me he struggles with tinnitus. I do too. Years of gradually increasing the volume on to my iPod to avoid the busy sounds of city living has left this annoying constant buzz.The music that Glacken crafts as Tourist Kid is dense and wildly atmospheric, comprised of 128kbs samples filtered through reverberation and effects that form a thing of beauty. He tells me the ringing in his ears gets lost to it. That making music like this helps hide the buzz.The Perth-based prodcuer's debut EP A Circulation has just been released through the Melbourne-based music label, This Thing.I compare some of the sounds to Tim Hecker. Like Hecker, Tourist Kid crafts these immense sound-worlds that you disappear into. Both have been influenced by ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) – music that literally gets under your skin.Listening to Tourist Kid becomes more of an all-senses “exercise” rather than something you simply take in sonically.We had a chat to Rory to find out more.Noisey: What it's like recording and writing music with tinnitus?
Tourist Kid: It fluctuates, but it can be frustrating as a lot of the frequencies in my left ear are muddied because of it. Sometimes I feel the impulse to try and compensate for that, which is a pretty bad habit I've being trying to get out of.There are times where I have to sit out because it gets too intense to be of any help to the writing process, as a lot of the work I produce is focused around textures. I guess it's easier to make the sort of music I do because the ringing just melts in with the music.You have tourist in your name and one track is titled “Hyatt”. Do you travel much?
I used to travel a lot when I was younger, mainly to visit relatives. The use of Tourist in my name is less about the actual act of visiting, but more about the attitude of what tourism is, the irreverence that permeates across the board in respect to consuming what is foreign, especially within music. It also ties into my own insecurity of not being able to find a voice and the fear of purely dousing myself in another's.This record was specifically inspired by Charles St, a long connecting street in North Perth, and my midnight commutes. There’s a weird silence about it that sticks with me, mainly from a comfort standpoint.What does ASMR means to you and why it is something you are interested in investigating with your music?
I was pretty late to finding out about ASMR, but it resonated with me, the idea of emphasising and objectifying domestic sounds, also the idea that it's not people who have full time jobs doing work for BBC documentaries, but communities of regular people who are invested in these sounds.There seems something scientific about this kind of music. Is science something you consider when creating these pieces or do they come from a more internal place?
I have the highest respect for those who are overtly scientific within their work, musically speaking, but that’s not who I am. There's still so much I don't know about synthesis or max patches or pure data, so a lot of what I produce comes from what available skill set I already have, which a lot of the time is still pretty mimetic.I know this release came from a deeply personal space and I think it’s important to be able to have the humanity or emotion within your work stand out.
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Tourist Kid: It fluctuates, but it can be frustrating as a lot of the frequencies in my left ear are muddied because of it. Sometimes I feel the impulse to try and compensate for that, which is a pretty bad habit I've being trying to get out of.There are times where I have to sit out because it gets too intense to be of any help to the writing process, as a lot of the work I produce is focused around textures. I guess it's easier to make the sort of music I do because the ringing just melts in with the music.You have tourist in your name and one track is titled “Hyatt”. Do you travel much?
I used to travel a lot when I was younger, mainly to visit relatives. The use of Tourist in my name is less about the actual act of visiting, but more about the attitude of what tourism is, the irreverence that permeates across the board in respect to consuming what is foreign, especially within music. It also ties into my own insecurity of not being able to find a voice and the fear of purely dousing myself in another's.
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I was pretty late to finding out about ASMR, but it resonated with me, the idea of emphasising and objectifying domestic sounds, also the idea that it's not people who have full time jobs doing work for BBC documentaries, but communities of regular people who are invested in these sounds.There seems something scientific about this kind of music. Is science something you consider when creating these pieces or do they come from a more internal place?
I have the highest respect for those who are overtly scientific within their work, musically speaking, but that’s not who I am. There's still so much I don't know about synthesis or max patches or pure data, so a lot of what I produce comes from what available skill set I already have, which a lot of the time is still pretty mimetic.I know this release came from a deeply personal space and I think it’s important to be able to have the humanity or emotion within your work stand out.
'A Circulation' is availabe now through This Thing.