March 10-16, 2005

cover story

Stark Raving

Laptop battler Starkey clicks on the IDM scene.

by Andrew Parks

You can bet a few heads turned and scoffed when graduate student Paul J. Geissinger presented his neo-classical piece "Bells" to the students and staff of Temple's music department last fall. Geissinger, who moonlights as laptop beat conductor Starkey, had preloaded an iPod with sterile, rubbery beats and let pianist Brian Ciach play over them. Blasphemy! At least it was to the fine-tuned, prickly ears of traditionalists. "It's a struggle between people who are really into communication theory and people who are into production," says Geissinger of his work at Temple. "I like both ends of things — classic compositional electronic music and what I'd consider beat-driven electronic music."

Starkey's latter productions have risen through the ranks of Philadelphia's small but strong electronic scene in the past year, largely through two monthly parties he co-hosts: IN, which features a top floor of grime and a minimal techno basement; and FM, which has booked such diverse national artists as Drop the Lime, End and members of the Gameboy-sampling 8-bit Revolution collective (playing Sat., March 19 upstairs at the Khyber). But his rep is quickly spreading, thanks to a February victory at the Mid-Atlantic Laptop Battle in D.C. We talked to Geissinger about his storied past in songwriting and managed to nab the demo he's pushing to prospective labels this spring.

City Paper: Nobody's music past starts with trip-hop, space rock and synthetic beat opuses. Where does your story start?

Paul J. Geissinger: I started playing piano when I was 5 or 6. My skills have tapered off a bit because I've done so much writing lately. I also played saxophone, oboe and string bass in the high school band and sang in a boys' choir for six years. I played sports until I was in eighth grade, when I realized I wasn't going to make it into the NBA from the bench.

CP: So you became a band geek instead?

PG: No, because I wasn't in the marching band. That was the only thing I didn't roll with. That was too much — just standing around getting yelled at by other band geeks.

CP: What's with the name?

PG: Starkey is Ringo Starr's real last name.

CP: Is he your favorite Beatle?

PG: No, Paul definitely is.

CP: Electronic music and elitism are often used in the same sentence. As a producer who writes what some would call "intelligent dance music," don't you think this is unfortunate?

PG: It depends. I'm surprised an artist like Autechre is popular since they've become an academic electronic group. If you think of electronic music, it gets lumped together. We say it, too: "A Night of New Electronic Music." But what does that mean? Electronic music is this huge genre, from house to trance to breakcore to IDM to minimal techno, so many things — and that is the problem.

CP: Your FM monthly has done quite well recently, in terms of the acts you're drawing and the attendance. Did you have a hard time getting people to come out at first?

PG: Yeah. Philadelphia is a tough draw, especially with a new night. If it was more than a monthly, it might be difficult to get people out at all. The visuals help because a person standing behind a computer is not entertaining to everyone. There's something to be said for a live band.

CP: Isn't that the problem, though, that people don't know how to react when a live electronic act is simply banging his or her head behind a PowerBook?

PG: Yeah, they don't know if it's a DJ or performer. As long as they are engaged, I'm happy.

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Starkey
demo (self-released)
At seven tracks and nearly 30 minutes, Starkey's first properly sequenced release is more like an album than a demo. And what an eardrum tease it is for anyone into electronic music: progressive without pretense and pleasant without resorting to pop ambient wallpaper motifs. "Prisoner" shifts styles, tempos and overtones (from sweet to nasty) like a producer who's a prisoner of his own creativity; "The Winds" drifts along on a string sample before being decimated by breakbeats and peak-hour drum 'n' bass; and "Almost Time" sprays speaker cabinets like a more tasteful Squarepusher. Underneath the layers is a producer who could go anywhere from here.