This interview is part of a pair of interviews done with DJ Nocte and DJ Rabid Angel. They co-host a gothic music radio program on rfb. We asked them the same questions and got two sets of answers in return. Join us to learn about rfb, gothic music, and the state of the world. Glenn is DJ Nocte.
Name: Glenn A Letourneau, JR.
Birthday: 12/24/1981
What do you enjoy about being a part of Brattleboro?
Well, that's an odd question...I guess I enjoy the level of activism in the town and the community involvement. I like the fact that for the most part we all seem to be on the same page.
How did you end up here?
I was born here at BMH and then my family lived here until I was two. We then moved to Guilford for the next 7 years of my life. When I was about 9 and a half we moved back down to Brattleboro (not like it's very far away anyways) and I lived here again until I was 17. I then moved with my wife at the time (don't ask - it's another story altogether) to West Dummerston for about 8 months. Then we moved back to Brattleboro for about a year and a half until we lost our apartment and we were homeless in February. Eventually we had no choice but to move to Keene, NH, as they do not charge first, last, and security. Instead in NH they only charge you first and security. I really didn't want to move to NH as I have always found myself a rather Vermont Elitist in the truest form, but hey, what could I do? So, anyway, I lived in Keene for about a year, got divorced, found a new girlfriend, Lost that new girlfriend and moved back here to Brattleboro. There are a lot more details to this story, but for the sake of time and the fact that I just don' t wanna talk about the past I will move on.
Do you work in town?
Unemployed, regretfully. I do, however, work on occasion for Richard Gotlieb at Sunnyside Solar, Inc. in Guilford.
Do you go to school here?
Go to school full time at Greenfield Community College (GCC) Majoring in Environmental Science/Human Ecology. After I get my Associates Degree from GCC I plan on going for my Bachelors Degree at Green Mountain College (GMC) in Poultney, VT.
Tell us about your radio show on rfb...
Well, it's half mine and half Jim's (DJ Rabid Angel) and all the communities. The name "Corruption's Manifest" was coined by DJ Rabid Angel about a year ago when we first started on rfb. I actually had my own show (Anti-Matter) for about 6 weeks before I started with Jim on Corruption. At first I was only a guest DJ on Jim's show as I was in college at the time in my first semester and I could not focus on school and my show. After school got out for the summer I began making regular appearances and became the official co-host of the show.
Our show is basically a mix of Goth, Industrial, Electronic Beat Music (EBM), Darkwave, Death Rock, Synth-Pop, and a little bit of 80's Wave from time to time. Basically the music we play is like the music you hear in a lot of clubs, except with darker sounding lyrics. It is made to make you wanna get up and move around.
Now, as for the organizing behind the scenes of our show, not a lot of folks realize how much time we actually put into our show. We spin every Sunday and by the time we wake up Monday we begin listening to music in order to begin working on the following week's show. Most of my shows are put together between Wednesday and Sunday and half of the time I am already thinking of the show for the week following. You see, DJ Rabid Angel and I have a rule on our show that we don't break often... we will never play the same song by the same artist two weeks in a row because we like to keep the show fresh. We also have a Live Journal that we use as a web site for our show. What this allows us to do is to talk to the folks who are listening while we are playing music instead of stopping the music every 3-5 minutes. This also keeps the DJ that is not spinning busy as we average 100-400+ comments per show.
Another big thing about "Corruption's Manifesto" is that we promote small artists. Most of the bands you hear on our show are not on major record labels and a lot of the CD's that we play have been purchased directly from the artists at live shows. We get promo's from bands that we like sometimes too, which certainly helps when you live on a very limited budget. Our mission is to get new artists in our scene out to the public. We try and help out the artists in any way we can and in fact we have built a lot of personal relationships with some of the bands we play and we see them when we go out clubbing occasionally.
The show has quite a following, especially on the Internet. How did that come about?
Well, you see, this is where the Internet really pays off. Most of the net listeners on our show were people that DJ Rabid Angel or I knew online from some forum or e-list but a lot of the listeners were referred to us by there friends. We also have a few listeners who just found us from one site or another. We are actually linked to a lot of other pages. As for the works behind this, DJ Rabid Angel is head recruiter. He is the main person behind the net following. Me? I am the (CM) Minister of Propaganda or "Perception Management" as we now call it. My job is to get our site and our show mentioned all across the Internet. We are now linked to, I think, 2 major artists (in our scene) web-sites and we are on tons of other pages. We also are linked to about 5-10 official band Live Journals and a whole slew of fan sites. Every week we cross post our opening message on 10-20 different blogs that hundreds of people read in order to try and increase our show's net following and to get new people into the music. We have had people listen to our show on the net but we are still trying to max out the rfb listener space of 32 people. So far the most we have had is 14 at one time (that we know of). We have had all kinds of people listen to our show. We have even had a celebrity listener on our show: Warren Ellis (Famous writer) who wrote about us briefly on his website.
For those unfamiliar, what is goth music? Are there defining characteristics?
Very good question. Now this is where DJ Rabid Angel and I may differ a little bit. Goth music began with the song "Bella Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus (Peter Murphy). It was basically a sort of folky rock with a bit of a morbid twist to it. It has progressed a lot since then and it has become much more of household name. There are defining characteristics to Goth music but they are so subtle sometimes that you find yourself asking "Can this song be considered Goth?" It really is a tough question sometimes. As for what we play most...I really don't play that much, what we (DJ Rabid Angel and I) would call Goth music, as Goth tends to be slower than most of the other types of music we play. I am primarily an EBM DJ. I like to play music that makes people get out of their chair and wanna bounce around dancing or cleaning the house.
Can you recommend some music we should hear to begin exploring goth?
For Goth = Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Sioxi and the Banshee's, Older Cure.
Industrial = Wumpscut, Die Krupps, Nine Inch Nails, X-Marks the Pedwalk.
Darkwave = The Cruxshadows, Die Form, Switchblade Symphony.
EBM = E-Craft, Covenant, Apoptygma Berzerk, VNV Nation, Razed in Black.
Is there anything essential to be familiar with?
Well, with all of the above styles of music you will find that a lot of the lyrics will be along the same trains of thought. Usually the songs are about what most people would find to be a bit depressing such as Lost Lovers, War, Death, and a lot of other depressing or unusual stuff. Now, to me, these are real issues that effect our everyday lives and to me that makes them relevant. It also helps to know that the artists write most of these songs because they experienced the feelings/emotions expressed in the songs. The songs we play are lyrical expressions of emotion and when you put them together in a show you have a tidal wave of emotions packed in with all this heavy thumping background. My goal for every show is to make people think and dance. I try to play songs that will touch people or at least make them contemplate the meaning of the song.
Does Brattleboro have a goth scene?
(Extreme Laughter) Um...NO. Brattleboro has a few Goths but there really is no scene here. This is not to say that there are not a lot of folks who enjoy our music. We have a lot of calls expressing compliments and such, but as for a scene...No, Brattleboro has never really had much of a Goth Scene. Maybe that' s why my high school years were so hard?
Is it required for goth fans to look or dress a certain way?
No, it is not required that we look or dress a certain way, but most of us do have certain trends we seem to follow, like the all black or faded gray which once was black. Or the long Black Trench Coats and combat boots which seem to get us looked at as if we were manifestations of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. I just don't get that. Most of the Goths I know are some of the friendliest people I know and yet if we dress in all black we become monsters to a lot of people. I think that the stereotypes thrown at Goths are just plain ignorant and completely unfounded. It's like saying that because one member of a certain sub-culture does something wrong they all will. But to get back to your original question...
There are many types of Goths and for those many types there are many different styles. Some Goths don't have a certain style and don't look the stereotypical "Goth" look. These people prefer to just dress however and that' s fine because "Goth" is not about the clothes you wear, it's about what you feel inside. There are some Goths however who go all out with their style of dress. I have seen some outfits that must have cost the wearer at least $1,000. I have even seen people wearing computer circuit boards as fashion items. I kinda like the whole Cyber-Goth look with the circuit boards and stuff, but Goth is more of a state of being with ever-changing styles of dress. In this particular scenario, the Goth makes the clothes, not the clothes make the Goth.
rfb has been in the news many times in the past year. How do you think this has impacted the station and its listeners?
Well, I certainly think that it has made us more out in the open and it has brought us new listeners. It's also been a good gauge of the amount support we have behind us as well as the amount of opposition. I think that over all it has been a mostly positive thing for us.
Our spies tell us there is some sort of game going on in town, and that if we are told the rules, we must play. Can you comment on this underground diversion?
Ich weifl nicht von irgend solchen Informationen, noch wurde ich geben solche Informationen, wenn ich sie hatte.
Ich pladiere das Funftel.
Do you have a world view? What's your take on the world situation?
Oh, I certainly have a worldview. My view is that the world as we know it is being bought and sold to the highest corporate enterprises without our consent. My view is that the White House and the American Government have become something that can be bought and sold...something that can be handed down in a sort of financially corrupt Aristocracy. I believe that we are poisoning the world in the interests of money and power. I believe that the number one problem in the world today is the disparity between the wealthy and the poor. 90+% of the world' s financial resources are held by 5% of the world' s population and 3+% of the 5% are American' s. How can we ever hope to stop hunger, homelessness, disease, illiteracy, and over-population if there is such a gap between the rich and poor? Personally my view is that Capitalism isn't working the way we thought it would. I guess I have a lot of views but that could take days to write as they are the core of my motivation in life. I guess I would conclude this by saying that it is my view that the world will not get better until we get better people in the world. Or at least better people in positions of power. Until that time, I would say that we need organizations such as the ELF, the ALF, and Earth First.
If you could give anything to Brattleboro, what would it be?
Well, now that we have a parking garage (which is ugly and destroys the look of town,) I would like to see Harmony lot turned into a park with stone walkways and luscious green grass all over. I would put a big fountain in the center...Maybe even the Wells Fountain if people could agree on it. After Harmony Parking lot became Harmony Park I would love to see the farmers market held there so that it was truly accessible to the people of town. Then I think that I would like to see the Common Ground restored to its one time state of operation. However since you said "give" I would like to give everyone in town weight off of their shoulders by closing Vermont Yankee (ENVY) and giving everyone 5KW of solar power for there personal use.
What do you like to do for fun?
Listen to music, watch movies, swim, go out into the woods, and get lost tracking animals or just site seeing, read books, spin on rfb, go camping... anything but sit and watch TV or be inside for too long. I have to stay entertained, or I tend to get jittery.
Are there any questions you care to answer that no one ever asks you?
Yes. I'm single (Laughter). Actually, to be more serious, I think that there are no questions that I feel the need to answer as you folks have done a nice job with the questions on this interview.
Thanks for taking time with iBrattleboro!
No problem, the honor is all mine. I' m just flattered that someone wanted to interview me