[embed-1]
Charleston’s first Poet Laureate, Marcus Amaker has something more to offer on his latest ever-growing project, Tape Loop. It’s here that Amaker speaks without words.
“Tape Loop is a musical project of mine that I created in 2003 when I moved to Charleston,” says Amaker. “I got into electronic music really hardcore, idolizing electronic musicians, being a huge Nine Inch Nails fan, and I spent some money on a drum machine back in 2003.”
Amaker explored the drum machine to its furthest extent and played with a synthesizer here and there. In turn, he was inspired to create music of his own under Tape Loop, through a series of albums. Amaker developed an alter ego for this project that allows him to be “completely free, and completely weird, and completely experimental.”
When discussing the inspiration for this large body of work, Amaker notes events in his life. “There are things that happen in my life that poetry doesn’t express and music always goes there for me,” Amaker says. The creative process behind the music is a bit more abstract than the usual. Amaker creates sounds daily and uploads them to a drop box, accumulating a wealth of what will become an album.
Amaker and his wife are expecting their first child soon and this has inspired his latest album, The Birth of all Things. The first track on the album called “twelve weeks, now” begins with a sample of Amaker’s child’s heartbeat taken from an ultrasound.
The album is pivoted on this track for a reason — Amaker cites all the emotions — including “extreme joy and the reality of fear” — he’s felt building up to the birth of his child represented on this album.
When looking back, Amaker hopes that this album will take him back to the state he’s currently in as it’s a feeling he never wants to forget. “I am already thinking about the music I’m listening to as our baby is going to be born — it’s going to be the music that really sparks me in an emotional way for the rest of my life … 100 years from now, I’ll listen to this record and it’ll make me think of the time when we were waiting for the birth of our first child.”
Love Best of Charleston?
Help the Charleston City Paper keep Best of Charleston going every year with a donation. Or sign up to become a member of the Charleston City Paper club.