Silica-Gel

January 31, 2006





*Name: Silica-Gel

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: Silica-Gel is the band. Wifflefist was the name of the collective of Folks we worked with in NC. Silica-Gel was a stand-alone band, but Wifflefist included other Projects like Krapper Keeper, Banana Twins, Repetophile, BeatleSS, Polycarp, and others.

*Members: Michael Pilmer, Chris Tector

*Founding Members: Michael Pilmer, Chris Tector, Jeff Gosztyla (early member who was only with the band for a few months). There were originally 3 members of the band, but Silica-Gel was a duo for most of it's life.

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I guess Silica-Gel was a mixture of all three. We liked experimenting with sound, no matter what it's source or means of construction. We were particularly opposed to standard vocals/lyrics tracks, for whatever reason.

*Another genre descriptor: Never came up with something nifty like that to describe our noise.

*Is there a story behind your name: Chris Tector and I were heavily into Skinny Puppy and Severed Heads in the mid/late 80's. I acquired a packet of Silica-Gel (the little bags of desiccant which are used inside new product boxes to keep the immediate environment dry), and I was attracted by the "Silica-Gel" logo on the bag...and thought it would make a great name/logo for a noise band. Somehow it seemed like a "Skinny Puppy/Severed Heads" kind of name. Maybe because it started with an "S"?? LOL. I've still got the original packet of Silica-Gel, which I scanned and attached to this email as a jpeg file.

*Location: We started Silica-Gel in Raleigh, NC...where we both attended NC State University. We met at NC State a few years before we started the band.

*Original Location: I'm originally from Ohio.

*What is your creative/artistic background: I've always been drawing & creating artwork in many ways. I remember really getting into illustrating back in the mid 70's when I was 8 years old. Started out drawing lots of pictures of KISS/Gene Simmons. Later I moved onto drawing robots, Kraftwerk, DEVO, Dungeons & Dragons characters (although I couldn't stand playing the game). Most of my childhood art projects were fueled by a constant stream of rock music oozing from my SoundDesign home stereo.

The next phase of art for me was sticker graffiti in the early 1980's, then standard spray-paint graffiti art in the mid to late 1980's.

I was in a few bands spanning from 1985 until the early 2000's, including these bands: Rabid Salesmen, Silica-Gel, Krapper Keeper, THOR & The Ass Boys, and a few others. A friend and I created some noisy drum & bass noise in the mid/late 1990's under the name "Motor Tic Posse".

In the mid 1990's, a friend and I started the Implied Regurgitation sticker campaign, which is still going strong today: www.ithrewup.com

I think that covers most of the art/music I've been involved with.

*History: Silica-Gel disbanded in the late 1990's, and started in 1993.

*Born: I was born on Dec. 11th, 1967 in Stow, Ohio. (near Akron). Not sure about Chris Tector or Jeff G.

*Motivations: I loved making noise and playing with sounds, and the collage aspect of Silica-Gel music really appealed to me.

*Philosophy: Play with sound. We would always say that one way to a great sound is to "sample it, slow it down, f*** with it".

*How would you like to be remembered: As far as Silica-Gel goes - as some guys from NC who made some interesting and entertaining noise.

*Web address: Silica-Gel doesn't have one yet, but you can find a little info here: www.wifflefist.com (hasn't been updated in ages, though). Feel free to contact me directly: ithrewup@ithrewup.com. Someday there will be a Silica-Gel web site. I've got tons of stuff to share - images from shows, flyers, and stories about how the songs were created, and the specific sounds that were used. -- What web address would you like used on our links page? Nothing to do with Silica-Gel, but it's my most recent art project:
www.ithrewup.com