Interview with Ryan Patterson | By Tim Anderl | Photo by Jacki Vitetta
Louisville, Kentucky, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Patterson—also known as R/Pattern—has long been a critical fixture in the city’s punk scene. Perhaps best known for his work with Black God and Coliseum, fans of punk and hardcore regard him as a forerunner of progressive musicianship.
Although some might consider the moody post-punk direction of Patterson’s Fotocrime a left turn, he’s not willing to concede to that perception.
“Fotocrime may be more of a wide right turn. It’s not an incredibly huge stretch from the last Coliseum album, at least conceptually,” Patterson asserts. “People who know my tastes, as well as the radio show I did for a few years, might not have been too surprised by this sound. It’s music I’ve loved since I was young, and I’ve grown more and more interested in exploring synthesizers and sequencing. But, of course, reinvention is interesting and exciting, and this is what the band shaped into as I was working on new music. Plus, it’s nice to be able to sing in my vocal range.”
Alongside writing and recording for a pair of EP releases, 2017’s Always Hell and Always Night, Patterson was demoing and recording material for Principle of Pain, Fotocrime’s debut LP. The record was released via his own Auxiliary Records on May 18.
Principle of Pain—which was recorded in Baltimore with famed producer and musician J. Robbins—continues to vault drum machines and analog synthesizer sequencing to the forefront of Fotocrime’s sonic landscape, further establishing the band’s distinct musical identity.
“The album material, with the exception of ‘Gods in the Dark,’ was written over the course of 2016 and recorded alongside the Always Hell EP in early 2017,” Patterson recalls. “I wrote and performed all of that on my own and initially planned for Always Hell to be a quick teaser before Principle of Pain gave a more complete perspective of Fotocrime. As the album took longer to release than planned, we recorded a few new songs after Nick [Thieneman] and Shelley [Anderson] joined the band. [That became] the Always Night EP. It’s interesting and different for me to release music out of the order that it was written and recorded, but I’m glad it worked out this way in the end.”
On Principle of Pain, themes of confusion and uncertainty surface on a reoccurring basis, because, by Patterson’s admission, both are things that worry and intrigue him.
“Confusion and uncertainty are unsettling by nature, right?” Patterson explains. “I can’t say that I specifically experience confusion on any type of regular basis, but I am regularly baffled by the choices humans make, their selfishness and obliviousness to realities that lead to detriment. On the other hand, the road to the unknown can be a warm, sunny path or a foggy, black pit. Sometimes, it’s exhilarating to dive in; at other times, it’s the thing I fear most.”
Additionally, the stunning album cover was painted by Chicago-by-way-of-Barcelona artist Noelia Towers, renowned for her beautiful, challenging artwork depicting elements of BDSM and feminine power. The cover is her first commissioned artwork and an interesting element of the Fotocrime narrative given the debt punk, post-punk, and goth music owe to women and LGBTQ innovators.
“Gay and trans people and culture was a huge part of the early waves of punk, especially in New York City, and women were certainly among the most important figures throughout the history of punk,” Patterson asserts. “As the aggressive sounds of the music reached less progressive ears and it grew to become a diluted idea over the past 40 years, some of this was lost along the way.”
“Post-punk and its offshoots were a reaction to the earliest examples of this lack of progressive attitudes in music, art, and ideals,” he concludes. “I think music that values depth and introspection rather than blunt ideas and sounds is more welcoming and less specifically masculine.”
Purchase Principle Of Pain here: Bandcamp | Europe
