Dreams of Tall Buildings are Darren Joyce, Simon Oz and Justin Wiggan. They formed at the end of 1999 and dived into a caffeine fuelled haze of found sounds and short wave radio oscillations. Initial explorations led to the release of a series of limited tapes and CDRs in hand made packaging that included branded wooden sleeves and hospital specimen bags.
They have described their sound as ranging from minimal microwaves, breathing and non-notes to hideously distorted trumpet and string loops (a bit like Miles Davis stabbing Stan Getz in a floatation tank!) More about their recordings later, first I wanted to ask them about their live performances:

"The shows depend on the venue," explains Justin.
"It was like with the CBSO gig," adds Darren, "we went to see the place and it had such beautiful acoustics that we decided that we wanted to combine acoustic instruments that naturally travel well in that environment as well as the keyboards and electronics." (picture left)
"I think that set had a real classical sound," says Justin. "We would not have been able to get away with that in any other venue. It would not have carried."
It was a very different set to the one at the Medicine Bar, I suggest.
"That was very cold and very harsh," he replies.
"We try to adapt to each gig," says Darren. "The only one that was not like that was The Klinker Club in London. We went down blind but had an idea of the gig we wanted to do. We took everything so that all we needed was two 13 amp sockets. We don't like to repeat ourselves or play the same set twice.
"When we work on a live show we start off trying different orders of loops and samples," he continues. "It takes time, two or three weeks to get a flow of what we want."
"We then try out different instruments on each track which is why we end up using so many instruments on stage," says Simon.
"We can't play half of them which is the great thing," admits Darren. "We approach it at a level of naivety and we sometimes get something quite different."

One of the most impressive things about the live shows is the way that that three members effortlessly move around each other and the various instruments.
"It's almost as if we choreograph ourselves," says Darren. "We use such a small room to rehearse in that we get used to it."
Justin explains that they've even had local dancers offering work with them!
"Rather than us writing music for them, they had the idea of inventing a piece for us, putting all the equipment in a diagonal line and getting us to work our way around it."

Three people producing conceptual art; sounds like trouble! Consensus or compromise?
"I think we compromise, says Darren, "but I think that we're lucky enough to have all agreed and liked the stuff we've done so far."
"It's almost as if we know what the brief is," adds Justin. "We have an idea what Dreams of Tall Buildings is about and we all work towards that. We all know each other and we all trust each other."
"If a track needs finishing off," says Darren. "I could just as easily let Simon carry on and do it. I'd have no problem what they came up with and the same vice versa."
"Having different tastes is what makes it more exciting," explains Simon.
"If you've all got the same albums you'd just be nodding your head to the same beat," continues Darren.

How do you know when to stop?
"That's part of the reason that we were excited about doing the Static Caravan single; 10 tracks, 1 minute each," starts Simon.
"It is really hard to condense what you want to do into 1 minute," continues Darren. "Getting a minute piece was good for us because we can waffle on a bit! I think you just have to step back and listen to it. I've just bought a 16-track studio, there's so much room on there. I've had to back-track on a few of the tracks because I've put things in just because I can and there's been no need. Sometimes the equipment you use can limit you and that's a good thing."

Can conceptual work be done badly?
Simon: "If you don't do it!"
Justin: "How can you define something as bad art? It's down do the individual."
Darren: "Not if ultimately you are not bullshitting yourself, pretending to be anything or anyone else. Hopefully what comes across is that we all love what we do. I wouldn't care if no one was out there listening to us. It's great that people do but I just love doing it. I'd set up in the street. It shows through if you are not honest about it and that comes through as bad art. For our first live show I did the sound. It was such a new outing for us that I wanted to be a punter and see what we would look like actually doing it. I needed to stand back and think would I actually like this, would I actually watch it and I thought 'yeah, I would like it and I would watch it'."

"We'd like to work more with film-makers, says Darren.
"There's a piece we are doing at the moment for a guy called Mike Stubbs," continues Simon. "He's a visual artist based up in Aberdeen who's previously worked with David Lynch. He's got a 10 minute piece based around a Dundee council estate."
"It's a bunch of kids trashing a knock off, a robbed car," explains Darren, "and he's asked us to do a 10 minute soundtrack. That's good because he's obviously got the links with David Lynch."
"There's also a guy called Sid Cornelius," adds Justin. "He does this weird sort of hip-hop with spasticated timing. I've never heard anything like that. He's done remixes of two of the tracks from the single; Shield and Sink and Quiet Cab Home. It's great. He usually works with four-track and vinyl but he's moving onto computers. He does not know how to use them - I'm quite excited to see what he'll do!"
"There are some exciting things coming up in the future," he continues, "but it would be foolish of us to talk about it before they are finalised. Don't sell the fur before you've shot the bear!"