Justice Yeldham has become renowned for his unique brand of noise art. He screams, bleeds and scars and also finds the time to run his own label DualPlover, a hub for


‘commercially challenged and destitute music since 1995’ Versus caught up with him to talk about glass and idiotic audiences


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Would you consider your music reactionary? I’m unsure what the question means sorry could you elaborate? Using the dictionary its seems like a politi- cal term meaning a conservative person who reacts to changes in the status quo which I’m definitely not in relation to my music or otherwise.


Are you concerned about what people get out of your shows? By being a performer that eats glass and bleeds heavily, you must be aware that you will attract voyeurs to your shows and that a lot of people are there to see you in pain - how does that make you feel? Well yes it pisses me off that elements of the crowd are bloodthirsty morons who think my show includes premeditated bloodletting and it’s a true pleasure to fin-


place alongside pop or hip hop, why is this? Each to their own really it’s not my concern what peo- ple find musical and what they don’t; I can only use my definition, that music is any combination of sound that derives an emotional response that instinctively makes your body want to move. I know my music dose this for me, while some other noise music doesn’t or to be fair some pop music doesn’t either; therefore music is sim- ply in the ear of the beholder and nobody has the right to brand something as music or not music.


Has anybody close to you ever told you that you should stop what you were doing? Yes numerous friends are concerned that my luck will run out and that I may lose an eye, or worse cut an ma- jor artery while playing. I guess they are right and I agree


something that obviously needed stitches and although i have travel insurance i had a gig in london the next day and had no time for hospital so i soaked the wound in vodka and wrapped it as tightly as i could. Once the show high had subsided the pain began to grow and the next day at soundcheck i was in a terrible amount of pain so i decided to take a look, unwrapping the bandages the closer i got to finishing the more pain- ful it got, at the end I discovered the gauze had become fused to the exposed nerve. Any attempts to remove the gauze slowly caused extreme pain even after re-soaking with vodka to hopefully moisten up the blood that had congealed the dressing and the wound together. Finally I decided on the old band-aid method and just pulled it off with a single move and I’ve gotta say that was the most painful sensation i have ever experienced. You can


It pisses me off that elements of the crowd are bloodthirsty morons who think my show includes premeditated bloodletting


ish a show unscathed and smile while these dickheads cry out ‘where’s the blood man’ like that’s all I’m good for ‘bleeding!!’ I play glass and bleeding is symptomatic of that, I never intentionally hurt myself, it’s true I ham it up by biting and smashing the sheet but even these elements are techniques I use to change the timbre of a sheet mid performance. If these dumb shits are there to see me in pain they are wasting their money, perform- ing makes me as high as a kite when I play and don’t feel a thing, if you want blood for bloods sake go see a caged fight. How did you find out shards of glass could provide you with this sound? It was an evolutionary process of elimination starting with turntables, basically I started as a turntablist and stripped everything away until I was left with nothing but an enlarged diamond tipped stylus.


Why do you have so many alter egos? Do you ever worry that you spread yourself too thin? I like to differentiate between projects and moments in time. Currently my three active projects Justice Yeldham (solo glass), Rice Corpse (glass/ drums/ piano trio) and DJ smallcock (turntables?) are all keeping me busy, how- ever I’m doing less and less Yeldham shows these days and am concentrating on Rice Corpse who actually re- hearse once a week which is more than I can ever say for Justice Yeldham. I’m also in the middle of building a major installation as DJ smallcock which is a racetrack made out of old vinyl records that two remote controlled cars with stylus attached will be raced on by members of the crowd competition style. How do you defend yourself against people who say that your music isn’t music? Noise has no


it’s a pretty stupid vocation especially when you only get a shitty door spilt of $25 with 8 other bands who didn’t risk their lives that night. But when it’s one of your favou- rite activities, that delivers you joy no matter it’s fiscal sense it’s by definition a vice, and most good vices are better if they are bad for you.


Have you ever tried using any other material for your set, or is it the element of danger of using glass that attracts you to it? Since discovering the glass I haven’t looked back, noth- ing comes close to glass. It resonates beautifully and reacts well to my nuanced affections, it doesn’t feed- back as readily as metal sheets and at the same time is a clear interface that allows the audience to view my vocal technique. It’s also a volatile essence that can be quite captivating, so yes the danger element is certainly in play. Aesthetically however, to me the notion of ‘will he bleed’ not ‘when will he bleed’ is a far more interest- ing aspect when delivering tension.


Has there ever been a moment during a perfor- mance that you’ve been scared by what you’re doing? Scared no, worried yes, a shard broke off while play- ing in Tenerife and landed on my wrist in a nasty way. It was only a dull pain but I could feel the skin had spread and sensed the cut had punctured the skin and may need attention. So I played on for a bit and finished the show before excusing myself to check out the wound requesting a bottle of vodka on my way out for sani- tary purposes. The wound was deep and had indeed cut clean through the skin to the point you could see a damaged nerve hanging out (which is probably why i managed to feel pain while playing) now here was


sort of still see the nerve under the scar tissue on my left wrist which is now my achilles heel in that its quite sensitive to touch and can be used aginst me.


Could anybody do what you do? Yes and no, anyone could play glass vocally and use similar techniques to mine, some people may even have my nerve and be oblivious to the danger enough to play in my relaxed nonchalant style but finally to do what I do they would also need my aesthetic, as thats the thing that sets musicians apart no matter the instrument, so yes anyone could and can play glass, but musically it would be different, and if they could sing pitch perfect they could easily play scores on it, which is something I only wished I could do.


What is next for Justice Yeldham, besides a South American tour? Where do you see your music go- ing from here? Well I’ve just been booked to play the Sydney Opera House and my family are coming to see me play for the first time, should be interesting!


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