A proud outsider, Travis Egedy has stood on the fringes of pop culture for years. Known for the gothic industrial electronic music he makes under the name PICTUREPLANE, Egedy has also been making visual art and designing clothing for his cybernetic streetwear line ALIEN BODY. Consistent throughout each of these creative endeavors are motifs of neon psychedelia, techno-mysticism, cyberpunk, and the macabre. If you haven’t heard his music or seen his clothes, you’ve probably heard of the occult-themed dark electronic micro-genre he coined the term for — “witch house.”
The Santa Fe native has been keeping busy since the release of his 2015 album Technomancer by touring extensively with artists like Alice Glass and HEALTH, designing clothing, painting, and doing everything in between. On September 18th, 2018 fans finally got another album from the multi-faceted artist, titled Degenerate.
We spoke with PICTUREPLANE about the new record, his Denver DIY roots, and what it’s like standing at the intersection of the esoteric and the electronic.
Tell me a bit about Degenerate. What kind of sounds and styles can we hear on this new album? What does the name represent? What went into the process of making the album?
This record is a continuation of me flirting with my inspirations in lo-fi darkwave and industrial, EBM, hip-hop, and a lot of 90’s new age music like Enigma and Deep Forest. The term “Degenerate” really came in to prominence in the 1930’s. It was a way for Nazis in Germany to describe abstract artists, painters and poets as being inferior and regressive in a fascist society.
After the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland at a DIY venue where 36 people died, the warehouse I used to live at in Denver called Rhinoceropolis was shut down, along with many other venues across America. Right-wing trolls on 4chan and Reddit were publishing names and addresses of every DIY space in the country to try and have people report them to the cops and fire department to get them shut down. It was so dark and fucked up. These trolls were harassing me on Twitter calling me, my friends, and the artists that died in the fire “Degenerates.” I was like, if you consider these beautiful, radical, artistic people “degenerates,” then I will happily embrace being a degenerate. I’ve been a degenerate freak my whole life. And I am proud of it.
The cover art for Degenerate features a profile view of a person wearing a gimp mask, and there’s a cut on the album called “B.D.S.M.” Marquis de Sade has also been a reference point for many of your Alien Body pieces. Is your use of BDSM imagery merely an aesthetic choice or is there another reason for it being so common in your work?
I really don’t have any personal connection to the BDSM community, other than just my respect and admiration for people willing to push themselves or their bodies to new extreme limits. A lot of my art and music over the years has been influenced by certain aesthetics from the BDSM underground. I have a really crazy collection of wild fetish zines I have found in Germany and around Europe on my travels. I am influenced by subcultures of all kinds, and the BDSM community is just an interesting subculture community.
I’ve been a degenerate freak my whole life. And I am proud of it.
Your last release before Degenerate was 2015’s Technomancer. What kept you busy during this 3 year gap?
I feel like there is a lot of pressure on artists now to be constantly putting out new music — certainly within the rap world. The internet makes people really impatient, and it makes us all consume art way faster. It just takes me a while because I produce everything myself and I am also writing all the lyrics and vocal melodies. I took some time off after my last record. I went on a bunch of tours around the world with artists like Sega Bodega, OKlou, HEALTH, the Faint, Gang of Four, Alice Glass, and Zola Jesus.
I also did a few month long art residencies and had solo gallery exhibitions in Austin, Texas and Ghent, Belgium. I built a permanent art installation at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico too. And all throughout that time was really getting Alien Body off the ground as a company, designing tons of clothes. And I did release an album under a new side project called UPSETTER, which is some freaky industrial techno shit.
Although you’re currently based in Brooklyn, you got your start in the Denver music scene, first gaining recognition at the Rhinoceropolis DIY space. Can you tell me about what your experiences were like during your years there?
I miss it all the time. I lived there for 6 years, and it really was so life changing and special. Just being part of a warehouse art collective of total freaks, artists and musicians, where everyone is supporting everyone else’s demented mania and wild ideas. It was total freedom and I witnessed some of the most beautiful shit I’ve ever seen there. Such magical shows and performances.
Being involved in a DIY space like that made me the person I am today. So many insane bands played there. Everyone from Future Islands and lightning bolt to $uicideBoy$ and Lil Peep! I can’t stress enough how important those types of spaces are not just for underground art to flourish, but also for individual creative development. That’s why it is so painful and damaging when they get shut down.
All my hip-hop friends would call me “emo” and my emo friends would call me “hip-hop.” I was really somewhere in between.
Photo by Conjure
You’re a multidisciplinary artist, but there’s a common thread running through all of your work, namely references to esoterica, mysticism, the macabre, UFOs, and rave culture. Can you talk a bit about these recurring themes and what they mean to you?
Really since elementary school I have been attracted to all things “underground” and weird. I just have a never ending appetite for more knowledge and information. I have a deep interest in the paranormal and fringe side of society, and of the more spiritual aspects of the universe. I believe in humanity and our true potential. Everything is way stranger than we are told. And we are far more powerful than we are led to believe.
A lot of my artwork references these aspects of radical culture and the people involved who are resisting the status quo, and that can be anything, whether it is the government or established ideas about history and science. I am interested in challenging conventions and rattling cages and institutions.
How were you first introduced to these topics?
I grew up in New Mexico. There was a lot of new-age type stuff down there, and a lot of UFO sightings and stuff. But I think reading tons of books! And going to art school and just learning more about the avant-garde and contemporary art, along with extreme music and performance. Like, really far out noise music and industrial culture from the early 80s. The artist Genesis P Orridge has been really influential to me over the years. So have certain psychedelic experiences and paranormal experiences. I have seen UFOs and had direct contact with them multiple times in the Colorado wilderness. That shit changed my life.
What music did you grow up listening to? What artists most influenced the Pictureplane sound?
I grew up as a hip-hop kid. Like, I was in a breakdancing crew in 8th grade [laughs]. I was obsessed with underground weird art rap stuff like Company Flow and Def Jux and everything on Anticon. But I was also going to tons of screamo and emo shows, hardcore and DIY punk. I was listening to tons of shit like DJ Shadow but also At the Drive-In and Thursday. All my hip-hop friends would call me “emo” and my emo friends would call me “hip-hop.” I was really somewhere in between.
There was a huge teenage music scene in Santa Fe, where I grew up. So many teen bands would perform at an all ages place called Warehouse 21. I started a rap group when I was 16. That’s how I first started making music. We joked that we were “emo rap,” and this was in like 2003! We played a bunch of shows in New Mexico. It’s really crazy to think about now. But that sent me on the musical path.
How has the Pictureplane sound evolved over the years?
It has evolved to really focus on synthesizers. I play everything myself. It’s really always evolving depending on what my current interests are. Pictureplane really draws from so many different planes and emotions and sounds.
On your song “Esoterrorist” off of 2015’s Technomancer, you called yourself a “lunatic fringe lifestylist.” You seem to enjoy and take pride in your self-proclaimed status as an outsider in the music and art world. How has this view of yourself informed your work and your general lifestyle?
I’m not really a self-proclaimed outsider, I know that I am. I just have to accept that I am really different as an artist. But all my heroes and influences are all artists on the fringes. The real radicals. And all I ever wanted to be growing up was an underground artist, and now I really am! It’s pretty cool.
You’ve been making music under the name Pictureplane for almost 10 years now (correct me if I’m wrong!). On Twitter you’ve talked about how you very well could have become an EDM artist circa 2011, playing festivals with the likes of Skrillex, Diplo, and the late Avicii. What kept you from taking this path? Are you satisfied with where you’ve ended up in terms of career trajectory?
I really just had no idea how to make that fucking music! And I never really liked it. It used to give me anxiety as a producer that I didn’t know how to produce super polished sounds like that. But I’m inspired by shit that is way more raw and unpolished. More freestyle, punk and lo-fi. I played festivals with all those guys and I really just felt like a total freak compared to them. And their audiences totally did not understand what I was doing. I was way more comfortable playing in a dirty warehouse to a bunch of kids rolling around on the floor on acid.
You’ve long been associated with the underground rap world. Early collaborators of yours include Antwon, Noah23, and Sole. And your new album includes features from smrtdeath and Wicca Phase, plus you recently released a collaborative Lil Peep x Alien Body clothing line through the HYV. Can you talk about your experiences working with artists from this scene?
I have always followed rap and what was happening in the rap underground. So I really felt a connection with artists like Lil Peep, Horse Head and Wicca Phase when I first heard them because they were actually SINGING and the music was dark! And I had been singing for years over beats. I was like “OMG finally!” So I reached out to them and found out that they all loved my music too.
Just because I am not a rapper, doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection between what I’m doing and the underground of the rap scene. It’s all electronic music. And it is where my roots are. I have never limited myself to one genre. It seems crazy to define your entire life around one type of music. I am really so blessed and happy that I was able to befriend Lil Peep while he was alive. He was so goddamn talented and inspiring. He was just oozing pure talent, really a once in a generation type artist. I could feel that the moment I met him. Wicca Phase and smrtdeath both gave really incredible contributions to my album. I love their verses and I love them as people.
Big shout out to those guys. And shout out to Underground Underdogs!
Stream DEGENERATE down below, and watch the music video for “B.D.S.M” above.