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Chris Roesing does not collect the recorded output of other musicians, despite his involvement in the long-running Art Damage radio show on WAIF (88.3 FM).
"I've never been an audiophile," says Roesing, 29, who performs as Roesing Ape. "I've always been very particular in what I listen to. I don't collect. I don't pay attention to names. I don't remember songs or bass players or any of that.
"I'm pretty much selfish — I want the sound, and I don't care about anything else."
This goes a long way toward explaining his own unique sound and the fact that when, in his late teens while recording experimental guitar pieces on a four-track recorder, Roesing didn't ascribe it much import. He thought it was all junk. He'd played guitar and bass in a few bands, all performing typical Rock songs.
After a while, though, he became interested in improvisation over straight songwriting. "It wasn't so much that I got bored with it, as the total freedom that playing this way represented," he says of the shift.
Eventually, the songwriting aspect faded and improvisation and experimentation became his area of concentration. "As the bands kind of dropped out," he says, "I just stopped being able to write 'songs'; something was changing in my head, musically, or at least in how I approached it."
In his early 20s, Roesing was a regular at the Highland Coffeehouse. Tim Schwallie, of the veteran Cincinnati experimental act Gordy Horn (as well as the Wolverton Brothers), was working there at the time and discussed music with Roesing. "I knew they did weird stuff," he recalls, "but never really understood it."
Gordy Horn often invited guests to play and record with them, so it was only a matter of time until Schwallie invited Roesing. For Roesing, that was a defining moment: It finally sank in that "that kind of experimental exploration of sound and a Jazz mentality with electronic instruments" could exist and was valid.
Over the next few years, Roesing set about learning what he liked about experimental music. His palette shifted from guitar to old record players, keyboards and effects. And he basically did what any improvisational act must do to be successful: experimented. Roesing Ape's musical performances became full-on performance art pieces, with the music gradually including dance, text and video installations.
He started to meet other people here in Cincinnati who shared his interests, including Ron Orovitz, a principal member of Art Damage, and Spencer Yeh of Burning Star Core. "There was a period of four or five years where the scene was really gelling," Roesing says. "Before that, it was difficult to get a gig at a venue if you didn't have a guitar, a bass and drums."
Roesing, through his association with Orovitz, became a regular contributor and eventually began hosting Art Damage, a radio show that is the only one of its kind in Cincinnati. When Art Damage was taken off the air in 2003, the local music community rallied to have it restored, throwing a three-day benefit and raising funds and awareness. It was at this point that Orovitz and Roesing began to think about forming the nonprofit organization for noise music and experimental art that is now called Art Damage, Inc. Local noise and experimental shows often do not bring in enough at the door to pay the bands, causing promoters to reach into their own pockets.
"It's for art, and it loses money, which is basically the definition of a nonprofit," Roesing says.
A few benefit shows per year will help pay for a myriad of smaller shows. "If someone is bringing an experimental show to town and they think they'll lose money on it, then they'll eventually be able to come to us," says Roesing, whose next CD, Roesing Ape Asks 'Is the American Christ Satan?', is due on Tokyo Rose Records in the next couple of months.
With the incorporation of Art Damage, Inc., in January 2005, the local experimental scene now has a powerful tool, ensuring the longevity of Cincinnati's already robust experimental scene.
For more on ROESING APE, check roesingape.org.
