Propter Hoc Interview: ‘My primary motive is curiosity, and then I try to make sense of what I discover’
Propter Hoc
Propter Hoc‘s Scottish artist J.A. Harrington might never have started making music were it not for the Coronavirus pandemic. Like so many others, his focus suddenly shifted, leading him to experiment with sound and songwriting. The response to his early work was quickly and overwhelmingly positive, resulting in a deal with Cold Transmission Records.
Last year, he released his second official Propter Hoc album, “Seduction And Betrayal”, followed by two additional EPs. His music can be described as a dense, danceable blend of EBM, Electro-Wave, and Electro-Pop – an imaginary bridge between 80s influences and contemporary Electronic aesthetics. Through this sound, Harrington constructs a universe in which cause and effect – as his project name suggests – are constantly questioned. So time now to ask Propter Hoc a few questions. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: Propter Hoc has been active for several years now and has released multiple productions. How do you look back on the beginnings of the project? What sparked its creation, and what can you tell us about your musical and artistic background?
John: I don’t spend a lot of time looking back on anything really, I would just end up viewing minor embarrassments as huge catastrophes, but basically I became a musician by mistake and you could say I’ve been compounding that error ever since. I studied art and saw myself as an artist but was never comfortable being the center of attention, I preferred being in the background and enjoyed the research process, so before the pandemic I was working on a PhD proposal.
In 2020 when the lockdown happened, that project lost any sense of urgency or relevance, and in my part-time day job I was working from home but there was often very little to do, so I started messing about on my computer making music as a distraction. I did that using GarageBand at first, and when I was trying to learn the mixing and mastering process, I accidentally saved a track directly to Soundcloud rather than as a file, and before I even realized what I’d done a couple of people had liked and shared it. Ok then, I thought, I guess I make music now.
Q: Propter Hoc, the project’s name, as well as many of the themes present in your writing, have strong connections to artistic expression. Can you tell us more about that relationship? How does Propter Hoc reflect your broader artistic vision?
John: I don’t want to assert an artistic vision, I just want to engage with ideas and learn about the world. That research project had been looking at how the concept of economic value could be reimagined to be more humane and environmentally responsible, using the work of modern and contemporary artists as examples and comparing them to heterodox ideas in economics.
One of the artists I was interested in was Martha Rosler, which is how I found the phrase ‘propter hoc,’ she’s an example of someone who engages with ideas as artistic expression, and I admire the way she puts a commitment to moral principles before any immediate sense of identity or branding as an artist.
Q: The Propter Hoc music incorporates a wide range of influences — a blend of genres that feel distinct yet closely related. How do you personally perceive the sound of Propter Hoc? Which influences or references shape your composition and production process?
John: Most of the time I don’t feel like I’m in control of the eventual outcome. I start every new Propter Hoc track by idly playing around on an unplugged electric guitar, find a riff or a chord progression I like and then transpose that into a keyboard sequence on the computer. That act of translation guarantees that I end up with something different to what I started with. I build it from there, finding patterns and combinations, often going back to the guitar to make sense of it musically.
I think my biggest influences are obvious but not conscious or deliberate, whenever I do try to emulate something it never seems to end up resembling its inspiration. The ‘sound’ of Propter Hoc is essentially the sound of someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing.
Q: Your latest Propter Hoc album, “Seduction and Betrayal,” has now been out for a few months. How did this album come together? And how would you describe the evolution from your previous work, “Zodiac Carousel,” to this new release?
John: Musically I don’t see the process as being that different, but many of the lyrics on “Zodiac Carousel” were inspired by personal situations and emotional experiences but in an abstract way, while “Seduction And Betrayal” attempted to be more concrete and embodied. I consciously tried to make it more upbeat and optimistic as well, and maybe the essence of creativity is the impulse to make something positive or constructive from the circumstances you find yourself in.
Q: After that Propter Hoc album, you released two additional EPs, each containing new songs that, to my ears, sound somewhat different from the album’s material. Could you tell us more about these two EPs, and how you see them in relation to the album?
John:I don’t know how different they are, but I was trying some new techniques, and I think an EP has less at stake than an album, so there’s more freedom to try things out. That’s what I told myself at least. Anyone who puts out music faces a pressure to promote it in some way, I’m not very comfortable with social media and I don’t have any money, so I’m quite limited in what I can do in that regard, so maybe I also hoped that a couple of low key releases would help prevent the album from immediately getting buried in the ongoing avalanche of new music.
Q: How do you generally approach the process of composition? Do you follow certain methods or rituals? And how do you maintain the connection between the music and the themes you explore in your lyrics?
John: The music always comes first, and I don’t know for sure if a track is going to work until I’ve recorded the vocals. I don’t usually write the lyrics until the music is completely finished and until then the track will have the melody as a piano sound so I don’t forget it, plus having it there when I do record the vocal helps me stay vaguely in tune.
Writing lyrics is the slowest part of the process, I have a notes document on my phone where I write down interesting words and phrases from time to time, which I’ll look at to inspire a line of a lyric or a song title. That will hopefully lead me to an idea or a subject which is then informed by something I might have read, watched, experienced or imagined. Connecting it to the music is more a case of what suits the mood and what fits the rhythm.
A PhD project is supposed to develop ‘new knowledge,’ in practice this usually means combining existing ideas in way they haven’t been before, or applying methods from one field to a different one, to solve a problem or gain a new perspective. Whatever I’m working on, I guess I’m following a similar principle, my primary motive is curiosity, and then I try to make sense of what I discover.
Q: You’ve released a significant amount of Propter Hoc work in just a few years. Where does this creative drive and prolific output come from? And how do you envision this evolving in future songs and projects?
John: Whenever I finish something, my immediate thought is that I’ve now used up all my ideas and will never be inspired again, but if I seem prolific it’s probably because my next thought is usually: well actually that didn’t quite work but maybe if I try again I’ll figure it out this time, which is basically where I am right now, I have quite a few new tracks in progress, but how they will evolve I don’t really know yet.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
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