The hot and dusty streets of the warehouse district in St. Petersburg fill with an unnatural sound around 3:30 p.m. on a Friday in April.
The noise echoes from one of the miscellaneous industrial buildings along 6th Avenue South. It’s a music recording space on the edge of society, called The Fuzz Factory.
Patrick McBratney is crouched on the floor of the open garage, a twisted snake of pedals spread out before him on the concrete. He twists a knob — a screech comes through the amplification cabinet next to him. He turns to a different pedal and maneuvers the screech into the sound of a sputtering car engine.
Sweat starting to pour from his face, he places a microphone inside of a metal box — and then drops it. A loop pedal records the resounding clang. He drops the box again and again, and the din grows louder as each clang is added to the mixture, until an offbeat rhythm develops. He smirks.
“It’s highly emotional trajectories of me,” McBratney, a USF St. Petersburg junior, said of his music. “You know, getting feelings and s*** out.”
It’s what some might call a lot of racket. But for those with an adventurous taste in music, there is a symphony in the cacophony.
The music is part of a sound movement described as “noise.” Varieties include experimental noise, harsh noise and harsh noise wall. McBratney, 23, performs under the moniker Lovebrrd, which he describes as new surrealist noise. He doesn’t confine himself to one subgenre.
“A lot of people stick with one style, and try to establish a recognizable sound. But I’m always changing,” he said. “My newest tape is harsh noise wall, but I do all different stuff. From field recording stuff to synth stuff, keyboards, sometimes bass.”
He has been making noise for six years.
Besides performing and recording his own music, McBratney also runs a music label called Lava Church. Through it, he produces and promotes musicians who make DIY music. Everything is released on cassette tapes.
He started the project shortly after moving to Florida from Colonia, N.J.
“When I moved to Florida I didn’t know anybody, I was alone a lot,” he said.
In 2010, he played at Bloodfest, a Tampa noise festival, with a friend from San Diego.
“It was cool, but people weren’t very personable. It left a sour taste in my mouth. I pretty much felt rejected, and that’s when I started thinking about starting Lava Church. I wouldn’t say it was totally out of spite, but it kind of was,” he said.
He went to Goodwill and got a dual cassette deck for recording. A friend from New Jersey mailed him a bunch of tapes. And then he started the label.
“Originally I just wanted to do it for my friends, and keep it smaller. But it really took off,” he said. “Now I’m trying to rein it back in.”
McBratney still only works with artists he has a personal connection with, but his range has expanded. What he intended as a project that would focus on Florida musicians has now incorporated over 20 artists from all over the world. He dubs the tapes and makes artwork for them from home.
“Everybody I’ve released for I still talk to, and everyone’s been happy with the releases,” he said.
Oddly enough, the noise artists of St. Petersburg were some of the last ones he met. A South Carolina artist he was friends with put him in contact with Sluggisha, and old school noise blog based out of Florida, and from there he was able to meet some local musicians.
Up until this point, he has made tape batches of varying sizes, and then made all of the releases available for download online.
“Now I’m changing the whole aesthetic and philosophy though,” he said. “I’m going to start making 25 tapes for each batch, and then as they’re ordered I’ll make more.”
He is toying with the idea of making CDs and downloads available upon request, partly because he thinks listening to a collection of music as it was recorded is important. Cassettes provide that physical outlet and offer an alternative to vinyl, which is costly to produce.
This summer, McBratney will go on his first ever tour, with fellow DIY artists Harmoos and Tender Cruncher. They have set up shows in cities throughout the South and the Northeast. Some will be house shows, while others will be at alternative venues similar to St. Petersburg’s Venture Compound, which he plays often.
McBratney said he likes to play shows in people’s homes when possible. “That’s where the energy is.”
He hopes to do much more than just perform. McBratney, technically a junior, is switching his major to anthropology, and he wants to combine his academic and artistic pursuits on the tour. He will create an archive of all the performances, and film a documentary about DIY music culture. He wants to know whether people feel like they are truly part of one big culture, connected through music and the Internet.
To ensure that the project is successful, he is trying to raise $500 for the tour through Indiegogo. So far he has raised $322.
“Some people I know don’t like crowdsourcing, and I respect that,” he said. “But I really think people are getting a big bang for their buck out of this, and it could benefit them. I want to expose people to cool music that they would never hear otherwise.”
Next year, he wants to try to get academic funding from the school to do an extensive research project on DIY music culture.
“I think that it will reach people. I’m going to submit to ‘This American Life’ even,” he said.
Playing, recording and studying music culture are what he wants to do with his future. Eventually, he would like to bring more exposure to the St. Petersburg music scene, which he feels has been great to him. He feels that USF St. Petersburg could be more involved, too.
“I started at USF Tampa, and it was too big, every class was huge. USF St. Pete is smaller and a better environment and I’d like to bring the community into what’s going on outside of it. I’ve seen one person from school at a show. I didn’t expect to see her there, but she really liked the music. People might not know that they will like it,” he said.
“I love Florida. It doesn’t get as much credit as it deserves. When it comes time for me to plant my roots, I think it will be here.”
Lava Church is online at lavachurch.com. Learn more about Lovebrrd and the tour at facebook.com/lovebrrd.
