"Smell That Air"- An Interview With Mammal

Gary Beauvais is a musician known throughout the sub-underground as Mammal. When I met Gary in 2004, he was living in Michigan and running a label called Animal Disguise.  Gary's music is hard to describe. In reference to his late nineties/early 2000's material, I'd throw around the "noise" description but over time, it gradually made a shift into a type of lurching sludge/proto industrial/subterranean soundtrack. Eventually acoustic guitars made it in the mix. Sad songs to balance out the anger. Mammal is more than genre. It's heavy, soulful, with feeling. Gary recently put out a new full length called "Deserted" which came out on his own Impermanence imprint. It only seemed right to have a chat and catch up. Patience with me as I haven't done an interview or written much over the past year so my chops are very rusty. Peace to everyone. 

Mikey, 1st March 2024

FOTS- Gary, thanks for taking the time to speak with me. I’d like to firstly ask what sets apart “Deserted” from your previous recordings?

Gary Beauvais- Thanks for having me. "Deserted" is the closest to music I've made that embodies my being, my spirit.  Probably the most personal and raw like if you hooked up an IV from my vein into a stereo.  It's also the first Mammal record to not have any instrumental songs.  It was created very quickly, mostly live with an old keyboard that was my sister's when we were kids.  It all just flowed out like the early days as if the hand of God was pressing all of the keys.  I made it with zero expectations that it would even be shared with anyone, but really wanted to release the album once I heard all the songs together.  You are the first person to hear it so far.

FOTS- Was there any one experience that set the wheels in motion for the subject matter behind “Deserted”? 

GB- There was not just one experience for the album as a whole but it probably wouldn't exist as it does if I hadn't recorded "ARSON IN COLD SPRING, NY" first.  I wrote the song in early 2023 and it is dedicated to the demon thief poseur who stole my bass amp that I used since the "Let Me Die" era.  All of my live shows from 2006 onward were with this amp.  It was used on my album "Lonesome Drifter". I was going to release "ARSON" as a single but just kept recording more each day, writing and recording stuff for about 10 days in a row.

Since my bass amp was stolen I felt kind of wounded or derailed for years musically, so I did this whole record without stringed instruments and feel pretty happy with how it sounds and how easy it felt to make.  It means more as well by just using a keyboard that was in my life for probably 35 years and had rarely appeared on my recordings since the earliest part of the 2000s.  

The whole album is a catharsis or sublimation for life in a pre-apocalyptic world that has failed us all.  By killing off our demons, releasing the pointlessness of most things in our life we can start to see the way toward surrender and savor this miracle of our unfathomable existence.

FOTS- Could you talk more about this miracle? 

GB- It's as simple as just waking up and being able to feel anything at all.  To have consciousness and to exist is a miracle that is taken for granted by us all.  I've gone through a lot of medical bad luck and physical pain fairly often throughout my life, more than most people I've known.  It definitely skews the outlook on everything, but once you realize that you really have no control, that most people are born with bad luck, and essentially the things that bother us are completely meaningless in the face of this miracle of existence, then everything feels much more easy and peaceful.  I savor every day that I wake up and get to think about infinity while I drink another cup of coffee.

FOTS- Beautiful outlook my friend. Would you like to talk about your new label?

GB- It's an outlook I sometimes struggle to feel daily.  We are complex, conditioned animals existing at this moment in time, after all...but it's a great goal to desire reaching that as a permanent mindset.

After I finished this record and decided to release it I wanted to start fresh and even debated not putting a label name at all, but decided on IMPERMANENCE. Impermanence affects everything that exists or has existed.  Nothing is permanent except God.  Can something come from nothing?

Animal Disguise, my original label I started back in 2001, ended with the final 2 cassettes of "One Foot in the Fog" and the found old recording "Gait of Fog".  The entire outlook I had back when I started that label has completely changed and all of the baggage of past releases have nothing to do with my current output.  This is a new beginning.  I have a few more Mammal releases planned, but time will tell if any other artists make it onto IMPERMANENCE.  I still really like music with a unique and psychedelic leaning atmosphere.  Things that don't really fit in or sound like anything else being made at any specific time or place.  Things that are confusing in a very inspiring way.  Like Jad Fair sang on my favorite Half Japanese CD: "I love a mystery."

FOTS- Do you have any plans to play this or older Mammal material live in the future? 

GB- No plans to perform live, although I have thought about it. I would probably want a band to back me if I ever play live again. The main reason I stopped doing live shows is that it was almost impossible to improvise anymore playing solo with the way my songs were evolving.  A solo set of the songs from "Deserted" is definitely intriguing though. Would have to be the perfect scenario. Maybe I'll do a private live-streamed set one day soon and see how it feels.

FOTS- Any chance you’d tell us about the origins of Mammal? 

GB- I recorded and played keyboard with my sister when we were kids growing up in Dearborn Heights, MI just outside of Detroit.  My dad played guitar and taught me how to tune it.  I never quite learned much more but was always really into music all of my life.  I would always dig deeper to find new things and fantasize about being in a band.  In 1998 I went to see the band Blonde Redhead in Detroit, and THRONES opened for them.  It was a life changing moment, seeing that one man could do that and perform live alone that unlocked something in my brain.  This was the early internet days in the late 90s, but I scavenged around online and found his connection to Men's Recovery Project, which led me into Vermiform Records and the Providence, RI underground.  Seeing Thrones, discovering MRP and maybe even most importantly, the "Fruited Other Surfaces" compilation CD, is the holy trinity of why Mammal exists at all.  Without these things, I don't think I would have ever gone down this path.  I made a tape in 1999 and wrote MAMMAL on it but it was never officially released and I gave it away to some girl.  It's likely in a landfill somewhere and was the only copy.  I did 3 more tapes of lo-fi live boombox recordings until I bought a 4 track and recorded my first proper album, "Other Realms".  I didn't know anyone locally making experimental music so I would trade and send music to the guys in Providence from their addresses in the "Fruited Other Surfaces" CD.

FOTS- What kind of influence did growing up in Michigan have on the music of Mammal? 

GB- I'd say growing up with not a lot of money, in a working class household, with intense young parents and a unique family of strange personalities pretty much shaped who I am.  The region is just where I happened to be born.  I guess growing up how I did with nothing to ever fall back on added a more human edge to my sound.  Workingman's blues and pain or something.  I wasn't influenced by the music of local artists since I didn't meet anyone in the underground until after "Other Realms" came out.  I was already creating music without knowing anyone around me was doing anything remotely experimental or outside of the ordinary.

Through the 90s, there were a bunch of great record stores in the Dearborn/Detroit area that helped me hear a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have heard had I grown up in a more isolated region.  I used to buy a CD based on the artwork, the label it was on, etc.  There were really no other ways to hear something before the internet existed.  Dearborn Music was the first one I remember, then as a teenager I discovered Repeat the Beat (I still own the Flipper "Generic" CD I bought there in 1993), Rock of Ages (lots of metal, bootlegs, and highly questionable titles), Desirable Discs II (the one in East Dearborn that moved a few times), Record Graveyard in Hamtramck.  I lived close to Detroit, so seeing shows was easy once I was able to get out on my own and start to discover more.  I didn't have an older brother or relative who introduced me to anything, so I had to dig and find everything on my own.  Most of the people I grew up around took a divergent, more normal path and I always felt like an outsider. 

I ended up moving away in the Fall of 2008 to escape the horrible air quality from the industry/incinerator that was killing me slowly, my declining health was becoming more of an issue, and to start over after going bankrupt with my label, and not feeling like I even belonged there anymore.  I wanted out and to disappear for a while, focus on just my own music and art at my own pace.  I do look back fondly on my Detroit life, though, since I created a lot while I lived there.  I definitely miss the Detroit rent prices of 2002 where I paid less than $100 a month for my share.  I booked a lot of great shows at the Detroit Art Space in that 2002-2004 era.  I haven't visited in a few years, but remember going to a noise show there while I was in town for my Grandpa's funeral in 2018, and it felt like no time had passed, like nothing had progressed at all.  It felt like the Twilight Zone.

I hope that answers the question.

FOTS- What do you see in the future for Mammal?

GB- As long as I live, Mammal lives.  

I've tried breaking up with myself, by getting a normal job a few times and it just ruined my life and hurt anyone around me.  I am in this for life. I gave up everything years ago to live this life and walk my path.

I'm actively writing more songs, plus there are a handful that I wrote during the "Deserted" sessions that needed more time to breathe. I'm planning to have another record out by the end of the year on IMPERMANENCE. It will be in a similar style as this new one but with more layers.

I'm also working on my new website here.

I'm taking it back to 1998 and getting away from big business platforms. It will be a storefront for my music with a small distro for important (to me) releases, plus a blog type thing where I will post various thoughts, photos, philosophies. Find me there once it goes live. 

FOTS- Gary, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. “Deserted” is fantastic and it’s great to hear you tearing it up in 2024. Much luck, love and light to your path. Anything you’d like to pass along to our readers before we shut this here interview down? 

GB- Don't ever let your sense of wonder die. Embrace mystery.  Kill your demons.  Smell that air.