Interview with Scott Cortez

Junk Dealers: Hi Scott, before starting, how are you today? It’s cold and very rainy around here. I’m writing this under two blankets, actually.

Scott Cortez: Good, thanks. That actually sounds pretty cozy: rain and blankets. I always feel like the weather sets the soundtrack of the day, that certain albums fit better with a gray sky.

JD: I remember seeing you were setting up your home studio at the start of the year, how did that go?

SC: It’s slowly taking shape. I don’t think it will ever be finished. It’s like a small, strange laboratory: a bunch of pedals, cassette decks, things I’ve collected. I like having everything within reach so I can grab something and make noise without thinking too much about it. It’s still a work in progress, like everything I do. I wanted it to feel more like a laboratory than a traditional studio—just a bunch of small tactile instruments, pedals, and cassette decks within arm’s reach. There’s something magical about having a space that feels like an extension of your mind, where you can pick up an instrument or record an album instantly without worrying too much about signal chains or gear.

JD: It’s been more than thirty years since Lovesliescrushing started, as well as shoegaze itself, and that may be hard to grasp for my generation with this new wave from the start of this decade. How do you feel about this new wave of shoegaze coming now that we are approaching the latter half of the 20s?

SC: It’s surreal to see how something that once seemed so niche has become a global language. Back then it was very homemade and underground: many of us traded cassettes and tried to figure out how to get that sound with secondhand gear. Now, there’s an enormous network of artists keeping it alive, transforming it, fusing it with dream pop, metal, ambient, even hyperpop. I love that the genre keeps regenerating. Each wave brings its own perspective. Shoegaze feels less like a period in music history and more like a state of mind.

JD: Considering this, I find your projects very interesting because they are very much part of a time in the genre where the “shoegaze sound” wasn’t as standardized as it is today, so it was, in all the sense of the word, very experimental, though the MidiVerb II was a very fundamental tool in your creative process and for a lot of other people in the genre. Has any other new tool or approach to it recently become as important?

SC: Yes, the Midiverb was like a magic box. Now I’m going in the opposite direction: back to old recorders, reel-to-reels, dictaphones. I like broken things, cheap pedals, the kinds of things that give a unique touch. With computers you can do everything, which can be a bit overwhelming. When you’re limited, you end up discovering happy accidents. That excites me more.

The “new” tools that excite me the most are usually the ones that let me destroy and recontextualize sound: cheap.

JD: I know artists don’t usually react to their own stuff the same way the audience does but, don’t you ever get entranced by these very immersive and dreamy soundscapes while you are making them? I feel like I’d be there for hours.

SC: All the time. A big part of my process is losing myself in sound until I forget I’m recording. I’ll play a phrase or a hum and listen to it for hours, letting it transform my perception. The best moments are when you stop “working” and the music becomes the environment around you. Those are the moments I seek.

JD: Lovesliescrushing recently became a part of Numero Group, too. The label often comes up in our interviews because their archive seems to be pretty relevant to a lot of people right now, I feel, but honestly I would have never guessed LLC would become a part of it. How did it come to be?

SC: Numero contacted us because they were interested in documenting the beginnings of shoegaze in the United States and saw Bloweyelashwish as a key piece. They have an incredible archival approach to music history that felt perfect to us. I’ve always loved labels that treat albums like artifacts, and Numero puts so much care into presentation. It’s been a surreal and transformative experience to see music I recorded in bedrooms with borrowed gear being treated that way.

JD: You’ve stated previously that 90% of Xuvetyn was made before Bloweyelashwish, why did it release second?

SC: Xuvetyn was too strange for a first album. It’s more abstract and ambient, so we thought Bloweyelashwish would be a better introduction. But really, they’re siblings. Both albums came from the same sessions, from the same fog of ideas. I was always interested in blurring the line between “song” and “texture,” and Xuvetyn was the deepest dive into that.

JD: My AVIANIUM CD is one of the coolest things I own. These were handmade and each came with a different bird cut-out. Where did those cut-outs come from?

SC: Everything was hand-assembled from old bird field guides and children’s books I collected at thrift stores. Each CD was a little work of art, and I liked the idea of every copy being different, like a talisman. It was as much a collage project as a music release.

JD: In 1997, at Projekt Fest in Chicago, a girl couldn’t enter the show because she was underage. You said that if you managed to make contact with her you’d send her a tape of the show and more stuff. Did you ever find her again?

SC: I never did, unfortunately. I always hoped she found her way to the music anyway. That was the era of sending tapes by mail to strangers and pen pals; we were all connected through letters and zines. Part of me still misses that mystery.

JD: There was a time in 2011 where you said you lost everything on a hard drive or a Mac, I think. Do you still remember what kind of things you had on those?

SC: Yes, it was devastating. I lost a decade of sketches, outtakes, and unreleased albums. Some of those sounds only existed on that drive. But I try not to dwell on it; loss can be a strange creative push. It made me focus more on the present, on making music that feels alive instead of perfect or preserved.

JD: Someone told me that you also said that in the same year you participated in a Japanese compilation with names such as Kevin Shields. Did that project come out?

SC: No, it vanished. I still have the track. Maybe it’ll escape someday.

JD: One of your projects I never see mentioned that I find super interesting is the “father & son collaboration of blurred piano studies” Aurian. That must have been something special. How did that idea come?

SC: That was simply recording my son playing the piano and then looping and experimenting with it. He played without caring about “songs,” and I just captured his rawness. It became its own nebulous world. Very special to me.

JD: our son also gifted you an Akira shirt and you also have that one Kaneda figure (I have the Tetsuo one!)... you can just write about what you like about that movie here, I just like reading what people have to say about it. (I’ve always been awed by the whole “hypersonic effect” thing the soundtrack uses).

SC: Akira blew my mind as a kid; it was like watching the future. The sound design is still ahead of its time; it’s this primitive, percussive, almost ritualistic soundtrack that feels alive. The city feels like a living organism. Kaneda’s bike chase was burned into my mind forever. I think it also shaped my fascination with texture and atmosphere; Otomo’s world feels tactile, raw, and dreamlike all at once.

JD: Are there any plans for projects such as Polykroma, Transient Stellar or Vir to come back?

SC: Maybe. I'd like to revisit those palettes when it feels right. Vir, in particular, feels unfinished to me.

JD: These next two questions I’ve been very curious to ask. First, if you had a huge budget to develop the kind of music you’d like to, what would you like to do? You can get crazy with it.

SC: I’d love to build a massive installation in a warehouse or cathedral, with hundreds of tape loops and speakers everywhere, so walking through it would feel like being inside a living musical piece.

JD: On the contrary, if you were a teenager again in 2025, what kind of equipment would you look out for?

SC: Probably just a phone, a cheap interface, and a couple pedals. Maybe a broken recorder. Still, I’d go for broken things; it’s not the gear, it’s what you do with it.

JD: On my research I saw you upload an old image of you with the caption “when you are 21 you're no fun”. Are you funnier now? How have you changed since you started out doing this? How has it affected your approach to making art?

SC: Yes, I think so. In the photo I’m 21, but it was actually a reference to Ladytron. I take music seriously, but I don’t take myself as seriously anymore. I used to be too intense. Now I just enjoy creating things, without worrying whether they fit anywhere.

JD: Thanks so much again for being her. Any last comments for you fans out there? Any chance we’ll see you in Mexico?

SC: Just thank you, truly. It’s incredible to know people are still listening after all these years. And yes, I’d love to play in Mexico; it would be a dream.