Photos by Lucy Blumenfield. Find more of her work here.
Welcome to the Automatic ChatRoom! Remember to be respectful, and keep this space safe and fun as possible. Automatic is a post-punk Los Angeles-based trio. The band is Lola Dompè (drums and vocals), Izzy Glaudini (synth and vocals), and Halle Saxon Gaines (bass and vocals). With influences spanning from Kleenex to Suicide, The Normal and Malaria! — amongst others — the powerful collection of songs that are found in their release “Signal” separates them from the minimal wave masters and carves a path for their own kind. Your guests are Halle, Izzy, and Lola. Your moderator is yours truly, Lola Pistola. The Automatic ChatRoom is open for all! Today’s topics: jamming, Cryptovoxels, Covid-19, anarchism and more.
You mention how working together plays a part in making the world better. I think it’s all part of that cohesiveness language of if we make intentional music and reflect our true and honest self, people listen. There’s a lot of power in music and art. I think, regardless of what Covid does to the industry, people are resourcing all known tools to continue presenting music to people. Do you see the Internet as a tool for this? Is it helpful? How are we honest with people through a screen?
H: Yeah I think we’ll always find ways to connect and share music because it’s been around since the beginning of time. Personally I don’t think it’s possible to be 100% honest through a screen. But as long as people are cognizant of that then it just is what it is?
L: I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately and it’s such a big topic. Sometimes I think you can be more honest via a screen, sometimes not. But I think people are getting more and more comfortable with the idea of virtual connections and I totally believe it’ll be a huge part of our future.
I: In general I think the internet took away a lot of the gatekeepers and evened the playing field for artists. But like anything there are pros and cons. The physical connection of seeing an artist is not so easily replaced. But there’s also crazy technology that hasn’t really reached full potential yet. I’m intrigued by the promise of the virtual world! As of right now, it’s not a real substitute.
It’s intriguing seeing the changes that have been surfacing and how people and technology are adapting together. Surreal to think.
I: Our friend Brady has a project called Panther Modern. He’s very much into 3-D modeling & virtual reality. I feel like an out of touch mom trying to talk about it. But it’s a very artistic frontier.
Sick! What would be your character in a virtual reality? I was watching The Office recently… and one of the characters Dwight… played himself in a virtual reality computer game. Would you play yourself?
H: Definitely I would be a cormorant.
L: LOLOLOL. What is that?
H: It’s a random ass bird
L: That’s also your screen name for this chat that Google gave you…
I: I got nothing. But now I want to know what a cormorant looks like!
L: I actually have been a part of this virtual world called cryptovoxels for the past few months and I’m starting a virtual venue called “Ghost Extension” And my avatar looks very much the same vibe as me, but I often question why I didn’t make myself like a giant octopus or something, because I can.
I: Haha – I love your restraint! Ok, now that I warmed up to this idea I would go for octopus.
I: Or that Bird! Being an animal would be dope. Not a sexy girl though.
I got spooked and spilled my Mango White Claw when the conversation went down. Sick. Also, WHAT ARE CRYPTOVOXELS?!
L: It’s a virtual world built on the Ethereum block chain and you can buy virtual land and build on it and sell, make money, sell art, walk about.
Bitcoin related?
I: You just opened a can of worms, lol.
L: Lol! Yeah sort of, Etherium is like bitcoin’s sister…
H: I would be a virtual worm
The only book I finished during quarantine was Edward Snowden’s memoir “Permanent Record” so this is right my alley.
H: Wow that sounds tight. That book I mean. Also Lola’s thing is tight but I already knew about it 
L: Yeah I’ve never read that but it does sound interesting!
He was a whistleblower but worked for the NSA and CIA as a freelancer and helped create/work and/or was part of one of the biggest surveillance programs the government was a part of, but told humanity as a gift we were being watched and our information gathered by the government. Like put a sticker on your webcam <3
I: I remember reading his girlfriend’s blog 7 years ago. We all have stickers on our webcam!
L: I don’t… eek… hack my cameras everyone!
Honestly even if you, you’ll be fine… you are part of another world too. Let the world see you.
L: But yeah blockchains do have the capacity to let everyone own their own data and have no censorship which I think is cool.
I: We’ve been exploring anarchism ideologically as a band, blockchain seems to tie in, in a lot of ways.
For more photos and the full feature, check out Issue 9 available to order now