“There was a lot of work for one person especially for how unenjoyable it probably was for the audience,” says
Scott of the early days of Portal to the God Damn Blood Dimension. “[There was] 15 minutes of setup, 15 minutes of teardown and 15 minutes of wondering what the hell was going on.” This growing complexity of music and performance was the impetus for Scott to reach out to close friends to further develop ideas and fill out the band’s sound. “Nine people [play] on the most recent record and more people all the time,” they say.
Clark, having some familiarity with Scott, knew the band mostly from seeing their name. “At some point I actually saw Portal play, which [at the time] was Scott and he was playing cello and yelling and there were projections and stuff,” says Clark. “I said, ‘This is a great band!’” Once the two were joined together along with other friends, the band began to explore deeper into what was possible with a live show.
Romantic Works
Before we get started, you need some context: The first time I listened to
Rotten Fruit; Regular Orchard was Friday, January 8, 2021. It was two days after the attempted coup on the U.S. Capitol. I was reeling, but had to bottle everything up. I work in news and had to shut everything off so I could get the job done. I hadn’t allowed myself to feel it all. Then that Friday, I put my headphones in and turned on this album. It opened the gates to all that emotion I had been holding back and I just cried. This music hit me in a deeply profound way, and it helped me start to heal.