Come on, feel the noise

By AARON WATSON

Hand-picked by Sonic Youth as support for their one New Zealand show, Campbell Kneale is facing the biggest gig of his life armed with second-hand electric bagpipes he doesn't know how to play and a wobbly pen in a biscuit tin.

Kneale, who performs as Birchville Cat Motel, is a noise artist. He got the gig via Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore - he and Moore trade albums which they release on their personal record labels.

Kneale makes music outside the traditional song format and with objects not usually considered instruments. Stick a battery-operated wobbly pen in the tin, mic it up and you got rhythm, he says.

"Turn the wobbly pen up a bit. More wobbly pen in the monitor," Kneale laughs.

"I play with junk, toys, things I've bought. I bought a pair of electric bagpipes on eBay.

"It would be great to turn up with electric bagpipes and play them to a couple of thousand people.

"I don't have any idea how to play the bagpipes, but what better place to play them in front of thousands of people who just want to see Sonic Youth."

Sonic Youth fans may be one of the few rock audiences who will understand and appreciate Kneale's unconventional music.

But he is still wary. He recalls when experimental Kiwis the Dead C supported Sonic Youth, the audience response was subdued.

"I hope it will be loud so I can't hear people booing: 'Oh no, what are you doing? It hurts, man. I paid $68 for this and I'm getting my ears blown out by this retard'."

But Kneale is a seasoned live performer with an international track record (including gigs in England, Finland, Germany, Belgium and Japan).

In Japan, he found a record shop with a whole section devoted to his record label, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon (www.cpsip.co.nz).

He has a conscious desire to make beautiful music, by which he means sound that touches people deeply.

Kneale has heard beauty from Japanese musicians who feed a mixing desk into itself and play with nothing more than the silence of a room.

"It was just the most astounding thing. The faintest boop-blip, and it was like this monumental thing had happened in their music. 'Do you remember when it went blip?' If you try to explain, it sounds ridiculous."

Another performer created beautiful music with a single, quiet tone.

"After five minutes your ears start to hallucinate. Your brain is trying to decipher the complexity of this gentle, gentle wail. After a while, he shut the tone off and, oh, it was like he had broken my heart."

That, however, is not his intention for the Sonic Youth gig.

"When you have got a PA the size of Sonic Youth's PA, you don't want to piss around making little fart noises.

"If this was a joke, the joke would have worn pretty thin by now.

"There's a little bit of magic to it."

Performance

* Who: Campbell Kneale aka Birchville Cat Motel

* What: support for Sonic Youth and J Mascis

* Where: St James Theatre, Auckland

* When: tomorrow night