In the 1980s, Michael Morley helped to push the jangly New Zealand music scene towards rougher, more exploratory realms, as a member of Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos, and the almighty Dead C. His gnarled, distorted guitar tone and aggressively moan-based vocal style are both as distinctive as they are secretly beautiful.

Morley has released dozens of solo recordings—starting in the late 1980s as Gate, then more recently under his own name, and as the Righteous Yeah. He’s also unafraid to tackle entirely new genres and sounds, and to move into interactive installation-based music as well. Birdman is beyond excited to present the first vinyl release of this archival Gate release.

When and where were these tracks initially recorded?
MICHAEL MORLEY: The Numbers was recorded in 2012, over two days of playing with a guitar, synthesizer, and drum machine. I was experimenting with a primitive setup that was trying to sound like rock music—but which of course fails, for so many reasons. I mixed it immediately and played it to no one. I listened to it for a while to see if it was any good. I had just finished some more dance-oriented projects, so I was interested to see how it sat alongside my newer work. I made the artwork at the same time. I offered it to a label and then heard nothing back; I gave up on it being viable for lack of response. It sat as a folder of files for ten years. Last year I had the opportunity to revisit it and thought I had better place it on my Bandcamp page, as that seemed like a fitting way to finally acknowledge its existence.

Why is it called The Numbers?
MICHAEL MORLEY: The Numbers was a shorthand way of saying “all of the songs in this folder are numbers to consider.” Only later did it dawn on me that I had hit a cultural vein. I love hearing the words “the numbers” drop out of the news media to describe the economy, the situation, the horror. It seems like an interesting universal thread which runs through any type of commentary.

What is it like to have so many different identities to work with as well as a wide array of instruments and then methods?
MICHAEL MORLEY: It seems so normal. I don’t think I have many different identities. I am just playing in a field and using words to develop boundaries around different projects. It doesn’t seem right to confuse people too much. I have been enjoying the wide range of approaches that I employ within music my whole life.

And when you sit down to work on music, is there any thought beforehand as to like, oh this will be a Gate type piece, this will be under my own name, or maybe this would work with the Dead C?
MICHAEL MORLEY: Sometimes, especially with the Dead C, that is pretty easy—not too much planning beforehand, just intuition. I do find myself picking up instruments and playing and recording on an almost-daily basis. I have been developing a hammered dulcimer project, a Baldwin Fun Machine project, and a minimal synth project; all of these require names so that files don’t get lost.

I want to say that The Numbers sounds like “classic Gate,” in terms of instrumentation and oh let’s call it palette. How do you think it sounds, especially in relation to your body of work at this point?
MICHAEL MORLEY: Thanks, I think it is classic Gate material. The idea of the palette is fascinating as I think I did approach it with a set of limited instrumentation and the desire to make something again that could sound like rock music. There is certainly a direct line from Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, through the Dead C, and to Gate.

I think I was also inspired by listening to [infamous and tragically short-lived early 1980s band] the Double Happys, and remembering their performances as a duo with the drum machine. There was such utter chaos and anarchy during their sets, with a desire to represent punk rock at its nascent truth, I wanted to see if it was possible to re- imagine that feeling. I was possibly also listening to the Stooges and MC5.

Do you want to describe the album artwork? Is it a photo you took?
MICHAEL MORLEY: It is a photograph that I found and edited, so it is not how the original image looked. It is a blurred image of an unknown guitarist wielding a guitar in the air. I added blurry effects and smoke, and made it a black and white image.

Is it just me or is there a progression of heaviness on the record?
MICHAEL MORLEY: The songs on the record are in the order that they were recorded. It does get progressively heavier as we move through the cycle; that was just the way the pieces unfolded. They are improvised
and unrehearsed.