Interview: Submersion

In 2015, I got a notification on Bandcamp that someone I follow bought "Deluge" by an artist I had not heard of named Submersion. By then, this was already a long-time name used by Justin Francazio to release his electronic music compositions. I gave it a quick listen and was instantly impressed with its depth of texture, unusual sound, and the wide variety on its four tracks. Since then I've hunted down everything I can by him, and it's all very good.

Recently, I had to opportunity to get an interview. What follows gives some interesting insight into his music.

How did you get interested in constructing music?

It was possibly the early exposure to the small electronic section of my record store, early online music sites, or dissatisfaction with traditional music. But starting in my teenage years I wanted to make music electronically. Around that time, I was searching online late at night trying to figure out how to accomplish this, and out of the blue I'd received a message from a stranger recommending a particular DAW, which I've been using since then. This was around 2002. I've also had some experience with and training in playing traditional instruments, which helped in my learning process. Later, I became obsessed with the online electronic music scene and trying to make my own similar sounds. I've spent countless hours and late nights listening to releases and talking online (before the advent of current social media) about music, which has really influenced me music-wise. Those people and the related music scene are now long gone. But I've always been highly into making music one way or another.

What sorts of music do you like to listen to?

I like ambient, especially very texturally rich sounds with deep tonal structures, field recordings, and a lot of subbass. For a while I was obsessed with dub techno collecting, back when the style of releases was a bit different. In the mid 2000s I was highly into IDM. Before that, I listened to punk and hardcore. Part of my childhood consisted of being glued to the radio.

Who are some artists would you count among your influences?

You might be expecting something more unique, but: Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada, Rod Modell, Stephen Hitchell, Basic Channel / Rhythm & Sound, Dan Abrams, early Quantec, the Quietus label, netlabels like Cism.

In my opinion, "Dub Techno" is the closest genre classification I can think of to your style of music. DT is, however, a notoriously narrow genre. I'm curious about whether you're interested in any of these sorts of formal considerations.

I would classify my music as ambient or dub techno. Genre differences don't really concern me.

In preparation for writing these questions, I currently have Horizon Wave on. I have a fascination with artists' first contact with their audience: the first track on their first album. It's clear that your musical style has developed a lot since then, but I still love how this sounds. Given the experience you've gained on your journey, how do you feel about the sound of this track now?

I'm glad that you like the track, but to me it sounds pretty rudimentary. I think it could use some changes. When I first made it around 2008 there was a certain emotion that it evoked—now it sounds somewhat simplistic to my ears.

Do you have any other comments on Cicada as your first release? I think it's a really solid first outing.

Thanks. I made Cicada in the span of two weeks in a very affected state of mind. The chord timbres took a while to craft successfully, I remember. The field recordings (including cicada sounds) were captured on a portable cassette recorder. There's an ambient track on the release made partially by passing a strong magnet over a cassette tape. After the creation process, I submitted Cicada to Silent Season, and Jamie's acceptance of the album resulted in a larger audience for my work. I think it might have been the first physical release on Silent Season, but I took care of mailing out orders and CD assembly. I shipped out quite a few copies of Cicada internationally, before Bandcamp existed. Cicada was supposed to be used as a template for future releases, but my work was accidentally lost. I found a partial backup copy of the album's files on an older IDE hard drive that I almost threw away, years later.

My first contact with your music was Deluge. I still haven't heard anything quite like it. Roughly half of your releases, including this one, are self-released. Could you comment on the benefits and/or tradeoffs of these self-releases?

Self-releasing is pretty much instant gratification on my part. I can release work at my own pace. Also, I like having control of the whole process—the artwork, typography, packaging, mastering, etc. With labels there can be long wait times, like with vinyl pressing for example. But working with labels tends to expose my releases to new groups of listeners. 

Abrade contains two of your longest compositions. Is there a particular reason we haven't seen many other tracks of this length? Isolate Obliterate is still one of my absolute favorites.

I think there are quite a few other long tracks that I've made. But I feel that shorter tracks are less demanding of the listener. It's better to have a balance of differing track lengths.


After a long string of releases with these dark and rainy atmospheres, we saw some light come through the clouds with Suffused and outright sunshine with Circular. I would be interested to know how you chose to explore this shift in tone.

My situation around 2018 was a happier time for me—which is probably reflected in the emotional tone of the two albums.


Unison // Einklang is one of the finest collaboration releases I've heard from any artist. While it seems clear which parts were contributed by whom, they also blend together to form a unique whole. What was it like working with mon0? Would you say the collaboration had any influence on further work?

Working with mon0 was great. We made our album incrementally over the course of two years. We had a slower pace of building Unison via email and swapping files using FTP. I trust his sense of style when it comes to making tracks. mon0 really opened my eyes when it comes to techno style rhythm composition, and general pacing of tracks. We had another collaborative album in the works, but after a few false starts mon0 couldn't devote the time he needed to production.


Dilate / Erode is an excellent collaboration with Brian Grainger (Milieu, Coppice Halifax etc). How was working with Grainger different from mon0?

My experience with Brian was also positive. I remember the fast pace of production (compared to mon0). We finished Dilate relatively quickly. Brian would send me big and numerous emails full of ideas. He took care of the mastering & CD assembly, and we used some of my photos of frozen Lake Erie. My style back then was extremely "raw." Lots of tape distortion.

Are there any compositions in your catalog that you feel stand out? Do you have a favorite album that you worked on?

My recent two albums I've poured all of my efforts into. Enfold will be out soon, and there's another waiting to be released. They're some of my favorites. Substrate on Unison // Einklang is another favorite.


Your track titles are often quite unusual and evocative. What sort of process do you use to name them?

Sometimes they come to me spontaneously. I do a lot of reading, and the vocabulary from my books can end up in my titles.


Your music has a very distinct type of audio treatment. For the gearheads out there, could you comment on some of your production techniques?

I like the idea of taking distorted audio signals and treating them heavily with effects. I also like manipulating rhythmic chord loops in real time until the dry synth sound is totally morphed into something new. For my newest release I've treated my guitar output in the same way. It's all about effect chains. I feel that having a limited set of tools is best, which are well understood, rather than hoarding equipment or software.


You've done woodcuts for some of your album covers. What sorts of artistry are you into beside making music?

I've had some art classes, and one thing I'd learned was block printing. I have a bit of experience with graphic design and drawing, too. I try to take photos as source material. In the early 2000s I made a print run of a small art zine. Recently I've been experimenting with video editing.


Thanks for taking the time to answer these. Is there anything you'd like to tell your fans in closing?

You're welcome. Thanks for reaching out for this interview. I'd also like to thank my listeners. If anyone is interested, there are two major Submersion releases in the works, one being released on October 1st (Enfold), and there is a new mix I've made coming out soon on Deep Electronics.