Unique industrial artist Author & Punisher comes to DNA Lounge in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO -- San Diego-based industrial doom/metal artist Author & Punisher brings songs from his latest album to the DNA Lounge in San Francisco Friday night.
The one-man, industrial-noise project of mechanical engineer and artist Tristan Shone began in 2004 when he decided to turn his creative energies towards music. While he had played guitar and bass in metal bands before launching Author & Punisher, Shone was looking to start a solo industrial project that had the weight and heft of doom metal that electronic music frequently lacked.
Having earned a master's degree in sculpture, Shone began building the metal devices that would help him realize his musical vision. Crafting manually operated synth and drum-program triggers -- christened "drone machines" and "dub machines" -- the instruments, when recorded with traditional guitars and keyboards, gave his sound a uniquely cyber-human quality. He also developed a variety of devices designed to help filter and distort his voice.
He began self-releasing Author & Punisher's cinematic industrial music in 2005 through his own A & P Recordings imprint. Shone's moody DIY soundscapes and visceral solo live performances built the musician a following. The growing audience his progressively more ambitious recordings found led to album releases through a couple of independent labels before getting signed to ex-Pantera lead singer Phillip Anselmo's Housecore Records for Melk En Honing, his sixth album in 2015.
Shone would cycle through his arsenal of custom-made electro-mechanical instruments and controllers as his career continued, retiring older devices and introducing new ones to help him conjure up his sometimes terrifying sonic attack. Shone would eventually move to noted metal imprint Relapse Records, issuing his first effort for the label entitled Beastland in 2018.
His newest effort Krüller (released last year) has been praised by some critics as his most accessible album yet. Mixing in more melodic vocals that hearken back to alt-rock hitmakers of the early '90s (Nine Inch Nail specifically), the recording also features some of the most prominent guests in Shone's nearly 20 year career with Tool bassist Justin Chancellor and drummer Danny Carey appearing on individual tracks.
While Shone has performed exclusively as a solo act in the past, the songs from the latest album called for additional instrumentation for the live performances, leading him to bring Ecstatic Vision guitarist Doug Sabolick out on the road during extensive touring on both sides of the Atlantic since then. Author & Punisher bring the current West Coast tour to the DNA Lounge in San Francisco Friday for this headlining show. Los Angeles-based industrial/dark wave electronic artist Snakes of Russia (aka Joseph Holiday) also performs.
Author & Punisher
Friday, April 14, 8 p.m. $18-$23
DNA Lounge
