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Ironing Credit: Chris Miller<\/p>\nIroning Credit: Chris Miller<\/p>\n
\u201cI \u00a0feel like it\u2019s a compulsion, it just kind of scratches an itch,\u201d Andrew Chadwick says of Ironing\u2019s experimental sounds. \u201cIt\u2019s like a chaos flow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For this Gainesville-based, noise-obsessed turntable-balancer \u2014 who\u2019s now been performing as Ironing for over two decades \u2014 the start of his eclectic creative practice was born on his family\u2019s backyard-built sailboat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he was 9, Chadwick\u2019s family decided to up and sell everything and move aboard for a year. Taking to the seas, four family members lived on a 28-foot sailboat, cruising up to Canada, along the East Coast and the Bahamas before eventually settling in Melbourne, Florida, then known as Palm Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chadwick says that aboard their floating home, he discovered that radio waves traveled farther and more clearly on water. Nurturing his love for radio by experimenting with his father\u2019s shortwave, Chadwick listened intently to ghostly stations and signals fading in and out, feeding his nascent fascination with \u201cbeeps and numbers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This early immersion in beeps and numbers (and static) would decades later form the backbone of Chadwick\u2019s vibrant and unpredictable Ironing project. (So named because he stacks all his arcane gear on a teetering ironing board to perform.)<\/p>\n
Chadwick, in tongue-in-cheek fashion, defines Ironing\u2019s sound as \u201cparty violence,\u201d a lighthearted poke at the usual stern-faced poses of much harsh noise. But also an apropos description of audience reactions to an Ironing set.<\/p>\n
When asked what food would correspond to his sound, Chadwick says it would have to be something spicy, like a chili \u2014 a vegetarian one.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve attempted to break Ironing\u2019s sound down to three essential elements. Feel free to verify in the flesh this week.<\/p>\n
Part I: Chaos flow radio\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chadwick has a phrase he uses to explain his Ironing technique: \u201cchaos flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like surfing, where you can kind of steer but you can\u2019t control what\u2019s pushing you,\u201d Chadwick says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chadwick\u2019s unique sound comes in part from meshing live sounds from radio stations in the cities he performs in, paying special attention to international-language and dance stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith radio you can\u2019t really choose,\u201d Chadwick says \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of chance operations going on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Ironing-x-Matthew-Moyer-05-17-2019-2-1.jpg\")
Ironing Credit: Matthew Moyer<\/p>\n
Part II: Slapstick turntablism<\/p>\n
\u201cSlapstick like the comedy style, it\u2019s a descriptive element but not an overall description,\u201d Chadwick says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meshing his harsher sounds with a lighthearted attitude, Chadwick can be seen at shows balancing a record player on top of his head while smiling beatifically, or throwing two records on top of each other and letting the needle jump and scratch an unhinged tune.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chadwick also tends to place objects like his beer, lit candles or even a glittery high-heeled shoe on the spinning discs, always pleasantly surprised by what sounds the hopping needle conjures. Typically a distressed noise will ensue as he places these objects on the vinyl grooves, like sacrificial offerings to the noise-gods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I practice, I\u2019ll practice techniques, but not ever try to recapture exactly what happened a certain way when I was practicing, because it\u2019ll never happen the same way twice,\u201d Chadwick says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Longtime friend of Chadwick and fellow Gainesville noise-enjoyer Chris Miller, who first met Chadwick back when he sported a beard that protruded several inches off both sides of his jaw, says that he couldn\u2019t believe that he really practiced any of his sets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, when you see it you\u2019ll be like, \u2018Is this a song, did he plan this?\u2019\u201d Miller says. \u201cIt seems all improvised to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part III: Field recordings and tapes\u00a0<\/p>\n
The final piece of Ironing\u2019s collaged symphonies are tapes. Whether field recordings, damaged loops of ambient noise, prerecorded commercial cassettes or tapes he recorded himself, for Chadwick these are chunks of texture that feel natural and often personal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Typically, Chadwick will not only mix these tapes into his sound, but he often pitches them faster or slower as the mood takes him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To Chadwick, the field recording tapes in particular make for a somewhat autobiographical element, enhancing the sonic chili\u2019s flavor with captured instances that remind him of certain memories in his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are moments from my life and my environment and things that I associate with a time and place, and now it\u2019s being recontextualized with all the rest of the sounds,\u201d Chadwick says. \u201cIt brings the meaning from those times and places with it for me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With a noise artist like Chadwick \u2014 who often veers into deranged dancehall and fried freestyle \u2014 encapsulating his sound under one genre descriptor is tricky, but Miller finds this type of experimental work quite \u2026 folky.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Miller says. \u201cSeeing these musicians using instruments in the way that they\u2019re not supposed to be used or just experimenting \u2014 this is truly folk music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reflecting that typical folk music has been done and redone for decades, homogenizing the sound, Miller cites blues firebrand guitarist Bo Diddley building a cigar-box guitar as a pioneering step for this alternative universe of folk. Reimagining instruments and re-creating very specific sounds, to Miller, is current folk music.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it was 2005 \u2014 when Chadwick had the opportunity to attend the International Noise Conference in Miami \u2014 when he realized what he wanted to do with his sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ironing\u2019s first live show was in Orlando later that same year at the now-mythical Peacock Room in Mills 50.<\/p>\n
In satisfyingly nostalgic (and also not) fashion, he\u2019s set to bring the noise back to Orlando two decades later, playing this week at new DIY venue My Sister\u2019s House along with Putrid Fauve, Shania Pain, Innocence Lost, Noise Induced Hearing Loss and other noise lovers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26, My Sister\u2019s House<\/a>, 925 S. Semoran Blvd., Winter Park, $10<\/p>\n Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tPromises to be a \u2018Bear\u2019 of a show\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tMore Is Not Enough and Super Passive open\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tThe joint was a-shakin\u2019\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t
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