Carly Ptak

Circuit-bender, photographer, spiritual mentalist, professional hypnotherapist, experimental vocalist, and all-around seeker Carly Ptak would probably never attribute these descriptions to herself. She used to live in Ann Arbor, where she met Twig Harper, now her husband, and in 1996 the two of them moved to Chicago, where they ran the Mystery Spot, the absolute raddest furniture and junk shop ever. Seriously, they had such an eye for the weird and the interesting—and they sold it for cheap—that every trip there felt like some kind of expedition.

She and Twig comprise now legendary noise outfit Nautical Almanac, an act that’s been actively mutating in size and output since 1994 (she’s been in it since ’96). In 2001, they bought an old, run-down three-story building in the west side of Baltimore and dubbed it Tarantula Hill. They fixed it up and decorated it like a cross between a psychedelic dollhouse and the Unabomber’s shack, ran a record label called Heresee in it, and held shows in the attic. On St. Patrick's Day, 2006, while they were at the No Fun Fest in New York City, their house caught on fire and burned down. After going through some dark times—figuratively and literally as they spent months with no electricity—they fixed the house up a second time, went on a vision quest to Peru, incorporated video and lights into their live performance, and got married. Somewhere in the meantime, Carly went to hypnotherapy school and now runs her own business as a hypnotherapist. We talked right after she returned from a food-gathering trip to the woods.

Tell me about your recent foraging expedition.

So what do you mean by working?

What did you find?

So it was a learning trip?

How can you identify something like that?

You’ve been getting more into food lately.

Are you preparing for something specific?

Living in a huge city, this kind of talk always freaks me out.

Who was that?

Richard Metzger seems like a helpful person to ask paranoid questions to. How did you meet him?

What did he tell you?

What do you think of Crowley now?

Let’s go back to Duncan. He was your first… guru?

Mentor is the one I use in situations like this. Obviously the other word that pairs with it is “student.” It’s like parent and child, where it implies a slight bit of hierarchy but it’s understood that there’s a huge exchange.

So you seek out people—let’s just call ’em “mentors” for now—specific individuals, actually.

How did you know that Duncan would be your main mentor for a while?

Please give me a refresher on Duncan.

What is that?

You’ve used Radionics in Nautical Almanac.

I’m assuming it’s because you constructed these instruments yourself, just by playing them you were amplifying your sense of invention.

Do you feel like there was a certain point in your life when you turned on? Or do you feel like you were pre-wired for this path?

Well, I guess I mean that it seems like your output used to be more related to art than spirit or mind. You focused on music and making your instruments and you had your shop.

Things were much more tangible.

So was the fire Radionics? Do you think you subconsciously willed it to happen?

You guys lost everything, right?

I thought you lost all of your old recordings of everything you’ve done, your equipment, your possessions, your pets—

That’s incredibly sweet. I’m amazed by how you’re able to frame the situation.

You and Twig have been together for 14 years and just this summer you got married. Does it feel different?

That’s really nice.

What’s your discipline? What do you practice?

How did the fire trigger your desire to study hypnotism?

A lot of people just pick something and go for it. You’re informed by your experiences.

go

be

What have you been working on recently?

How does a past-life regression work?

I like how all the modalities you study you tie back to your performance. Even when you started pursuing photography, you plugged that into Nautical Almanac.

It seems pretty dangerous to use Radionics in a performance. You’re asking for a lot of trust from the audience, which isn’t usually an element when you go see a band.

Sure, but there’s not a disclaimer or anything before you perform.