About

Existence Habit (established 2013, Astoria, Oregon) includes guitarist Roger Hayes and bassist Gregg Skloff, both of whom are experienced creators of improvised sound. Existence Habit may also include others from time to time. Existence Habit has accumulated a series of obscure performance documents and cryptic videos, most of which are accessible via existencehabit.com.

Roger Hayes was involved with various labels and distribution imprints during the late ’90s and early ’00s, including MU Records and Torture Music Records. He is primarily influenced by Electro-Acoustic, Granular Synthesis, and Musique Concrète approaches to sonic composition, but plays heavily effected prepared guitar improv. He collaborated in audio collage with Borut Savski of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2000, releasing The Cobra Sheds Her Skin, and collaborated on releases with both Marco Farina and Daniele Brusaschetto. Roger assisted various other local Northwest recording projects, playing on tracks released from Mesmer, Reversal, Rickshaw (Portland, OR), and Atrophy.
During this time Roger was also involved in compilation recordings from the Czech imprint Napalm Records. Other projects included a series of live performances with prepared guitar artist Bill Horist, with a recording composed of mixes of musique concrète collages titled Tidal Vortex. Previous recordings were released under the name Cyanosis, but this incurred some dispute with a Midwest Brutal Death-Core project of the same name. Since then Roger has recorded and released under the names Cadaver Parts, Loopbasedzero, and self-titled projects, alongside the current project, Existence Habit. A 2002 LP was titled ‘Movie’.

Gregg Skloff has played contrabass since 1990. Since his move to the Pacific Northwest in 1997, Gregg has played in various improvisational settings with a multitude of musicians, including Nick Bindeman, Gust Burns, Arrington de Dionyso, Kevin Doria, Brad Gibson, Michael Griffen, Paul Hoskin, Jean-Paul Jenkins, Nathan Levine, Evan Miller, Tatsuya Nakatani, Adrian Orange, Kelvin Pittman, Matana Roberts, Ben L. Robertson, Jacob Wick, Bert Wilson, McCloud Zicmuse, and many others. He has devoted his efforts to several rock bands, including Counterfeit Monsters, Thunder!Thunder!Thunder! (a pre-Explode Into Colors project with Claudia Meza and Lisa Schonberg), and Captain’s Daughter; occasionally, he has accompanied B’eirth in the “Symbolist folk” project Birch Book. Gregg has been the featured bassist in the Portland performances of Moe! Staiano’s “End Of An Error” and Gino Robair’s “I, Norton.” In 2009, ESP-Disk released the album Gigantomachia by The Naked Future (featuring de Dionyso, Skloff, pianist Thollem McDonas and drummer John Niekrasz) to international acclaim. Gregg’s work on his own, meanwhile, conjures a uniquely intense and enigmatic mood, whether in the form of his fractured lo-fi (now-defunct) hermit-pop outfit Cloaca Clock or in the swirling storms and sweeping vistas of his solo instrumental performances.

Existence Habit may involve the participation of other sound artists (e.g. Derek Ecklund, Bryan Rock) according to their availability.

left to right: Derek Ecklund, Gregg Skloff, Roger Hayes