Some Quality Time with Joel Hinkle of Insectarium

Deep in the heart of Illinois, Joel Hinkle has been producing terrifyingly chilling dark ambient for the last few decades. I got to sit down with him to discuss what makes him tick and and what led him to become the most prolific noise maker to come out of the central part of our state.

Abe Lincoln, eat your heart out.

Stuburban: Did you grow up in Springfield or move there later in life?

Joel Hinkle: Springfield has been my home throughout my life. If you ever make to the area then you need to see all the Abraham Lincoln sites and eat a horseshoe - a local dish! I traveled some while in the Air Force and was stationed in southern Georgia. The good thing about Springfield is that it is big enough to have everything you need within a short drive. If ever wanting something more, then we are close to larger cities such as St. Louis or a ride up to Chicago.

S: What was it like growing up there? Were there notable art or music scenes?

JH: Oh man, that was many moons ago! During my childhood, I was exposed to classical, jazz, soundtrack, and electronic music from my father. I remember hearing a good amount of Herbie Hancock and electronic music; Moog stuff, such as Switched-On Bach, Mort Garson's “Electronic Hair Pieces”. My first experience with drones was playing with my grandfather’s electric organ. I loved holding down several keys at once and listening to the resulting drone. After a while I would drop in a beat by flipping a switch - I think it had like a waltz beat or something. Later in life, I was gifted the organ and some recordings of it were used on my first album “on dark days.”

JH Continued: Rock music was not allowed until my teen years and at that point I moved from rap and rock, to hair metal, punk, and thrash metal. My teen years were spent working, dating, practicing with bands, smoking and drinking, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Good times! I do not remember any art or music scenes back in those days. It was the mid to late 80s, so hair bands were a thing and the Big Four were just starting to gain traction. Springfield would get a couple decent acts each year, but we were always jealous when we would see the “cool” bands play elsewhere like St. Louis, Peoria, or Champaign.

I picked up bass guitar when I was around 14. There were several other boys who were playing guitar, and no one wanted to be the bass player, so I started to learn to play. In high school I played in a couple of thrash bands which never made it further than the garage. I didn’t take it very seriously and I never took any lessons. I just wanted to jam and smoke weed. Or vice versa. We wrote original songs which could’ve been compared to DRI or SOD; heavy on bass intros and interludes, and light on guitar solos. I still have some recordings, transferred from tape to digital.

JH Continued: Electronic music reentered my life with Nine Inch Nails’ “Pretty Hate Machine,” and Nitzer Ebb’s “Showtime.” I was surprised to hear electronic music could have an edge. At this time, I was 19 and decided I needed to make a change, so I joined the Air Force.

S: Where were you sent to or stationed in the force?

JH: During my teen years, Springfield was often described as a place “with nothing to do,” but being stationed in southern Georgia was really a place with nothing to do. I was sent to Saudi Arabia for two short tours and those experiences taught me to truly appreciate the freedoms I was missing. The great thing about being in the service was being around a diverse group of people from all over the country. Everyone had a favorite band they were wanting to share. Nirvana started hitting it big, along with the alternative scene, so I went from daily doses of Slayer and Metallica to Nirvana, Janes Addiction, and Primus.

Some of the notable albums which influenced me from that period were Skinny Puppy “Rabies,” Nine Inch Nails “Downward Spiral,” Front 242 “Up Evil/Off,” along with Ministry, the Cure, and the Misfits. I was hearing a ton of new music as well as diving into albums I missed.

I was still playing bass, even taking one with me to Saudi Arabia, but it was not as much of a priority. A few of us attempted to form a band, but it never amounted to much, except that we had fun practicing.

JH Continued: During my enlistment I was introduced to the music of Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, along with other ambient and world music artists. My father gave me CDs of ambient artists including recordings of the Hearts of Space (HOS) radio program. The HOS program is a gateway to a variety of music genres and listening to those recordings opened up a larger musical world. This music fit perfectly with Dungeons and Dragons sessions or while practicing tarot readings.

JH Continued: It was around this time that I first heard the didgeridoo. The album that impressed me was “Track to Bumbliwa” by Jim Harvey and Tom Wasinger. In track 2, “Response,” the didgeridoo has such a great tone. A few years later, I would teach myself how to play. Near the end of my enlistment, I discovered trance techno, and the combination of this and ambient music started a significant change in my music listening habits. I started listening to more electronic, ambient, and world music.

S: You've always reminded me of a more sinister Steve Roach. When you got back from the service did you begin creating music?

JH: Oh man, that’s a huge compliment! I appreciate it. Steve Roach has been a major influence over the years. “The Magnificent Void” being one of my favorite albums. I met Steve last year at his sleep concert at Joshua Tree. Man, that was an experience! He is super cool, man. Just a great guy all around.

JH Continued: After I was discharged, I returned to the Springfield area. I gained an interest in drum circles and learning the didgeridoo which lead me to importing raw didgeridoos from Australia and making them from PVC to sell locally. The Springfield Arts Council offered grants, so I applied and was awarded a grant to record didgeridoo music. I recorded several pieces which later became part of the album “Sounds of a Hollow Log.” My early recordings were released under my name, not a moniker.

JH Continued: After working in a studio, I thought to myself, hell I could do this myself. I bought a 4-track and began recording didgeridoo in the center hallway of my home, which was the most sound-proof location in the place we rented. Those solo didgeridoo recordings became an album called “the hallway sessions.” Around that time, I submitted a track to a compilation called “Didjeridu Planet 2” which was a worldwide cd release. My production skills were not very good, but it was a decent attempt with the resources I had.

JH Continued: At that time I was finishing my degree and starting my career. Brian Eno’s “On Land” and “Apollo” were getting repeated listens. “On Land” still being one of the albums I go to for inspiration. Somewhere in there, I heard my first dark ambient music on HOS and I was amazed. It had found what I was seeking. Cold Meat Industry was featured at one point and I was hooked. Artists like Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana, and Robert Rich were also releasing albums which had a dark ambient feel. As time progressed, I was listening to less and less of mainstream music and diving deeper into ambient. I was finding ambient was filling the void of what I was looking for in metal and industrial. HOS’s annual dark ambient episodes were always anticipated and those recordings saw repeated plays.

JH Continued: I started using the computer more for audio work, and was experimenting with software I downloaded off the internet. I would use up the free-ware license, then figure a way around it to keep using it because I didn’t have the money to purchase licenses. Around this time, I discovered Absynth from Native Instruments. Man, what a great synth. Too bad Native Instruments stopped supporting it. I began writing dark ambient themed music, using a mixture of software and recordings made with odds and ends around the home. The first album was “on dark days” which was released in the fall of 2000 and “frozen” released the following spring.

JH Continued: The internet back then was mostly dial-up. It was rough trying to get software and finding new music. At that time, the original Mp3.com was a huge resource for dark ambient music. I was downloading material from dark ambient and world music artists including artists on the Cold Meat Industry label. I remember there was a message board/chat function and a community of like-minded artists. One artist who left a lasting mark was Mindspawn. He was releasing some dark stuff that impressed me. Mindspawn listened to some of my work gave me some very positive feedback. This really energized me to produce more. It was awesome being part of a growing community of artists.

JH Continued: Unfortunately, just as things seemed to be going well, Mp3.com closed down or was bought out. The community of dark ambient artists seemed to scatter in various directions. I had no idea where to go with my music and where to find the community I had lost. I uploaded material to Soundclick.com but there was no community to be found. There were several net-labels out there, but I was not very confident in my work to approach any of them. Finally, in 2006 I contacted darkwinter.com and they released my album “as the flesh departs…”. Darkwinter.com seemed to have a community growing, but then it died out as well. The site is still there, but no one is managing it.

JH Continued: I had several other ambient and dark ambient albums which were never released on a label; “ascension,” “the three of swords,” and “undefined flow.” I really felt I lost something when Mp3.com ended. I just could not find that community anywhere. A few of my family members listened to ambient music, but I did not know anyone else locally who listened to it. It just felt like no one really was interested in it. Over time, I stopped producing dark ambient and turned back to drumming and playing didgeridoo. Local percussionist Dennis Maberry formed a band called “World Groove Revival” which focused on African and Afro-Cuban rhythms, and I would play with them for a couple of years in the local area. I would also contribute didgeridoo on some of Dennis’ recordings.

S: My wife just bought me a didgeridoo. You got any tips and tricks for an aspiring player?

JH: That’s awesome! Your wife has great taste! There are several challenges with the instrument. Getting the drone sound, instead of getting a fart sound (for lack of a better word) is all about doing a raspberry sound by buzzing the lips while keeping a seal of the instrument around your lips so all the air goes into the instrument. If the seal and the raspberry technique is good, it should create some back-pressure making the drone sound. And if you can get that, then stick with it. Even with just the drone, you can practice various sounds by moving the tip of your tongue or using your voice. The major hurdle is learning circular breathing. It took me several months, but as soon as I got it, I was like “that was it!?! That’s easy!” Two methods helped me learn the technique; in the shower fill your cheeks with water, and slowly push a stream of water out through your lips. Then try to do this while breathing in and out through your nose, and then push the water out using your cheeks and breathe in through your nose at the same time. The next technique is to blow up a balloon and keep it in your mouth. Keep the air pressure consistent between your cheeks and the balloon and then breathe in and out through your nose. Over time you will learn to use your cheeks as a reservoir for air, like a bag in a bagpipe and will transfer air between your cheeks and the balloon. Transferring this to the instrument, you learn to push air through your lips to continue the raspberry sound and the drone as you are breathing in through your nose to refill your lungs and cheeks. The breathing becomes the part of the rhythm.

Looking back, my life goes in cycles I guess, because in the last few years I have started getting back into drumming and playing the didgeridoo. There was a period of time where I was not producing any music and when I started again, I took my wife to her first drum circle and brought my didgeridoo to play. Didgeridoo players are pretty rare around here, and after the circle she was like “you should’ve seen the look on everyone’s face you when started playing! You were like a rock star!” Haha! I wouldn’t go that far, but it is an amazing instrument with an amazing sound that is fun to hear and watch someone play.

S: So when did you start going Insectarium and focusing more on dark ambient ?

JH: Basically, the moniker came from a track title that stuck with me! Back in 2006 as I was trying to figure out track names for the album “as the flesh departs…” one of the tracks needed a title that reflected the idea of insects inhabiting a decaying body. I was looking for a one-word title. I did a Google search for a term to match this idea, and insectarium was the first word that popped up. I was like, that’s fuck’n clever man.

JH Continued: The term insectarium stayed with me and I ended up using it as my Xbox Gamertag. There were quite a few life changes going on at once, and my evenings became sitting on the couch playing Xbox. Many Gamertags required numbers or special characters because they were so common, but the word “insectarium” was an unused tag and did not require special characters, which made it stick out even more. The name was just odd enough to get people chatting and asking about it.

JH Continued: The story behind the track on that album was that no one can avoid what is going to happen after death. Our bodies are temporary shells. We are all physical beings and will go through the period of decay once we die. The process of decay may include nourishing other life in the process. The old lyrics “the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out” holds some truth to it. In a sense, we all will become an insectarium; a place where insects will gain nourishment and shelter.

JH Continued: I usually spell the moniker in lower case letters because not capitalizing a word makes the word less significant than if it was capitalized. After we die and time passes, we all become insignificant. For me, this is a nod to H.P. Lovecraft’s Cosmicism, so I try to continue to spell it this way as a reminder of my own insignficance.

JH Continued: After “as the flesh departs…” was released, I didn’t produce much music.

Around 2010, I was thinking about making music again, and wanted to separate my dark ambient work from my didgeridoo or tribal ambient music. I was thinking of monikers and it just made sense to use insectarium because I was had been using it for years. To mark this change, I created a compilation of previously released tracks and called it “reflecting on trials.” This album signified the birth of insectarium, it was in a sense transferring those past dark ambient albums from my name to the name insectarium. But then I still wasn’t producing much music. Maybe a track here or there which was then pushed away in a folder somewhere…

JH Continued: Fast forward to 2019, I heard about Ambient Online and the compilations S1gns Of L1fe (Chris Bryant) was releasing. I was excited to learn that in addition to the compilation, there were forums to participate in. It was a way to regain the sense of community I lost years ago when Mp3.com faded away. This opportunity ignited my interest in making music again. Even more fitting was the title of the first compilation that I could participate in: Ambient Online Compilation 04: Death & Rebirth. It was perfect!

I began writing music and officially releasing under the moniker insectarium. From Ambient Online I learned about Bandcamp and uploaded my first album after many years and titled it, “returning.” I finally had enough material to complete an album. Many of the tracks on “returning” were tracks which were recorded during my period of inactivity. The title track would later be used in Neil Görz’s YouTube series THE SORROW - Season 2: The Ice Of Nebel, Episode 1 (2023).

S: Speaking of Bandcamp, you utilize the streaming party feature often. Have you found it to be beneficial?

JH: Yes, parties are great and definitely have been beneficial. Not only with sales, but with generating new artist contacts and fans. Several collaborations have started as the result of chats during a party. The parties have also provided the sense of community that I had been seeking. Over a year ago, a label I was with started having parties every Friday night. This tradition has continued with my friends at the label An Eclectic Collection of Dust. We try to have at least one party on Friday night at 8pm Central. There are usually several dark ambient or ambient parties happening throughout the week and I try to attend as many as I can. Sometimes it is the best way to hear new music. I am usually too busy to seek out new music because I am always listening to mixes for my upcoming albums. Listening parties help me sit back and focus on other artist’s work. It’s a great way to hear new music, and connect to other artists and fans.

S: I want to thank you again for taking the time out for the chat. Any upcoming releases, bandcamp parties, or shows you'd like to plug?

JH: I appreciate you reaching out to me for this interview! I gotta say, there is a ton in the works right now and a few projects and people worth mentioning!

One of the big projects coming soon (November 2025) is 72PILLARS. 72PILLARS is my moniker for a collaborative noise project. I started with noise generation through the use of a mixing board and no-input mixer feedback noise. No-input mixing creates a variety of sounds and noises. After several recording sessions, I accumulated a collection of noise tracks. They sounded good on their own, but I felt they could use something more. I set them aside for a while and tried to figure out what to do with them. I could easily add my own ambient on top of it or release it as a noise album, but it just didn’t feel right.

JH Continued: Fortunately, I have been blessed with and surrounded by a number of very talented artists in the dark ambient and experimental genres. I knew that if I shared these tracks, these artists would be able to breathe a life into them which I could never imagine. I decided the joint effort could not just be another insectarium release, it needed to be something more. It needed to have a life of its own. I have been asked to participate on collabs before, but I have never organized a collab on my own. This was uncharted territory for me.

JH Continued: I took the idea for the moniker 72PILLARS from the 72 Ars Goetia demons. In the mythology, the demons were contained within vessels of brass. Another interpretation of the story has them contained within pillars. I felt pillars represent strength and foundation, which represents the power behind this collaboration. Blending the musical forces with these artists form a strong bond, the pillar. This forms the foundation with the other artists, without it, this project would not stand.

JH Continued: I am thrilled at the response I received! Every artist I contacted was interested in joining the project; Kaarlo Herden, Marius Anguis, Her Menacing Pet, Mike Benoit, Olik Nesnah, Kathodos, The Black Monolith, Mindspawn, and UBEKVEM. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it! These artists are amazing!

JH Continued: I communicate with a few of these artists regularly throughout the week: Mike Benoit, Olik Nesnah, and Kathodos. Mike is important to mention further because we have had some history. After discovering Ambient Online, I started contributing to other compilations and I was approached by Mike to work on some of his projects. Around the same time, Scott Lawlor contacted me to contribute on his collaborative projects and later on a couple of albums. These connections really helped fuel the fire in me to create.

Mike is very creative and experimental in his own musical projects. He recently has taken the reins on the label An Eclectic Collection of Dust (AECOD). There are a couple of compilations coming out on the label, so keep an eye out for those! Also, 72PILLARS will initially be released on AECOD and then later will be released on the 72PILLARS Bandcamp page. The noise versions of the 72PILLARS album is currently on the Bandcamp page as a free download.

JH Continued: Next up is a collab album with UBEKVEM from Denmark. It’s a space-nightmare themed album titled “Nightmare Architectures in Stasis.” It covers the topic of being trapped in a nightmare state while in deep space travel. I guess some of my claustrophobia influenced this album.

JH Continued: Recently released on the Noctivagant label was a collab with The Black Monolith from Greece. This album is brutal. Titled “The Bull of Phalaris,” it covers the topic of the legendary torture device. We decided to take on the view from Phalaris, that not only did he enjoy torturing others, but maybe he had a fascination with witnessing the destruction of the human body. I will be releasing that album on my Bandcamp on Halloween.

I just started working on a collab with Mindspawn which is freak’n huge for me. I have been a fan of his for over 20 years, so working the him is like a dream coming true. We are in the initial discussion and planning stage, so a concept for the album has yet to reveal itself.

In addition to all of this, I have a handful of my own releases coming out, one on AECOD and several more on my Bandcamp. I try to release a new album every month and have albums ready to go that will take me into the first part of 2026. If I can get a few hours in the studio every week, I can produce an album every month. I have recently changed my process which allows me to create in this drone and noise flow, then I can go back to the recordings and edit, structure, and/or compose more if needed. Once finished, I post the releases at the beginning of the month and usually only charge a buck, unless the album was released on another label, then I charge similarly to what the label listed it as.

JH Continued: Which leads me to shows and playing live. No, unfortunately I do not have any insectarium shows planned. It is a goal of mine to get a gig, or possibly develop a local dark electronic music festival. The biggest problem is having the time to plan it all out. I would rather be creating than trying to figure out the logistics of a show. However, my creation process has been geared to translate into a live show pretty easily. So if something came up, I am confident I could pull it off.

Got a question for Joel? Leave it in the comments and we'll be sure to get it to him!