Animal Hospital began as a one-man band fronted by the modest and multi-talented Kevin Micka, but the project has since grown into an ensemble comprised of a small army of friends and local luminaries.

When he began performing and recording solo, Micka’s music was created by looping live drums, guitars and specially mic’d toys into a homemade soundboard where sparse soundscapes culminated into heavy, intricate crescendos with multiple tracks coexisting in harmonious chaos.

Last December, however, he took his project one step further, curating his greatest undertaking so far. Stepping away from his instruments and taking on the role of conductor, Micka handpicked 32 musicians and positioned them in a circle surrounding the sold-out MassArt audience to perform selections from the Animal Hospital catalogue.

“Anywhere you were in the circle you would see something different and hear something different,” notes Micka. “It was really great going through the process of deconstructing and analyzing all the parts for everyone and then see what they did with them. Most of the parts I had very specific ideas about. Some others were a lot more open to improvise off of, which added a whole new life to it. I never really thought about conducting before, but I really enjoyed it. In some ways it made a lot of sense. My brain accepted it in a similar way to playing solo — a similar thought process of steps to follow and execute the arrangement.”

A sound decision

Micka is known around town as a sound engineer, a consistent hired gun for friends’ bands and the most recent member of Neptune. His ensemble is a testament to Mi-cka’s reputation as one of the city’s most important sonic architects and proof of a unified scene in our underrated city.

“One of the benefits of living in Boston so long is that I’ve met and gotten to know a lot of these people from playing with them,” he says.

Kevin Micka has long been Boston’s most modest, capable and prolific sonic architect. Those of us who have followed his work know he’s rarely one to hype up his own. Whether it be recording and mixing some of the city’s best rock records, building microphones, repairing instruments, touring with friends’ bands, or performing amazingly and intricately as his one-man-band, Animal Hospital, Micka has always been the city’s quiet genius. In short, he is the hope and fulfillment of all that is good in our underrated town.

In early December, Micka transformed Animal Hospital from a one-man band to an epic rock orchestra. His magnum opus and greatest undertaking so far, Micka assembled a small army of friends and local luminaries to showcase his music on a grander scale. Stepping away from his instruments, Micka took on the role of conductor as 32 musicians assembled in a semi-circle at a sold-out MassArt auditorium to perform hand-picked selections from his Animal Hospital catalogue. Songs usually performed alone with loops of drums, guitars and homemade mic’d instruments, were fleshed out by 23 guitarists, seven string players and two drummers. The grandiose spectacle provided a testament to the vision of Kevin Micka, and his importance as an artist, in and beyond city limits. The following interview is an exclusive. Completed via email from his recent European tour, Micka was kind enough to answer the following questions.

Read the full interview here.

The surround sound you hear at a concert is ultimately technological trickery – the woofers in the back of a venue, the speakers hanging from the rafters. Sunday’s performance by Animal Hospital Ensemble at the Massachusetts College of Art, meanwhile, was authentically immersive. The crowd of over 200 filed into the Pozen Center, grabbed seats in the middle, and soon found themselves engulfed in a circle of two drummers, six string players and 22 guitarists.

Kevin Micka (who performs as Animal Hospital) composes, produces, and performs his music alone, mining intense beauty from repeated patterns and heavy drones. In a live setting, he loops intricate moving parts to achieve the work of dozens. Except now Micka is expanding the band’s horizons, at least for two one-off performances. The Animal Hospital Ensemble (a group of over 30 musicians) will make its debut in Pawtucket tomorrow before arriving in Boston at the Pozen Center on Sunday.