Interviews Galleries

Freedom In Fragments: An Interview With Fred Frith : It could be argued that Fred Frith is one of the most central figures in so-called "new music." His guitar improvisations have led him to substantially re-invent how the instrument is played. Frith is also a composer for film, dance, and orchestra, whose works have been performed all over the world, by artists of countless disciplines, including Robert Wyatt, Hieronymus Firebrain, and Arditti Quartet. He has recorded with artists as diverse as The Residents, Brian Eno, Swans, Negativland, Amy Denio, Anthony Braxton, and Thomas Bloch. Co-founder of the British band Henry Cow (1968 - 1978), he moved to New York in the late seventies, becoming an integral part of the seminal "downtown" music scene, and began a series of bands, including Massacre (who recently opened for Metallica) and Skeleton Crew (a band which involved electric-harpist Zeena Parkins, cellist Tom Cora, and Frith playing homemade drumsets at the same time as their other instruments). Frith also began a long term collaboration with John Zorn, which included playing bass in his postmodern-thrash-cartoon band, Naked City. Frith's numerous compositions include ensembles performing his photographs as musical scores, a piece composed for a "walking" orchestra which performs as it wanders through French towns, a symphonic piece based on the writings of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, an opera for the Theatre du Point Aveugle and "15 unemployed rock musicians," and the score for Rivers and Tides (Thomas Riedelsheimer's documentary film about Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy). Frith's international nomadic encounters are the subject of Werner Penzel and Nicolas Humbert's award-winning film "Step Across The Border." I conducted this interview with Frith in his home in Oakland, California in March 2002, and shot the photographs of Frith which accompany the text in Berkeley, California, in December of 2004.

Freedom In Fragments: An Interview With Fred Frith

It could be argued that Fred Frith is one of the most central figures ...

Updated: Jul 21, 2008 1:31am PST

The Mantle Of Authority: An Interview With A Yes Men : Yes Men "Hoax" On BBC World News This is the Yes Men appearance on BBC World News which took place two hours before I met with Ostertag, referred to in the interview below. Yes Men Explanation Later The Same Day The follow up interview after Yes Men "hoax" was revealed. A Short Piece Regarding The Bhopal Disaster

The Mantle Of Authority: An Interview With A Yes Men

Yes Men "Hoax" On BBC World News This is the Yes Men appearance on B ...

Updated: Jul 22, 2008 1:55am PST

These Hands: An Interview With Richard Board : Richard Board is a lighting designer, who accomapanied composer/improvisor/software designer/instrument builder Bob Ostertag to Yugoslavia, after NATO began bombing civilian targets within the country during the late 1990s, to collaborate on a multimedia art-piece, which sought to establish a dialogue with the people in the region, regarding their civil war that was taking place at the time. I conducted the following interview with Board in San Francisco, California, in April 2008. The still images from the performance of "These Hands," which accompany portions of the text below, are derived from a sequence of my forthcoming documentary, part of which can be viewed in the "Film" gallery of this site, under the title: "War Games."

These Hands: An Interview With Richard Board

Richard Board is a lighting designer, who accomapanied composer/improv ...

Updated: Jul 21, 2008 1:41am PST

The Fertile Mistake: An Interview With Norton Wisdom : Using large backlit sheets of clear plastic stretched across wooden posts on a stage as his canvas, Santa Monica lifeguard and shark-wrestler, Norton Wisdom, performs live improvised painting onstage with musicians, interpreting the music being improvised during the performance in real time. His paint is dilluted to stay malleable, so his paintings remain in continual motion, through Wisdom's use of paintbrushes, windshield wipers, sponges, and his own hands. Unlike most painting, his live work does not aim for a finished image, but celebrates the process of fluid metamorphosis: a cornucopia of images emerging unpredictably from one another: clouds become bodies, bodies become musical instruments, buildings become rockets, and dinner plates become crowns worn by monarchs, in a labrynth of unexpected paths. The live experience of his work continually challenges your perception of what you think you are seeing, and your ability to predict how forms and shapes relate to each other. A local gem of Los Angeles, Wisdom has been invited to paint all over the world, including Bali, Turkey, and Morocco. The venues for his painting performances range from punk clubs, to prestigious concert halls, to the Berlin Wall upon which he made guerilla paintings prior to its demolition. Wisdom performs regularly with Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Mike Watt (Minutemen), and Nels Cline (Geraldine Fibbers/Wilco/etc.), under the moniker, Banyan; however, he has also performed with a wide range of artists as diverse as the National Bamboo Orchestra of Bali, Beck, and my own band, The Autumns. I conducted this interview with Norton Wisdom at his home in 2003, and took the accompanying photographs of Wisdom in 2003 and 2004.

The Fertile Mistake: An Interview With Norton Wisdom

Using large backlit sheets of clear plastic stretched across wooden po ...

Updated: Jul 21, 2008 1:24am PST

Phantom Orchard: An Interview With Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori (contains video) : Phantom Orchard is a band comprised of Zeena Parkins (acoustic and electric harps) and Ikue Mori (laptop computer). In August 2002, I drove from Los Angeles to Calgary, Canada, to film them recording their first record in the home studio of the fascinating David Kean, founder of The Audities Foundation, an organization committed to the preservation of rare electronic instruments. Zeena Parkins, a multi-instrumentalist known as the inventor and performer of electric harp, had recently returned from an international tour of opera houses with Bjork, who had recruited Zeena as her harp player for the "Vespertine" album and tour. Parkins is a composer and improvisor who has collaborated with John Zorn, Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, Jim O' Rourke, and Nels Cline, amongst many others. Among her recent compositions is a piece for 16 feet and a cello. Ikue Mori is known to many as the drummer of No-Wave band DNA, who later rooted her work in laptop computers as her primary instrument for live improvisation. Like Zeena, the list of artists she has collaborated with is too vast to do justice. Her compositions include "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon," a piece based on the woodblock prints of the last master of Japanese Ukiyoe, Yoshitoshi, and a film which animates paintings from the Kertha Gosa temple ceiling in Bali, to depict the journey of the soul from hell to heaven, partially scored using her laptop electronics. Click the image beneath the title photograph to view footage I shot of Parkins and Mori improvising for me in Calgary, Canada during August 2002. Beneath the clip are selected excerpts from my interview with Parkins and Mori at that time. At the bottom of the page is an additional audio clip recorded in the studio. In addition to the photographs I shot of Zeena and Ikue below, the title photo was taken by Mark C., and the group photo of myself and Jessica Tjalsma with Zeena and Ikue was taken by David Kean.

Phantom Orchard: An Interview With Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori (contains video)

Phantom Orchard is a band comprised of Zeena Parkins (acoustic and ele ...

Updated: Aug 27, 2008 11:25pm PST

Wrong Path In A Garden Maze: The Meeting Of Two Madmen, William Winant and Nels Cline (contains video) : WILLIAM WINANT, one of the true madmen of percussion, has collaborated with John Cage, Oingo Boingo, Iannis Xenakis, Sonic Youth, Yo-Yo Ma, Keith Jarrett, Steve Reich, John Zorn, Melt Banana, Danny Elfman (Batman Returns), Anthony Braxton, Mr. Bungle, Souxie and the Banshees, Jim O' Rourke, Karlheinz Stockhausen, James Tenney, Cecil Taylor, Mike Patton, and Kronos Quartet, to name only a few. NELS CLINE, long one of the best reasons to live in Los Angeles, is currently a member of Wilco, though his countless collaborations transcend genre and expectation. His bands include The Geraldine Fibbers, Destroy All Nels Cline, Banyan, and The Nels Cline Singers. A cursory list of artists Nels has collaborated with would include: Thurston Moore, Rod Poole, Art Davis, Lydia Lunch, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Zeena Parkins, Norton Wisdom, Mike Watt, Zach Hill, DJ Bonebrake, Devin Sarno, Deerhoof, Jim McAuley, Stephen Perkins, Vinny Golia, Norah Jones, Jon Brion, Carla Bozulich, Billy Higgins, Mark Dresser, Elliott Sharp, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Gregg Bendian, Scott Amendola, Devin Hoff, Mark Isham, Alex Cline, and many others.

Wrong Path In A Garden Maze: The Meeting Of Two Madmen, William Winant and Nels Cline (contains video)

WILLIAM WINANT, one of the true madmen of percussion, has collaborated ...

Updated: Jul 11, 2008 3:59pm PST