Crushing the Mold: An Interview with JG Thirlwell

Posted in Art, Interviews, Music, Underground/Cult |

Image from MAKE blog

Could you describe in detail what it was like working with robotic instruments?
I was asked by Eric Singer of LEMUR to write a piece for the LEMUR bots. I decided to add a string quartet to the composition. I began by experimenting with the guitar-bot and got a structure with that. I created a sample program with the percussive sounds and began with that to compose the rest of the parts. Then I started working in the LEMUR space where the instruments are installed and started fine-tuning the work. The bots are quite temperamental and almost take on an anthropomorphic life.

How did you get involved with Strings of Consciousness? Did you write “Asphodel” specifically for that project, or was it a song you had written that you hadn’t found an appropriate outlet for?
They contacted me via a thing called the Internet.

I heard their song and said yes, I could sing on something like that. I wrote my part for their song, going for Crosby-Stills-and-Nash-meets-ELO type of vocal layering. I sent it to them and they released it on an album.

How did you get involved writing for the Arcana book series? What exactly is your contribution to that?
John Zorn edits and publishes the Arcana books, which consist of musicians writing about music. He invited me to write an essay.

The essay I wrote is about tinnitus.

You recently did a show with Jennifer Charles [of Elysian Fields] on Valentine’s Day, would you like to explain what your role in that was? What exactly did you perform?
Jennifer pulled this concert together. It was at the Hiro Ballroom in NYC and she had a three-piece band. We performed the Firewater song “Bad Bad World” together. JC also sang with Nina Perssons (The Cardigans), Jaleel Bunton (TV on The Radio), The Honorary Title, Marc Ribot, Steve Bernstein, Thomas Bartlett, actor Kevin Corrigan, Ed Pastorini, Erik Sanko, and many more.

Elysian Fields

You’ve recently worked with Anubian Lights. . . how did that come about? Do you know when that will be released?
I have known Tommy and Len for years and they asked me to do it. They’ve done a lot of work with Lydia Lunch.

They sent me two backing tracks and I picked one that I felt I could do something with. I don’t know when it will be released.

Since you’ve worked with new musicians for London’s Manorexia line-up, did you find that more challenging, or is the fact that these musicians are so adept at what they do, that it’s a natural fit?
Different musicians bring a little something different to the score in the way they play, their instruments and so on.

Instead of asking you about when you’re going to tour as the Foetus rock show (which is completely understandable: why would you want to play shitty nightclubs and burn yourself out, when you could do one-off shows on a higher scale and in more respectable locations like the Whitney?). . . I guess what I’m asking is whether or not you ever plan to do a Steroid Maximus/Foetus/Manorexia-type of extravaganza in NYC (like the one in Krems [Donaufestival 2005])?
It’s expensive to pay 18 musicians and I don’t want to do it half-assed. I want everyone to be paid. That’s a lot of schedules to coordinate and wages to pay. Its not coming out of my pocket, I’ve already done it so I know what it’s like—it’s awesome! It’s somewhat difficult to find the right place to do it. There have been a few times it almost happened then it fell thru.

Since your music is scored for your hired ensembles, so do you actually know how to read music, or are you more of an instinctive “playing by ear” type?
I don’t read music. I never particularly announced myself an “instrumentalist” even.

I write the music in my studio and then work with an arranger to generate the score and re-voice it for the instrumentation I am using. I also generate it myself in the score program of Logic via midi and then make sure that the players can read it. I know a few tricks.

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Click to read more from JG Thirlwell on. . .

LEMUR, Strings of Consciousness, Elysian Fields
Current favorites, Der Kastanienball, “Narcissum Escenda”
freq_out, Baby Zizanie, Christian Marclay, Chloé Delaume
Afflictions, shoes, and sunglasses

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