Part 1

Name: Lori Goldston

Nationalty: American

Occupation: Cellist

Current Release: Echolocation: Resonate From Here on Brawl Records.
Recommendations: The Books of Jacob by Tolga Tokarczuk / By Myself by Abdul Wadud, I cannot recommend highly enough!

If you enjoyed this interview with Lori Golston, visit her website for information on her music and tours. 

 
When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Sometimes my eyes are closed when I play, but when I’m just listening my eyes are open. I hear what’s going on, analyze the parts, and sometimes get swept away to the point of being I’m unable to use the methodical part of my brain. I like the tension that comes from that failed effort to stay rational.
Music conveys so much on so many levels. A lot of my favorite music expresses a clear essence of the place where it was originally composed or conceived, it’s a kind of spell. I love barebones ethnographic recordings for this, and small rock and experimental shows. You can practically see and feel and smell the space or scene or landscape they’re from, and get a sense of people thinking about and doing things. It’s an extremely nourishing experience. Sometimes when I’m recording or touring I try with my playing to describe and convey a visceral feeling of where I’m from. People often tell me afterwards that they had very cinematic experiences listening to it.

I think of listening as a full body experience, we listen not only with our ears but also absorb sound as it washes over our skin.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

My first memories of music are listening to the opera radio broadcast with my grandmother. In my extended family, sometimes people would sing together at holiday gatherings, but my immediate family members didn’t engage with music much. So, as a young kid my encounters with music were relatively rare. When I was seven or eight I discovered the radio and listened to a lot of soul and pop.
Guitar lessons were my first music training, when I was seven. There was no particular expectation or pressure aside from an obligation to practice, which I was happy to do. I was pretty much off on my own with it. It was a very pure process of discovery.

Later I studied cello in public school, which introduced the idea of progress being judged and rated. I was never great at auditions because of the thing I mentioned earlier about getting swept away. The goal for orchestral playing is accuracy, but I get wrapped up in expression and meaning and make mistakes. I’ve done almost none of that kind of work as an adult, I think my playing is a little too volatile.
My training continued through high school and college, I had an amazing time studying at Bennington for two years and then dropped out, I just wanted to get out and play. Since then it’s been kind of on-the-job learning, I jump feet first into all kinds of situations and figure out how to make it work. I’m very lucky to be able to continue learning and growing for all this time, and have more and more excitement and enthusiasm.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

At that age, I was immersed in studying and listening in a way that hasn’t changed much. I was a ravenous and omnivorous listener, I loved hearing surprising things.

The influences guiding my listening were in close proximity: teachers, friends, regional radio, school band and orchestra repertoire, etc. I can’t imagine what it’s like to start out learning music now with the internet, more or less limitless access to recorded music from every place and time. It’s astronomically broadened musicians’ understanding and made music students less dependent on teachers’ old ideas.

When I was a teenager I studied at a folk music school that was in its waning days but a few years earlier had been quite a force and had was closely connected with the old guard New York folk scene. Stellar musicians would stop by and give lectures. There were strong ties to Folkways Records, the entire catalogue of which my local public library had purchased decades earlier; I spent a lot of time with those scratchy albums, they were/are extremely magical and transportive. I also borrowed jazz albums from my high school, and listened to European classical and baroque.

I listened to a lot of rock and pop alone and with friends, sang along, danced, sulked, etc. and sometimes learned the chord changes on guitar.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

Until a few years ago I played the cello my parents bought for me in high school, which sounds pretty good but is definitely not a professional instrument. Upgrades are extremely expensive, and I often play in rugged circumstances: bars, DIY shows, outdoors, etc. Bringing a fancy instrument seemed stressful and ridiculous. Working around and with the quirks and limitations of that instrument certainly shaped my playing.

About eight years ago I suddenly felt like I’d done everything I could with that instrument, I finally needed a better one. For many years I’d managed to keep my instrument safe in the various wild circumstances and travels, so I figured my odds for avoiding disaster were pretty good. I bought a wonderful cello made in Seattle by my friend Jason Starkie, which I got to see in pieces on his bench while he was building it. It has expanded my playing enormously.

Another impactful instrument/tool has been an old Fender Deluxe Reverb amplifier rebuilt by my friend Kevin Hilbiber of Softscience. I was very lucky to have a chance to learn about amplification with such an excellent instrument, and have learned a lot from his beautiful, poetic explanations about electronics. It made many things possible for me. Now I have several amps but used only that one for years, it is a masterpiece.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

My playing uses a wide timbral palette, and I like to create instability and unpredictability to explore and learn from. I have a very particular emotional engagement with what I play, I’m not sure how to describe it. My playing has more to do with having an immersive experience with each listener vs. a more presentational approach.

I play, study and listen to music from a lot of different places, genres and approaches, that’s reflected back in my improvising, playing and composing, which often straddles disciplines and styles. I’ve never had a very clear sense of genre.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

It’s very difficult for me to think about and hear my own music subjectively. I think my playing’s marked by a raw sincerity, and a restless inventiveness that probably come across clearly to listeners.