Name: Bill Orcutt
Nationality: American
Occupation: guitarist
Current Release: Jump on it on Palilalia Records
Recommendations: Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris / Auto by Wendy Eisenberg

If you enjoyed this interview with Bill Orcutt, visit his label Palilalia for more information on new releases and shows.

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?

I listen with my eyes open. Sometimes they close I guess, maybe? Actually I don’t know if I close them or not. I do know that if I’m enjoying the music, it affects my body. I start moving in some way or another, head nodding, tapping, usually off the beat. I breathe differently. Make little sounds, that sort of thing. It's a very specific feeling, the way it affects me.

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 steps in music were probably like most people — learning how to play things from records, songs off the radio.  Studying instruction books etc. Eventually writing my own material, then developing a style. I don’t really see it as experience vs. naiveté — I’m just traveling down a path, making choices (or choosing not to make them) as I go. Wherever I’m at is where I’m meant to be. It’s all good. There are no “gains” per se, nothing accumulates, it's just a journey with the occasional change of scenery.

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?

My parents got me a turntable when I was fifteen. I hadn’t asked for one. I guess they ran out of gift ideas. I wasn’t really interested in music until then, but I quickly got hooked on reading reviews and buying records.  I was bookish and music is good for nerds. This was in the late seventies and I started buying whatever new LPs were getting good reviews at the time. I started to make friends at school through music. Not that many friends (haha), but the three other people in my high school who were into punk became pals. My tastes broadened as I found other sources of information and began listening to jazz and then experimental music. Not much has changed since then, just the formats for listening and the mechanism for discovering new sounds.

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

Guitar foremost. My parents bought me one and got me lessons when I was about 14. I think they wanted me to have some kind of general music instruction and a guitar was cheaper than a piano. I had no interest in music (this was a year before they got me a stereo) so it really didn’t happen then and the lessons ended quickly. When I did become interested in music, then the guitar and I were inseparable. I’m 61 now so I’ve been playing for about 45 years, the last 35 of those using the four-string configuration I use now. At this point, the guitar as a general thing and I are on really good terms. Specific guitars can be a source of inspiration (or not) and produce different kinds of results, but generally the guitar and I are pretty good friends.

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

Ideas? I don’t think there’s anything other than self expression. I am the idea, lol. Just be honest to who I am. My point of view is pretty well formed at this point so I feel like I can do whatever I want and it just sounds like me.

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?

I know nothing of Paul Simon and his impressions, but what he’s describing is probably similar to the way I listen to records. The first thing I hear is always vibe, then start focusing on the details. I recently saw the Blake Mills/Pino Palladino group and spent a few days spiraling on one detail — the guitar sound. “Was that terrible tone intentional? Amazing if true…” It was all I could talk about. As far as my “personal sound,” I have no idea how to put it into words, I just know it when I hear it.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I love animal reunion videos, where an animal, usually a pet or domestic animal, is reunited with a sibling/parent or previous owner. So emotional and the sounds are very moving. Especially donkeys for some reason, the braying is incredible.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I’ve written pieces that were over three hours and others that were less than 30 seconds. I’ve been in loud rock bands and made records that were nothing but the sound of me breathing. That said, I don’t know that I’m particularly drawn to extremes per se. It’s more like what’s appropriate for a certain feeling. I like lots of three-minute pop songs too!

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

Again, I don’t really have one approach to structuring music. Sometimes the structure is the piece — for example, “Slow Troll,” a computer music piece I made where a recurring rest keeps growing in length over the course of the three hour duration until ultimately the silence over takes the music.  That rest and its growth are the composition, everything around it is just there to make the rest audible. But, I’ve also done head/solo/head jazz, verse/chorus rock, phased minimalism, through composed music and straight up noise. There’s no best approach.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

Usually a previous recording will point the way to the next record. Over the last few years, I did a series of counting records created on the computer: “Pure Genius,” “A Mechanical Joey,” and “The Anxiety of Symmetry.” The first one grew out of a track on a previous LP, “New Words from the OED” which used pronunciation guide samples from the OED online dictionary. That got me interested in using other dictionary samples, in the case of “Pure Genius” the numbers one through six. Then I used the Ramones for “Mechanical Joey” and ultimately recorded my own number samples from a singer I commissioned for the final record in the trilogy. Same thing happens with the guitar: the album “Odds Against Tomorrow” is basically one song from the previous album (“The World Without Me” from the album “Bill Orcutt”) extrapolated to fill an LP.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Not really. Some of my computer music requires a bit of math, but generally no science is happening when I’m making music.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

No idea.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Making coffee isn’t an expressive act IMO. You can do it well, you can do it poorly but it tells you nothing personal about the maker. Music is inherently different. I can feel something, express those feelings as sounds and invoke sympathetic emotions in the listener. If you do it in a performance, then it's all happening live and it’s amazing.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

They’re all like that to me. It's magic.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

Musicians make more money!