Part 2

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

I feel like answering this truthfully would obliterate any mystique I may have left … But I will say a big part of my time is devoted to playing with cats.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

I’m really interested in this idea of a “creative process” … do you find most artists have one that they can pin down or that is mostly unchanging? That would be fascinating to know…

I have never been one to have a consistent process. The closest thing to a process I can relate is, for instance on this latest Aarktica album, I record voice memos of song snippets as they come. I have to speak into my phone and remind myself what the tuning is, where the capo goes and then I play each progression or part so I remember and I talk myself through it. If there are some lyrics at that stage, I’ll also record them. And to me, that’s like more than half the battle. Once it’s on a voice memo it can turn into something. I have no memory otherwise and many “songs” get lost in the ether unless I keep track this way.

Everything else falls into place once the idea is there. The orchestration, the instrumentation, the guitar sounds, etc ... they all arise from the seed of the song.

There were several pieces on this album (We Will Find the Light) that took on entirely new life when Lewis (Pesacov, the producer) weighed in with his thoughts on processing. We were getting some sounds that I hadn’t really even considered going in, so I would say that part of the process is not being too attached to the sound at any part of the production.

I like the idea of hearing the possibilities and taking some chances. I also like the idea of knowing when enough is enough and the track is “finished.”

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I fear that I may have severe anti-social tendencies because for the 25+ years that I’ve been a professional musician, I have spent a relatively small amount of time playing in actual bands. A band is maybe too much of a commitment than I’ve ever been able to devote myself to. I enjoy working solo, though I do also enjoy more short-term collaborative projects when they arise.

It is really a shame, because I have always enjoyed the collaborative process when I’ve worked with others. Now that I’m a little older with softer edges, I don’t feel I’m particularly difficult to work with creatively … though I’m quite sure that may not have been the case when I was a younger man. But I do have very particular ideas about certain things, and I’m also not a patient person. The aspect of working with others that I have a hard time with is being on other peoples’ schedules or timetables.

When I start something, I like to work fast and I like to finish it quickly. Make it a moment in time, whether it’s perfect or not. It’s a moment, we’ll have more of them!

A pet peeve of mine is working slowly and leaving things unfinished. I want to move onto the next thing, I don’t like having multiple unfinished projects lying around. When I collaborate with someone and they don’t make time to finish their part, it makes me feel under-prioritized and that is disrespectful to me.

This latest album, Aarktica’s We Will Find the Light, I loved the process of working with producer Lewis Pesacov. We locked right in together. And I also loved working with cellist Henrik Meierkord, whom I had known through my work in Black Tape for a Blue Girl (Henrik plays strings in that project as well). Henrik lives in Sweden and recorded his parts remotely. He worked quickly, intuitively and completely elevated what I was going for. It was a great experience.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

La Monte Young always used to say to me, and I’m paraphrasing a bit from memory: “It is the responsibility of the artist to contribute to society, but the way in which he contributes may not be the way he thinks it is.” I interpret that as ... Don’t be too lost in your head about what you hope to achieve or too attached to the outcome. Just do it from the heart and it will have an impact in some way, even if that is not the way you may have expected.

I do not have the audacity to think I’m affecting society with music, but as with anything if we can affect the people in our own orbit, whether that is through kind gestures, compassion or the art we create, hopefully that creates a ripple effect that emanates outward and does effect greater change.  

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

My dad was dying of cancer at around the same time Bob Dylan released Rough and Rowdy Ways. With my dad being a huge Bob Dylan fan, I found myself listening to that album a lot in the months leading up to his passing, in some ways using it as this way to understand my dad a bit better, since we never really communicated on a very emotional level. I kinda felt if I could get inside Dylan, I could start to understand my dad more.

One night, I was listening to “Murder Most Foul” in my kitchen and was just overcome by emotion, like sobbing and weeping. I know a lot of this was the heaviness of knowing my dad was passing. But there was also something about that song that encapsulates the very honest reflections of a man toward the end of his life, replaying all the songs from his youth, weaving in and out of consciousness like a radio dial landing between static and song.

It was poignant and powerful to me to carry that self-awareness into old age. To know that the end is near and be able to provide a vulnerable look back on one’s life and legacy in such a way.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

Once again, this is a very “head oriented” question, are musicians generally this academic?

I know from my work in plant medicine and sound healing that of course there are certain frequencies that can affect nervous system regulation. It’s very interesting, and I know there are ambient musicians like Steve Halpern who have made careers out of composing with these frequencies.

I’m glad they are out there doing this, but I learned long ago while studying with La Monte Young that I did not have the capacity for the academia that goes along with certain types of tuning systems, mathematical calculations, etc. Getting stuck in my head is the death of creating anything that is heart-centered.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. 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?

Yes, it is extremely different in every way imaginable.

But that being said, it’s great when people are able to embrace the more mundane tasks of life and make them special and creative. I mean, that may even be part of like the secret to enjoying life.

For many years I was a bartender and found it to be a very creative outlet for me, not only in the drinks I would create, but in the experience I would provide my guests. I knew it was time to step away from the bar when my demeanor became jaded and my creative spark began to wane.

But I don’t think any other medium really approaches the potential that music has to touch us in a very innate and intrinsic way. That’s a bit of the mystique of music. I’ve had good cups of coffee, but none that moved me in the same way that, say, Ingram Marshall’s “Fragility Cycles” does, perhaps.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I mean, music has been an integral part of humanity and civilizations for like 40,000 years, so it’s no surprise that there’s something in the DNA of every human being that makes it innate and familiar.

It has the ability to evoke something very intrinsic in most people. That and there’s a lot to be said for the intention with which music is performed and delivered. I’m not sure it can really be explained beyond that.