From: "Chicochet&TheRedneck" DavenMarion@horrod.plus.com
To: RicochetGathering@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 4:50 PM
Subject: [RicochetGathering] Interview with Dave Brewer

Well, as you may have heard / gathered, my life got a bit fraught for a 
while after I got back from the Mojave. It's getting back on track slowly, 
and I've started to transcribe the interviews in preparation for my article 
for Krautrocknet.

So, here's the first transcript, of the interview with Dave that I did on 
the last day. Hope you find it interesting! As far as I'm concerned, 
you're welcome to use it however you wish, but please check with dave 
first, and credit us both. ta.

=========================================

[MH] Tell us something about the kind of music you make when you're not at 
the RG.
[DB] Actually I make all sorts of kinds of music, I play in rock bands, I 
also make electronic music on my own. I never really did much totally 
improvised music before the RGs, although I did at least do things like 
improvise melodies & whatnot on my own recordings.

[MH] Why did you first decide to come to the RGs?
[DB] I really needed to have a change in my life. I was living in a 
complacent little box, not much difference & everything - I thought it'd be 
time for a little shake up in my life, bit of an adventure, try something 
new. I always like to visit new places and meet new people. That's always a 
lot of fun.

[MH] Did it have the desired effect?
[BD] Oh yeah, definitely, that and much more. (Laughs)

[MH] And what made you keep coming?
[DB] I guess there's just something really addictive about this. (Laughs) I 
dunno - it's like I'm addicted to the adventure, I guess. After every 
gathering I've just gone back to my life as usual, going back into my 
little box. I just need to keep bursting out of it somehow. Hopefully it'll 
make me and other parts of my life come out of that box more and more. And 
it's also been a really good experience for me musically - I feel that I've 
improved so much as a musician over the years, with the experiences I've 
had at these gatherings. I've learned a lot, playing with all the different 
people.

[MH] Had you heard any of the other musicians before you met them here?
[DB] (Laughs) This is something I'm a bit ashamed to admit. The first year 
it was just myself and Marcel, and no, I had NOT heard ANY of Marcel's 
music before. He had been talked about so much on the list, and everybody 
was always singing praises about his CDs and everything, and I never got 
around to checking it out. So I felt kind of bad when I told him "I haven't 
heard any of your music before". Needless to say, once I'd heard it and had 
a chance to play with him I immediately went and bought a couple of his CDs 
and now he's one of my favourite artists, actually, to listen to, 
especially with this latest double disc he's come out with. And it's been 
the same for the subsequent years too - when Air Sculpture came the 
following year, again I had to shyly admit that I hadn't listened to any of 
their stuff before - which has since been rectified. And then SSO last year 
as well, although I did have one track from them I'd heard, that was on a 
compilation album. But this year I had actually heard some of Paul Lawlers 
music before - I had one Arcane CD that I liked and I also made a point too 
of buying a Der Spyra CD before coming to this trip. I'm like "OK, I don't 
want to repeat this anymore, I'm going to go ahead and check out his stuff 
before I come to this one this year."

[MH] Do you find that the EM you play here is different from the EM that 
you're playing just by yourself?
[DB] Oh definitely - it's such a different dynamic, playing with these 
other musicians, especially when they tend to be much more improvising kind 
of musicians. They never sit down and figure out "I'm going to play this 
chord progression here, put a break in in this spot." So it's just because 
of the different dynamics of jamming with other people as opposed to just 
by myself with a multi-track machine. It's obviously going to be different. 
I've tried improvising with myself - that was a little experiment that I 
gave to the second DWT CD. I think that's met some mixed reactions. 
(Laughs) It's very hard to improvise with yourself, definitely, so it does 
tend to be more structured pieces that I do on my own. And actually I tend 
to border more towards almost like a rock style on my own. I can't get rock 
and roll out of my blood, since I was raised on it.

[MH] So are these events the only time you play EM collaboratively?
[DB] Pretty much, yes. The musicians that I spend time with at home, 
they're pretty much all rock musicians. And when I joined the rock band 
that I had since college, they specifically said "We do not want  
"cheesy" keyboards in our music", so I thought "Well, it's a good thing I 
also know haow to play drums." So it was decided that I was going to play 
drums for the band instead.

[MH] So, if you had to sum it up, what's it like to play improvised, 
collaborative music with a bunch of other musicians that you've never 
played with before?
[DB] I think it's very exciting. I mean, there's so many unknowns to deal 
with. All you basically have is, you've maybe discussed briefly what kind 
of feel that you're going for for the piece, and hopefully someone's going 
to call out what key you're going to play in, but otherwise it's a complete 
mystery - you don't know what in the world's going to come out until it's 
done. And for me that's just so exciting, the collaborating with these 
musicians and playing pretty much completely improvised when I come to 
these gatherings. And it definitely stretches one's skills, as well, in 
many ways.

[MH] Do you think that the music that you play at home is influenced by 
what you play here?
[DB] Yeah, I would say so - to a point. It's maybe kind of a subtle 
inspiration. But I definitely do feel that I take something back with me 
musically that I haven't had before, and I try to incorporate it. There's 
lots of different things that I've tried incorporating into my music - 
hopefully it helps keep things rather original... and hopefully interesting 
too. (Laughs) If I start getting boring I hope people tell me, so I can try 
something new and see what happens. I'd say there's definitely some 
inspiratipon here - maybe not completely obvious, but it is there.

[MH] And how about the locations - do you think they give you inspiration?
[DB] Oh yes, definitely. I always thoroughly absorb my locations. A lot of 
the music that I do on my own wasn't really inspired by sitting on my 
couch, in my living room, staring at the walls! I do things like going 
backpacking and hiking and whatnot, so a lot of times locations are 
actually inspiring my music - I take that back with me and just recall the 
feelings that I had when I was out in the middle of the wilderness last 
month, and something starts falling out of my fingers, and there you go.

[MH] And what's it like living for a few days in such close proximity to fans?
[DB] (Struggles to express himself) I like it personally. As far as I'm 
concerned there's really no difference between myself and someone who's 
just considered a fan, for whatever reason, Y'know, I'm a fan first and 
foremost too, I just also know how to play a little bit. But first I 
consider myself a fan as well.
So I don't see the other folks that are here as really any different than 
myself, except they were smart enough not to try and pack any electronic 
keyboards and computers along with them on their plane trips and whatnot. 
I'm trying to lug round these heavy keyboards all over the place and it's 
like "Hmm, why am I doing this again?".
It's really neat though, because I do also like the feedback that we get 
when we're playing and the fans voice responses to what we do. That's one 
thing that's really helped me both as a musician and as a person, because 
I've always been so self-judgemental about my musical abilities. I guess 
it's always the old adage that artists are their own worst critics, and I 
probably take that to a really unhealthy level at times. Even the first 
couple of gatherings when people would come to me and say "I really liked 
the music you did Dave, that was so great" at first I didn't really know 
how to react. Of course I'm thoroughly grateful, but I keep thinking to 
myself "Nah, it really wasn't that good". Then I realise that that might 
almost be insulting in some cases - you're almost calling them a liar. "You 
think my music is great? You don't know what you're talking about." In time 
though, I've learned that my issues with self-judgement is just something 
that I've got to deal with myself. I guess it's probably just a mechanism 
by which I try to improve myself, to always get better at what I'm doing. 
And with that I've come to realise "Well maybe what I am doing is good", 
and I'm so grateful that they really enjoyed it that I thank them in return 
"I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I appreciate it, it makes me feel like I'm 
doing the right thing with my time and energy." So that's one thing that's 
really helped me in my life, with these gatherings.

[MH] And how do you feel about playing in this very intimate atmosphere, 
with just this very small group of people listening? Does that make 
performing more enjoyable?
[DB] I guess in certain ways it does. I've gotten used to playing for a lot 
of people - I can't see their faces. I'd be up on stage with bright lights 
in my eyes, all the way back from high school even, and hearing this 
clapping off in the distance. But I also do really like the intimate 
surroundings, because it's much easier, of course, to connect with the 
listeners, and bond with them. You can look over and see just what are they 
doing while we're playing - kicking back on the couch and absorbing the 
music. That's really cool, and it's inspiring in itself as well, really, 
driving me along to do some more with the music.

[MH] Anything else you'd like to add, anout the gatherings or the people 
that come to them?
[DB] It's wonderful that these gatherings have been put together. I think 
everybody, both musician and fan alike, just come away with so much when 
they return back to their homes. It's just such a wonderful thing that Vic 
has organised for us. I don't think we can ever thank him enough for first 
coming up with the idea of doing this and then going through all the pain 
in the ass work that's needed to organise such a thing. It's just 
wonderful, and that's also a positive contribution to the world, to put 
something like this together, bring people together, and have them come 
away with something so wonderful, so positive, in their lives.

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