[0:08]I grew up in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, in Canada, a small town in the southern tip of the province of about 1200 people.
[0:20]I had a lot of music obsessions growing up. The first was probably Chopin. My mother had a Van Cliburn record that she would play regularly. I was about five when I saw Nanaskuddi in concert and to this day, I remain a big fan. My parents also have an enormous collection of easy listening records, everything you can imagine of that genre, uh, Perry Como, Doris Day, 101 Strings, and a lot of movie soundtracks from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. They collected everything from this genre, and and to this day, I still listen to these records. A lot of them are really fascinating. Um, in about 1982, in 83, I discovered MTV. MTV came out in 81 and sort of slowly, uh, shook the world. Um, at this time, and MTV at this time was not the MTV we knew now or even the MTV of the 90s. It was a time of of real experimentation and uh, it was a channel that for 24 hours a day constantly, would show mini movies, um, of a variety, a wide variety of different kinds of music, and I had never seen anything like it. It was perfect. Uh, so I was exposed to music I had no idea existed. Um, they also had, they had programs called 120 Minutes and the Basement Tapes that would sort of go underground, showcase kind of the counterculture and and show bands from really around the world. So I really discovered, even though it was still within the pop genre, I discovered a lot of different kinds of sounds, electronics, rock and roll, dance music, everything. So from this time until I left home in 1991, I watched a whole lot of MTV.
[2:18]The technology I was exposed to every day growing up had a major impact on the music I create now. Um, my father is an electronics uh, repairman, salesman, collector, so since I was born, I was surrounded by all these devices. He never threw anything out. Um, and a lot of antiques, he would seek out antiques, the early phonographs and, uh, oscillators, a huge collection of oscillators. So these sounds were in my brain since the beginning, and a lot of them weren't wouldn't wouldn't work very well. But unlike, um, digital, this was analog, so this meant that if something stopped working, it only meant it stopped working in the way it was intended to work. Uh, this also meant a huge afterlife of, um, all these fascinating sounds and visuals and I love this. Once something stopped working, you know, Betamax machine or an early turntable or, uh, the the RCA SelectaVision eight track tapes, it meant, uh, the media that was playing on these devices would start to chop up and glitch or the video, the video colors would start to saturate. And it was beautiful, and it was really for a child and even, even continued through my teen years and even now. These, uh, sounds are incredible to me, and they form the basis for a lot of my, a lot of my pieces. In 1985, I really got into metal and then later in the 80s, I got into heavier metal, so what was called thrash metal and speed metal. The faster, the louder, the better. Um, near the 90s, I sort of found the whole metal metal genre and much of the pop genre that I, the mainstream, a little bit formulaic. So I started to search a little more and I discovered what was called at the time, alternative music or college music. Um, and a lot of a lot of groups I got into, I got into Kate Bush, I got into Depeche Mode, the Laws, Yaz, uh, The Smiths and The Cure, Stone Roses. So a lot of music I'd never heard on the radio, um, but really loved. Again, something different. I was really trying to find something else than than the mainstream at that time. And around this time, I discovered, uh, this corner of my parents' record collection that I'd never really, uh, visited until one day, uh, was a Reader's Digest collection of classical music. And I had been taking piano lessons. I was I still love Chopin. Chopin was it, but I never really, really delved into classical music until I discovered this massive box set. And it was really enormous. It was LPs, uh, one box set representing each period of musical history, and then within that, there were liner notes and about 10 records, so it was really really thorough. It was great. And at that point, um, my love of classical music sadly extended past Chopin and I discovered Beethoven and Bach and Mozart and Hayden and Scarlatti. Those were my favorites. I never even looked at the 20th century. In fact, the 20th century classical, uh, world did not exist to me until my first year of university, until I heard the Rite of Spring and until I heard, uh, the Getty atmospheres and that changed my, changed my life.
[5:59]I started playing piano and singing and writing songs when I was very young before I had started school. In my early teens, I learned how to notate music, so I started writing things down. I had no idea staff paper existed, so I would spend a lot of time, many hours making my own using ruler and a pen. Um, I also started recording at this time. I discovered a technique of using boom boxes and tapes. And I would record a melody or chords or something on the piano, uh, to one tape, and then while playing back that tape, I would take a second boom box and record a counter melody or another instrument or another voice, and I would do this over and over until about 10 or 12 or 14 layers were created. And at that point, I would record the sound of the room as well, so there was a lot of hiss and, uh, a lot of distortion. Um, at this time too, I started playing and discovered the guitar that had been sitting around our house this whole time. Uh, the action on it was so high that I had to tune it to one chord and change chords by sliding a drumstick along the strings to change chords, but this worked for me and I would, I would spend a lot of time recording individual chords and then playing them back. And when I was 13, um, I got into drums and drummers, and I got my first drum kit. Uh, so all of these instruments, the drums, the guitar, the piano, my voice, and any other devices, and there were a lot of them around the house, would make their way into these collages, into, into these, uh, multi-layered, um, songs.
[7:45]There was never really the decision to become a composer. It was something I had always been doing and something I knew, um, I wanted to continue doing. There was no decision. Um, so I knew I wanted to write. The the direction and the style did constantly evolve and open up as I discovered different kinds of music. But it just happened. I decided to go into university and continue learning about music and, uh, writing this whole time. The first time I heard a recording of Kronos was in the library at Brandon University about 1992, 93. I was doing my undergrad, and uh, this was a time of discovery. I was discovering new classical music or contemporary music. Uh, I had borrowed, I'd taken out to listen in the library, uh, Winter was Hard and Black Angels. And I remember listening to these CDs from beginning to end, and I had never heard anything like it. Never heard string quartet writing like that, never heard a performance like that. Um, the first time I heard them live was in Winnipeg, a few years later, in 1995 at the Winnipeg New Music Festival, and it was an amazing concert.
[9:15]I really share Kronos's ideas for, uh, reimagining the string quartet experience. Uh, it always felt natural for me to to broaden the scope of what is considered, uh, a concert music piece or something that belongs in the concert hall. Um, thereby bringing in, um, instruments or, uh, performers or ideas or concepts that aren't normally associated with, with concert music. Um, and I don't think, I don't, it I don't feel that a work should be bound by pre-existing notions of of what is, uh, a classical work or a concert music work. Uh, for me, the the excitement and the challenge is creating a work, um, that resonates and is meaningful to me and to the players I'm collaborating with or writing for. The dynamic of the string quartet is very unique. Um, there's a lot of depth to the communication and interaction that goes on, a real synergy, um, that is unlike anything else, and as a result of this, uh, the possibilities are endless. So I think about this synergy a lot when when writing a new piece for string quartet. Um, there's also a long history, uh, so there's a challenge when, when writing for this for, for this group of instruments. Um, I think for me, I know, uh, that there's, there's, there's a lot of possibilities or colors and timbers are are endless. So it's ultimately about writing something that's that's meaningful, uh, for me and sort of reflects what I'm passionate about. And sort of looking again outwardly, not necessarily for a musical inspiration, uh, initially. And so that's what I did with these pieces, um, being so involved in reading all these autobiographies and watching all these documentaries on, uh, stop motion animators and film noir. I was just really moved by them and wanted to create film noir and stop motion animation so badly that I essentially did it for string quartet. The two pieces I wrote for Fifty for the Future form a sort of collection, maybe an ongoing series. And they're kind of a, an homage or a tribute to films and filmmakers that have had, um, a big impression on on me and my music. Um, the first piece, uh, Darkness is Not Well Lit is film noir for string quartet. Uh, in my mind, I had, uh, a scene, a the quintessential film noir scene of an office in an old building, of course, in black and white, lots of shadows, really dimly lit, um, maybe a swinging light bulb hanging from the ceiling and muggy conditions and, of course, the fan on the desk, uh, spinning. And this with this piece, I did something that I had always wanted to do, which is write, uh, instruments around fans to capture that sound that we all experienced as a, as a kid when we sing into the fan, you get that tremolo effect. And it was always something I want to do and I really felt like the right moment. Uh, I have always loved film noir. I've been reading prior to writing the piece. I was reading a lot of books about film noir, and, uh, just want really wanted to try this. So in this piece, uh, Kronos sings and plays into fans that are situated directly in front of them and direct all their, all the, uh, the sound into the fan to create this effect. Another Living Soul is the second in the series and it's a tribute to the pioneers of stop motion animation. Um, and to the creativity and imagination that went, uh, into this art form at a time when no computers were used. Um, they, what they had to go through, the patience needed, the, the imagination, the the ability to overcome, uh, endless, I'm sure, uh, logistical hurdles to bring inanimate objects to life. Uh, even looking back on those the earliest, uh, examples of stop motion, I find, I'm just taken with the craft and the warmth, and you know, I, I can, I can just immediately feel the impact of all the people that were involved to to bring this piece of clay, or these several pieces of clay to life and not only that, but create a story from them. They didn't just exist. Then there was, uh, a story. There was a movie, a little movie or a big movie. Um, and this piece, it includes, um, devices that wouldn't normally be associated with a string quartet work. And sort of takes them into a new context and and breathes new life into them in a in a different way. Um, integrating them among the four players of the quartet. The piece uses, uh, extra devices, um, essentially party favors or, um, noise makers associated with parties. One of them is called a whistling tube that is twirled around and the noise is created, high pitch noise. Uh, so I wanted to have this harmonized, uh, by members of the, the string quartet. And a second item is called a gravity tube or grown tube, um, where there's a type of widget inside this tube, and when it's tilted from side to side, creates this distinctive sound.
[15:41]And so my intention for this was to sort of bring life, uh, a new life into these devices that are never associated with, uh, a concert hall or a string quartet or a, a concert music work. And sort of bring it in to this new setting and sort of give it a, a new life.
[16:03]I think through these pieces, I really want to emphasize, um, the importance of just keeping an open mind, uh, to other art forms and other genres. Uh, within music certainly, but there's so much out there and to, um, collaborate or spend time with or learn from an artist from another, a type of art is a great experience. And certainly for me, and I, these pieces really are personal in that way. They reflect, uh, some of the, uh, relationships and experiences I've had, uh, in the past few years. Um, and and also just want to to express how sometimes surprises can happen. Uh, where someone may not think that a device or a, an this outsider item can be, uh, a sound source and coexist alongside a string string quartet and be noted for. But sometimes something special can result when these these worlds, um, are brought together and kind of melt.
[17:16]I perform quite often on keyboards, electronics, analog electronics, and turntables, uh, often with the ensembles I write for. Um, very involved with filmmaking, have been for quite some time, and often the video, the video work or the film work, uh, inter interweaves with the the scores and the soundtracks I create. And just very recently getting involved in the world of animation and video game making, uh, which is heavy and really interesting. It involves learning a whole lot of software, which is what I'm currently doing.
[18:04]I hope the quartets of the future, uh, will enjoy the experience of putting these works together. They require a few extra devices in addition to to learning the pitches and the notation. Um, it does require going out and finding the devices, learning how they work, uh, learning how they work in this piece, uh, learning the notation, and then performing the piece in tandem with these these new, uh, instruments. Um, so I'm hoping it will be an enjoyable process to see the end result. Um, I also hoping it it will, uh, sort of encourage you to to check out the sources of inspiration for these two pieces, uh, film noir and, uh, stop motion animation. And my final message is make sure the stomps in another living soul are loud.
