Gary Lucas – I have a Cat
Op 23 juli 1993 interviewde Co de Kloet via de telefoon de legendarische Don van Vliet, Captain Beefheart. Het interview mondde uit in een bizar gesprek, met veel bijgeluiden, vreemde associaties, lange pauzes en vooral een bijzonder klinkende Van Vliet. De afgelopen jaren werkte Co de Kloet regelmatig samen met Gary Lucas. Zij kennen elkaar uit de tijd dat Lucas in de Magic Band zat, de laatst toerende groep van Van Vliet voor hij zich definitief terugtrok uit de muziekwereld. Het idee ontstond om het oorspronkelijke interview vanwege de haast mystieke sfeer te benaderen als muziek en er een uitgebreidere soundscape van te maken, met de bijzonder manier van gitaarspelen van Gary Lucas als uitgangspunt. Het resultaat is de compositie I have a cat. Het integrale werk, dat deze maand meedingt naar de Prix Italia in de categorie Radio Muziek Compositie, staat vanavond centraal.
Hieronder vind je het script van de uitzending.
De uitzending In Concert – Beyond zelf is tot 10 september vanaf deze link terug te luisteren.
music based on a telephone call
Don van Vliet & CdK, July 23d, 1993
By Gary Lucas & Co de Kloet
I Have A Cat (part one) 38’22″
I Have A Cat (part two) 29’01″
Total Time: 67’23″
Dedicated to Garland & Bob
Credits:
Transcription interview: Tom Trapp
Production assistant: Marja Quak
Original 1993 interview recording produced by
Piet Hein van de Poel & Josephine Veldhuijzen
Recorded in the Poelroom, Heideheuvel, Hilversum
Music recorded January 17, 18 & 19, 2008
Mixed February 10 & 11, 2008
Studio MCO 3, Hilversum, Holland
Engineer: Frank Mathijssen
Music performed by Gary Lucas
Creative Catalyst: Co de Kloet
Introduction.
Don van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, is a phenomenon.
After having a major impact on the history of popular music – creating music in the sixties, seventies and eighties that is still ahead of its time, he decided to leave the music scene in 1982 and focus on his other talent, painting.
Legend has it that with one painting he earns more money than in his entire musical career.
Not only is it quite unique that an artist voluntarily leaves the musical arena, Van Vliet also withdrew more and more from public life altogether.
Co de Kloet, radio producer, musician and composer, met Van Vliet in 1975.
In 1980 they met again during the recording of the last show Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band would play in Amsterdam. His manager and part-time guitar player at that time was Mr. Gary Lucas.
In 1993 CdK decided to devote a 4-hour special to The Captain for the famous Dutch radio show “Supplement.” At that time Van Vliet had already decided not to do any more interviews. However, based on their good relationship, he did agree to an hour-long telephone interview, most likely the last lengthy interview he ever did (in this period he also delivered quotes for the short, yet impressive Anton Corbijn film “SomeYoYo Stuff”).
On one hot summer night, CdK conducted one of the most intense interviews of his career. The material was used for radio and quoted in numerous articles and books.
So there it was, the last long conversation on record with a phenomenon.
But over the years, the Thing itself collected dust on one of the many shelves in CdK’s NPS office. All that time there was a question mark hanging over it… there was more to it than just the words. But what?
It took yet another decade for CdK to hear the light, as it were. Besides merely a conversation – the weird noise of the phone, the way Don spoke, the pauses, the ambience, the bizarre associations, the contrasts – everything pointed toward the idea that these tapes should be regarded as a music track for a larger recording, whereby the words themselves would be overruled by the pure sounds and dynamics, sort of like Instrumental Vocal Music (not to be confused with Instrumental A Cappella).
With this paradox in mind, CdK approached Gary Lucas, his “1980 link,” and asked if he was interested in participating in ‘scoring’ the interview, wherein the new music and the old tape would be equal in importance.
Gary said yes, CdK sent him the transcription of the basic material and a few months later, in January 2008, the recordings took place. First recorded was a basic layer to the complete track, then inserts which consisted of Gary Lucas improvisations and lines as well as ideas that were the result of thought-exchange between CdK and Gary.
CdK requested sounds, notes and sometimes conducted Gary, a challenge in itself!
The mixing process was fun too, because engineer Frank and CdK had to avoid treating the music as background to the conversation. The equality of the sources was of primary importance.
The end result is “I Have a Cat.”
Besides a radio presentation, Lucas & Co are investigating the possibility of live performances.
Please note that this was, in no way, intended to imitate or even approach Van Vliet’s music.
This piece is in fact, an homage to a great man who showed us all that originality is a precious goal, tool and talent.
…or in his own words: ” If you want to be a different fish, you gotta jump out of school!”
By the way, Gary Lucas and Co de Kloet think of the end result as a ballet.
Kortenhoef/New York, May 2008.
-I HAVE A CAT- PART ONE
JvV (answering machine): This is van Vliet at 707-677-04…
DvV: Co?
CdK: Don?
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: Hello.
DvV: [laughs] Who was… Who was that talking?
CdK: I think it was Jan.
DvV: Oh.
CdK: On your machine.
DvV: (mocking) 7-0-7… yeah. Sounds familiar.
CdK: How are you today?
DvV: Wunderbar.
CdK: Alright. Shall we just start, or…
DvV: I thought we did, oh – well, tell me… prep me on what you’re going to do.
CdK: I just have a couple of questions first, and then… I have just a small list of things that I would like…
DvV: Good.
CdK: – …that I would like you to give your first reaction on, like, your association with that.
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: Would that be ok?
DvV: Well, I don’t see why not.
CdK: Alright.
DvV: If I don’t like it, I won’t talk.
[laughter]
CdK: Ok, so…
DvV: How you doing?
CdK: I’m fine today.
DvV: How’s your little fox terrier?
CdK: He’s fine. Barking away.
DvV: I have a cat.
CdK: What’s his name?
DvV: My cat, Garland.
CdK: Garland, I dig your tweed coat?
DvV: Right, that’s what he’s named from.
CdK: Is it ok if I start with my questions about the painting?
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: Ok. Um, you’ve been active now for, for years as a painter, and in the recent past you’ve concentrated mainly on painting. But how is the climate in the United States now for, for contemporary painters? Do you find that a comfortable climate?
DvV: I don’t go see them. I don’t go there.
CdK: Mm hmm.
DvV: I just paint.
CdK: What is to you the difference in your work style – I mean, you’ve – you have a name for yourself both as a composer, a performer, a poet, a painter, a novelist…
DvV: All the same head. [laughs] The same head does all kinds of things. Tricky brain, I guess you might call it.
CdK: A tricky brain.
DvV: [laughs]
CdK: And are there any cross-references between the different disciplines that you do?
DvV: Mm… Mainly, uh, sometimes I name the paintings after music that I’ve done.
CdK: Mm hmm.
DvV: Quite different. Actually I enjoy painting more than music.
CdK: Why?
DvV: More exciting.
CdK: In terms of what, is it more exciting? That interests me.
DvV: Uh, I get to do exactly what I want. Not as if I don’t, anyway – but it’s more just, on-the-spot.
CdK: Mm hmm. Would…
DvV: It’s just interesting. I don’t have to think about anybody at all.
CdK: …That’s what I was saying. Would it have something to do – that you have a complete control over the end result without any other human beings interfering in it?
DvV: Yeah. There’s sure that.
CdK: Because a composer always has to go through the musicians?
DvV: Mm… Yeah, but it’s sometimes difficult to go through somebody when they don’t want to be gone through. But, [laughs] they will definitely be gone through if I’m doing it.
CdK: [laughs]
DvV: I’m a stubborn man.
CdK: You go right through them, huh?
DvV: Right through. [swoosh noise] But, with painting, I can do what I want right then and there, can see it immediately.
CdK: Today, I listened to the tape of our conversation in 1980, which is almost thirteen years ago, and I asked you then about your development as a composer, and you told me then that you didn’t really believe in any development as a, as a person who wrote music, and my interpretation then was that you were, uh very…
DvV: Lying! [laughs]
CdK: Yeah, but that you were very related to your way of writing, and very clear about that at that time, and… Would you have the same feeling about your work as a painter.
DvV: Uh, definitely. Yeah, for sure. I’m still just as stubborn.
CdK: But does that mean that you are, are exploring the depth of a certain style more than trying to move from one style to another?
DvV: Mm, well, recently, I’ve completely changed, but…
CdK: In what way?
DvV: In – God, that’s a difficult question. Let’s see… let me think one second. Oh, I would say that I’m having better control now with my brushes. I mean, I’m getting better.
CdK: So it’s a change in – it’s a moving forward in technique. Could I describe it that way?
DvV: I think that would be a good way of looking at it.
CdK: Do you have, as a painter – somebody who is very visually orientated – do you take a special interest in certain matters? For instance, nature?
DvV: Yeah, definitely. Animals help.
CdK: And how do you look upon what’s happening right now in various parts of the world, in that perspective?
DvV: I try not to look at some of these horrible things that are happening. There’s some horror stories out there. Does it bother you?
CdK: Yeah, a lot, I mean…
DvV: Me too.
CdK: [laughs] You dedicated the “Shiny Beast” album to the people – to all conservation and wildlife preservation organizations everywhere. I mean, they’re – the need for them is even more than in the time that you put out that album.
DvV: It’s getting worse. I don’t think that it’s improving that much. For instance, they’re burning down the rainforest. Doesn’t that bother you?
CdK: It keeps going on, day by day.
DvV: As we talk.
CdK: At this very moment.
DvV: Horrible. Human beings. It goes way back. I can think way back to when I wrote “White ants running, yellow ants dreaming, Uhuru, ant-man-bee.” It’s scary to find the things you’re saying acted out in front of your very eyes. I was right, and that’s one time I’d like to be mistaken.
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: Yes, it’s horrible.
CdK: Since there’s people who are involved in the, in the decision-making side of those things, my next question would be how your views on the political situation in your country is. How do you look at that subject?
DvV: (laughing) I try not to. I think it’s absurd. They don’t know what they’re doin’. It is like swinging a sponge on the end of a string.
CdK: I would like to talk about your lyrics for a moment. The very poetical content of the lyrics that you, that you made – also in association with your music. Did they find their origin in the sound of them?
DvV: Well, usually I would do the music with the words right at the time.
CdK: You mean simultaneously?
DvV: Yeah. Yes. That’s a good word, isn’t it? Simultaneous. Usually I would do it right at the same time. Maybe I was a better musician than a poet. Usually.
CdK: But therefore, maybe, the – the way your poetry sounded always had a very musical tendency to it.
DvV: I think perhaps music has nothing to do with it. [laughs] Now I sound… That’s ridiculous! [laughs] God, it’s hard. Hard to talk. Hard to do music.
CdK: Well, let’s talk about music. That’d make it a bit easier. This week when we talked on the phone, you asked me if I ever listened to the radio.
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: Do you?
DvV: No. [laughs]
CdK: Let’s just take one of your albums. Let’s take “Trout Mask.” I mean, what would you think, what the response or the reaction would be if that album was now being put out as a new release, the way the music situation is now. What do you think would happen?
DvV: What do I think they would think?
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: I’m not for sure they can think.
CdK: You’re not for sure they can think at all?
DvV: No. I think most of the stuff they’re doing now is reacting. A bunch of re-actionaries.
CdK: Second-hand.
DvV: I think… what do you think?
CdK: Well, people try to – like to re-act a lot of periods that are long gone, and that were, in most instances, the originals are better and always will be.
DvV: Yeah. Hmm. I wonder what Roland Kirk would think now.
CdK: What do you think he would think?
DvV: [laughs] The last thing that I’ll tell you – that, I – He was playing at the beach, and he asked me, he said “Where can I get something to eat this time of night, Don?” And I said “Well, the only place you can get ribs in Los Angeles at this time of night, Roland, is in… the only place you can get ribs is in the Bible.” [laughs]…and he laughed. That’s the last time I saw him. God, what a loss.
CdK: You often gave people that you worked with, you gave people your own names. I mean…
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: …Why did you do that?
DvV: I didn’t care about their names. And they seemed to be related to their mama and papa. And I don’t think that I would get along with their mama and papa. So I would get another name. You mean like “Zoot Horn Rollo?”
CdK: For instance.
DvV: Yeah, was that what you were thinking?
CdK: Yeah. “The Mascara Snake.”
DvV: [laughs] Yeah. That’s a relatively true name. He is a snake, and he does wear mascara. There was no lie to that.
CdK: And where did the “Antennae” from Jimmy Semens come from?
DvV: Just popped in my head. I thought it would sound better than “Jeff.” I thought it would be better. Jeff “and his surname.” Cotton. Jeff Cotton. I thought “Antennae Jimmy Semens” would be better.
CdK: Would it be ok if I gave you now a small list of, of words and ask you to comment on those? Maybe also in 1 or 2 words?
DvV: I’ll try.
CdK: Ok, I’ll just start with my list. Of course, my first one will be “soprano saxophone.”
DvV: Let’s see… a real skinny goose.
CdK: “Roland Kirk.”
DvV: One of the best.
CdK: “The desert.”
DvV: Hot and, uh – sandy.
CdK: Do you like the desert?
DvV: Yeah. Don’t like it as much as I used to. Right now I’m painting a group of burrs [laughs] called “Goat Heads.” They’ll actually blow out a tire. They’re that strong. If you see ‘em…
CdK: No.
DvV: They’re pretty, pretty good. Pretty good exhibit.
CdK: How about the old paint that you would get from Holland?
DvV: Marvelous. You mean the “Old Holland?”
CdK: Mm hmm.
DvV: Fantastic. Some of the best I’ve found.
CdK: Ok. Next on my list is “Vincent van Gogh,” “van Goh.”
DvV: “van Gogh,” yeah. Should be put with Albert Einstein. I think he was one of the best. Another painter that I really like is Piet Mondriaan.
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: Yeah. How do you say that?
CdK: Piet Mondriaan.
DvV: Pi-et?
CdK: Piet. Like “Pete.”
DvV: Piete?
CdK: Like “Pete.”
DvV: Piet Mondriaan. Fantastic painter. He did “Broadway Boogie Woogie.” You familiar with that?
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: And you can hear the horns honk! One of my favorite paintings.
CdK: “Ornette Coleman.”
DvV: Ornette Coleman, hmm. It’s hard to know. Do you like him?
CdK: Yes.
DvV: I liked “Dee Dee.”
CdK: “Frank Zappa.”
DvV: He’s the only Frank Zappa I know.
CdK: The relation and friendship between you and him is probably one of the most discussed combinations of persons in the music history.
DvV: [laughs] Why?
CdK: I don’t know why, but it’s something that I see.
DvV: Yeah, then – I guess we fooled ‘em.
CdK: I guess you did.
DvV: Maybe.
CdK: What was your first collaboration with him?
DvV: Years ago, at a place in Cucamonga. A studio he had. We just started playing. What’s your favorite album?
CdK: By who? By you or by Frank?
DvV: Both of us. “Hot Rats?”
CdK: It’s a hard question.
DvV: Not “Hot Rats?”
CdK: Well, it’s obviously one of my favorites, but…
DvV: “Bongo Fury?”
CdK: I like that one, yeah.
DvV: Pretty funny.
CdK: It’s a funny album.
DvV: [laughs]
CdK: But I think it’s a hard question on your behalf to ask, because both you and him have put out such a “various” catalogue, so much variation and so much different…
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: …approaches, and so much different styles and… If – let me, let me ask you a similar question; If there was one album from your catalogue that you would advise me to broadcast completely in this program, which one would it be?
DvV: Hmm, it would be “Lick My Decals Off, Baby.”
CdK: Because I think it would be a good idea, in this program, to at least play one album completely.
DvV: Wouldn’t hurt to do “Lick My Decals Off, Baby.”
CdK: Ok.
DvV: Not bad.
CdK: No. And as we speak, in the meantime, I have that very album in my hands.
DvV: You just had that.
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: You didn’t even… oh, you knew that!
CdK: It was on the top of the pile.
DvV: [laughs] How convenient.
CdK: Why would you pick that album? Would that just be a – Why that particular one in your catalogue, I’m interested in that.
DvV: Telepathy. Maybe because it was on the top of the pile.
CdK: [laughs]
DvV: Maybe.
CdK: Well, anyway – I think that would be the reason to do it, so we’ll play that one completely.
DvV: Good.
CdK: How is your relation now to – to the music that you have put down, and that you have made? And also, why did you decide to concentrate on painting and let the music be what it is?
DvV: Well, I thought it was time for me to uh, let it live without my help. Besides, I like to paint more.
CdK: Mm hmm.
DvV: I always have.
CdK: I’ve seen you sketching onstage.
DvV: Right. [laughs] I didn’t want to waste any time.
CdK: And, are you still writing words? Are you completely painting now, or are you also still writing poetry or novels, or…?
DvV: Well, mainly just painting. But, uh – I have to name the paintings.
CdK: Do you, do you feel a – I mean, you’ve written a lot of music and within your composition you’ve always been very demanding to the performance and very involved in the structure of it…
Dvv: Yeah.
CdK: …is there – you said to me earlier, “It all comes from the same head.” Do you see parallels in the way you treat it? Is the – the fact that you can – from nothing, you can create something – is it the same feeling and the same kind of satisfaction that you get from doing that, in painting, poetry, or music?
DvV: I get more out of painting than music.
CdK: Which, at first – it might be that people think that it is the other way around, because with the music – the, the contact with your audience is far more direct. …or does it not have something to do with that.
DvV: No, the audience has nothing to do with it – nothing to do with what I did musically.
CdK: Mm hmm. But as an artist in general, how do you see your relationship toward the audience?
DvV: Pff. [laughs] Very very tedious. Should probably stay away. Don’t you think that?
CdK: I don’t know.
DvV: You don’t seem like the sing-along type.
CdK: Uh, I like to listen.
DvV: [laughs] To who?
CdK: Well, basically to people who have something to say.
DvV: Few and far between.
CdK: Are you the sing-along type?
DvV: [laughs] No, oh!
CdK: You sure can sing.
DvV: You know I’m not.
[laughter]
DvV: That’s – that’s good.
[laughter]
DvV: Can you imagine that?
CdK: It depends on what you had to sing along to.
DvV: Perhaps. The whales.
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: Not really. They’re too complicated. Lot of whales up here.
CdK: Are there?
DvV: Oh, yeah. One time, uh – four Easters ago, there were thirty-six whales in the bay. Trinidad Bay. Thirty-six of them! They must have been feeding on krill. I don’t know. Probably. You know what krill is, don’t you?
CdK: Mm hmm. Yeah.
DvV: Little shrimp.
CdK: Mm hmm.
DvV: Incredible.
CdK: So you – if you had to sing along, it would be with them.
DvV: Yeah. But they’re very, very complicated. I mean, those things can do thirty-six minute compositions without a repeat. Thirty-six minutes! It’s amazing. [makes whale song noise, laughs] Mm, yeah – beautiful.
CdK: I sometimes find it melancholy.
DvV: Yes, I think so. Is that just human? Is that us? Because I do too.
CdK: Yeah. I some…
DvV: Beautiful blues.
CdK: …That’s right. It touches some parts that I very rarely have with music.
DvV: Indeed. I like Howlin’ Wolf. Chester Burnett.
CdK: You sang a song once on a Howlin’ Wolf background.
DvV: You mean with Frank?
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: It was what, was…?
CdK: Pepsi? “Why doesn’t somebody get him a Pepsi?” I think that had the background of “Smokestack Lightning?”
DvV: Yeah?
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: Kinda silly, huh?
[laughter]
CdK: But still, it’s a nice song.
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: Besides the – “Lick My Decals Off, Baby,” is there an album that you have a special relationship with? That you would see, like – a thing that you would cherish – that has a special feeling for you?
DvV: The thing that has a thing called “Ink Mathematics.”
CdK: Uh, I – it’s number two on the pile, as a matter of fact. It’s “Ice Cream for Crow.”
DvV: That’s it.
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: Two on the pile! You’re kidding.
CdK: “Ink Mathematics.”
DvV: Oh, you’re not!
CdK: No, it’s here. I’ll let it – here it is! [smacks on LP cover] You hear it? [laughs]
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: “The Past Sure Is Tense.”
DvV: Boy, is that frightening.
CdK: No, it’s comforting.
DvV: “The Past Sure Is Tense?”
CdK: No, that isn’t. But the fact that it’s number two on the pile is.
DvV: Well, that is!
[laughter]
DvV: Let me say something to Jan real quick?
CdK: Of course. We’ll take a little break.
DvV: (off mic) Jan?
-I HAVE A CAT- PART TWO
DvV: What were those things you had – 1 and then 2?
CdK: One was “Lick My Decals Off, Baby.”
DvV: (to Jan) “Lick My Decals Off, Baby.”
CdK: And the other one was “Ice Cream For Crow.”
DvV: Then, “Ice Cream For Crow,” that’s just what I was thinking.
JvV: (off mic) You mean your albums?
DvV: Yeah, I do like “Doc At the Radar Station.” Do you?
CdK: What?
DvV: [laughs] “Doc At the Radar Station.”
CdK: “Doc At the Radar Station.”
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: It’s also here. But then again, it’s a pile. But it was just so, so amazing that those 2 albums would come up.
DvV: Frightening.
CdK: No, it’s relaxing.
DvV: No, I mean – in a good way.
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: [laughs] Some things are sacred, I guess. But, I didn’t – I thought it was “Pi-et,” not “Piet.” That’s even hipper, “Piet Mondriaan.”
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: Ooh. Oh… [laughs] God.
CdK: If we were going – I’m going to ask you for your help now a bit about putting our program about you together. Of course, one of the albums that you are famous for is “Trout Mask.”
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: How do you feel about that album now? Because for me, it’s still an album that is – is – that I play on a – well, not on a daily, but at least on a weekly basis.
DvV: Hit parade. Yeah, I love the album. I like it.
CdK: Because, that is what I was asking you before, is that – people tend to see albums like that to, to connect them with the period that they were released in, and with all the things that were around them then, but if you place that album in the day and age we live in now…
DvV: [laughs]
CdK: …do you think that it has gained a new role or a new meaning?
DvV: It better have. I think it would be good if it did. For them. Do you like “Wild Life?”
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: Yeah, me too. I enjoyed doing that horn.
CdK: “Veteran’s Day Poppy.”
DvV: Yeah. [laughs] It’s frightening. That’s frightening. “I cry, but I can’t buy your Veteran’s Day Poppy. It don’t get me high, it can only make me cry. Your Veteran’s Day Poppy.” Ooh.
CdK: [laughs]
DvV: What about “Dachau Blues?”
CdK: That’s frightening.
DvV: Boy, it sure is.
CdK: But the thing I have, that – even though it’s a collection of songs, uh – the thing that I have with that album is that I – I cannot pick and choose and play one or two songs from it. I think it is something that you, that you start and you finish. You go through it all the way.
DvV: [laughs] Thank you. Yeah. It’s amazing they’d allow that.
CdK: Why?
DvV: It would hurt their little ears, they used to think.
CdK: Well, maybe even more now than then.
DvV: Maybe, [laughs] maybe. Let’s hurt their little ears.
CdK: One of my favorites on that album is “Hobo Chang Ba.”
DvV: I like that myself. Let’s see, “Strawwood claw, rattlin’ m’jaw. You can’t call it,” no – “I can’t call it,” No, wait a minute. “I can’t call it. Feather times uh feather. Mornin’ time t’thaw. Strawwood claw rattlin’ m’jaw. Hobo chang ba.” Boy, that’s been years since I’ve said that. God, I’m getting senile.
CdK: [laughs] But it’s good that all these things are – are still there.
DvV: Helps. What a – what a wonderful floorplan.
CdK: One of the things that always…
DvV: [laughs]
CdK: …amazed me, or delighted me, or – I don’t really know how to put it, is that…
DvV: Gimme a little more juice.
CdK: …one of the things that I heard about is…
DvV: Can’t hardly hear you.
CdK: Can you, can you hear me now?
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: Alright. One of the things I always think of when I play that particular album is the story I once heard about the “tree doctor” that you arranged.
DvV: [laughs] Oh, yeah. Do you know that when I went down to see the exhibit I had in Los Angeles, I went by and saw those trees. They’re still living.
CdK: Those very same trees you recorded “Trout Mask” near?
DvV: Yeah, they’re fine. A male and a female Eucalyptus. They’re still getting bigger.
CdK: Must have done them good to be…
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: …the witness of that.
DvV: I’m glad that I helped out. They’re still there.
CdK: Yup. If we are going tonight to – obviously, we will play about – selections from each and every title that you released, each and every album that you released… do you think we should do them all? Or are there particular albums that you, looking back, think of as something that is not part of you anymore. Like, obviously, when we talk about “Trout Mask,” or about “Lick My Decals Off, Baby,” those things are so vivid and still – also to, to listeners, are vivid.
DvV: Is there anything that I wouldn’t like you to play? Is that what you’re asking?
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: Yes. Anything that had anything to do with the DiMartino brothers.
CdK: Like, uh – “Moonbeams?”
DvV: Yes. [laughs] Thank you, yes.
CdK: So, basically the two albums, uh – “Blue Jeans and Moonbeams,” and “Unconditionally Guaranteed.”
DvV: Right. They’re wrong. They screwed with those.
CdK: I remember you once told me that on the track called – let me think now – “Party of Special Things To Do,” that they took off Winged Eel Fingerling or something.
DvV: He, he was there.
CdK: But didn’t they take that off later?
DvV: Yeah. They’ve ruined everything. Horrible fellows. Crooks.
CdK: Well, then on this program we will, on special request, not play something.
DvV: Get rid of the crooks.
[laughter]
CdK: Let’s have a legal program.
DvV: [laughs]
CdK: Very legal.
DvV: Make it legal.
CdK: Yeah, legal show.
DvV: [laughs] Beautiful. Yeah, they – they’ve ruined those songs, everything. They’d lunched everything.
CdK: One of my last question is that the – the surroundings that you now live in, is that part of the inspiration for your work? What kind of atmosphere, what kind of surroundings do you work and live in?
DvV: Right on the ocean. Uh, I can look out my window and see a spout if I’m lucky. They breech out there, the whales. They’re wonderful.
CdK: We’ve talked about so many things. Do you think there is something I didn’t bring up, and that I should have? For now, that is.
DvV: Well, let’s see. I’m trying to think of, uh – you brought up some pretty good stuff. You’ve amazed me quite a bit. [laughs] That’s for sure. Do you like Phil Larkin?
CdK: Philip Largen?
DvV: Larkin. The writer.
CdK: I’m not really familiar with his things. I’m a listener, I’m not really a reader.
DvV: [laughs] Oh.
CdK: Well, you know people like that.
DvV: Yeah, I – I’m sort of like that myself. But he’s awful good. I think, perhaps the best poet. Let’s see, oh – God, that time went by so fast!
CdK: It did.
DvV: I’ll tell you, I thought it was fifteen minutes!
CdK: Yeah.
DvV: I hope they like our program that much.
CdK: I think they will.
DvV: [laughs] You can only hope. I think that maybe I’m not senile.
CdK: Well, I – I never said that, you did.
DvV: I did. [laughs] It was me. (to self:) What am I saying? Damn, what was I say, wha..?
CdK: One of the things that amaze – well, it doesn’t really amaze me, but one of the thing that I notice is that recently, so many young musicians, when asked about their influences – it seems that in the, in the recent past, so many people will name you…
DvV: [laughs]
CdK: …but, but even more so than, for instance, ten years ago.
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: Would you consider it a possibility – or does it ever cross your mind that the music as composed by you, and as written down by you could ever be performed by other people? I mean, some people already did covers of your material…
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: …But then mostly they would pick and choose, like – uh – “My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains,” or stuff like that, but could you see a young group of young people, um – perform the “Lick My Decals Off” album, or “Trout Mask?”
DvV: I would like to hope that they would be willing to work that hard. I wish they’d try it. It would be funny.
CdK: Let me ask you something.
DvV: What?
CdK: Let me ask you something – Are you familiar with the composer Gavin Brayers?
DvV: No.
CdK: He recently, released a remake of one of his older compositions, called “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet,” and it’s a recording of a man, a hobo – who was recorded in the streets with a small tape recorder, and he sang the line, the short traditional song “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet,” and he made a loop out of it, and it goes on and on and on for about seventy-five minutes, and he did an arrange…
DvV: Wow.
CdK: I’ll send you a copy of that because it’s pretty amazing.
DvV: Never heard that.
CdK: I think you’ll like it, it’s very amazing, but one of the people who participated in that project was Tom Waits.
DvV: Ooh, ooh, ooh. Not a friend of mine.
CdK: He is, or he is not?
DvV: Not. To be perfectly truthful with you. No, he, uh – he just – he kind of is too slick, if you know what I mean. What do you think?
CdK: I don’t know him personally.
DvV: [laughs]
CdK: I know that he did an album with a title that – I think, that was – thought up by you, that was made up by you.
DvV: It was, uh –
[Together]: “Swordfishtrombone.”
CdK: That’s right.
DvV: Guess what? He calls me and he told me that title, and I was in the desert visiting my mother, and he asked me “So what do you think of that?” and I said “Well, I don’t know, should I think of that?” He said, “Well, I just wondered.” That’s kind of funny, that you got that comparison. Sounds like “Trout Mask,” right?
CdK: Yeah. Well, I like the…
DvV: …and…
CdK: …I like the word “Swordfishtrombone” anyway.
DvV: Yeah, but the very idea of him calling me and seeing if that went by me. Right?
CdK: Mm hmm.
DvV: Without a comment.
CdK: Mm hmm.
DvV: It’s kinda corny.
CdK: Would you say there’s more slick people in the music world than in the painting world?
DvV: I think so. But it’s quite a toss-up.
[laughter]
DvV: But, uh – this Wait(s) character, uh – he… (off mic) What do you think, Jan? (on mic) [laughs] She runs out. She doesn’t like him.
CdK: Let’s forget about him.
DvV: Wh…Who? [laughs] I think why I got away quick, he had the nerve to think he could sing like me.
CdK: But you go higher and deeper than that.
DvV: Huh, indeed. I’ll go as high as I need to go, and deep as I need to go to get by him.
CdK: [laughs] I think…
DvV: He’s rich!
CdK: He’s rich?
DvV: Yeah. Money. You knew that, right?
CdK: Well, I gather he is, but – but then again…
DvV: [laughs] Beautiful, yeah. Do you know Anton Korb…? (note cdk: corbijn!)
CdK: Yes, of course. I’m looking…
DvV: You’ve seen him?
CdK: I don’t, I don’t get to – I don’t meet him, I don’t know him personally, but of course I’m familiar with his work. As a matter of fact, I’m looking at one of his pictures right now.
DvV: [laughs] Fancy that.
CdK: Well, the “Ice Cream For Crow” picture is probably one of the fa – most famous pictures ever made.
DvV: He’s good.
CdK: Do you get to speak to him?
DvV: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I see him… uh (off mic) How long… Jan? How long has it been since we saw Anton?
JvV: (off mic) A couple years.
DvV: A couple of years. Two years.
CdK: I’ll send him a copy of the program.
DvV: Oh, would he like that. He’s a good friend. Tell him, say to him “Cheesian Phips.” We were in England once and he was telling about “Cheese and Chips,” and I told him “Cheesian Phips.” He’s funny. He’s a hell of a photographer.
CdK: I will play, I will play this tape – I think, a lot of times to, to find out what we talked about because right now I’ve just been concentrating on the moment and I really don’t know what’s, what’s on the tape. But I think it’s a lot.
DvV: Yeah, I hope – hope I sound alright.
CdK: Very clear.
DvV: Good.
CdK: Perfectly, I mean…
DvV: Good. [laughs] We love to talk, I think. I know I’ve enjoyed it.
CdK: So have I. I want to thank you very much for this conversation.
DvV: Thank you.
CdK: Yeah. And, before we’re going to air this, I’ll probably call you up and give you an idea how I’m going to put the four hours together, because right now I’m together with P.H. who will do the show together with me, we just – we just have piles and piles of material and we’re going to have to make some choices here.
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: But maybe we can do four hours and then later in the year, we’ll just do it again.
DvV: [laughs] Yeah. Well, I sure enjoyed talking to you.
CdK: Ok. I’ll be in touch very soon about all the material that I promised you, that I will prepare for you. And please say hello to Jan for me.
DvV: Yes, thank you. She enjoyed herself the other day. ‘Course she had to be in the moment. You know that. She’s worried about getting things set up.
CdK: And how will your day be today, after we hang up the phone? Painting?
DvV: Yeah. I have no choice. I have so many cities that I have to have paintings in. A.R. Pank. You don’t know him, huh?
CdK: No.
DvV: Good painter.
CdK: But, I mean – even this conversation gives me a lot of new ground to cover. You…
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: …you’ve given a lot of suggestions.
DvV: Good.
CdK: And now you know it’s “Piet,” and not “Pi-et.”
DvV: Dammit, that helps. Tell me one time how you really say that.
CdK: Piet Mondriaan.
DvV: Piet Mondriaan.
CdK: That’s right.
DvV: Good.
CdK: So, I’ll give you a call in about a week or so to tell you how we have set the things up, and, um…
DvV: Thank you.
CdK: …if there’s anything else, I mean – you know how to reach me by now, because…
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: …you have all my, my numbers and so on and so forth.
DvV: Yeah.
CdK: And if you say hello to Garland, I’ll say hello to the fox.
DvV: [laughs] Definitely.
CdK: Ok.
DvV: They will like that.
CdK: Ok. Ok, thanks again.
DvV: Thank you.
CdK: On behalf of all of us here, and we will be in touch very soon.
DvV: Tell “all of us here” hello.
CdK: I will.
DvV: Take it easy.
CdK: Ok. Take care.
DvV: Bye.
CdK: Bye, bye.
DvV: Bye.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About Gary Lucas
A world class guitar hero, a Grammy-nominated songwriter, an international recording artist with over a dozen acclaimed solo albums to date, and a soundtrack composer for film and television, Gary Lucas is on the move in 2008.
Dubbed “The Thinking Man’s Guitar Hero” by The New Yorker, “the legendary leftfield guitarist” by The Guardian, “Guitarist of 1000 Ideas” by The New York Times, and “a true axe God” by Melody Maker, the British world music magazine fRoots described Gary Lucas as “without question, the most innovative and challenging guitarist playing today.” Rolling Stone’s David Fricke recently wrote: “Gary Lucas is one of the best and most original guitarists in America” in a glowing review of Gary’s latest album Coming Clean which has received 4 star rave reviews internationally. Gary was also selected recently by the editors of DownBeat Magazine as one of their “Hot 66 6-Stringers” alongside John McLaughlin, Richard Thompson, B.B King, Pat Metheny, and other guitar legends.
Gary Lucas tours the world relentlessly both solo and with several different ensembles, including his longtime band Gods and Monsters, whose ranks once included the late great singer Jeff Buckley. Gary co-wrote two of Jeff Buckley’s most famous hits, “Grace” and “Mojo Pin” when Jeff was in his group, songs which later became the title track and the first track on Jeff’s double platinum Sony album “Grace” — which MOJO recently named the #1 Modern Classic Rock Album. Gary and Jeff’s early collaborations can also be heard on the recent Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas album Songs To No One, which charted internationally with worldwide sales approaching 100,000. Other notable recent Gary Lucas releases include The Edge of Heaven, an album of Gary’s lush arrangements of classic Chinese pop tunes from the 1930s, which received international raves everywhere from Rolling Stone to the Wall Street Journal to the Hong Kong Music Weekly. Gary also recently released a compilation of the best of his early band and solo work entitled Operators Are Standing By, which garnered a 4-star Mojo review which stated: “This album confirms Gary Lucas as THE psychedelic guitarist for the post-modern set.”
Gary’s main focus at present is leading his longtime NYC-based group Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters — a psychedelic supergroup jam band based around his guitar playing, singing, and Grammy-nominated songwriting.
Described as “a 21st century Cream” by Rolling Stone, Gods and Monsters features Gary Lucas on guitars and vocals withJerry Harrison (Talking Heads) on keyboards and vocals, Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers) on bass and vocals, Billy Ficca (Television) on drums, Jason Candler (Hungry March Band) on alto sax, and recent Yale graduate Joe Hendel on trombone and keyboards. With their illustrious pedigrees, they comprise an art-rock supergroup, Time Out New York recently writing: “The group is mindblowing!” and The New Yorker recently hailing them as “An underground-rock fan’s dream team”.
Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters toured Holland in May 2007 and Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia in the previous spring in the company of former Talking Heads keyboardist and hit producer Jerry Harrison (Live, OAR), who is now playing regularly in Gods and Monsters and is currently producing their next studio album. He recently joined the band at the 2007 SXSW convention in Austin where Gary was given an unheard of double-length showcase which garnered significant press attention — and at the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC for the CMJ Festival for a show which was taped for a live double-sided DVD and CD to be released in the spring of 2008, which will feature a 5.1 surround sound mix by Jerry Harrison. He also recently joined them at New York’s Knitting Factory for a concert with Czech underground band The Plastic People, where the group was greeted backstage by both former Czech President Vaclav Havel and David Byrne.
Coming Clean, the most recent Gary Lucas & Gods and Monsters album was released last year in 4 different international editions: in Russia by Exotica Music under the title Follow, and on Mighty Quinn in the USA, Canada, and Japan; in the UK through Side Salad/Universal; in France through Productions Speciales; and in the Benelux on DAWA Records. The album was mixed by Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) and Harold Burgon and features vocal contributions from David Johansen (New York Dolls), sultry French superstar Elli Medeiros, and Richard Barone (Bongos). The reviews for Coming Clean have been uniformly excellent, with Rolling Stone raving: “Gary Lucas is one of the best and most original guitarists in America…a songwriter of established invention…he plays astounding guitar throughout, but always for the sake of the song”. The album received 4 star reviews in MOJO, Uncut, and Record Collector, and in France’s Crossroads and Vibrations.
In addition to being lionized by the critics, Gary’s work and playing has received much enthusiastic praise from his musical peers. He recently contributed a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Ain’t Got You” to Light of Day, a Bruce Springsteen tribute album for charity, which prompted the Boss himself to remark: “You’re a phenomenal guitarist — and your version of my song is phenomenal as well!!”. Gary also recently received high compliments from Lou Reed, who praised his “lovely guitar playing” on his collaborations with Jeff Buckley, described Gary’s solo version of his song “European Son” as “Beyond Cool!”, and told him, “I could listen to you play for hours, Gary”.
In addition to Gods and Monsters, Gary co-leads with composer/musician Phillip Johnston a jazz-oriented, all instrumental 7-piece tribute band featuring some of New York’s greatest improvisers, dedicated to the music of his former mentor Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet), Fast ‘N’ Bulbous, the Captain Beefheart Project. Applying a free-wheeling horn and guitar-driven approach to the knotty avant-blues/rock/jazz compositions of Van Vliet, they’ve made triumphant appearances at the Saalfelden Festival in Austria, the Frankfurt Jazz Festival, and the Lisbon Jazz Em Agosto Festival. Their debut album “Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind” received much favorable praise worldwide, was profiled on NPR, and charted on college radio in the US. An extensive European tour last November saw them selling out shows at the London Jazz Festival and at Amsterdam’s BimHuis, as well as concerts in Bern, Vienna, Schwaz, and Llubljana Slovenia. The band will soon begin work on their second album.
Gary also played as part of the reunion of Captain Beefheart alumni known as The Magic Band for several years, performing with them at the UK’s famed Glastonbury Festival, London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, a sold-out night at Royal Festival Hall, and at the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in LA where they were introduced by Beefheart/Magic Band fan Matt Groening (The Simpsons), and in Camber Sands UK. They made several extensive UK and European tours, which took them to Amsterdam’s Paradiso, Belgrade Serbia, and to Sweden, where they performed live on Swedish national television. They released a rehearsal CD Back to the Front, cited as one of the albums of the year in The Wire, a live double album 21st Century Mirror Men, and a live DVD/documentary, Crow’s Milk with narration by the late John Peel, one of Beefheart’s biggest champions.
Gary Lucas established his reputation as a guitarist’s guitarist with 5 years spent playing with his childhood hero, the visionary vocalist/composer/bandleader Captain Beefheart (alias Don Van Vliet).
A graduate of Yale University, where he was a DJ and served as Music Director at WYBC FM, Gary’s childhood dream of joining Beefheart’s band came true when he recorded two Captain Beefheart albums in the early 80s on Virgin Records, Doc at the Radar Station (1980) and Ice Cream for Crow (1982), which featured his explosive solo renditions of Don Van Vliet’s twisted instrumental compositions, “Flavor Bud Living” and “Evening Bell” — about which the latter piece Esquire wrote “Gary Lucas apparently grew extra fingers in order to negotiate his way through it.” These recordings put Gary on the musical map as a force to be reckoned with, and laid the groundwork for his subsequent career.
Photo by Carla Gahr
In 1988, Gary mounted his first solo guitar show at New York’s downtown mecca for avant-garde and alternative music, the Knitting Factory, and was an instant hit. The club became the launching pad for Gary’s ensuing European success, as he was invited shortly after his first Knitting Factory gig to appear at the prestigious 1988 Berlin JazzFest, where the Berlin Morgenpost raved in a banner headline after his performance, “It is Lucas!”
To date Gary has performed in 35 countries around the world, from Tokyo to Trieste to Tel Aviv. He recently made his Australian debut in the company of UK electronica band Future Sound of London, and has been a regular visitor to London’s Royal Festival Hall (5 separate appearances) and Amsterdam’s famed Paradiso (17 separate appearances since 1980).
He’s recently expanded his touring base to Russia, where he recently brought Gods and Monsters for his fifth tour of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. This followed on the heels of his fourth tour there in summer 2006, where he performed his original solo guitar score accompanying the silent classic German horror film The Golem (1920) in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and appeared on national tv before an estimated 50 million viewers, as well as being profiled in the Russian edition of Rolling Stone. Since debuting his live score to accompany the silent film in 1989 at the Museum of the Moving Image on a commission from the BAM Next Wave Festival, he’s played with The Golem in over 20 countriesall over the world — including sold out performances at the Venice Biennale, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, London’s Royal Festival Hall, the New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center, as part of a weeklong artist-in-residency at the Quebec City Summer Festival, and in Prague, home of the Golem–as well as at Atlanta’s Dragon*Con, the largest science fiction festival in the world. He also tours with several other music and film projects, including Sounds of the Surreal, a program commissioned by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, accompanying 3 short silent film classics by Rene Clair, Fernand Leger, and Ladislaw Starewicz, with his original guitar scores — and Monsters from the Id, where Gary improvises live soundtracks to clips from horror classics by Roman Polanski, Mario Bava, Ray Harryhausen, and others. Gary presented the European premiere of Sounds of the Surreal in Vienna in September 2007.
Over a long performing career Gary Lucas has played and collaborated with Leonard Bernstein, Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, Lou Reed, John Cale, Nick Cave, Robyn Hitchock, David Johansen, jazz greats Roswell Rudd, Steve Swallow, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, the Willem Breuker Kollektieff, Yael Naim, Mary Margaret O’Hara, John Zorn, Peter Stampfel, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Claudia Brucken (Propaganda), Paul Humphreys (OMD), Future Sound of London, Joan Osborne (Gary co-wrote her Grammy-nominated song “Spider Web” from her triple platinum album Relish), Najma Ahktar, Karsh Kale, Essra Mohawk, Matthew Sweet, Iggy Pop, Dead Combo, Van Dyke Parks, Bryan Ferry, Eric Mingus, the Plastic People of the Universe, Richard Barone, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Bob Neuwirth, Geoff Muldaur, John Sebastian, Allen Ginsberg, DJ Spooky, Damo Suzuki and Michael Karoli (Can), Dr. John, Graham Parker, Bob Weir, David Krakauer, Frank London, Steve Bernstein’s Sex Mob, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Min Xiao-Fen, Sonya Cohen, Celest Chong, Jonathan Kane, Jozef Van Wissem, Fred Schneider (B-52s), Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers, Gov’t. Mule), Salman Ahmad (Junoon), Dibyarka Chatterjee, and many others. Most recently his playing can be prominently heard on former Soundgarden/Audioslave singer Chris Cornell’s new album Carry On, and he played and co-wrote a song on the new Onetwo album as well as the latest album by the young French singer Melissa Mars (Universal France). Some of these collaborations can be heard on his recent 20-year rarities retrospective album Improve the Shining Hour which also features excerpts of his film and tv music for ABC News (he has scored documentaries for ABC shows 20/20 and Turning Point). He’s also produced several major label albums for composer/saxophonists Tim Berne and Peter Gordon (Columbia and Columbia Masterworks retrospectively) as well as for the French avant-rock band Tanger (French Mercury). He recently scored the Oscar-nominated Maysles Films documentary “Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton” for HBO, which screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of their Maysles Films 50 Year Retrospective, and about which Variety wrote: “Gary Lucas’ Delta blues guitar music adds vivid color to this report from America’s forgotten underbelly.” And he?s composed music for documentaries shown on Showtime (“Trust Me”), PBS (“Mayor of the West Side”, nominated for an Emmy this year), and at international film festivals (“The Legacy of Jedwabne”, which was also broadcast internationally).
The breadth and scope of Gary Lucas’ work is impressive, and he straddles genres with ease. His recent release in the World Music category, The Edge of Heaven, a dreamy melodic album featuring his arrangements of Chinese pop music of the 1930s, was #1 on the World Music Charts in Canada, and garnered an unbelievable amount of international attention, England’s Q Magazine awarding it 4 Stars, and Mojo writing” “It is simply gorgeous.” In addition, the album was chosen as one of the Best Discs of the year in France’s Liberation newspaper. Gary also received a lengthy profile for the album in The Wall Street Journal, as well as an NPR interview (hear a performance of “The Wall” from NPR here). The title song from the album was featured on the soundtrack to the Bill Moyers PBS Series “Becoming American: The Chinese Experience”.
The album raves go hand in hand with Gary’s international press standing: in the last few years Gary has been profiled and interviewed in Rolling Stone, DownBeat, the Columbia University Spectator, Record Collector, The Wire, MOJO, the International Herald Tribune, the French daily paper Liberation, featured on the cover of the Jewish Forward, and the national Dutch newspaper Het Parool.
Recent live appearances include a specially commissioned concert at the Czech Embassy in Washington DC by invitation of the Czech ambassador to the US spotlighting Gary’s solo guitar arrangements of Czech classical music in honor of the 14th anniversary of the Czech Velvet Revolution (Gary is of Bohemian descent on his father’s side). He made an extensive solo acoustic tour of Spain recently and will return to perform there in early 2008. Gary has also lectured on his life and career, his songwriting technique, extensive collaborations, and the music business from the inside, at the Amsterdam Music Conservatorium, Yale University (his alma mater), the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, New York University and Columbia University. He has also has given guitar master classes at Amsterdam’s Paradiso, the Amsterdam Music Conservatorium, and at the University of Hawaii. In March 2006 he gave a lecture and solo performance at McGill University in Montreal for a course taught by Prof. Sandy Pearlman (Blue Oyster Cult/Clash producer) and Music School Dean Don McLean entitled “Bruckner and Heavy Metal”, where Gary performed his “Bruckner Fantasia” based on themes from Bruckner’s 8th Symphony, which was filmed and broadcast on CTV, the Canadian national television network.
Recent soundtrack work includes an original score for “Trust Me”, a Showtime documentary about a summer camp for Christian, Muslim and Jewish children, and a score for Slawomir Grunberg’s award-winning documentary “Bed and Breakfast 9/11″, which was shown on PBS in September last year. In addition he scored and is interviewed in Grunberg’s “The Legacy of Jedwabne”, which is playing the international film festival circuit and has been broadcast internationally. He also has contributed music to several BBC documentaries recently and the Canadian Movie of the Week, “Dragon Boys”. He is about to begin work on an original score for a new documentary about American collegiate football, entitled “For Love and Honor”.
Last year Gary released his second album with Dutch lutist Jozef Van Wissem, The Universe of Absence, and the pair recently performed live on the Dutch national tv network VPRO show “Free Sounds”. A third album from the pair, whose unusual music combines medieval Renaissance lute stylings with Gary’s country blues National steel guitar and electronics, is due out this year.
Gary Lucas is also working with the female UK based DJ Cosmo (Colleen Murphy) on a new dance-oriented project called Wild Rumpus. Their first single Musical Blaze-Up sold-out it’s 12-inch vinyl run in 2 days upon release in May 2007, was played extensively on the BBC and in dance programs all over European radio, received rave reviews in Time Out London, Time Out New York, and HITS Magazine, and was chosen as one of the Best of the Week by iTunes UK, who made it available for download on a special sampler alongside new tracks by Prince, Crowded House and Gwen Stefani. Gary has been performing DJ improv sets with Cosmo as Wild Rumpus in a variety of exotic locales lately, including high profile gigs in Romania and India, the London ICA, the Brussels Klindende Munt Festival, and they recently made their live NYC debut before a packed house at famed New York dance club Cielo.
In addition, Gary has been in the studio recently recording with UK electronica ensemble The Dark Poets (James Hunter and Sarah Hilliard) for a new album collaboration due out in April 2008 on the Some Bizarre label.
Mr. Lucas makes his home in New York City.
Websites:
www.nps.nl
www.garylucas.com
www.dekloet.com
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