1. the last few times I have seen you perform live, I
think you may have played the conch shell more than
the trumpet--is the trumpet still your
main instrument/passion, or do you now see yourself
more as a
multi-instrumentalist?
I suppose trumpet's still my main deal more or
less, but I've begun thinking of it more as an
interface than an instrument. As I've started to add
more electronics and extended techniques, trumpet has
become the tool I can engage with the best to get new
sounds. I've been drawn to the conch more recently
because it completely sidesteps any baggage I or a
listener might have about what is "good" playing. The
object becomes much more about communication rather
than technique. I want to remove the criteria of
traditional musicianship when I play, because sound
and structure are more important to me.
2. how did you come to take up the trumpet and begin
to make your own
music?
My neighbor was a musician and he had an old trumpet
in his cellar he gave me when I was ten or eleven. He
did electronic music, and at one point we made a piece
together with what I decided were whale sounds. I was
convinced we could speak whale with the music, so we
sent it to National Geographic so they could put it
under water from their research boats and tell the
whales they were just studying and wouldn't hurt them
and stuff, and to come over, etc. But we didn't hear
back from anyone at the foundation.
3. you play live a lot, in many local combos, as well
as doing your
solo stuff--do you prefer working with other musicians
to working alone?
Yeah, I feel like that's how I learn to play,
compose and listen! I don't know if I prefer working
with other people, but I really enjoy it. Music's a
social and political experience all the way around,
even if it's subtle. I feel extraordinarily lucky to
live in the bay area.
4. please talk a little about your new solo album, and
how the pieces
were made/recorded.
I think of Quarry Tones as a kind of time travel cd,
except history repeats itself differently everytime.
Some main characters are a man who creates a time hole
by putting a tin can against his ear, wolves and
howling cows at the edge of a desolate camp, and a
roman choir with a cult song for the new aegis. The
ingredients are: a clip-on mic, an sm57, electronics
and pedals, a computer, a 4-track, a little room with
turquoise walls. I'd say about 65-70% of it is
horn/shell, even though it's hard to tell, also synth,
voice, and recordings of a cpu with
indigestion....Hans Gruesel's the one I have to thank
for kicking me in the butt to do the cd.
5. who are some of your main influences as a
trumpeter/musician? and
who
really blows your mind these days?
Well, I think my first really big break in terms of
influence came when I started to think about sound,
discovering Cage and artists who dealt with time,
sound, phenomena, etc. That kind of brought me back to
music, tho' in a very different way. Naturally
occuring influences would be things like phasing
patterns, like a crosswalk bell and a car alarm, or a
faucet dripping and a clock ticking, kind of
happenstance loops. Trumpet wise, Wadada Leo Smith is
a master. The first time I heard him play was a
liberating experience. Recently I've been blown away
by a cd a friend gave me of African Pygmy songs. They
do this unbelievable hocketing, each filling in a
single part of the song in succession. Locally,
bran...pos and anti-ear consistently amaze me, and I'm
an admirer of zeke sheck's compositions.
6. you seem to be equally comfortable/adept at playing
experimental
noise
and also avant/free-jazz. do you think of yourself as
coming from an
avant-classical/free-jazz tradition, or more out of
the punk/noise
milleu?
Maybe a schizo foot in both worlds?! No, really, as
a player, and I think by dint of my instrument, I come
out of the avant-hole. But temperment wise I have a
natural kinship with the punk/noise tradition,
specifically with its diy and non-highbrow aesthetic.
Even up to a couple of years ago, the two
worlds/traditions occasionally seemed stratified.
Nowadays, I don't feel a chafe between them at all. In
fact, they seem to mate and mutate quite nicely!
7. do you enjoy recording your music as much as
performing live?
More and more, yes!
8. your recent live set at the hotel utah had a
powerful visual element
with
the props and so on--how important is the visual angle
to what you want
to
do with your music?
I guess I consider the visual angle to be part of the
performance, so it's important when the idea behind a
show seems to need it. Sometimes when I'm preparing
for a show I feel like stressing the music, sometimes
I'm sick of just playing and want to do something
else, create a different kind of experience. Overall
though, I think I've been influenced and keep coming
back to an idea of theater. I don't really know much
about it, and I'm not particularly interested in
traditional theater, so maybe by theater I mean
something that defines a space and changes it,
psychologically as much as physically. Jason, my
bandmate in Le Flange du Mal, and I have been
collaborating for about 8 years, and in that time I
think we've been developing an approach to this idea
of theater in our duo sets. So my solo sets,
sometimes, are a continuation of this approach.
9. do you think that you will be creating and playing
music for the
rest of
your life? are you interested in pursuing other
avenues of creation
(film,
writing, painting, dance, etc.)?
Yup and sure. I recently played/performed in a dance
piece, and it was eye-opening because I was forced to
be conscious of my body, movements, posture, etc. I
want to continue collaborating across genres,
especially with movement/dance.
10. it seems like there are a lot of active and
strong/confident women
in
the middle of the bay area noise/experimental scene
these days. is this
the
case, and if so, is this helpful to you as a woman
musician, or is it
essentially not much different than if the scene was
mostly made up of
men?
Honestly, I think I would be a little suspicious if
a scene was all men, it just wouldn't feel
right....probably not for the men either! The fact
that it isn't at all unusual in the noise scene to see
many women in the audience AND performing just
reflects the open and supportive atmosphere I find. I
don't just mean men consciously supporting women, I
mean people open to what other people are doing in an
atmosphere where we can try out new stuff, fuck up,
get feedback, etc. There are a lot of strong and
talented women in this scene, and more coming in on
their covered wagons everyday! There are also many
little girls and boys out there with ears to corrupt,
so I hope as noise continues to fester we can reach a
few tiny minds and spoil their lives forever, hurray!
