By the way, I don't mind being worshipped if it's for the right reason.
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10 questions for weasel walter of the flying luttenbachers
by cactus dan
1. if I understood the liner notes correctly, you recorded all of the music on the new flying luttenbachers cd by yourself. it's quite dense and complex. how was the new record constructed/recorded--did you lay down the drum tracks first and then add layers of instrumentation? do you overdub and edit sections together?
My girlfriend says that I give people too much information about what I do and that it ruins my "mystique", (which might be one of the reasons why the Flying Luttenbachers are not as popular as Black Dice or Lightning Bolt or Wolf Eyes or whatever mystical band people are scratching their chins/wiggling their fingers to in the underground.) I'm starting to think she might be right about that! I might be a bit too straight ahead for my own good sometimes. Now, pardon me, I'm going to be really confusing and cool . . .
To answer your question, yes, the percussion tracks were laid down first and then the other stuff was put on top. Other than that, I cannot reveal my process any further. Cactus, my friend, I'd be glad to discuss this with you in private, but for this interview I must be somewhat cryptic about my approach. I have to protect my proprietary interests. Oh, okay: I mix an eye of newt with some wormwood and out it comes.
I hope that people just hear the music and don't worry so much about the process.
2. when you're recording, is the music written out ahead of time, or do you improvise in the studio, or is it some combination? it seems quite precisely notated.
You're right. Essentially, all of the songs on Systems were through-composed. There are some touches of improvisation, i.e. the noise guitar layer on "Rise . . ." or the free/harmolodic playing that makes up the middle section of "thrumm'd HTE", but for the most part, thesecompositions were all very well defined and cultivated. In a way, the improvising is very specific and adheres to the specific parameters of the compositions, so you could look at it as being quasi-compositional as well. It wouldn't be that difficult for me to notate these works (although it would be time-consuming). Rehearsing material of this complexity is problematic though. It might be a long time before any of these pieces are played live. I'd love to though!
3. the flying luttenbachers have recorded and performed in many different incarnations and with a variety of personnel. what is the current live line-up, and what do you have in mind for the next recording? do you prefer working alone to working in group situations?
I'm almost finished writing the material for the thirteenth record, "the void". It will be an uninterrupted 30 minute suite comprised of smaller movements that fit together in various theoretical ways. I've decided for the meantime that I will save my more complex writing for the studio/solo, and concentrate on different goals for the live band, mostly kicking ass. Right now it's myself on drums, Ed Rodriguez (Colossamite, Gorge Trio) on guitar and Mike Green (Burmese) on bass. I'm very happy with this combination and it will be exciting to see where I can push this new band musically. I vastly prefer the excitement of playing with humans, but it got to the point where I was having such a difficult time finding musicians with the commitment and discipline to play my hard stuff that I figured I had to realize those ideas in some concrete manner or it would remain just a lot of hot air. That's why I decided to record "Systems..." by myself - just to get the fucking job done. I think this album definitely throws a gauntlet down. I'm very proud of it. The music the new band will be playing is totally different though! I won't ever stay in one place long enough for people to get used to it.
4. it's widely known that you moved to the bay area last year from chicago. has the bay area been good for you, musically? any disappointments? anything you miss about the chicago music scene? does the vibrancy of a scene really matter much, musically?
I'm very glad I moved. I feel like people relate to what I'm doing a little better here. The weather is a great change from the punishing climate of the midwest. Also, being around a fresh pool of musicians and friends is very revitalizing. I'm very busy (although there's never enough cash!) and there still aren't enough hours in the day. I don't miss Chicago one bit. I'd been trying to get out of there for years, but I just didn't know where to go. Finally I found all these great folks (John Dwyer, Erase Errata, Total Shutdown, Burmese, Lowdown, Crack:W.A.R., Numbers, Curse of the Birthmark, XBXRX, Deerhoof, Murder Murder, etc. etc.) and decided it was now or never. Chicago is the past and I'm not sentimental about it.
5. do you prefer making recordings to playing live gigs? what do you think of glenn gould's arguments that live gigs are bad for musicians and music (creates hero worship in audience and self-consciousess in performer, etc.), and will eventually die-out altogether?
I like to record and play live gigs equally. They are somewhat separate activities though. I feel like recording is the last chance to make what was actually intended come to life in a permanent form, whereas the nature of live performance is ritualistic and subjectively experienced. I believe in putting on a performance and that sometimes the microcosmic quality of musicianship suffers at its expense. That is the cost and I can accept that. Sometimes you just have to go with an emotion, even though it causes a train wreck. I personally like to go to shows to see something breathing, chaotic and alive, not a po-faced reproduction of "perfection". I hope that people relate to the intensity of my live performances. There are so many variables when playing live (bad sound mixing or acoustics being the worst), that you have to just do it and not worry so much about how exactly it was perceived by each person. One person thought it sucked, it changed another person's life and another just thought it was fine. That's the breaks. It's fun to get a whole bunch of people in a room to freak out together. It's entertainment.
By the way, I don't mind being worshipped if it's for the right reason.
6. do you think that totally synthesized, digital music can be as soulful/brutal as music made by humans on instruments? is the "human feel" necessary to flying luttenbachers music, and could you ever move into a totally electronic/digital arena?
The "soul" we hear in music is the culmination of: naturally de-quantized errors in timing and pitch, harmonic distortion from tape stock, line noise, ad nauseam. We've grown to like and expect these kinds of "mistakes" or music sounds wrong to our ears. It's just a relative standard that many listeners are used to. Humans strongly relate to what lies within their scope of experience. To those who have grown to like the sound of people playing instruments, fully electronic music will probably never completely cut it. To those who know nothing but electronic music, it is the real deal. I personally enjoy hearing people play musical instruments, so I would say that I'll probably never go totally electronic. I enjoy the human element in music. I prefer human approximations of randomness to actual chaos, for example. I like to experience the intellect of the person making the music, reflected in the sounds. I have a problem with what many people consider to be "soulful" though. I don't agree with the prevalent definitions of that term.
7. do you dislike being thought of as a free jazz musician, and do you feel there are substantive differences between free jazz and noise scenes? or is it arbitrary genre-labelling? and along those lines: is it more profitable, career wise, to pursue your music in the rock rather than free jazz community? or are both paths equally economically suicidal?
Ha ha ha. Well, nobody who is in the legitimate free jazz scene seems to consider me one of them! I was pretty much all but blacklisted from the Chicago free jazz scene, but you'll have to ask those guys why. I'm not really concerned with it at this point. I don't really relate to contemporary free music very much. Honestly, I'm finally coming to agree with the cliched criticism that most of it is more fun to play than to listen to. I don't hear a lot of innovation or vision happening within the idiom at this point. If someone could point it out to me, that would be great. There's a lot of pale, watered-down regurgitation going on right now and I find it utterly boring. Like, show me somebody in the new scene who's as good as Ayler or Ornette or Cecil and I'm there! Meanwhile, I'll stay at home and read a book. I like music because it's good, not because it was "improvised".
I never decided to progress creatively the way I have because I thought it would be more lucrative or popular or whatever. I don't really give a fuck what most people like and I'd be an idiot to try and cater to that mass insanity. I don't utilize the free jazz idiom as a framework anymore because I don't feel that it's really the best format for me to express what I have to say. As opposed to having a group of players just improvise away at their own personal agendas under the banner of being my band, I figure it makes more sense to aspire to compose music of equal or greater complexity, where I can express my vision more efficiently and with greater clarity. Either way, I'm still on food stamps. I'm still not getting invited to All Tomorrow's Parties. Big deal. I don't care. I'm not against free jazz at all, but I'd have to be playing it with some really awesome musicians to want to even bother at this point.
I like a lot of different stuff though. I always have. I see a correlation in tons of different music, from Balinese Gamelan to Death Metal to noise to modern classical to Japanese Noh . . . I don't belong to any camp in particular. I prefer to avidly synthesize and utilize whatever excites me at any given moment. It all becomes part of the big picture. The same time I was in the early luttenbachers, I also played lead guitar in a glam rock band! They were equally uncompromising and cacophonous, although superficially they were diametrically opposite. My new music is every bit as challenging and rigorous as any of my old stuff. Maybe more so. There's no compromise.
I think that my entire career could be considered an unflappable arc towards economic/popular suicide. It's a miracle that I'm still here doing this, because I've been given plenty of good reasons not to do it! The bottom line is that I don't play by anyone else's rules. I don't make music to please anyone but myself (although I'm happy if others like it). I won't fall into a formula or repeat myself creatively if I can help it. This doesn't make for good marketing! Constant change is hard to sell. I feel like I'm always a step ahead/behind - always completely out of touch. That's just the way it is and I'm not going to change what I do just to achieve more popularity or whatever. I make music because I have to. It's very meaningful to me to do this. I have my critics, but they mostly just bore me to tears with their shallow, knee-jerk assumptions and personal agendas. There's always going to be someone who thinks I suck because I've sold, like, three more CDs than they have or they don't like what I do or they think I'm lame or fake or I talk too loud at parties or blah blah blah . . . What-fucking-ever. I can't concern myself with any of this.
8. please outline the various side projects you're currently playing in, and why each excites you.
I don't necessarily consider anything I do to be "on the side". (Poor word choice. -Cactus) I do everything with 100 percent of my ability or not at all. I'm capable of as much as the format will allow. I play drums in XBXRX, which is appealing because it's violently energetic and the music works on a primitive level. I just joined Curse of the Birthmark on synthesizer - I always liked their weird, broken approach and succinct minimalism. I'm in an electronic sextet called Goof Ice, which is a little noise-artist coffee-klatch just for kicks and enjoyment. Sometimes I do parodies of "free jazz" with Murder Murder. I think that's it right now. I'd like to start a Damned cover band or something. I like to do a lot of different stuff and I'm usually very open to playing with anybody if I think they're serious about what we're going to be doing.
9. please list some of the music that you've been listening to for pleasure lately, and why it excites you.
Iannis Xenakis - all. The most brutal, atheistic musical genius to date. His oeuvre of 160+ works stands as a testament to not giving a fuck about what people think or what the reasonable limitations of music are.Xenakis pushed his music to the limit and nobody can hold a candle to him. His music holds an alien logic that is scintillatingly violent and beautiful in its strangeness. I particularly like "Oresteia", "Pithoprakta", "Akrata", "ST/10", "Komboi", "Terretektorh", "Kraanerg"...
Olivier Messiaen - Trois Petites Liturgies, Turangalila symphony, Chronochromie, organ works, etc. Messiaen was another brilliant modernist, but he never turned his back to tonality. There's plenty of dissonance though! His works have a certain tangible melancholy and sadness that I find appealing. I dig pathos, but it has to be really over the top . . .
Edgard Varese - all. Another total motherfucker. He only completed about 14 pieces in his life, but they're all doozies. Varese really brought the noise into the classical idiom. I just did an all-guitar cover of his "Hyperprism" and taking apart that piece and putting it back together taught me a lot. Mostly about how much the composer and I agree on compositional matters.
I've also been digging Henri Lazarof, Krzystof Penderecki, Pierre Boulez, Pierre Henry, Harry Partch, Anton Webern, Orthrelm (all!), Fela, Sun Ra's "Strange Strings" LP, this CD of Korean music that Chris Dixon gave me, some Total Shutdown live shit and a lot of my own newer records -- I make them partially so that I have something to listen to!
10. do you think you'll be playing music and recording for the rest of your life, or do you think you'll want to try other creative things/disciplines (film, painting, writing, etc.) as you get older?
Times change and people change. I'm interested in growing, not staying in the same place. I will have to continue to transform and adapt creatively, but I'll worry about that as it happens. I'm a lifer! I've been doing this on a measly shoestring for more than 15 years and there's no end in sight. I've sacrificed a lot to be a musician and I don't regret any of it. I can't just be expected to be some spazzy drummer for the rest of my life. There's a lot of different things left to do and I feel like this is still the baby steps. I refuse to be pigeonholed - for better or worse. I already write and do artwork as it is (check out my album covers!) Some people say I should be a comedian, but my very dry and witty response to that is, "Great, then I can be a miserable, obscure failure in TWO overly-saturated fields where there's no money to be made and nobody gives a shit."
Get it! That's supposed to be funny! Thanks!
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