Interview with myself about the Fragments CD

Part Two "In the Studio"

Q: You recorded Fragment’s over three days, correct?

A: Yes. The suite — Fragment’s — was recorded on the first day of the session as well as a few of the pieces with piano — ‘In His Master’s Voice’, ‘The Dream (Angela Rose)’ and I believe the duet with Bryden and Craig was recorded that day — ‘The last Days (of my life)’.

Q: What preparation for the session was involved?

A: Well, as I mentioned earlier, the music had been written for a gig, and had been performed at that gig; it was also recorded. This was how I got it in to my head to re-record the Fragments and to release Fragments music.

Q: Was there something wrong with the live recording?

A: The quality of the recording wasn’t that good, but other wise the performance was great.


Q: Good enough to inspire you further?
A: Yes., I suppose.

Q: So what was the preparation for this recording?

A: I gave Bryden and Jesse and David a copy of the live recording as well as the music, then we recorded.

Q: So there was no rehearsing?

A: No. I’m not big on rehearsing. To be honest, I don’t think I am very good at it. Regardless of whether I play better or worse, I like being on the edge when I play. Preparation for me is internal, as we discussed earlier. I want to make sure I am going into a session - one where I am recording - with zero preconceived ideas.

Q: How do you do this?

A: Essentially, I play it out of my system. There is a line between improve and melody; expectations can confuse this line. Of course this is merely my approach, but let me give you an example.
When I was writing the tune Elizabeth — which is on the first Cash Cow CD — I had written an eight bar melody. I thought of it as an ‘A’ section and kept writing. As the writing became more involved I realized I was improvising, perhaps modifying this and that; the harmony, form and so on. Then I realized the tune was done. Because I was improvising over the tune so much, I returned to the 8 bars, played them, and that was that. I realized that there is a line between improve and composition. In writing, there can be a desire to get it all down, to explain it so thoroughly and completely. This more times than not, confuse the musicians – and myself. Thus, the people you intend to play with, record with, are confused and then people play safe on the session.
Hard and easy are relative terms, I know, however, the motivation behind them should be, in my opinion, musical and free. A hard tune shouldn’t sound hard nor should a simply tune be belittle as a simply tune. One’s perception’s and influences enter into the schemata of drafting a melody. Tonality and rhythm are both rich, very rich. Playing tonally or atonally is natural; playing outside is natural, just as playing inside is. There is little merit in the performance of a language for the sake of language, rather, it is expression that is the fundamental. So when I was preparing the Fragments material I thought a lot about this. What choices was I making and why was I making them.
There is the addition fact that the musicians I was playing with excite and inspire me. Each one of them does something that is individual with one’s individual interpretation’s.

Q: Let’s talk about the player’s for a moment and then return the to preparation for the session. How did this group come about?

A: Craig I have known each other the longest. He and I worked together in a group here in Toronto called the Jump Kings. When I met him he was a student at the University of Toronto. Some how the leader of the group — Kevin Quain — got his number and invited him out. I think he sat in, but the way I remember it is: the moment he sat down, he was the piano player in the band.
Craig and I both struggled to find something in music that was once there and then, somehow disappeared. You’d have to talk to Craig about this, as I can’t speak on his behalf. I can say that meeting him, hearing him, and becoming his friend affected me in the deepest, profoundest, way.

Q: How so?

A: Well, on a musical level Craig played so freely. Now, please understand, I don’t associate free with anything other than freedom. So, when Craig played his playing was there, in the moment, didn’t matter what it was; a gospel tune, a country tune, a jazz tune, a rag, whatever; nor did it matter if it held together or fell apart. He could go any where and that’s Craig.

Q: I know that piano has a special place for you, how did this play into your relationship with Craig?

A: Free lessons. On that gig I stood over Craig’s shoulder, just behind him. I could lean over and watch him and study the way he played. There is a great deal of subtly in Craig playing, as well, there is a great amount of force when he wants it. Both sides appeal to me, both as a person and as a musician. I don’t like musical concepts, I don’t like musical reasons, I like piano, period. With Craig, well, he plays piano in a very personal way. But let me give you an example.

Q: Please.

A: As a bass player I find it hard at times to work with certain piano players as the trample all over the bass register. In may instances I wonder why I am there. The piano player is, of course, excited; they have been practicing in a room by themselves and now they are ready to do their thing. This is largely problematic when I am playing a bass solo. All too often a piano player will play along by copying what I play. Perhaps this is cute, for me it is tedious. With Craig there is a give and take and a leading that occurs, which is rare. Now, I’m sure every bass player, and every musician, has their quirks. For me, I like to play within a forum that is highly dialectical. I like to have a strong voice in the conversation, however, I like to feel protected.

Q: Protected.

A: Yes.

Q: How so?

A: Often, when I am in the midst of being trampled I, for I think obvious reasons, don’t feel like I am there. It’s not that I am against it, not at all, I just don’t need to be there. That to me is the most musical thing to do in that situation– to no be there.


Q: So what do you in those situations?
A: Sometimes I leave the form of the tune behind, sometimes I let the form role by but I skip every part of it. In situations like that I feel a conflict, so I go with that. You can only follow with the strongest force, or be beaten by it in the fight.

Q: Isn’t that frustrating?

A: Frustration is a central part of conversation, in fact conflict is essential in life. Do I seek it? No., or perhaps I do? But when it happens it happens; c’est la vie.
Working with Craig has been ,and is, inspiring; I am fortunate, very fortunate. As you said, piano is, and has been, a major influence on my life, and it is because of player’s like Craig.

Q: On the Fragment’s CD there is several solo piano pieces.

A: Yes.

Q: Was this planned?

A: Yes. Craig and I had talked about it. In fact the CD in its original conception was to be the Fragment’s suite and then a few solo piano pieces and that’s it. So yes, it was always the plan to record solo piano on the CD.

Q: Then you added the duo’s and trio’s?

A: Yes.

Q: How much of this came about last minute?

A: Well, some of it was copied-out the night before the session. I know that the tune ‘The Dream (Angela Rose)’ was composed and prepared quite last minute.

Q: Let’s return to the preparation of the Fragment’s session.

A: Okay.

Q: The other tunes, beside the Fragments suit, and besides the solo piano pieces, how did they come about?

A: Well, track 10 — The last Days ( of my life)—was written after I returned from Ottawa—I had moved back to Ottawa to spend the last days of my Mother’s life with her. She passed away in January of 1999. Track 11 was written before I moved to Toronto. I was writing differently then writing longer compositions. I wrote a series of pieces called ‘Letter’s to a Friend’ and the last song was called Watch Me Die (watch me try). I wrote this in 1994-95 or so. The solo piano pieces No. 7 and No. 7 reprise were written around the same time. Then track 13 — In His Master’s Voice — I wrote a week, maybe less, before the session.

Q: So things were last minute?

A: Ya, I suppose. If the session had been a month later it would have been a different CD. Because I am pulling from new and older material, and in the process of doing so I am trying to find something alive. There are the relationships of the songs or tunes to consider, and this plays a central part in the music and the CD as a whole. The dimension – which the section Songs Without Words gives – I think is a good one and it was a late addition to the CD.

Q: Why do you change the music so often when you are preparing a session?

A: I need to find something that I believe. If I don’t completely believe it than why would Craig or Jesse or Bryden or Dave believe it? If I hold on to material that doesn’t work and if I know it before the fact that it doesn’t work why would I take it on to the next level? Plus, even if I skip material there is always another CD, another time, and another recording somewhere down the road. It may well be the case that a song or tune skipped on one CD has a better place on another, or, no place at all ever? You never know. In the end you’re just trying things, trying to find a center a story.

Q: Earlier you said that you needed to improvise over the tune, in essence, to find the tune.

A: Yes. It’s like finding a character’s motive for an actor. As I say, if I don’t believe it, then it’s over.

Q: Does that happened in the studio?

A: Absolutely.

Q: The question of belief and one’s conviction are always happening. Even now during this interview, it is - you must admit - little mad. After all, this is an interview with myself.

A: True.

Q: What keeps me going is a belief, a conviction, however, I don’t really know why I have it. I want to do this or that, express things, that I create and build things, this is certain, but this only answers the question to a point. Why does any body do anything? is it Love? hope? fear? shame? combinations of these? But right now, in this interview, I believe it and as such I have a conviction about carrying on with it.

A: Which is good.

Q: I think so; at least for now. Let’s return to the other player’s in the Group. Jesse?

A: Jesse is wonderful. He has something that I admire in a drummer; he plays, I play, and do so independently, and, at times, we develop a rhythm that is almost a third party player.

Q: Let me guess, you don’t like drummers following you either?

A: Well, you’re right, I don’t. Basically, I enjoy the tension created between two people when a form, impossible for one person to create on their own, is created. As I said, it is like a third party is born; but this doesn’t mean that we aren’t together, it means we are not co-dependent in the negative sense.

Q: David?

A: David stands out in every way. Both he a Bryden have a thing happening that is wonderful. They stay out of each other’s way and build musically, together. It is as if they are both building the same melodic line at times. Track 12 is a great example of this, I think; as well, the Fragment’s suit.

Q: You often mention an independence that you like, a conflict that you like, why is this?

A: If you are dating, and you meet some one, see some one, etc., the surface stuff is only important for as long as you are on the surface. If, however, you want to speak about and express and share other things, the language of the surface, which is the anti-individual, is not going to communicate that which your experience hopes to express. At a certain point, the communication of the lowest common denominator will become frustrating. I think this frustration is wide spread. People are seeking a new language, in the interpretive sense. In short, language can free a person or tie them down. There is conflict in life, lots of it. I am not an idealist and I don’t see an escape from conflict as an answer to life. If a person wants an escape watch T.V. they can live another’s life. This is what we want: to live some one else’s life: the better life. The language of T.V. will let you forget about your woes and troubles.
Same thing in music; music can be an escape. But like anything, the way in which a person experiences themselves and understands themselves in relation to other’s is the level to which they can reason, it is the level of which life speaks to them and about them. There is a more direct answer, which is community. Every person seeks a community. For some it is similarities of entertainment, romantic, or sports, or political, interests. For me, I need solitude and within solitude I study myself. Good friends, musical and personal, teach and guide your through solitude; they never help you to escape it. I respect that which inspires and these guys inspire me.

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