today we are in the studio Nashville and
we're recording a one of many symphonic
movements for a sound installation that
I'm preparing for the nasher and show
that's titled the record
I first saw the work of David McConnell
in the small gallery in Raleigh North
Carolina he created this sound
installation out of old photographs
using old photographs almost as
instruments in a symphony and each one
had a different component of the sound
installation and based on that I met him
and talked to him and I found out that
he had this great musical background he
was first a musician and a producer and
sort of moving into the visual arts
assertive leaving music I take the
opposite approach to composition and
probably the majority of composers
instead of a premeditated piece of music
instead of sitting down and writing a
piece of music I'd like to let the piece
of music right itself when I'm in the
studio all booked studio time and go
into the studio without even having
written any music at all and I will
proceed to plug in the microphones and
the compressors and the eqs and I'll set
everything up on different instruments
in the studio
and I'll just begin planning and
whatever comes out is what I've got and
hopefully I like it or a part of it and
then that will lead to the next part on
a different instrument and then the next
part and then hopefully after several
hours of doing this process I have a
piece of music that I enjoy now I'm
getting ready to start recording a piece
tentatively titled the movements
probably going to be called out of tune
and basically I'm just exploring the
musical space of tuning instruments when
I go to the symphony often my favorite
part is the tuning of the orchestra to
me that's often the most beautiful part
the piece itself is like these old
photographs from the 60s and he sort of
turned up right and he has a great sense
of color like I like the do-it-yourself
sort of approach to it just you know
find these old photographs these
alternate Abel's you know change the
color in some way and live in them with
with color just own but only very subtly
around you know exactly where the record
would be placed so they almost look like
targets and it sort of Jasper Johns kind
of way but then they have a feeling that
almost plays on John Cage and his you
know 33 and a third performance set
sound artifacts tell a story that is
more related to chance or circumstance
or chaos whereas instruments are usually
telling a story that has been written
mathematically by the composer in the
studio you can you can color and texture
the sound with any combination of
equipment or tools that here that you're
using in the studio I prefer old
equipment because when you put sound
through it it's kind of like time travel
it takes you back to a different period
a different era the sound is transformed
as though it's from another time because
you're simply using equipment
microphones or or sound equipment that
is maybe 40 or 50 years old
and so it puts its own unique thumbprint
on the sound colors it in a way that may
be a painter would use a certain kind of
brush as I think of the studio tools
I like that era of equipment and I also
like the way that music was played back
in that in that time which was which was
vinyl I like the way that vinyl sounds
that's to me that's a very pleasing
format to my ear now it's mostly digital
media that people listen to and digital
media translates sound with the use of
code which consists of millions of ones
and zeros inside of tiny microchips
before it reaches the human ear so I
would just rather those sounds reach my
ear through a different a different
process than a tiny piece of plastic yes
what's on a record preserves not only
ideas or compositions but you're
actually just preserving a sound which
probably will never be created again in
the same way if nothing ever sounds the
same twice unless you're dealing with a
mechanical device that was built to
repeat the same exact sound over and
over again it doesn't have to be
difficult the process of recording and
writing music to me can be as simple as
you know cooking dinner sometimes I just
choose the nearest instrument physically
toward me and that's going to be the
next track because it was closer to me
to pick up but you know it's just music
it's not brain surgery you know I feel
like music should be allowed to flow
naturally and without difficulty a lot
of people look at music is a complex
organism but to me it's not it can be if
you choose to go that route and often my
work ends up sounding you know complex
but it's to me it's not it's just
it's a document of being in the studio
for hours on end the sounds become
immortal they become permanent when you
recorded