Brian Vaughan Interview - Part Three

Tell us about your background and interests.

Going back to my childhood, I originally expressed myself through visual arts- mainly drawing, watercolors, using color pencils, some occasional charcoal, woodcarving & sculpture, some ceramics, drafting & abstract design, & model building. As a child I was exposed to mostly western classical music. By age 11 I was also interested in science & technology. My earliest known experience composing music was at about that age. I did not yet play anything or read or write music in notation, either, but I had the experience of an unknown piece of symphonic type music going through my mind.

In those days, Beethoven, Mozart & Tchaikovsky were among my most favorite composers. This is still some of my best appreciated music, though I have aquired many other tastes. Occasionally, through the years I would hear a new tune of my own in my mind, but it took awhile for that to break out & grow. Upon becoming a teenager, my visual art expressions went from a sort of realism to surreal & abstract. I got an acoustic guitar for my 18th birthday (1974), But it got stolen in the spring of 1975. I sort of gave up for a while, but still did designs & woodcarving. In June 1978, I bought a cheap acoustic from a neighbor & have been playing ever since. Someone I knew (an art student named Gary at a class I helped instruct) that summer gave me a nice archtop jazz acoustic with F-holes, it was much nicer to play. Two years later, in 1980 I knew that I was committed for life to music, so I saved money & got my first electric guitar & amp. I still have the guitar- it's a 1979 Gibson S.G. made of walnut, which they only did for 3 years ( I believe). It's still better than any other S.G. types that have come down the years (in my opinion), & I usually prefer it to a Les Paul, even. I only use it for recording now, it couldn't be properly replaced, really.

Through the years, I practiced like a maniac, spending most of my spare time on chords, scales, intervals, techniques & writing tunes when it all came together. I also experimented a lot with different tunings, I was a fan of baritone tunings long before it became a huge trend like it is now ( I was influenced by artists like Tony Iommi & Robert Fripp in such matters). Electronic effects have always been part of my style for extra coloring options in the sound. As a musician I'm basically self taught, but have also learned from whoever I've played with (not imitation, actually, but an assimilation of certain techniques & essences). Whenever I used to try to copy something from a favorite player, I would end up with something totally different that was really my own, no resemblance to what inspired it at all. So it's easier for me to write my own material than it is to copy another.

With rock music, I was originally influenced a lot by the late '60[s] & the '70[s]. The best period for American rock was the psychedelic era (in my opinion). Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Moby Grape, The Grateful Dead, Love & many other more obscure bands that really played music that made history. Even though Jimi had to go to London to get huge at first, I naturally still consider him an American artist. I've always listened to a lot of English rock as well. This was my mainstay during the '70[s]. A partial list of favorites would include Black Sabbath, The Who, Hawkwind, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Cream, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, The Bluesbreakers, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Genesis, Yes, & the list could go on. I really liked The Beatles after they got more "experimental" & dropped the simple rock 'n' roll they started out with. One of my favorite obscure masterpieces was Armaggedon featuring Keith Relf from the Yardbirds- this was his last band before his tragic death by electrocution in 1976, not a very publicised fact even though people know about it.

In the '70[s] I also got my first taste of types of ambient electronic music. Favorites here include Wendy Carlos (maybe best known for the Clockwork Orange soundtrack), Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Klaus Schultze, Jean-Michel Jarre, Peter Baumann, Tomita.

How about your recordings - how did these develop over time?

I made my first recordings in the fall of 1983 with a portable stereo cassette recorder (pretty Lo Fi!). The sound quality wasn't great by any means, but I have successfully done audio restoration to 2 pieces on my workstation, & now they sound pretty good. One piece is sort of Raga-like, the other is like a galactic soundscape from a distant blackhole. The rest of the stuff recorded then is going to be re-done. About half of the tunes from that time I still play, they have all evolved a lot since then.

I continued recordings of solo archive material & projects with other musicians from 1984 to the present. Most of the stuff recorded in the '80[s] is going to be re-recorded, since it was done with very low-budget (Kinks reference not intended!) gear & less than ideal circumstances (I was quite poor then). On the other hand, I have a collection of recordings done on decent stereo portable recorders with high quality tape that are good enough to put on C.D. after some restoration & digital mastering. Sometimes it's amazing what you can do with primitive stuff.

Since the beginning of the '90[s], I've been involved in a few projects that have resulted in good & interesting recordings. In 1991, I was jamming with Tim Kirby (bass, guitar, keyboard). Tim was in a few bands- in '91 & 92 he was in a rock band called The Hectics, a few years later he was in I.B.O.P.A. (the acronym for Indestructable Beat Of Palo Alto), which existed from the mid '90[s] until summer 1999. The remains of I.B.O.P.A. (Tim & 2 other guys) became a group called Ten In The Swear Jar. They did one really interesting C.D. ( I.B.O.P.A. did 2, I believe). The music was avant-garde & pop at the same time, definitely a different beast. Tim is a talented fellow, we recorded a few really good jams a while back. A bandmate of Tim's in The Hectics, Mike Rogers (guitar, keyboards) became a friend of mine. We jammed at different times through the years. Now that we live in the same town, we're threatening to get together at least for fun.

In October 1991, I was included in a band that called itself "The Shellhead Mutants". I never found out what inspired the name(!). This was one of the absolute best projects I was in. We played different varieties of progressive rock. During my first sessions with them, we did a lot of free-form jamming. This was essentially a fusion band, since there were strong jazz influences as well as a strong psychedelic coloring. Looking back at this, we could have played gigs from my first session with them. The musical chemistry was good, but we never made it out of the studio. The band disolved in mid-April 1992 without any advance warning or reason given. Unfortunately, I wasn't the leader- if I had been I wouldn't have let this happen. But, I have no regrets, after all. I have some great recordings from the period I played with them.

So you were involved in some pretty innovative sessions...

In the summer of '92 I finally bought my first multi-track ( the Tascam 4-track I still have). On my night job I met a very talented & intelligent young fellow named Jeff Zeigler. Jeff is a cellist & was a student at Eastman Conservatory of music ( he graduated in 1995). He invited me to attend a solo recital he did & I was blown away by his playing. Jeff & I got together for a few jam sessions that summer. He was planning to get another friend of his (Vic Chandra Shukla) to jam with us- Jeff & Vic had already done music together. In the fall of '92 Jeff had to fly back to Rochester, N.Y. to be in school. When he returned for the holidays, the 3 of us played & recorded on 12-30-92. We recorded about 40 minutes of jamming. The first piece featured Jeff on cello, Vic on sitar & me on my stratocaster with effects. On the second piece, Vic switched from sitar to digereedoo. We did 2 long pieces of music, basically, but with the different flows of the session, it could be divided into 3 or 4 pieces, possibly. The results sound like a merging of eastern & western classical music with a bit of psychedelic rock. The digereedoo gave the second piece an ethereal effect. This was the only project the 3 of us did- Jeff has been unavailable & we lost touch for awhile, but got back in touch the summer of 1999, though now he is hard to reach I have moved since then. Jeff is now with a string quartet. I continued playing & recording with Vic Shukla periodically in 1993 & 1995 (we had our last & best recording session on 11-1-95, only about 3 weeks or so before Skip Spence& I started recording together). Vic moved on to other projects. He was collaborating with Larry Thrasher from Psychic T.V. from about '95 & as recently as july, 1998. I haven't heard from Vic since then. Vic also occasionally played gigs with Psychic T.V. & was in an experimental band called "Vacuum Tree Head" when we first met. The music I did with Jeff & Vic will also be put out on C.D. (there is about 2 discs worth, maybe a bit more).

A current collaborator is my girlfriend, Morgan O'Conner. We met in August '94 & one of the things we love about each other (besides everything else) is each other's music. Morgan writes good lyrics as well as good tunes. We have 2 projects in the making- a serious project of tunes with a variety of styles, including Celtic & other folk influences, as well as the heavy & progressive styles I'm into. Our comedy project has had local radio airplay thanks to D.J. & musician Don Campau (most of the skits were improvised live on the air with him on his "No Pigeonholes" program on KKUP 91.5 FM.)The comedy songs are home studio recordings. This band is called "S.N.O.T."("Strictly Nosehairs On Tap"). The first C.D. was just finished in December 2001, now ready for distributing. In addition to Don Campau, there is also an interesting background on track # 21 ("I Found Religion / S.N.O.T. Wipes!")- it is a recording of giant toads (Bufo Marinus) in Palenque, Mexico done by Felix Hess ( a Dutch physicist, mathematician & sound artist) from his "Frogs 4" L.P. released in 1985. It makes for an unearthly background. As for our own material, we guarantee it will offend almost everyone (except extraterrestrials, maybe). Don has described it in his website as sounding like Skip & Captain Beefheart doing an album together (mighty kind of him!). Skip actually heard the first 9 tracks in the demo phase & liked the project, too. Work is even underway for S.N.O.T. 2 now.....

What did Skip think of your various projects?

Skip was going to be a contributing member to our serious project- he really liked our music. Now he will contribute in another way- some stuff will be dedicated to and / or about him, since he inspired it. To sum it up, when I get it done, I've got enough tunes to make 10 more C.D.(s) of my solo stuff. I have also an extensive archive of loops, progressions & unfinished pieces, including many "lost" tunes that I haven't played for years. Every time I work on something I get new ideas. Then I have enough for at least 5 C.D.(s) worth of collaborations before Skip & Morgan.

In August 1996 I got a digital workstation to do professional recording with (a Roland VS-880, they're amazing). In February 1997 I started doing some live recording for a friend with a jazz band & other projects (Christopher Gaynor). He is a composer, has studied under Lou Harrison (a modern classical composer- for anyone unfamiliar, I was once myself!). Chris also composed & performed music for Laseriums in the '70[s], is a multi-instrumentalist, & has done much more than I can mention here now, I couldn't do him justice. I made several recordings of The Phantom Band, his jazz group, recorded and / or mastered several recordings of other bands at his annual Mardi Gras celebrations (1997 through 1999). Back in 1995, Chris played with McClure & ManzarekMichael McClure (vocals & spoken word), Ray Manzarek (piano), Rob Wasserman (bass), Chris Gaynor (erhu- a sort of 2-stringed Chinese fiddle), Frederick Clarke (guitar). I put 2 tunes on C.D. for Chris, Ray & Michael from a concert they did at the Great American Music Hall in early 1995. I never had the pleasure of meeting any of the other members. I really esteem the artistry of all these fellows, so I feel it's sort of special to have done what little I did for them (no name-dropping intended- honest!). In late 1998, Chris also had a project called Ensemble Momo, which did a live musical performance of Antonin Artaud's radio play "To Have Done With The Judgement Of God" at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, Ca. The sound recording was made by someone else, but I'll be doing the mastering. Chris composed the musical score for this performance, which is a very interesting piece.

In late '99 I got a good computer (an H.P. Pavilion 8550c multi-media type with a good C.D. burner) & have installed a digital audio workstation, sound card with an input / output box (Lexicon), etc. It's working pretty good, I can transfer digital recordings from all my other devices (the VS-880, DAT, mini-disc) & it has great analog inputs & outputs, too. After having dealt with configuring & doing settings, it rocks. One project I had the recording finished for in early 1998 is Theatre Of The Mind's first C.D. "Corporate Razor Blue"- which is another collaboration. I did all the music & recording, the radio play was written by David Thompson (a.k.a. "Jack Moore") & narrated by "Greg Bennett"- the names were changed to protect the guilty. I used the name "Roger Canon". In the first half of 2000, I got it to 4 radio stations in Europe (I know, not many!). The best response was from Radio ARA in Luxembourg (an electronic music D.J. there known as "Matrix 411" really liked the C.D. & played tracks on his show over a few months). It was also recieved & played by Radio DVN (a cable station in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Ronald Boortman's show), Radio Mafia in Helsinki, Finland on Jukka Mikkola's show "Spacejunk", & on Radio Marabu, a shortwave collective in Germany. On the home front it got some airplay on KKUP 91.5 FM & KFJC 89.7 FM. in late '97 & '98. Thanks to Don Campau (KKUP) & Solomon Grundy (KFJC). I also managed to get the C.D. in a catalog (Andrew Garibaldi's C.D. Services in Dundee, Scotland). In early 2001 Corporate Razor Blue was featured on the Internet. Strangely, the author of the radio play disappeared without further communication in early May, 2000. He left a message on my answering machine about moving out of his apartment & was never heard from again (I returned the call & left a message, with no result, his # being disconnected soon after that). The play he wrote was a Sci-Fi thing with a lot of political plots, so it seems life is just as weird. I just hope he is O.K. Skipliked the soundtrack music a lot. The style is ambient electronic. While I'm on the subject, the place I lived in until last year (2001) was upstairs from a place Skip's mother rented in the early '70(s). Most of the music & sound effects for "Corporate Razor Blue" were recorded in a room in my place that was just above the apartment Skip & his mother were in. A bedroom that was in the apartment that was once theirs was directly below the one upstairs I used as my studio. Skip had told me that he used to live on my street, but the confirmation that he had lived in the same building only came a few months after he died in 1999. Strange, but apparently true.

Another mutual friend of Skip's is Doug Hawes (I met him while visiting Skip in Nov. 1995). Doug is also a musician (guitar & vocals). He once had a band in Santa Cruz called The Greek Gods. They played surf music. Good stuff, too. In the past few years Doug & I have jammed now & then, sometimes playing his tunes, sometimes mine. It's always fun. One time a former bandmate of Doug's (from The Greek Gods, in 1986 & '87), Todd Shuman, joined us (or I joined them) for an all night jam session, Todd playing clarinette. I found clarinette works real good for folk & rock songs (that's not heard much). Todd played saxophone in The Greek Gods, was one of the creative forces & is an amazing player, too.

In mid May 1999, I went out to the San Jose State University campus purely by "chance", it was an unplanned action. It was around lunchtime. As I approached the student union building (where they have a performance area outside, a small ampitheatre) I heard a band playing. I went & got a seat, liked the tunes, so I stayed for the whole thing. They played all original material, tasteful modern rock with '60[s] & '70[s] type influences, but definitely had their own sound. It was a 3 piece band called Chant. I stayed after they were done & introduced myself to the guitarist / lead vocalist (Beaux Davis). I helped a little with taking gear to his truck during that first part of our conversation. We chatted & hung around campus a little longer. I stayed in touch periodically. We started working together on some projects in the spring of 2000, with me being in the engineering role in this situation. The first thing was digitally mastering an older recording on D.A.T. which was an E.P. Chant had originally put on cassette & sold to fans at gigs, called "The Green Tape". It's a great E.P. Then in july 2000, I got them scheduled on my friend Don Campau's "No Pigeonholes" radio show on KKUP 91.5fm, where they did an acoustic live performance on the air. I had arranged with Beaux to record the performance, so I brought in my 12 channel mixer & all 7 of my mics & recorded straight from the board to mini-disc. The result sounded pretty good, with mastering very good. A good clean room recording. 6 tunes were played, 4 of which are unreleased material. Beaux & I were also working on the graphics for these 2 C.D.[s], which were photos he had taken. He & I occasionally had fun jamming at my place or in his studio, sometimes with other band members after their rehearsal, just for fun. It was a blast. The first Chant album is a C.D. called "New Evolution", it's quite good. Work on the second effort is in progress. I've heard a lot of the songs already, it will be very good as well.

In late 2000 (10-19-2000), I met a new friend after seeing King Crimson at the Fillmore that night. They were handing out neat little posters to all on the way out. I saw a fellow at a bus stop with one & we started talking. It turned out we were both headed back to Silicon Valley & taking CalTrain, so we had 2 hours + to talk. His name is Craig Beebe. We had a lot in common with what we like, etc., so we decided to keep in touch & jam. Craig plays keyboards & has killer analog synthesizers. When we got together in november 2000, he brought along his good buddy (Jeff Martinov) who happens to be a great percussionist / drummer. We all hit it off right away, playing like we had been together a while, even though it was just the first time. We started recording our sessions from the second one on.

In January 2001, I got invited by Mike Somavilla (who books talent for the Bruce Latimer Show) to play live on Bruce Latimer's cable T.V. show. Mike is really cool & has been involved in the classic rock scene a long time, is always interesting to talk to. So Craig, Jeff & myself rehearsed 3 tunes I wrote while working with Skip ("Endless Travels Of The Soul", "Soquel Creek" & "The Gateway"). This was our first & only gig so far. We were on the air there 3-14-2001 between 9:00pm & 10:00pm. Our band name is Cerebral Codex. The 3 tunes of mine we played were of conventional length, the original collaborative material we have done is too long for a half hour appearance (our first epic piece is 40 minutes long!). All of us ended up moving to new places last spring (2001), that put our activities on the shelf for a while. We resumed recording in August 2001, doing 2 more long pieces, then had a few more productive sessions in October, recording several pieces ranging from 5 minutes to 10 or 12 minutes in length. Our style is space music, ranging from intense to ambient soundscapes, mostly improvised (with basic seed ideas to begin with, usually). We could play just about anything, I'm sure, Craig & Jeff are very good ts, too, so there are a lot of possibilities. Getting back to that gig, it was a really enjoyable experience.

Bruce Latimer has a great show, is a fine host & was very appreciative of our music & performances, even invited us to come back. It was my first time on T.V. I got a video copy of our gig & it was good. Bruce's show is on public access cable T.V. channel 8, in Pacifica, Ca. on wednesday nights. Now my plan is to get our music out on C.D., I'll be working more on that. Craig is also in a progressive band called Maxwell's Demon, in addition to Jeff & him having a funk project.

In July 2001 I contacted a fellow member on the Hawkwind discussion group (on Yahoo Groups), Doug Pearson. Doug plays analog synthesizers & various racks of electronics, bass, guitar, violin. I asked him about jamming & he invited me to get together later in august. We had gotten in contact when I first joined the discussion group (about april 2001). At the first session I went to in august 2001, another musician named Christie Reinders was there also. She played flute, a Radio Shack sampler keyboard (no longer made unfortunately), & in the later sessions has also used a turntable & various odd vinyl records to introduce different sounds to our mixture. A co-worker of hers, a drummer named Jim Foley soon joined in. I played my B.C. Rich Warlock with various effects & devices (reverse delay, E-bow, octave pedal & other goodies).

I missed jamming with them in September of 2001, partly because of trying to find work and also the freaky situation with the whole 9-11 catastrophe. I got back in the mix in October '01. The type of music we have been making has been completely improvised soundscape material, totally experimental. I think all of us are good at what we do, it's a lot of fun doing it. Several sessions have been recorded, I've heard a little bit of playback, what I've heard sounded good. Listening while we play is a different perspective, but I hear cool jams every time we play. That's not so easy to do pulling it out of the air! Doug has an interesting background. He was in a band called Primordial Undermind in 1999 when it was based in San Francisco (this band originally moved to S.F. from Boston, then from S.F. to Austin, Texas). Primordial Undermind is one of the current era psychedelic bands that I didn't mention earlier, they sound like a time warp to that vortex in space that started around 1967 on Earth, but they have a sound that is their own. Doug did his magic with analog electronics & violin on their "Universe I've Got" C.D. He was also a D.J. at KFJC 89.7 fm for a while in the early '90s plays bass. Other groups he still plays in are Mushroom (guest synth), the Terminal Wasteband (violin / synth), also Liquorball (synth). Christie used to be in the band Azalea Snail. I've been having a real good time with these 2 projects & the other things I've got going. I often feel pretty lucky these days.

What have you got in the works for the future?

On my plans for the future- I'm currently working hard at making these reality. I plan to get more recordings done & released. I've had my main website for a few years now, & since early 2000 have put up sites on IUMA, MP3.COM, & Besonic, a German site. I need to work on that one more. I was on Riffage before it went down in flames. At first, it seemed to have the most promise, when they had the Great American Music Hall & did shows with their bands in that venue.

Other plans would include getting out & playing more live gigs on a regular basis, developing a worldwide fanbase, having worldwide distribution for my recordings, a larger Internet presence, to continue exploring & developing new ideas in music & other arts, more spiritual growth & to become a complete wizard with computers. If I can do this before I die, it will be worth the ride.