Beacon From Mars was the response to being strait jacketed on the first album. Since we were playing live and getting great response, we chose to record like we performed; live, in the studio. The two extended cuts "Beacon" and "Taxim" are probably the closest to our live sound as any thing we ever did on wax.

The line up for the Beacon from Mars album is the same as the first except that Max Buda (Chester Crill) replaces Fenrus Epp (Chester Crill ). Fenrus dies and is eventually replaced by two guys Buda and Templeton Parcley (also Crill ). Get it! Same guy, different names. His reasoning is his own but "Fenrus was so good that it took two guys to replace him". That's the story about that. He only uses Chester Crill for producing credits.

The label's response to Beacon From Mars was to only issue the bare minimum records required in the contract, 2,500 copies! It would be many years before CBS accepted the concept of albums not comprised of singles. We predated the Grateful Dead in actually recording psychedelic jams and actually releasing them.

We were first of the country-rock type groups to do Cajun music, i.e. "Louisiana Man" and "Petite Fleur". We have been called the first World Beat group by enough writers to say that they are right!

I quit the band in 1967 over disputes in direction and such. We had been a leaderless band at the beginning and all of a sudden there were factions. As you may know, I joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band after that and went in another direction, eventually towards a solo career.

Do you recall other bands you toured with or opened for ?

Chester:

The only real tour was the Pacific Northwest with the Fuggs. We are principally known to concert goers of that time frame, as the best opening or supporting act on the West Coast. There was literally no major rock act that we didn't appear with. Here is a list: Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Dead, Steve Miller, The Sparrow, Quicksilver, The Chocolate Watch Band, Mad River, Country Joe, Johnny Winter, Jefferson Airplane, Hour Glass, Bo Diddley, Ike and Tina Turner, Lightnin' Hopkins, Flamin' Groovies, Spirit, Taj Mahal, etc. These were only in the context of concerts, the club acts were manifest i.e.. Iron Butterfly, Nico, Tiny Tim, Janis Ian and Clear Light to name but a few.

Could you describe the mid-seventies reunion album, "When Scopes Collide"?

Chris:

In 1975 or so, I was contacted by Warner Bros. to do a possible reunion record with the band. Jimmy Page also expressed interest in possibly releasing the album on on Swan Song. Warner Bros. eventually passed and Michael Nesmith chose to release it as his first release on Pacific Arts. I really didn't rejoin, we just reformed for the project. All the main members were there, except David Lindley and John Vidican, who was our original drummer. He was the only member to stop playing.

Jimmy Page is quoted as saying the Kaleidoscope were his favorite band... Any comments?

Chris:

He had seen the band at the Avalon Ballroom in 1968 and was working to an empty house at the Fillmore with the last incarnation of the Yardbirds. He was impressed with both David and Solomon. He especially related to Solomon's versatility and virtuosity, which he pronounced, "authentic flamenco". He was also impressed with David's psychedelic guitar playing and bowing techniques. Both David and I ( Dave on guitar and me on bass ) had been bowing our electric instruments for "Beacon From Mars" and "Taxim" and this can be heard on those cuts from 1967.

The interesting thing is that when Page and Plant did their Middle Eastern meanderings, it sounds like a lame attempt to sound like us, especially the Greetings From Kartoonistan album, which of course, predates their No Quarter release. They have been both quoted individually as saying that we were their favorite band of all time, however never are we mentioned when they are asked about influences, hummm.

Are you aware of live or recorded tracks that have yet to see the light of day?

Chris and Chester:

We know that the 1966 Berkeley Folk Festival was filmed and taped for PBS but that's about it for authorized recordings. Possible recording at the Matrix in Berkeley and the Avalon in San Francisco, but we have never seen or heard any of it! The 1968 L.A. Shrine bootleg is pretty bad, perhaps the worst audio of all time.Oings ??@

Chris::

There is a lot of stuff in the can, but no one seems to know how to find it. Columbia never tries to help and it was so long ago, bla, bla bla. There is an alternative version of "Beacon" that I would like to hear, plus a bunch of other things. I do have a copy of "Hog for You Baby", that would have been on Beacon. It is on acetate and Ptolemaic Terrascope put it on one of their flexi records a couple of years ago.

How did you decide on the instrumentation for the cuts on the albums you've played on??

Chris and Chester:

The band originally was to have leaderless direction. So when someone brought a song or idea to the group, he gave the first instructions to the group. We were all learning about each other all the time and shared few influences. Chester and I were the jazz/rock/blues guys but Dave and I overlapped in bluegrass and country. Solomon and David were linked by their interest in flamenco and other folk traditions.

All of us were into Americana on our own individual levels. So many of us could double on each other's instrument, so it was always a challenge to accommodate all of our individual talents. Someone was always left out somewhere. There were 4 fiddle players in the band and 3 guitar players and everyone played bass at one time or another. So it was usually the best guy for the job at hand that got the call.

Did you have any particular approach to the various Kaleidoscope albums ? How do the latter albums When Scopes Collide and Kartoonistan compare with your earlier work?

Chester:

I consider Bernice to be an aberration in an otherwise straight line to the present. The formula of Beacon From Mars has been the one both Chris and I have adhered to all these years. We are constantly interested in learning new music forms to apply our knowledge of others toward. Every Kaleidoscope project has involved more than half of us learning something proficiently that we would never attempt individually.

Chris:

I can't speak for everyone, but even though we did a lot of songs, it was always our credo to do our version of anything. If it didn't have our stamp, we wouldn't cover it, and if it didn't fit the formula of the band, it was discarded.

Chester:

What we have learned from playing with each other is the strength that we achieve when we go back to what we were familiar with. Kartoonistan isn't psychedelic in the sense Beacon from Mars was but all of the same elements are there.

Chris:

The interesting aspect of the reunion albums was that all of the various members worked together who had not been in the band at the same time. Both Stu Brotman and I played bass but I became the primary recording player with the drummer he worked with, Paul Lagos. As time went on Stu became as proficient in Solomon's area as he was, and soon the Oud and Flamenco aspects were coming from Solomon. Chester and I have become very well versed in Middle Eastern music now and have just released a CD called Harem Girl, on Taxim Records, which sounds as though it could be a new Kaleidoscope effort. So the ball is always being passed around. Maybe Solomon will someday do that tribute to Leadbelly he's always longed for.

[Link To Harem Girl info]

Do you have a favorite Kaleidoscope album?

Chris:

I think my favorite would be the last one ( Kartoonistan ), because it's the best playing and we are older. David Lindley did not play on that one. All were asked to participate, he was the only one to not respond or show up. Everyone else did. Oh, the politics of Rock and Roll! If we are talking the classics (1 and 2), I prefer Beacon from Mars.

Could you tell us about the Darrow/ Mosley band?

Chris:

I was in a band in the early seventies called the Darrow/Mosely Band with Bob Mosley, of Moby Grape. We did a couple of demos for Warner's but never an album. Great stuff though. The Darrow/Mosley Band was formed primarily because we had the same manager, Michael O'Connor. We recorded three songs for Warner Bros. Records: "Albuquerque Rainbow", "I Wish It Would Rain" and "Beautiful Day". Claudia Lennear and Jennifer Warnes sang back up on two tracks. The band was not signed and soon broke up. We only played one gig that I can remember and it was for McGovern for president in Beverly Hills.

Frank Raekart was the guitarist. He had also grown up in Claremont and had taken my place in Hoyt Axton's band when I left.He went on to play with Emmy Lou Harris for 13 years and has played on most of my records. He is my favorite guitar player and we both loved John Craviotta, the drummer, who later became one of the latter Moby Grape drummers. Frank also worked with Buffy Saint Marie, The Ducks and also played on my Third album, Under My Own Disquise. Loren Newkirk played keys and had been a stalwart with both John Stewart and Hoyt Axton. He played with Walter Eagan and on many of my albums.

Any plans to get the members of Kaleidoscope together again and record some new material?

Chris:

There are no plans of late to record anything, but that could change. It is very hard to record with these guys now, due to many differences over the years. We shall see. Our new Harem Girl CD for Taxim uses all of the Kaleidoscope children who play music : Steven Darrow-Drums, David Feldthouse-percussion, KC Crill-bass, and Roseanne Lindley-vocals ). That's something!

You mentioned a rejuvenated interest in the Kaleidoscope and psychedelic music. To what do you attribute this?

Chris:

There is, in fact, a psychedelic resurgence in music today. Groups like Mazzy Star and Camper Von Beethoven claim us as influences and I know, for a fact, that Jello Biafra ( Dead Kennedy's ) and Steve Turner from Mudhoney, collect my albums.

I feel that of all the groups that claimed to to be on that path, we were one of the few who could pull it off. There were a good many bands that tried to do it but the musicianship was shoddy. I remember hearing "Beacon From Mars" on KPPC one Friday night around midnight in 1968. It was so perfect that it made me laugh and cry at the same time.

I think that we are being appreciated for who we were, now, for various reasons.In the Sixties we were too eclectic for most tastes. We were World Beat before it had a name. Things were too strange or weird for even the sixties ears. However, those ears have improved over the years and many scholars of rock have discovered first, how good we were, and second, how much effect we had on other bands and musicians. Also, due to Lindley's and my involvement with so many records, there has been a search to see where we both came from. With all of us put together, we, as a unit, have probably played on more albums than any members of any band I can think of. From Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt to Etta James and Big Black, with some Klesmer and Flamenco thrown in for good measure !

We were both ahead of our time, and before our time, that was the major problem. Had we been with a more sympathetic label, perhaps we would have become the Grateful Dead, who knows. I am glad the way it all turned out, for everyone is still playing, and playing the kind of music they love. I have tried my best to keep the torch burning. Thanks to guys like you the music will live on.