Micropoem: To the Hard Drive that Holds My Last 2 Years of Data in Its Malfunctioning Clutches

You've reminded me that what's mine isn't mine

A few words of encouragement...

... to... myself.

"Coffeelocks" is Today's Top Tune on KCRW.com! KCRW has been playing this song every day, and I can't thank them enough for getting behind this release!

"Coffeelocks" was a featured download at Filtermagazine.com

Home Review in Racket Magazine

Home Review in Amplifier Magazine

Final Days in the Studio (video)

Here is footage from the final days of production with Home. It features Rob Pemberton and Brian Cass (of production team-for-hire Overclock Inc.) staying up all night with me for a full week to finish the album.



You can watch all the studio videos on this playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3BB6B7C29735D392


And here is the first segment of a three part show by NY celeb Brian Cass (founding member of The Overclock Orchestra), the same genius who remixed Gruvis Malt on Halloween and brought peace and clarity to the production of Home:

Interview with IndieCircuit.com

Hey Gavin, Gray here with Indie Circuit. You’re obviously an extremely busy guy and I really appreciate you taking the time out to do this. Congratulations on the release of Home. You should be very proud of your work.

IC: How is life in Portland treating you? Do you think it will have any impact on your music?

GC: Portland has been really wonderful and welcoming. From my very first show I noticed a difference in how my music was embraced and received, and it has done nothing but flourish since that show. I notice my music is starting to edge its way towards sunny again. It’s as if I’m happy or something.

IC: How did you find Lauren Coleman? Why did you choose her?

GC: My man Eric Frederick of Facing New York and Wallpaper called me and was like, “Bra, I got your girl on tap in so. Cal” and I was like, “Remember when you told me to check out the band Papa Roach in 2000?” but he insisted so I spoke with her and sure enough, she was illy most. I chose her because her attitude was proper – she was all about realizing my vision for the thing, all about an ambitious approach to the challenging parts, and not at all about ego or negativity. Plus Julie Andrews wouldn’t do it for anything less than a fat stack of Benjamin’s.

IC: What would you say are the best and worst parts of making Home.

GC: The best part of making Home was when I heard our voices (Lauren and I) harmonize at the end of “Warpaint” for the first time. The worst part was editing sloppy performances for 3 weeks without exercise.

IC: What do you think most people’s reactions to Home will be?

GC: I think that really depends on if they can give it 53 minutes of undivided attention.

IC: You’ve released a substantial amount of diverse material beginning with Gruvis Malt up through now. Which of your records throughout your entire career is your favorite and why?

GC: Well, they all feel like children to me, even the ugly ones (*cough Grace Land *cough), so I couldn’t pick a favorite. I could tell you that the ones I actually enjoy listening to almost like a fan (which is rare for me in regards to my own music) are Ebu Gogo’s Worlds and Home. Both have lost no luster for me.

IC: Do you think you’ll ever try something like Home again? Has doing this changed your perspective on music in any way? In what ways has this effected either your view on your musical process or on life in general?

GC: I’m not sure what you mean. If you mean doing something with large instrumentation and very labor-intensive production, I imagine I’ll do something larger should the opportunity and funds arise. I won’t do something that large on such a small budget again. I don’t think my body could take it. I think overall it has affected my approach to making music in that I’m finding more gratification out of making music that affects and communicates with other people as much or more than myself. For this reason I think that sound tracking may be my next move.

IC: What are your plans in the near future? Do you have any new records or side projects in the works? You used to do visual art. Have you been doing any visual art lately?

GC: This year my main focus will be touring to promote Home. I will be finishing up production on a children’s record, and working with Brian Cass on a strange record. My adventure-rock trio Ebu Gogo will tour Europe, as will I, hopefully. I’m sure there will be several collaborations and random recordings peppered in there. I always find myself spending too much time on the graphic design and web development for my work as well, so I’m sure I’ll give some attention to that department as well.

IC: There is no question that you have spent vast amounts of time honing your craft. How much of your time would you say has been put into your development as a musician? How would you say your average day is spent?

GC: I think that depends on your definition of “musician.” The last few years I have not put nearly enough time into being a keyboardist. But I have put an abnormal amount of time into composing, and a load of time in engineering/mixing/producing. Right now, as I am not working on a particular record, my average day is spent on the computer - juggling, socializing, and putting my music where people may find it. When I’m working on a record, I spend 10-17 hours a day composing, writing lyrics, and recording. I forget to eat a lot, but when I do eat, it is in large piles.

IC: You have been a harsh critic, as exhibited in the “Great American Bottleneck”, of the music industry. Can you describe what you think is wrong with the music industry and how you think the industry should work in an ideal world. Give the Barack Ocastleton speech on changing the music industry.

GC: In the ideal world, there would not be an industry wrapped up in art. Art would be made for the benefit of society, and society would value it enough to support the artist in making it. Since we have a “free” accessible forum to assert ourselves as artists and give our art to society (the internet), there really isn’t much holding us from that except for a whole lot of middle men, and a whole lot of people that don’t value culture enough to support it. I don’t think much needs to be said about our current “music industry,” they’re doing a good job of slitting their own throats right now.

IC: This is not a simple record. I don’t even know how long it would take to sit down transcribe all of the parts on the record. Between the large amounts of polyrhythms, unconventional chord progressions, odd time signatures, and big instrumentation, it is obvious that Home had to have been approached from some kind of different viewpoint than most songwriters come from. Could you describe your writing process for this record?

[GC: I think the next two questions will answer this one]

IC: How did you know when a song was “finished”?

GC: I never have to think about this question, I guess. My hands just add the parts and stop when they’re done, and I’m always sure that its finished. I can’t describe it much more specifically, except to say that it’s as if the song is already complete in my head, I am just transcribing it. I’m not suggesting I hear the entire thing like Beethoven, just that it’s all there already, and the parts are revealed to me quickly and in succession. I don’t remember ever sitting around wondering, “What does this song need?” In fact, the way everything seems to write itself for me is starting to bother me, in that it means I’m getting too comfortable in my composing, starting to employ some sort of template maybe. I am making efforts to introduce variables that will shake me up for the next record.

IC: Did the songs come first, or were the songs written to fit into a story?

GC: I made a rough outline of the story and broke it out into scenes, and then began at the beginning with the piano part of “Bugguts.” I wanted to do everything in order, because I wanted the album to mirror exactly what was happening in my life at the time. For that reason, I couldn’t write the final lyric until the last day of mixing. I originally had the thesis of the album sketched out, but had to quickly abandon that because the purpose of making it kept changing. The final message of the album was only clear to me as I wrote the last song, Credits.

IC: Are references to past material there for reasons of significance in the relationship or for other reasons? How did you choose what of past material to pull from and develop more?

GC: References to past material are used as a “time code” in the album, to mark when those things were happening in my life. So the events in “Unparalllel Rabbits” represent those months in 2005 when “Bad Rabbits” was written. And so on…

IC: Are there any specific references to other artists who had some kind of meaning in the relationship that Home was based off of?

GC: I’m not sure what you mean. I will say that each song is, at its core, the marriage of two very different artists’ styles. There are of course lots of influences for every song, but I did intentionally draw on pairs for the foundation of each. The variance between paired artists becomes greater as the record progresses, so that at its darkest moments, when the protagonists are furthest apart, the two artists that the song was modeled after are also the most distant, stylistically.

IC: Who are you listening to now? Do you have any favorite records from 2008? Are there any artists releasing new material this year that you are excited about?

GC: I remember Facing New York’s Get Hot album was in my Top Whatever from 2008. I was working on Home for much of 2008, and when I’m working on a record, I try not to listen to anything else (aside from mixing/production references). I’m just now letting a bit of music in – Sol Seppy, Broadcast 2000, the new Notwist, Blue Cranes… I listen to Al Green’s Lay It Down nightly. I’m pumped on Kelli Schaefer’s 4-song demo.

IC: You have been playing music for a long time. In that time you’ve developed a pretty unique sound. What advice would you give a young musician who wants to find his or her “own” sound?

GC: Listen to everyone when they’re making their music, listen to no one when they tell you how to make yours.

IC: What has Lumas been up to lately?

GC: Same as usual: checking his email, updating his blog, turning away the line of bitches at his doggie door. He’s also recently taken an interest in Nascar.

IC: Your Hospital Hymns EP is an entire EP built with a religious theme. You’ve also referenced to religion in Home, specifically from the song, “The Walls Start To Give” the line is “ I know you don’t believe in God but I do, and he’s not here with us” and in “Good Manbaby” from For the Love of Pete “I was raised up high in the Mormon Church”. Sufjan Stevens is a similar artist who brings his faith into his music, but not in a forceful preachy kind of way, it is just a reflection of who he is. Can you explain on how your religious upbringing has had an effect on your music, if at all?

GC: Well, its effects on my music are pretty clear to me. Growing up we had very limited music in the house. Not very little, mind you, very limited. So we had oodles of classical music (especially with my siblings and I taking lessons), Disney soundtracks, Broadway musicals, and three “modern” tapes: The Best of the Beach Boys, The Best of the Monkees, and Neil Diamond’s Greatest Hits. Through friends I became aware of Run DMC, Fresh Prince, and Def Leopard. I did not own any truly modern music until 7th or 8th grade, when my friend let me copy his tapes of 80’s glam bands like Warrant, G N’ R, Megadeath, etc. This stunted listening meant I had to really put in a large effort to catch up. There are still huge blind spots in my listening: The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neal Young, etc. The classical and religious music still finds it way into my chord progressions and melodic tendencies, but I’m now very grateful for that.

IC: ”The Human Torch” is one of my favorite tracks from Home. The first line of the song is “This is the sound of finding you, after the night I’ve just been through”. Who is “you” and what does this lyric mean?

GC: Well, some have considered it subjective; a song addressed to my next lover. Truth be told, that was its original intent, but for many reasons it belongs on the record as the converse of “Oregon,” as an exorbitantly happy ending in which the girl returns in a helicopter, and we fly off to an island, living out our days with dancing cartoon animals and bottomless burritos and whatnot. The lyric “this is the sound of finding you” is very literal – the music in that first section of The Human Torch is what it would have felt like to me had we been reunited: massive, moving, tidal, final.

IC: Compositionally I think this song is on a different level than most people, especially in a “pop” idiom, operate. Between the guitar in 9/8 and the marimba doing groupings of 4 over 3, this song is full of rhythmic interest. The bass part starting at around 2:04 is more than most people, aside from Victor Wooten, would ever put on a record. Despite all this, all the parts remain tasteful and necessary. What influences you to write in such a unique and “musical” way?

GC: The music I make is a direct result of my listening and my interests, that’s why it changes so often. I wanted this record to be very cinematic, so I was researching a lot of film scores and shooting for something very orchestral, but applying my preferred instrumentation.

IC: Is there any particular reason you choose to use so many odd time signatures on this record?

GC: Odd meters are used to signify the off-kilter feelings that accompany heartbreak. More jarring signatures (like the 13/4 of “The Onslaught”) are interspersed with even signatures (like 4/4 in “The Wall Starts to Give”) to simulate the checkered calm/panic of the breakup process. Musically, I find it to be far more challenging to make something feel natural in an odd time signature, than an even. Plus I find that odd time signatures lend themselves better to polyrhythm, which is used to signify the many layers at play in the destruction of a long-term relationship.

IC: Blink 182 just reunited at the Grammys. Is Gruvis Malt really going to let this happen? What have the other guys from Gruvis been up to these days?

GC: If Blink did it, then the demand for abnormal left-of-center composition has clearly been met. They did ask us to get together for the Tony’s, but I was in the bathroom and the other dudes are each running their own franchises at the moment so we couldn’t coordinate schedules – Scott has two Subways, Brendan just launched his first Dunkin Donuts, Erik is two years into a Denny’s, Steve is trying to bring In & Out to the east coast, and Justin is barely keeping the last Little Caesars alive somewhere in Roanoke, VA.

“Home” is currently available for purchase on iTunes.

Interview on Mikeypod Podcast

I recently did an interview with Michael Harren for his podcast at http://mikeypod.com/. We discussed Home, Heart health, and child-bearing. Take a listen!

Interview on Outinamerica.com, Thisweekintexas.com, momguesswhat.com, etc.

Q: This album is a song cycle about your last romantic relationship. There is some joy on here, but many of the songs contain images of despair, bitterness and horror. How true to life are the emotions that you’re conveying?

Gavin Castleton: The emotions conveyed on the record are only a small fraction of the colors one experiences in a serious breakup. I did my best to make it concise. Home is inspired by a very real relationship, one that lasted six years. I began writing Home when we broke up, and both processes took two years to complete.

Q: What caused the relationship to end?

GC: We weren’t growing within the relationship, so we made a mature decision to grow outside of it. Unfortunately, our execution of said breakup was not so mature. We wanted to do it lovingly, but this resulted in a very trite two-year emotional limbo that only prolonged the misery. I asked her to write the lyrics for her protagonist in order to document the process fairly and in hopes that creative collaboration would keep us close. Despite the pleasing results, it was a foolish exploit.

Q: She was writing lyrics that expressed how she felt about the relationship?

GC: Ideally. We ended up collaborating on three of the earlier songs on the record, and half a song from the second half. When it was no longer emotionally feasible, I finished the remaining duets alone, which was painfully educational, given that I was writing from her perspective with a critical eye towards my behavior in our relationship.

Q: I get the sense, though, from the songs, that you feel as if you were the one that was left.

GC: My role in the breakup shifted almost hourly for a long time. Ultimately, who did what to whom is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not I emerged from it a better person. And I did.

Q: On the record, when the relationship turns bad, zombies appear. Can you tell me what you’re trying to convey with that metaphor?

GC: I feel that when a relationship is love-thick and long-lasting, it’s less likely to be killed by something sudden or obvious – such as infidelity or violence or geographical distance. More often it’ll fall victim to the cancerous deterioration of untreated, deep-seated issues (oftentimes dating back to the beginning of the relationship).=
George Romero billed the slow zombie motif as a sociological horror. Unlike other horror movies in the late 60’s and early 70’s, his films were about the slow, impending doom of these compounding threats, and its effects on the survivors’ interactions. For this reason, zombies were the perfect metaphor for what happened to us.
Plus, I just really like zombies.

Q: Has she heard the record?

GC: Doesn’t matter. It’s not for her.

Q: How are you doing now?

GC: I’m doing very well. I recently moved from Rhode Island to Portland, Oregon, and I know it was the right thing to do. This town is very open-minded and welcoming. Emotionally, I feel healed and equipped to be a better partner for someone. My heart is wide awake and chattering loudly. I’m writing a lot of bite-size pieces-nothing wildly ambitious right now and enjoying new collaborations.

Q: Let’s talk about your career. You’ve released a lot of music so far.

GC: I’ve released seven solo records (independently) since 2004. Aside from those, I released seven records with my band Gruvis Malt, two with my band Ebu Gogo, and a handful of other collaborations since 1996.

Q: You’re very prolific. Is making music what you always wanted to do?

GC: Well, I had several other ambitions. At one point in my single digit years I was sure I wanted to go into a fictional field I’d dubbed “animal communication specialist.” But music was always in there somewhere. When we were young we didn’t have a choice—mom insisted that we learn the piano as a potential source of income. I’ve always had an affinity for melody—I began writing at five years old and never really stopped. Until I was 25, music was a monologue for me, a way to export emotions that I wasn’t comfortable expressing verbally. But since the age of 25, it’s become more of a dialogue with the listener… I’m more interested in communicating effectively, rather than just emoting.

Q: Well, the music on HOME is very emotive. It’s as if each song is produced and arranged to convey a different feeling.

GC: Love and loss is quite possibly the most dynamic thing we humans can experience. I did my best to convey that on the record. In all my solo work I strive to make each element of the composition support the song’s “thesis” (which should, in turn, support the album’s theme). So, for example, the first song “Bugguts,” is about the frequent panic attacks I experienced throughout the breakup. We wanted to connote the concept of breathing throughout the song. We used breathing loops as percussive elements. Wind-driven instruments like flute and French horn are featured prominently. And atmospheric elements like strings and organ were mixed with exaggerated volume swells. I even did the vocals while jogging in place. You get the point.


Q: The song “Oregon” touches upon suicide. Did you get to the point where that was on your mind?

GC: Of course... I went to the bottom and back… Daily…. And eventually, monthly. I don’t think suicidal ideation is necessarily an unhealthy thing, as some would suggest. When I felt entirely powerless, taking control of my own mortality was an empowering conceit. Brave? Not really. Wise? Definitely not. But empowering.

Q: “The Human Torch,” the song after “Oregon,” seems to imply that the girl comes back.

GC: Well, “Oregon” is the dark ending, and “Human Torch” is the ridiculously happy ending--a total Disney CGI finale about the reuniting of she and I. It was the hardest song to record, because it was so blatantly delusional. Those were just two scenarios out of hundreds that someone dealing with heartbreak might fantasize about, and the final song “Credits” discusses the futility of doing so.

Q: I saw the video online of you singing Prince’s “Nothing Compares to U.” How did that come about?

GC: In December of 2007 a friend sent me a video of the Sinead O’Connor version, which I hadn’t seen since the mid 90’s. I was struck by the bravery and rawness of the piece, as well as its simple and effective composition. So I knew at some point I wanted to try my hand at it. The video is my interpretation of it, using my looping approach and a guest cellist, Erin Hunt.

Q: Would you like to be a big pop star someday?

GC: [Laughs] No, not particularly. I’m happy to have people buy my records, but if I have to become the very definition of narcissism, contributing to our youth’s obsession with aesthetics and materialism in the process, then I’d prefer to remain obscure. I don’t have to be a star to do what I do. I’m successfully communicating with thoughtful people, and that’s where my interest lies.

Q: On a more superficial note, I know some gay guys who really think you’re hot. It’s not just about the looks—it’s the emotional sensitivity that they find attractive. Have you built up any kind of gay fan base over the years?

GC: This question makes me very sad. Being objectified undermines the countless years (well, no --- fifteen years) I’ve dedicated to making thoughtful music. Any attention given to me as a person (especially something so irrelevant as my appearance) is shifting the focus from my work, which can impact people deeper and longer than any physical attribute.
In regards to building a gay fan base, I find that people respond positively to honesty and introspection, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Q: I know that you were raised a Mormon. Do you have any thoughts about what’s happened recently with the Mormon campaign and their support of Proposition 8 in California?

GC: Yeah, I did post something on my blog (gavincastleton.blogspot.com) about it. Both sides of my family have a large Mormon contingent and we all felt strongly about our various perspectives. The heated discussions (via email) blew our family communication wide open, which was a beautiful thing. I can’t really claim that I have mass groups of friends in California that will be largely affected by [Prop 8], but I feel very strongly that this exclusionary legislation is an embarrassment to our country and our prospective faiths... The church’s propaganda regarding Prop 8 is, in my opinion, too "unChristian" for me to discuss calmly.

Q: Do you still consider yourself a Mormon?

GC: No. There are several elements of the Mormon church that I hold in high regard: love of family, strong community, and humanitarian aid, to name a few. But in my opinion, there is no way to subscribe to a monotheistic religion without inferring something negative about other religions. I can’t condone that. I am not a religious person and I find no solace from group worship. I would define spirituality as the communication of one’s most inner voice with our universe’s most outer voice. And by that definition, I explore my spirituality best through music. Ultimately, I hope to make music that is universally applicable, even if not always understood. This album is meant as comfort for the heartsick, no matter what gender or orientation made you sick.

Home is Home.

The album is available now on iTunes. It's also available on every other digital music outlet:

Amazon.com
Rhapsody.com
Napster
eMusic

If you like it, one very simple thing you can do that really really helps me is to leave customer reviews wherever you buy it!

There will be a hardcopy with lyrics and glorious artwork available on April 7th (with pre-order at fiveoneinc.com at the very end of March).
Please pass it around to your friends, encourage them to purchase it so I can afford to tour through your town this year, and enjoy it.

Humble Request

My new album "Home" will be released tomorrow, Friday the 13th, on iTunes. For months now Five One Inc., the tiny Japanese label that is helping me release the album has pushed really hard for media publicity, and though the album has received some really good publicity from a few select sources (thanks Purevolume, KCRW, etc.), we're finding that most press and radio folk say they like it, find it interesting, and have absolutely no idea what to do with an album like this. On the whole, that makes me happy because it confirms my suspicion that the album is somewhat original in its approach, but I find myself in the same position I've always been in regards to promotion: asking you to help me.
You have always understood my music long before the tastemakers in this industry (who still confuse me with Gavin DeGraw), and it's only you who make it financially feasible for me to continue making music. So if you have a minute, and feel strongly about my music, please consider visiting http://www.myspace.com/gavincastletonmusic, the street team site for Home, and throwing up the little profile image on your page, or a banner if you can spare the space on your page/site. If you'd like to help even more magnanimously, you can add that profile as a friend and the tiny Japanese man at Five One will contact you about other areas we could really use your help with.
Please forgive my incessant plugging of the iTunes link in these next few days, I must do so in hopes that anyone who is interested in the album might log on right in time to catch it.
Thank you thank you thank you and thanks be unto you
Gavin Castleton

Track 12: Oregon...

I've posted track 12 from the album, "Oregon..." on myspace and purevolume.

Here is the description:
"Locked in a backroom of the abandoned grocery store, erupting with violent fits. Unable to sanitize the wound in my thigh with the bottle of whiskey, and convinced that I've been infected, I opt to take my own life. I tie the ratty blanket to the rafters and jump off the stool. Moments later, they break through the door and make Castleburgers."

Interview with Juice Magazine, Japan

JM: This is the first time we get the chance to have you in our music magazine, so could you please introduce briefly yourself?

GC: My name is Gavin Castleton, I’ve been making music since I was very little. I use it to dust off and clarify things I feel strongly about, and then package them into songs and then into albums and then out to you so I can stop thinking about them.

JM: Your album has been released today in Japan. Congratulations! So please tell us about your feeling.

GC: I am very excited to have my music in Japan! I am curious to see what my music will do in another culture. Will I be relevant?

JM: What makes you decide the album title? Who is Pete? What is the main theme of the album? I know a lot of love songs about your love and your girl friend.

GC: For the Love of Pete is a collection of songs I wrote for my ex-girlfriend spanning the six or so years we were together. During that time we developed our own language, as lovers do. We had a game where we referred to each other as “Pete,” but preceded by another “P” word. Like, “Oh, don’t be such a Presumptuous Pete” or “You’ve been a real Prickly Pete lately.” The phrase “for the love of Pete” is an old American expression of exasperation. Since the album is a collection of love songs I wrote for my Past Pete, the phrase seemed fitting.

JM: I actually love the album jacket because it is so natural and beautiful! I assume that it has your girlfriend and you, where is the place?

GC: Yes, that photo is of my ex-girlfriend and I. We took it in the stream behind the house where we lived together in Lincoln, RI.

JM: I think that you use nature image terms/words as animal sometimes in your lyrics and it make me think you might grow up in the nature…? Or many chance to hang around with animals in your childhood? Or can you please explain about your childhood?

GC: A love of animals is one of the characteristics we shared, she and I. We had two children, Lumas: a Doberman/german Shepherd mix, and Queso: a mut of questionable decent. She had several pets throughout our time together (one of which I sang to in the song Cecilia). I had many animals in my home growing up, so they are a constant theme for me.

JM: All the songs in the album have been recorded between 2002 and 2007? Are there any topics during the recording? You played all the instruments?

GC: I played most of the instruments and did all of the programming/sequencing. Any additional instrumentalists are listed in the liner notes. I also engineered and produced the record.

JM: How do you write a song? I assume that you build up a song by yourself?!

GC: I write my songs alone. I have no set way of doing it – they come differently, each of them. I keep all sorts of tiny recording devices around me at all times in case I have a good idea. Sometimes I have a melody in my head. If it sticks around for a few days, without me writing it down, I will use it. Sometimes it’s just a beat rolling around in my mouth all day and I start with that. Sometimes, it’s a lyric. Sometimes I just steal someone else’s song and change the title.

JM: How did you get various kinds of faces, folk, rap, electronica, church/hymn, harmony and symphony, in your music? Did move around many places to inspire your music? Or … ?

GC: My family moved all over the US growing up. I don’t think that had much to do with my music, though. I was classically trained until I was 15, then I took jazz for a while. I came from a conservative upbringing, and we didn’t have any modern music in the house, so it wasn’t until High-school that I started taking an interested in modern music. I learned most of what I know by listening to as much as I can and watching as much as I can.

JM: Who are some of the artists that have inspired you the most?

GC: I am most interested in finding unexplored territory in music. It is harder for me to explore new areas if I am taking my inspiration from already discovered ideas. It helps to hear what people are doing, but it hurts my process too.

I think I am taking more inspiration from other fields now – programming/technology, the process of aging and family making, new relationships, books/movies (especially documentaries), and web development. Most concepts in music are analogous to those in any other field, so a lot of the progress made in other fields is applicable to music. But where most other fields embrace progress and development, American music is very hesitant to embrace anything but what we’re already comfortable with. It is very loop-based and set in its ways. Often times it is designed for background as opposed to foreground, which I am not interested in right now. So it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for me to look for inspiration there if I want to try new things.

That being said, I have learned several valuable lessons from other musicians:

Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke showed me that falsetto is cool.

Brian Wilson and John Brion showed me that you can make complex instrumentation sound simple.

Bjork and Elliott Smith showed me that honest lyrics are the most powerful.

Those are a few off the top of my head but I’m sure there are tons.

JM: Do you think that the performance is as important as the music itself? Do you like touring around?

GC: I think music recording and music performance are two entirely different beasts, and they grow further apart every day. I know many amazing performers that are not amazing songwriters, and vice versa. I enjoy both, but right now I feel like a stronger producer/writer than a performer. This year I hope to bring my performing abilities up to speed as I tour everywhere to promote my next album.

JM: I heard that you have some side-projects as a musician in addition to your own music such as this solo album. Can you please explain about them?

GC: The most entertaining side project I have right now is called Ebu Gogo. We are a three-piece instrumental band that plays music inspired by 80’s adventure movies and old Nintendo music. It is very fun to play. I also collaborate with many friends and help mix and produce other artists. It is important to me to have different outlets for every kind of thing I want to make, so I am always doing a lot of things.

JM: What is your goal? What would you like to do the next? Any plan for 2009?

GC: I don’t have a set goal really. I’m pretty primordial in that sense – I operate on very basic needs and whims, “get things out so I can sleep.” I don’t even plan anything a week away. I intend to keep making music until it stops bothering me. Right now, there are two more records in my head to get out. I will probably do that while I tour as much as possible this year to promote my next album, Home. After that, maybe I will try a different life.

JM: Finally, do you have a message for our readers?

GC: I’m very happy to make my music available to you! I hope the instrumental arrangements will fill in the holes left by our language barrier.


Interview by Miyuki Ikeda for Juice Magazine in Japan

HOME IS HERE.

Hey Hey,
the day has arrived. You can listen to the entire album here for free:
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Track 11, Video T

Today I've posted track 11 from Home, "Red + Blue = Yella." This episode takes place right after Unparallel Rabbits. Here is the description:
As if in slow motion, I begin to make my way out of the pile of fallen bodies, slipping in blood. I am somewhat hypnotized by the small patch of sky I can see through the hatch. I make a break for the front door but several of them have already made their way over there. I lob cans of tuna at them and find myself momentarily blinded by the blood spurting forth from their face-craters. Disoriented, I must either break out of the store or go further into it (i.e. the backroom). "To help me decide - a gash in my thigh."

Since it's Double Bonus Monday, here is some footage of my man Brian from The Overclock Orchestra working with Rob and I in the studio. You can get his amazing EP here.