This was posted on the Sun Ra list. It's so long it needed to be sent in two parts. This is part one.
Jonny ----- Original Message ----- From: "Damian R Bondi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 6:32 PM Subject: Uwe Schmidt sun ra content > Hello, > The following is an interview conducted in London shortly after > one of the Senor Coconut shows there a few weeks ago. It was > done by Magz Hall and Jim Backhouse for their radio show > called You Are Hear which airs Mondays from 5 - 6:45pm on > Resonance 104.4 FM. Check it out the following links for > more information: > http://www.youarehear.co.uk > http://www.resonancefm.com/ > > Apologies for any errors/typos that may have occurred. Notes in > [brackets] are mine, and i've delete most of the um's, uh's and > sort of's for reading ease. :-) > > Enjoy, > n/p > np- Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit "Secret Rhythms" > . . . . . . ..... . . . . . . > Official Tetsu Inoue Homepage, HeadTheater archive, and > Tradelists @: http://ww1.math.luc.edu/~njurcin > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > I- Magz hall > A- Atom > > I- I'm very lucky today to be sitting right next to Senor Coconut, who's > really not called Senor at all. Um, your real name in fact is, can you > say it for use please... > > A- My real name, the passport name? Uwe Schmidt. > > I- It must be really strange for you to come to England and find that > people are so into Kraftwerk and Latin music at the same time. > > A- That's true, I knew about the status Kraftwerk has in the UK, I mean, > they entered the charts and stuff, which is quite weird because it's not > happening in Germany with them. So I knew they had a certain status here > and I was in fact surprise that the [Senor Coconut] album which was > release originally 2 years ago never found any feedback here so I was > sort of surprised.. like it was originally released in Germany and there > was a huge response in Germany and in Spain and nothing happened here in > the UK. And I thought well, okay, if things are like that you know... > And then 2 years later it got picked up by a label here and got promoted > properly and so I was not so surprised by that, yeah... > > I- So for those people who may not be familiar with your work, you've made > an album onto the name of Senor Coconut and you're covering Kraftwerk > songs.. and you live in Chile don't you? > > A- Yes, yes... > > I- Do you think that influenced the sort of music that you've been > making, because you have a long history of making electronic music? I > know you've done a lot of work under the name Atom Heart and you also > worked under various other pseudonyms. Has living in Chile made you go > into the sorta south direction, has that influenced you making Senor > Coconut? > > A- No, in fact not. The Senor Coconut idea was born way before in fact. > And if you look at my release list sort of, the Latin thing started in > 92-93 after I came back from Costa Rica. I stayed there for half a > year. From there on I always tried out where Latin could fit and in 96 I > had that idea for Senor Coconut and started working on that album in 96, > and then moved to Chile for a completely different reason and completed > that album there. And then started 2 years later on the second one, on > the Kraftwerk covers. And living in Chile doesn't have anything to do > with what people think.. the Latin stereotype is Chile is very untypical. > I mean the typical idea about Latin America should be like palm trees and > people dancing samba, salsa, whatever and Chile is not like that at all. > But I think [it] has changed me more in terms of life in different places > changing a person, more like that. But like the Latin language itself > doesn't have anything to do with being in Chile, I wouldn't say that. > > I- Well, not many people have visited Chile but I myself have so I realize > it's very European, isn't it in Chile? What kind of music are people > into? You know, whereabouts, you're living in Santiago, what kind of > music are people listening to over there. > > A- Uh, there's a lot of Latin rock, Latin pop, um a little bit of folk um, > not too much, and never... [it's] a really really unknown type of folk > type there... it's called cuica ["kway-ka"] It's not very popular outside > of Chile I think... the very south, South American folk. And they listen > to what else... that's basically it, rock and pop. Also the typical > worldwide world stars which are also promoted there from record > companies.. whatever.. You know Britney Spears and stuff like that, I > mean it's also happening there. So in the end it doesn't really have much > to do with what people think. Latin America is you know, much more.. > really surprising in fact. > > I- Do you find it at all oppressive living in Chile? > > A- Oppressive how? > > I- In the atmosphere and because it's not actually very in your face, the > side of Chile that I saw was very reserved. Do you find that in every day > life in Chile there's a reservedness to the way people are, are there > curfews at night still? > > A- Coming from Germany I find Chile a relatively loose culture. But > having been in Brazil for example, I find them very stiff and cold, > introverted and I think they are, compared to Argentinians for example, > they are very calm and inside people. And the whole history, the history > itself through the last 100 years, 200 years, and the reason the history > as well as all the conflict with the natives there and the mixture of > Spanish people and the natives has created a very grounded, down-to-earth > culture, it's not hyperactive in your face as you say, it's much more.. I > mean, compared to Germany or you know, it is, but uh if you see it in a > wider context it isn't. > > I- So when you went home in Chile which is also your home in Santiago, > do you play live at all in Santiago? > > A- Rarely, rarely. I used to play the first year when I got there I > played a couple of shows but um, I mean Santiago itself is a big city but > then there's not much going on really in terms of a scene. And I was > never really interested in the scene there, I didn't go there because of > musicians or of an obvious connection to the scene there or to anything > like that so that's one point about being there I'm really glad about > being... at having the temptation to play a lot there. I mean there are > like two or three interesting clubs and once you have played them there's > not much you can do except for repeating yourself and saturating your > image there. And um, I'm really low profile in Chile not a lot of people > know me or know my stuff, and that's really good like that. > > I- So what's the reason that you actually live there then? > > A- That's the reason, yeah, that's one of the reasons yeah. One of the > reasons was to disconnect from an obvious context I was perceived in while > living in Germany, especially in Frankfurt. People like to classify > whatever, the Berlin sound, the Frankfurt sound, the Cologne sound and > whatever you know the London sound. And I've never been a part of a scene > really, I've worked in the very early years with a couple of people which > later on became sort of known DJs from Frankfurt etc etc. But then I > always moved on and did something else.. At least I wanted to. > > I- ... you've defeated that because this has become so popular. > > A- No, I'm not against labels in general but I would like to select the > label, and what I usually do is confronting or merging labels. I mean > Latin and Kraftwerk, or whatever Geeez'n'Gosh has like a colliding context > which is not obviously linked or connected even on the different opposite > poles. And um, being labeled as Senor Coconut has something to do with > that project being the most successful of all. In the past it's obvious > that you get labeled and I knew that. But I'm still in parallel doing a > lot of other things and I've never been.. I mean, the mainstream audience > maybe is labeling me, but the people who know what I'm doing know that > it's just one thing amongst.. I don't know 20-25 other things. > > I- 25 other things?? I'm most familiar with Flanger and Atom Heart, and > also recently you did sort of a jazz remix, I forget the name though. > It's an album which involved cutting up Sun Ra and different jazz > musicians and... > > A- Roger Tubesound... the Roger Tubesound Ensemble. > > I- Yeah, can you tell me a bit about the album, why you made it. > > A- There was a Roger Tubesound I did about 4 years ago on Rather > Interesting, and that was sort of my.. the project under which I was > playing, fooling around with jazz.. an open concept just like jazz is > like the main parent. And I did like that album about 4 years ago and I > didn't have anything to say about jazz besides Flanger which is another > approach. And then I got very inspired by a lot of things I discovered > about the past the 30's and 20's and Django Reinhardt and early Duke > Ellington and stuff like that. And suddenly it was like there was a new > source you know, a new jazz source I thought would be interesting to work > on. > > I- And that album includes insane amounts of sampling and you've written > down, you've mentioned each particular sample that you've used. You know, > on the latest album I think you used over say, 100 samples? And put each > de-, you're very detailed in what you've used. Is that because you're a > bit of a trainspotter when it comes to music? > > A- No, not at all. Well that's just, if you work with software and > computers and stuff they uh, which is you know very different from past > times where you had to write down the samples you know, on your own piece > of paper basically. And right now the software is giving you a list, you > say a print list of the samples. So I just made that element a part of > the design. I'm not trainspotting but I thought that maybe other people > are so, that was like a little joke, a little side note. > > I- That's interesting to know because obviously people are, and it did > seem like you had gone through the trouble of putting every sample down > even though it was for say one second long and I was quite impressed > though now I know it was a bit of software. [laughs] > > A- It's like um, if you look at the old um, at certain jazz albums > especially like Miles Davis who started to work with tape editing in the > 50's, and then there are certain reissues of Miles Davis classics and they > put like this huge booklet and explain a lot of stuff about how they did > it, and that's really trainspotting. And especially jazz has that thing > more than other musical styles where suddenly there's one Miles Davis > thing where a lot of editing was used and they put after four seconds this > and after.. in the book you have like the editing list. But compared to > what's possible today it's really absurd. I mean you know, in the past > they did like I don't know 20-25 edits and they were really proud of > having done that, and nowadays everybodys made millions of cuts and the > software you have available, it's giving you endless opportunities in > rearranging and editing. And so I thought it would be sort of like an > absurd joke to put the editing list of an album in the booklet, and > even the booklet is too small for the editing list because you have insane > amounts of sample and edits. And also it's a bit of a joke about these > jazz collectors who are really into these details of which I think they > are not that interesting at all... I mean not that detailed at least. > > I- [So that's] a few illusions there... so thinking about.. going back to > Chile again, have you ever worked with any of the musicians in Chile or > was it just you know, because today I know you had session musicians that > came along to play when you were playing at the south bank. Did you > actually work with the musicians from Chile before or was it something > that you'd like to do, or was this not really an issue? > > A- When I went there I wasn't interested in meeting people there. But > then since the Santiago scene the art scene the music scene is very very > small, I was immediately like in the center of everything... all my > friends are like, sort of known people there like actors, artists, > musicians... so all of the sudden I was again in like a surrounding, > artistic surrounding let's say. And um, a lot of my friends are musicians > in fact, and I work with them but in a very casual way I would say... like > I need a guitar and the guy is coming over to play the guitar or > something, it's not more than that. > > I- Does it feel strange when you actually hear the songs being played by > actual musicians after programming them in and you know making the album > electronically with the computer? Does it feel kind of unreal in a way > when you realized the album you've got musicians to play in perfect time? > > A- No, not really because when I programmed the album, I had that sounding > what you just heard live sort of, and I had to recreate it from sample > editing basically, sample cut and paste, and collage work. So it was no > big surprise. I think if you have some sort of imagination, musical > imagination it's not really a big deal. > > I- And did you, because obviously while the band were playing your role > seemed less important then the actual band onstage. Did you feel slightly > disconcerted by that or is it, you know do you feel like the conductor? > > A- Yeah, exactly, that's the role: conductor. In fact, controlling a big > percentage of the structure of these songs, they have like certain > sections that are open or expandable or less space for improvisation and > it's very important that I'm controlling certain levels of instruments so > certain people are not getting lost and it's like conducting, I always > have to look at the musician and see how they are doing you know. If they > are still connected if they know what's going on, if they're getting lost > or stuff like that. So yeah, I'm conducting it and sometimes when people > are getting lost I have to count them in or something, give them a sign, > what's going on, stuff like that. more to come... --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
