[New York/Berlin, USA. December 11th, 2009] -- Enter Gavin Russom (Delia and Gavin, Black Leotard Front, Black Meteoric Star, The Crystal Ark), the all purpose
dark-disco-meets-snyth/psychedelic-electonica frontiersman. With a full length album out on DFA Records, and a string of extended
edit 12"s either out or already on their way, Russom has established a considerably unique, respectable platform as a musician and
stage performer in only a short period of time. To that add past meanderings with "magic and ritual" during his student days and
only begin to fan away layers from his smoky veneer. Along with an impressive cache of sounds via this musical mage, note his unwavering dedication
to rare and expensive analogue gear for both studio production and live performance. As mentioned in his
RA interview with William
Rauscher, Russom has "remained fervently attuned to the enigmas of the analog man-machine, having repaired and built synths from
a young age. As a studio tech for DFA they called him the Wizard because of his mastery of modular mysteries." With the finalization
of the Black Meteoric Star coming with the close of 2009, look forward to the emergence of the "very psychedelic, very heavy, very
intense, and very beautiful... intense femininity," of The Crystal Ark launching early 2010. With so much on his horizon, we caught
up briefly via email with Russom to discuss rudimentary items like musical upbringing, other involvements, and projections for
the future.
Like in all prying cross-sectional interviews, I wanted to learn where you are from and
what your musical influences are.
I was born in Providence Rhode Island. Both my parents are deep music lovers.
I heard a lot of jazz, blues and American folk music growing up like Leadbelly, Howlin' Wolf, Woody Guthrie, Jelly Roll
Morton, even Gil Scott Heron. Also Childe Ballds. All of those things are deep influences on me. Also my cousin and uncle
both stored their record collections at my house, from my uncle's I learned about 60's psych and rock and from my cousin's I
learned about New Wave and 80's synth rock like Eurythimics, Siouxsie, Roxy Music. Everyone in school and in my neighborhood was
listening to Michael Jackson and also to the beginnings of hip hop. That got in there too, and as I got older hip hop became not
only a source of inspiration but also of education, as groups like Brand Nubian and Public Enemy started talking about the Supreme
Mathematics and the Black Panthers. What was going on when I was a teenager was punk and hardcore. I went to many all ages shows
and really fed off the raw energy of that music. I also heard acid house in the late 80's on late night radio and was blown away
by it. After high school I started to explore improvisation and discovered more about psych, new music (in the classical sense
of the word; Penderecki, Meredith Monk, Xenakis, Stockhausen...) and also world music began to really captivate my interest.
From then on I really just became a lover of music, always interested in hearing new sounds, deep sounds, authentic expressions
of any kind, and without really thinking about it it all gets in there somehow.
What is behind the Black Meteoric Star moniker? What in particular (if anything) are you seeking to
do with it?
There's a certain strain in my creative personality that is a bit dark, a bit psychotic, but
also very healing. It comes to the surface from time to time. It was present in some of the Black Leotard Front stuff, and
in the Magic Shows I did under the name The Mystic Satin in the late 90's in New York. Black Meteoric Star is one of the purest
manifestations of that strain to date, since I really did everything myself for the project. I need a creative channel for that
energy because otherwise it becomes very destructive. And it's my hope that the project does the same thing for others as they
listen to the music or watch the live show. I'm phasing out BMS now as the year closes and I prepare to launch The Crystal Ark.
I'm putting together a web diary of as many documents as I can find of everything that happened during the BMS journey, and I'm
hoping to also do an exhibition of artifacts like the original artwork for the records and the costumes.
You have mentioned the upcoming launch of the "The Crystal Ark" project. Could you elaborate what this
project is going to be beyond the brief mentions on your website?
Right now I've produced two 12"s singles as The Crystal Ark. Those will be released on DFA in
2010. The first one is called "The City Never Sleeps" and we're shooting for February 2010. I was very much inspired by the 12"
series that Praga Khan and Niki Van Lierop did in the early 90's under their Phantasia alias. I have been playing those tracks in
my DJ sets for a while and like I said, things I'm interested in just filter in. I also cut the original instrumentals of the
tracks after coming back from working and traveling in Brazil where I got exposed to a lot of great music; Carioca Funk, Atabaque,
Berimbau... That fed in there too. It's very psychedelic, very heavy, very intense, and very beautiful music all at the same time.
Percussion plays a major role, which was a natural development for me from the way I used pulses of electronic sound on "The Days of
Mars" (which was heavily influenced by Afro Latin percussion, so the whole thing kind of comes full circle). I worked really
closely with Viva Ruiz who is a New York based singer, dancer and film maker. She did a lot of the vocal work and lyric writing
for The Crystal Ark which adds a whole other level to the sound. Intense femininity. Some other good friends and former
collaborators were also involved; Alberto Lopez of Belu Music and Lizzy Yoder who I worked with in Sweet Thunder and who went on
from there to be the driving vocal force on the first Fischerspooner album. She absolutely kills it on the 2nd Crystal Ark 12".
We're going to play a pretty extensive live show schedule in 2010/11, but that's all I'll say for now.
When playing live, what does your rider look like, and how often do you play live versus deejaying?
It depends on the project, although there are some core things I always use like my home built box.
I always ask for powerful subs and an analog mixing board. That makes a huge difference. For the Crystal Ark we'll have some synths
and sequencers, percussion instruments, vocal mics, and a ton of sexuality. My rider for Black Meteoric Star is basically exactly
what's printed on the back of the CD version of the album.
During the past year while I was doing Black Meteoric Star I played live a lot, but also dj'ed a fair amount. I'm djing a lot more
now that I'm in the production part of the process for the Crystal Ark. Next year will probably be a lot of both. They are both
things I enjoy doing, and enjoy getting better at.
You have a self titled Black Meteoric Star album (consisting of edited versions) and a handful of 12"
releases from that album (original long versions of those tracks) out on the DFA label. Do you find DFA a suitable
platform for you? Do you have any aspirations of branching out to any other platform in particular? All that aside, what labels
are you particularly into as of late?
I honestly don't really know what DFA means to the world at large. I got to know those guys on a
personal and creative level pretty early on in their history. Tim Goldsworthy, Jon Galkin and James Murphy were interested in what
I was doing and supportive of it at a time when most people really didn't get it. Delia Gonzalez and I started working with them on
"The Days of Mars" in 2002 and at that time nothing sounded like that. 7 years later it's clear that they were ahead of their time.
They still enthusiastically take on whatever music I hand them and I think as a result of their fan base my music reaches people that
it might not otherwise.
Two labels have blown me away recently with the quality of what they are releasing;
Nation out of Chicago, and
Dirty out of Paris.
In addition to music production, you also involve yourself with literary works and art installation.
Tell us about some of the other capacities that you work in besides music.
I've always been interested in creativity as a whole system. I work with writing, painting,
drawing and sculpture as well as music. For me it's more about expressing something, articulating something, and using the most
fluid method to do that, whether that be in a single discipline or a combination of disciplines. I learned that from William Blake
and Marcel Duchamp who were two of my earliest role models.
I'd like you to speak about your visual aesthetic, which I find to be fantastic. How do you incorporate
artists into your projects, whether it be album art, flier design, or installations at your live performances?
I do some of the visual art that accompanies my music myself. For Black Meteoric Star I designed
the CD package and the posters that accompany the 12"s. Collaborations with other visual artists seem to present themselves in a
natural way, like working with avaf on the live BMS installations, what we called the "Rave Version" of the show where I would play
for 2 or 3 hours and they would do lighting, video and bring in balloons and prismifying glasses. In that case I tried to focus on
making the music vivid and let them respond with what they felt visually as a result.
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
Getting better at what I do. And moving into a bigger studio!
| WEBSITE | MYSPACE |
1. Albert Ayler - Wizard [Get Back]
2. Leron Carson - Red Lightbulb [Sound Signature]
3. Canyons - Fire Eyes [DFA]
4. Fanon Flowers - We Are Survivors [Studio Sound]
5. Laurent Garnier - Back to My Roots (Panoramix) [Innervisions]
6. Black Light - Kato Kalessa [Intrinsic Design]
7. Traxx - Mysterio [Nation]
8. Supermax - It Ain't Easy (Moonbootica Temix) [Universal]
9. Supermax - It Ain't Easy (LP version) [Elektra]
| -->Download a copy of this podcast. |
| -->SUBSCRIBE IN iTUNES | ->RSS FEED |