Modern/Primitive Guitar
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1. M/P Guitar Primer. 2. The June 2004 interview with "Screw Up Your Life Magazine". Scroll down the page a bit, you'll get there. 3. Recent M/P Guitar features, reviews, quotables and mentions in the media. 4. The picture above is a sheet music excerpt from the transcription book of The Art of M/P Guitar. but I really wanted to establish what I feel Modern/Primitive Guitar is all about. That said, this is no manifesto but rather a snapshot of a particular time and personal interest. · Dark yet playful · Sophisticated yet naïve · Technically demanding yet sloppy · Haphazard yet exact Modern/Primitive Guitar is a style of guitar music that is the aural equivalent of the visual Modern/Primitive art form explored and developed by such painters as: Jean DuBuffet, Joan Miro?, Pablo Picasso, William Henry Johnson, Paul Klee and Karl Appel. All of these artists were highly skilled yet worked with a more visceral approach, technique and vision. The same attitude and ideas are found in the Modern/Primitive Guitar style. Sonically, M/P Guitar combines the radical musical styles of avant-garde musicians such as Eugene Chadbourne, Fred Frith and John Zorn with the more traditional leanings of guitarists such as Leo Kottke, Michael Hedges and Larry Coryell. The vocabulary and form found in the music of such “concert works” composers as Leonard Bernstein, Astor Piazolla and Igor Stravinsky also play a role in the M/P sound. Modern/Primitive Guitar derives its name from both the Modern/Primitive visual arts (also known as Outsider Art and L’Art Brute) and as an evolution of the American Primitive Guitar sound developed by musician John Fahey. For more information on Modern/Primitive Art (including viewing actual paintings) I suggest the obvious reference, the internet. Search for M/P Art and/or any of the artists listed above. As the name implies, a major element of the Modern/Primitive Guitar style is contradiction. Mixing genres and themes that seem radically dissimilar yet coexist happily by building off each other’s differences. Examples of this are the musical paradoxes mentioned at the beginning of this introduction. Other characteristics that are not necessarily contradictory, and certainly are not exclusive to any one genre, include: · Dissonance · Nontraditional song structure · Brevity · Rhythmic invention · Repetition · Large Interval Leaps (Octave Displacement) · Animated · Angular Melodies · Odd Meters · Aggressiveness · Abrupt changes in tempo, key or meter · Sound effects using extended technique, i.e.: 1. Using the guitar body as a percussive instrument. 2. Playing notes behind the nut. 3. Bending the headstock and guitar neck. 4. Preparing the guitar with items such as slip rings, pencils and foam rubber. 5. Scraping the strings in a coarse manner. And several other unusual musical techniques. Ultimately there are no hard and fast rules for Modern/Primitive Guitar, only elements of style. I am not interested in limiting myself (or anyone else) to only these components. Nevertheless, these are the main ingredients that create the foundation for the M/P Guitar sound. Interestingly enough when different, specific, audiences are presented with a workshop on M/P Guitar what is "modern" and what is "primitive" can have altered meaning. What is new and unusual in one genre of music is often viewed as standard repertoire in another and vice versa. When giving a talk and demonstration at an academic based composers conference in Washington D.C. I found that audience members thought the idea of extended technique to be conventional in the world of “concert” music. Whereas in the world of the mainstream music listener extended technique is often a new and eye opening concept. By contrast what most 20th century composers consider to be standard “modern” musical vocabulary i.e.: the use of dissonance and pantonatlity (or atonality as it is more commonly known) and extreme rhythmic syncopation, is still very foreign, shocking and “primitive” sounding to commercial audiences. It is the unification of these two distinct worlds of music I am interested in. As far as I know, I am the only musician/composer to have used this term to distinguish a style of music. But I would NOT dare to claim I am the only person playing the guitar in this manner. There are far too many guitarist on the planet for such a statement to be valid. In my search I have found other guitarists who have hinted towards similar leanings but, to my knowledge, have not produced an extended body of work or given it a classification. Composers I consider influences of this genre include: Janet Feder, Marc Ribot and Don Van Vliet, as well as all of the aforementioned artists. I should mention that the Cuneiform Records Compilation CD: "156 Strings" (which includes one track by Shawn Persinger is Prester John) features several guitarist working in a similar style, though most with strictly avant-garde and experimental slants. There are many excellent performances on this CD. If anyone reading this knows of other guitarists or composers working in a similar style I would love to learn about them, I have no interest in flag planting. By no means are all the songs on my CDs examples of M/P Guitar. I know a "pop" song from a M/P piece. Here are the songs on Peerless and Reasonable Horse that I consider prime examples of the Modern/Primitive style. 1. 30 Krowns 300 Zlotys 2. Pony is Delinquent 3. Reasonable Horse 4. Sandpaper Polish 5. Ford's Offer 6. Halloween or Easter 7. Betray Your Country 8. Sherman Hairpin 9. Factotum Pole If you have any questions or comments feel free to e-mail me at: bouddeun@hotmail.com 1. After mixing it up on the first two solo CDs why did you decide to make this one purely instrumental? Well there are many of reasons but the two simple ones are that the format of pure Modern/Primitive guitar required it and, most likely, the next CD will be all vocal songs. 2. Wasn’t this CD supposed to be released last year? Yes and the long delay can only be attributed to many small logistical problems and in all honesty my personal procrastination...for what was a good reason at the time. Originally I had planned to record the CD in the fall of 2002 out in San Francisco with Henry Kaiser producing and engineering. Henry was great, he had recently put together the 156 Strings CD for Cuneiform and I thought it would be a great follow up for both of us to do another, specific, odd acoustic guitar release. But then all these little issues kept creeping up. I had hernia surgery, I moved permanently to New Haven, money, etc., nothing unusual, just life in general. Then when I became settled in Connecticut I found myself, for no other reason than personal “pleasure”, transcribing the songs that were to be on the record. I had recently acquired Finale (ed. Note: Finale is a music notation software program) and I just went nuts with it. One song led to another and eventually 3 months later I finished the 22 songs I’d planned to record. It was so much work for me. My notation was pretty weak when I started and on top of that trying to learn all the ins and outs of the program, of which there are plenty...Consequently it would take me hours to write out a few minutes worth of music and get it right. As frustrating as it was I loved it! And I’m very proud of the transcription book. Ironically by the time the book was done I was so weary of working with the songs that I set them aside and tried not to over think their importance in my life. Finally one year later the CD is done. 3. Why didn’t you just record the CD first then do the transcriptions? Well of course that would seem the logical thing to do but…there is no real reason. More than anything I would say I had made records before, I hadn’t really written out my songs. Well, I had done the Young Person’s Guide to Improv book (ed. Note: In the summer of 2002 Shawn released an instructional book entitled: The Young Person’s Guide to Free Improvisation and Experimental Music. Available from Quixotic Books and EHP Productions) but those charts are very simple compared to the M/P pieces. 4. What are you currently listening to? I thankfully have a wonderful college station to listen to here in New Haven, WNHU 88.7. From 12pm-6pm, on most weekdays, they play punk and new indie music, it’s fantastic. Besides that, Modest Mouse, The Beatles, Karp, Atomic Bitch Wax, Third Eye Blind, Books on Tape, Mike Keneally, Exploder. It changes from day to day. I could go on and on about who I like and who I get influenced by. 5. In your live performance you have an unusually large amount of interaction with the audience (for those who have not seen Shawn perform live he will often talk with audience members at great length, about the most random topics). To the point where it seems like that is as much a part of the show as the music. Would you say this is true? Very much so. The audience interchange helps keep the show interesting to me. When touring a lot and playing 24 shows in one month, you naturally will find yourself playing the same songs over and over. Don’t get me wrong I love these songs but the audience is what keeps things fresh. Actually much of this came from early audiences not paying attention. If I was playing in a new town, where no one knew me and no one cared I tried to make sure that at the end of the evening they knew who I was and at least they would care one way or another, that is, like me or not. Unfortunately, the music can’t always do this. Besides people like being part of the entertainment. So if a show was not going well I’d ask the audience members why. What was wrong? Or I’d simply ask them what they did for a living. Eventually I found, and I must say after being very dull and slow on stage for a couple of months, that I got the knack for making conversations with strangers very entertaining. At least they were entertaining to me. I hadn’t thought of this before but I think Spaulding Gray influenced this. Spaulding is definitely one of my heroes and I loved the idea that he could walk on stage and talk for 90 minutes and be engaging the entire time. I remember reading in one of his books that one thing he would do was bring people on stage when things weren’t going well. 6. You state in your M/P introduction that you are influenced by the visual arts. Do other art forms also influence your music: film, literature, photography? Very much so, though I’m not sure if I can say specifically how. I guess the easiest thing to say is if I watch one of my favorite films, top three being, An Angel at My Table, The Chocolate War and Barfly, I find I can’t watch the entire movie without being so inspired I have to stop half way through and go do some work. Anytime I see good work it makes me want to do good work. And films and architecture are usually such huge undertakings, it takes so many people, so much money and so much time to make a movie or build a building, it’s hard not to feel like I haven’t done enough. 7. You have some pretty innovative ideas when it comes to songwriting and song structure. Do you see yourself as a musical revolutionary? Not at all. I make NO claim that my music is groundbreaking, revolutionary or completely original. By giving M/P Guitar a label I am simply giving it a distinction that I feel is genuine, accurate and honest. When strangers ask me, “What type of music do you play?” I wish I could give them a straightforward answer, country, folk, metal, rap, etc. But that is almost impossible today for almost anyone, unless you are specifically playing “traditional” music, al a bluegrass, blues, baroque, what have you. Rock music for instance, what does that mean? Buddy Holly or Yes? AC/DC or The Beatles? It means all of them to me. That is why I try to give some point of reference when I talk about my music. The problem arises when your points of reference are obscure! I’ll gladly tell you M/P Guitar sounds like Leo Kottke meets Fred Frith but if you don’t know who those two players are should I say, Fingerstyle Folk Guitar meets Avant-Garde, even that doesn’t work? One thing I would like to add...one project I am working on now is what I call straight-ahead rock and roll and my point of reference is The Foo Fighters. I love their first two albums and my project is clearly influenced by them. On the other hand, when I ask someone what type of music they play, and this happens a lot when meeting new musicians, few things make me more angry when they say, “We don’t sound like anyone, it’s completely original.” There is NO way this is true today. I know about too many types of music for this to have any validity. I used to work in a indie record store that sold lots of local music (unfortunately most of it bad) I would always ask, “What do you sound like?” If the guys in the band would say, 311 or Weezer or Slayer or whomever, I would say, “Great I like those bands.” and put it on. Whether or not they did sound like those bands at least they made the effort to cite their influences. On the other hand if they would say, “We’re totally original.” And I then I put the CD and they would sound like 311 or Weezer or Slayer, I would be furious and never put that CD on again or try and sell it. I think it’s pathetic to claim you’re totally original. A statement like that clearly shows your ignorance of culture, musical knowledge, and even evolution. Even my favorite artists who stand head and shoulders above others in creativity, Frank Zappa, Bach, Jean DuBuffet, Kurt Vonnegutt, you can still see what they had been influenced by if you look at what came before them. Enough, I just needed to get that off my chest one last time. 8. The liner notes for The M/P Guitar album are a bit stiff compared to your normally light, conversational speaking voice. Was this the intent? I would agree that it is not exactly the way I speak in an everyday conversation unless I’m trying to be perfectly clear and straightforward…not that I go out of my way to be ambiguous in conversation but I wanted these notes to get straight to the point. I tried a few different angles and I found that a…I hate to call it pseudo…say a simplistic, but somewhat academic language worked best. I’m a member of a writing group in New Haven, we meet once a week, when we can, and talk about things we’ve been working on, mostly prose. They all helped me put the notes together in a way that was pedagogical but also readable. 9. Stylistically, besides the M/P Guitar, you really are all over the musical map. Boud Deun was, among other things, a little Progressive, a little Fusion, a little Punk and a little Classical. You first two solo CDs have songs that range from things you might hear on a Indie-Rock college station to tunes that would seem more at home on an NPR folk program. Do you suffer from a musical identity crisis? I don’t know that I would use the word “crisis” but certainly some sort of schizophrenia. Personally I think this is a good thing, others might disagree. I’ve always listened to many different styles of music and I’ve always wanted to play them. Luckily I also have practiced and studied enough that I am fairly proficient in most styles of music. Probably more than practicing to become technically adept I practice to play as many different ways as possible. For instance I’d much rather practice Irish fiddle rolls or piano chord voicings than trying to get fast. That said I still want to be fast. I suppose if there is any real crisis in my playing it is the desire to be a normal guitar hero...yes, I really do want to be...well the best example is probably Eric Johnson, someone like that. Pick one of the 80’s guitar heroes. Part of me wants to play obvious rock guitar that people can listen to and say, “Hey that guy’s amazing!” But when I sit down to play like that I always think it would sound better if pounded it out with a hammer, literally! And then I don’t even do that. Gosh is this sounding like therapy? I believe I’m okay with this dilemma, and I’d like to point out that by definition a dilemma is having to chose between to undesirable choices, because I think I end up somewhere in-between without compromising myself. 10. Do you work on music everyday or do you wait for inspiration? Well the past couple of months I’ve been continually inspired so I have been working everyday. I moved into a new apartment, the first place, since I’ve been constantly touring, I’ve really called my own in about four years and I’ve surrounded myself with muses, is that plural, of every sort. From artwork to books to movies I’m pretty content at home. That is one reason I didn’t tour this year. Probably my main source of inspiration lately has been in books. I’ve been reading, Forces in Motion, a bio and series of interviews with Anthony Braxton compiled by Graham Lock. That book has been…I can’t even tell you how important it is to me as an independent, new music, whatever you want to call me musician and composer. I can’t say enough good things about it so I won’t even try, go read it! Another book that might seem the opposite side of Anthony’s music is, Our Band Could Be Your Life by… This book is a series of short histories of early 80’s punk bands. It is amazing the similarities the independent punk scene and the avant-jazz movement share. Or maybe it’s not so amazing when you are talking about fringe music. Regardless, those two books really got me thinking how I needed to get this new CD out there. That the music was too important to me not to be documented when it’s time was, is, now. Even if it was only for a small group of people. And then keep moving on. 11. Anything else you would like to add? Goodness if that isn’t enough for your readers... More Modern/Primitive in the Media The New Haven Register SHAWN PERSINGER KNOWS WHAT A GUITAR CAN DO By Patrick Ferrucci: Register Entertainment Editor 7/23/04 It’s almost unholy the kinds of things Shawn Persinger can do to his acoustic guitar. There’s a four-step process one goes through when first hearing, and digesting, his music: 1. Straightening up in your seat and attempting to figure out what’s going on. 2. Wondering if it really can be just a guitar. 3. Starting to hear the intricacies and getting amazed at exactly what Persinger is doing to the six-string instrument. 4. Total bewilderment and enjoyment. Persinger of New Haven tortures the guitar in a style he calls Modern/Primitive Guitar. His new disc, "The Art of Modern/Primitive Guitar," is a tour de force lecture in experimental acoustic music. "I’ve been playing for years and I’ve always been interested in weird music," he explains. "But it always bothered me how most people who make weird music don’t make songs out of it," he says. The songs on "Art" are just that: clearly songs. There are typical structures, but, don’t misinterpret, this is experimental: Persinger, who performs under the name Shawn Persinger is Prester John, ignores time signatures; the traditional rule of verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus and, on this new record, vocals. "When I play live, I sing more. I realize instrumental stuff doesn’t always catch on with a regular audience," Persinger says. The guitarist, who is originally from outside of Washington, D.C., moved to New Haven about two years ago. "At first I didn’t really like it," he says. "But then I started to meet so many musicians and the scene has really been supportive." Before striking out as a solo artist, Persinger played guitar in a progressive rock and fusion band. But after that band broke up, he started playing all the complicated parts usually performed on various instruments, just with his acoustic. "It really starts with my interests in all types of music and taking all those elements and combining things without being derivative," says Persinger, who lists Leo Kottke, Minor Threat and the Dead Kennedys as artists he admires. Persinger says that his interest is underground punk fuels his inspiration and that acoustic punk bands, like the Violent Femmes, also influence his playing. "There’s so much music out there and it’s just a matter of finding good stuff," he explains. "It doesn’t have to be similar to what I’m doing right now." He makes no claim to be completely original but says that the only person he knows of making similar music is avant-garde, cult-music figure Eugene Chadbourne, but even that isn’t very similar. Chadbourne works with sound textures, incorporates nontraditional instrumentation and sometimes very comic elements into his music, while Persinger is acoustic-based. To really understand the innovative and entertaining music Persinger is making, one really must hear it. Fortunately, Shawn Persinger is Prester John is at The Space tonight. Head down there to see something truly original. New Millennium Guitar Shawn Persinger could only happen in North America. With his original approach to music he astounds in his eclecticism as you hear snippets of tonal and no-tonal music seamlessly move through time. In some cases his music is as concentrated as Anton Webern and wastes not a note so you might say that he covers great musical distances in a heartbeat. He brings to the steel string a certain classicism that one ordinarily finds in contemporary classical guitar composition while leaving the acerbic egghead misery out. Not the least bit a collection of "in the cracks" technique although, from a technical standpoint, quite masterful and visionary. A complete joy to listen to, fun and extremely thoughtful. Sort of takes off where the beloved Michael Hedges left us but with a sense of musicality that is all Persinger's own. I have very high regard for Shawn and hope that you will have a chance to hear him. Larry Cooperman/New Millennium Guitar Publishing 2004 The New Haven Advocate So, New? One cutting-edge practitioner of the new music, outside the Yale realm, sees history repeating itself in todays scene. by Christopher Arnott - March 25, 2004 Shawn Persinger straddles the classical/pop line every time he strums. The gifted, virtuosic guitarist, who moved to New Haven last year, has led an experimental rock band, written for the classical concert stage, and toured as a solo singer/songwriter known for "aggressive folk." Recently he has been developing a new style he calls "Modern/Primitive Guitar." For more information on his new CD, The Art of Modern/Primitive Guitar, visit www.persingermusic.com>. We held an e-mail powwow with Persinger last week. Your influences are varied. So are your audiences. How did the changing musical landscape contribute to your new modern/primitive experiments? Very little, if at all. Basically I've always been interested in all types of music, from punk rock to classical--say, Dead Kennedys to Bach, Zappa and Third Eye Blind. In the 1960s there was an audience for unusual music. Think of the experimental things the Beatles did. Ornette Coleman was well known. Zappa and The Mothers released records on a major label that would barely be able to find a market today, in the last couple of years anyway. Then, in the 1970s, most of this "strange" music went underground. But in the circular way of life, perhaps the trend towards unique music is coming back. Are the breakdowns in musical boundaries, the lessening of rigid labeling and definitions, a factor in the freedom to experiment? Not for me. I like labels! Musicians talk about how they hate to be pigeonholed, as if they're breaking new ground and don't sound like anyone else. That's ridiculous! I know for all the new ideas I think I'm bringing to fingerstyle guitar, some classical composer probably did them a hundred years ago. Or maybe [John] Fahey did it during an improv in 1969. If you can come up with one new musical idea in the course of a 20-year playing career you'd be lucky. The best thing to do is just write the best music you know how, the things you like the most. Don't worry about trying to be new or different. There's nothing new about new music, though it could use a little more song structure. Enough experimenting; write me a song! What is the reaction from your respective fan bases (the classical klatsch and the coffeehouse crowd) to your new sounds? It's very hit or miss. The problem often is the folk crowd says; "You're too weird." And the avant-garde says, "You're not weird enough." But the average listener who isn't a folky or a fringe music fan will say, "Oh, that's different. I haven't heard that before." I've had the idea at certain shows that I'm going to just play the weird, instrumental pieces because I think this is what this audience wants. But I get tired of that after a half an hour and I throw in a pop, singer/songwriter tune. Lo and behold, the audience loves it! You should never underestimate the listening audience--maybe that's what we should call them, not the "new music audience" but "the listening audience," because that is the best music fan. The one who isn't there to hear a specific style of music but one who is just there to listen with an open mind. One cutting-edge practitioner of the new music, outside the Yale realm, sees history repeating itself in todays scene. Gramophone, Ken Smith (August 2004) In the liner notes, the New Haven-based guitarist Shawn Persinger (b1971) makes the case for his guitar miniatures as the aural equivalent to Modern/Primitive visual art by such painters as Jean DuBuffet, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee. In purely musical terms, he cites musical influences as diverse as John Zorn, Fred Frith, Bernstein, Piazolla and Stravinsky. Better still, though, is to quote an interview from his hometown paper, where he claims that the folk crowd says his music is too weird while the avant-garde aficionados says he’s not weird enough. Persinger is not just musically omnivorous, he's aggressively so. He never misses the chance to tap the guitar body, scrape and hit the strings, or “prepare” the instrument in a neo-Cagean manner. And lest his listeners actually feel comfortable enough in his groove to start dancing, Persinger will surely change styles at any point before long. It’s those jarring juxtapositions in rhythm, key and meter – and, admittedly, the bad puns and quirky titles – that might well dupe casual listeners into thinking that the music on this collection is little more than a steady stream of pan-stylistic parlour tricks. As one would expect from one who calls his music “Modern/Primitive”, Persinger lives for the paradox. There is a studied seriousness in his playfulness, just as there’s a great musical depth behind his surface genre-surfing. If, to paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the mark of a great artist is being able to keep two contradictory notions in mind and still function, then Persinger’s musical abilities know few bounds. |