AKIYAMA 秋山
hello Brian.
in doing this interview agreement thank you

BRIAN
i'm happy to do the interview.

AKIYAMA 秋山
it is good
i do certain questions
if you do not understand
call to me

BRIAN
and if you don't understand me, let me know.

AKIYAMA 秋山
it is
this translation software is not good very
The only important thing is to understand question
the specialist translate your English afterwards
the specialist is perfect in the English
please write in a natural method

the beginning question
is this what type of music?

BRIAN oh... yeah... well that's the big question. i'm really not sure what type of music it is yet. i'm not being a contrarian or trying to avoid being categorized. i just don't know my taxonomy yet.

AKIYAMA 秋山
before it called that
trip hop

BRIAN
yeah. trip hop. i suppose... i mean, i think its silly when musicians refuse to confine themselves to the available categories/nomenclature - like their music is so necessary and unique that the rest of us should all adopt a new word like:
twangmood, or funk-bossa-tronic.
...either of those words would do.

AKIYAMA 秋山
trip hop of word is not adored?

BRIAN
well, in all seriousness, according to Wikipedia, it should be Trip Hop or Electronica or Downtempo or IDM.. i think. but here's the thing: my Austin influences keep soaking in and tainting some of the stuff i do with this texas-bluesy flavor, and somehow i think it actually sounds good.
so i dunno.
i guess the reason i keep backpedaling here is because i think maybe you forefeit your right to call yourself electronica if you're playing slide guitar on a dobro.

AKIYAMA 秋山
the sounds where you are splendid come from where?

BRIAN
this translation tool is not very good

AKIYAMA 秋山
to me you do not have to apologize
i recognize our intercourse
do your exciting sounds come from somewhere?

BRIAN
oh, they come from everywhere. i play them, sing them, pull them off of vinyl, synths, whatever. i tend to be pretty dauntless. i'll get hung up on this specific sound in my head that has to fill this specific hole in a song... and i have to have it. absolutely have to make it manifest. usually i'll try to find it first - look for something i can sample - because i default to the lazy option first. but sampling is about serendipity, you have to be flexible. so i usually end up recording something live or tinkering away at a synth.

AKIYAMA 秋山
does your exciting sound come from the sound recording?

BRIAN
well, like i said, i tend towards the obsessive when it comes to getting the sound i want. i'll go on and on for days, tinkering, pestering people in the forums, etc... i think it is actually a condition of some kind, like fixity or obsessive something.. it definitely fits some kind've diagnostic criterion.
but eventually i'll get it... that's how i learn. still, my sound engineering skills are meager at best.

AKIYAMA 秋山
does your exciting sound come from the sample?

BRIAN
oh. well i have absolutely no shame about sampling. its pure serendipity. someday i plan to have this massive dusty record collection and i'll just spend days crackling through them and dissecting them and feeling all inspired. thus far though, i haven't been able to shoehorn that many samples into my songs. i always have a pretty specific idea of what i need to fill a particular space in a song and the odds of coming across it randomly out in vinyltopia are daunting. so i'll play them myself... but i want them to sound all snipped-out and abrupt so i'll make them sound like samples.

AKIYAMA 秋山
isn't sound of the sample liked?

BRIAN
it is loved...
i try to make that sound
..like the slide guitar in the chorus of Stainless. i just recorded myself freewheeling on a resonator guitar until i got the sound i wanted and then i set it back in some reverb, added a little crackle and cut it out hard, right in the middle of the reverb tail
the male vox on detour is just plain ole me singing. that hiss and the rhodes sound that flutter in with the vocals are triggered off the compressor on the vox. its supposed to sound like a bad vocal knockout, i guess
or that hip-hoppy beat on Blue In Pink i built from scratch. i did all the turntable stuff on Scratch Live.

AKIYAMA 秋山
a sample you don't withdraw from the other artists?

BRIAN
oh for sure.
one thing i'm squeamish about doing, though, is using a commercial sample and leaving it completely intact. i haven't really done that since For King William (almost 2yrs)
but, ya, i have no qualms about sampling. vinyl. commercial samples. whatever's nifty. e.g. the beats in Detour are made from 4 or 5 different commercial loops. they're all a bit mangled (cut the top off of this one, put it in a big room and then slowed it down, cut the bottom off of this one and sliced it up in Recycle and then rearranged them. played the slices of another one on the keyboard, etc, etc)
anyways, i'll use the raw synth that came free with the software if i like the way it sounds. i'm not a purist

BRIAN
i've just realized.
is this an interview for a gear magazine or is this for a general music audience?
because i am using some slang.

AKIYAMA 秋山
the dialect can be used

the following question
you possess an intimate technique?

BRIAN
what kind of magazine is this?

AKIYAMA 秋山
this for the music student is the small magazine
you possess an intimate technique?

BRIAN
do i have any secret techniques?

AKIYAMA 秋山
yes
please show the technology of your secret in me

BRIAN
i understand
the translation tool is making some funny mistakes

AKIYAMA 秋山
yes
i ridiculed many of your response
the specialist translate your english afterwards

please show the technology of your secret in me

BRIAN
hmmm.... my secrets...
well for me, what is interesting about a sound isn't necessarily its pure tone. its the colorations. the fingernail scrape on the string, the crackle of the vinyl, the creak of the sustain pedal, the hum, the hiss, whatever. i tend to focus on those sounds a lot. mic in such a way that will bring them out subtly. i've sampled mechanical noises from everything around the house that ever caught my attention & plus there's a world of vinyl samples out there.
one interesting thing i've done: i bought an old old cathedral radio off of ebay - way old - before the FM band - and i bought a little AM transmitter. so i'll broadcast bits i've recorded and i'll record back them off of AM radio.. gets this humming, trembling old sound. i love it. just seeing the old vacuum tubes in the back warm up. i'm nostalgic for an era like 50 years before i was born.
which is also strange.
some kind've acculturative stress disorder mixed with a time machine, i think it is...

AKIYAMA 秋山
excellent
the origin it cooperates with someone?

BRIAN
could you rephrase the question?

AKIYAMA 秋山
you had relations with other musicians in recording?

BRIAN
yes...
by that i mean, i collaborate.
on every track i've ever made, actually. they'll have a friend's voice, trumpet, whatever i can get.
i lived in Buenos Aires for a year and my flatmate (Nick Olle - Aussie guitar superhero) recorded a trove of guitar bits. he's the lead in Sulky Skies and the interlude in Blue In Pink. we still plan to collaborate quite a bit. Blue In Pink was a guitar piece of his, actually. all of it in the style of the mellow guitar he plays during the interlude (which is the best part of the song... let this be a lesson about overproduction)
also, Scarlett Olson was my housemate in Austin for year as well. you hear her voice all over the place. nice convenience to have some velvet-voiced siren in the house who also has to help with the dishes and bring the trash out every second Thursday.
Rana Mansour is the new superstar in town. she's vox on Stainless. loooove what she did with that.

AKIYAMA 秋山
my cooperator it is here. we have ridiculed your response.
the software many makes such many mistake
i desire the fact that that has not made my questions unpleasant

BRIAN
your questions have been very pleasant

AKIYAMA 秋山
and thank you for giving your intimate secrets

BRIAN
well. you didn't get the best ones ;-)
and .. i don't think anyone is after my secrets.

AKIYAMA 秋山
lastly, does your album sell directly many copies?

BRIAN
i haven't done that yet .. put an album together. eventually i'm going to compile all my favorite stuff - at least the stuff that coheres - and put it up for sale. call it an album.
at this point i'm more comfortable referring to my work as my portfolio or something to that effect.

AKIYAMA 秋山
presently is the album sold?

BRIAN
no

AKIYAMA 秋山
is the album released in a close time?

BRIAN
no
but everything is available for download.

AKIYAMA 秋山
i believe
directly there has been some confusion

BRIAN
oh. yes.
nobody actually listens to my music...
is that going to be a problem?

AKIYAMA 秋山
no problem
in doing this interview agreement thank you
i desire that we can again have intercourse in the future

BRIAN
i desire that too