Peter Margasak: You’re from LA and you went to school at University of Michigan and then you went back to LA for grad school at CalArts—did you always write music like this or was this something that happened much later?
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Yeah, that was my major, but at CalArts, you can do a major in that and focus on tabla or something. I did composition, but I spent a lot of time there talking and listening to music, playing a little bit of music, making these medieval manuscripts that I drew. I was drawing medieval art in the library at CalArts. Its almost like I was around so much contemporary art that I was craving… right after I got out of there, I started reading Greek tragedies, but one of things that happened there with Michael Pisaro, and what really drew me there, was that he has this thing called experimental music workshop where everyone performs contemporary experimental music as well as our own work . . . we would perform each other’s pieces. It was really important for me to see how there could be a serious, focused experimental listening environment that was also not judgmental or hierarchical the way that I had experienced in traditional conservatories. There wasn’t any emphasis on technical virtuosity, although some of them were pretty virtuosic. There was more interest in just listening and focus, and for me that was really special. That’s what I like about Michael, he’s very open to a lot of things. He doesn’t want people to make music like him. It was very different and open. My lessons with him would often just be us talking. Sometimes I would just bring in what I was working on, but frequently not, and I would talk about what I was doing and he would be like, “Oh you might be interested in this movie or you might be into this book.” He would talk about what he was doing. That is the most inspiring thing for an artist, is to have another artist, especially one who knows a lot about other things, to recommend and to inspire. All of that is to continuing to inspire people. One thing I got out of Michigan was orchestration techniques, but at this point it might be lost on me because it’s been so many years. I learned theory, keyboard harmony, counterpoint. I did a lot of ear training, focusing on ear training a lot to the point where I could TA it by the time I was at CalArts and run a class. There were a lot of technical things at Michigan; I also learned English there. So I got some benefit from that. The discovery of John Cage was important for me. Learning things outside of the classical world.
It just seems like listening to the stuff you’ve done, Tragedy was the first thing I heard and then I was able to find some more of the field recording stuff. It feels like you are in the space where it’s really open, you don’t draw lines between pop music or this or that, it’s all open and you can do whatever. That definitely seems like a product you were talking about, that you definitely got into space from CalArts. I wonder now that you are on this trajectory of making records in a pop world and touring . . . I wonder if you feel like whether it becomes more focused or whether you are more boxed in, that you have this path to follow that might be something you haven’t had to deal with in recent years.
Kind of. It was a mixture, but for a long time I wanted to do it on my own. I got to the point where I kind of wanted to do it on my own and try things, but then I thought it would be great if there were other people, so I would ask a couple of friends to come over and do a little guest appearance on the record. Because I was doing it at home, it was hard. What am I going to do, like bring an ensemble into my house? It didn’t make sense. I wanted to pay people more. I wanted to wait until I had the perfect situation to record with people. To record them well, I would need an engineer. It gets exponential. With a record, it’s like with anything, it’s crazy how you can do a great record with no money or with a ton of money. There’s not really anywhere in between. Once you bring in some people, then you have to have people to record those people, and you have to have a place and pay that place. It’s crazy. If someone gave me $100, it would be worse.
I actually limit things to what I want to do, and right now there’s not anything…there are a couple things, but there’s not a bombardment. I don’t have a bombardment of people who want to work with me or anything like that. I’ve had some people, but it’s always kind of floaty and usually if they’re people that are interesting they’re busy too, and you wait and wait. I do have a couple of collaborations that I’m going to try to work on. I do juggle things sometimes, but I juggle maybe two at a time. I can’t multitask too easily. Ekstasis and Tragedy I wrote together, but I would be working on one for a week or two, and then maybe work on Tragedy for a bit. I’ve actually never been good at multitasking so generally I focus pretty intensely on one thing at a time, but have other things in mind. I already have other things that I’m working on, but I work on them very separately.
Yeah, I do look at it like that. I look at like they’re really very different. People that know my music probably could hear the similarities . . . I can hear the similarities. At first, when I’m working on something, I’m not conscious of what I’m doing very much. I try to not think too much about what I’m doing when I’m writing. I think thinking is kind of a curse with the creative process. You are thinking, obviously, that’s what you’re doing, but overthinking it and analyzing it is the wrong thing to do. I plan it out before, though, I have a sense of what I’m doing. It’s not like I’m just throwing paint onto the paper or page, I’m just throwing things. But it’s very trial and error. That’s kind of why I choose to just use my name. I never could imagine having a project name because that would limit me to that project. I see myself, I think, because I started as a composer, I see myself as a composer. I see myself behind the scenes. I don’t see myself principally as a performer. So I choose to perform my music, but that’s just for now. When I’m 80, I’d still want to make music, but I probably won’t be dancing and singing on stage. Maybe.
