Errors-To: et-admin at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk Reply-To: et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Sender: et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Precedence: bulk From: et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk To: et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Subject: Elephant Talk Digest #354 E L E P H A N T T A L K The Internet newsletter for Robert Fripp and King Crimson enthusiasts Number 354 Thursday, 27 February 1997 SPECIAL ISSUE Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers (Part one) ------------------ A D M I N I S T R I V I A --------------------- POSTS: Please send all posts to et at cs dot man dot ac dot uk To UNSUBSCRIBE, or to CHANGE ADDRESS: Send a message with a body of HELP to et-admin at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk, or use the DIY list machine at http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/aig/staff/toby/et/list/ to ASK FOR HELP about your ET subscription: Send a message to: et-help at blackcat dot demon dot co dot uk ETWEB: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/aig/staff/toby/et/ (partial mirror at http://members.aol.com/etmirror/) THE ET TEAM: Toby Howard (Moderator), Dan Kirkdorffer (Webmeister) Mike Dickson (List Admin), and a cast of six thousand. The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors. ET is produced using John Relph's Digest 3.0 package. ------------------ A I V I R T S I N I M D A --------------------- From: Toby Howard (ET Moderator) Hi everyone. I'm delighted to present the latest ET, which is the first of several special issues in which Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers, submitted a few weeks ago. I know all ETers will wish to join me in thanking Adrian for taking part in this project. Thanks Adrian, from all of us here. And thanks to Rob Murphree of the AB newsletter Big Electric Chat for suggesting the idea to me in the first place, as a parallel to his Q&A project which related solely to Adrian's solo career. Be sure to visit Rob's AB site at http://web.dbtech.net/~rhino/. To sign up to BEC contact Rob at rhino at dbtech dot net. And if I can just add: if you haven't yet heard OP ZOP TOO WAH -- do it now! Best wishes to all Toby ----------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 00:35:13 -0600 From: Adrian Belew Subject: Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers. Part one. Hello ETeam, Toby asked me to give some insights to the work we've just been doing here at my studio. Robert arrived on Sunday evening the 16th. Per his usual method of "cultural adjustment" he quietly spent the first two days seeing movies and working on his own. The studio guest area is comfortable and private. It has a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, office area, and separate entrance. Robert always rents a car and fearlessly finds his way around. He says he loves being here. On Wednesday he and I began. Saturday evening Trey arrived. We worked on various "building blocks" which will eventually congeal into new compositions. It's helpful for Robert to hear the ideas played by the three of us. We recorded the ideas to DAT at the end of the sessions. These are mainly Roberts' compositions, the future equivalents to Larks, Red, Vrooom, etc. I haven't started writing melodies or lyrics. The plan is to use some of the same "building blocks" in the songwriting process in order to create continuity so the songs don't always sound so different from the musical pieces. At least that's the idea so far. By the end of our Tuesday session we heard our brains sizzling. We went to dinner at my favorite spot, shared a bottle of fizzy stuff, and went to see Soul Coughing in concert. Cool band. Wednesday morning Trey and Robert flew away. The music would be difficult to explain but it certainly sounds like Krimson. The next rehearsal will be with the full band. And so... ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: Doug Mitchell The tune "One Time" has some intriguing polyrhythms happening; through most of the tune, there's a strong undercurrent of four counting against the main pulse of three (or six, if you prefer). This is especially noticeable in the chorus, when it sounds to me like your vocal is pretty much singing in four, while the band is playing various triple meter and triplet riffs. In addition, Tony's part during the verse appears to actually get the whole "four beats against three" feel down in a more-or-less self-contained manner - an amazing feat. My question is: when you guys wrote this tune (I'm assuming here, per the Thrak liner notes, that the music was written by the group together), was all of this polyrhythm by design? Did the guys in the band explicitly work out the different grooves (three, four, triplets); did they just pick up on them; or did all of this happen as a result of someone (you?) bringing the tune to the band and seeing what happened? Thanks! Doug Mitchell ** Adrian replies... In the case of "One Time" I made a demo tape which I played for the band. On the demo I played bass, drums, guitar, the theremin-sounding melody, and sang the vocal. The band learned the song from the demo, the only time that's ever happened. The rhythm is the same as on my demo, but everyone has worked out their own way of playing it. The demo did not have the quiet musical middle section. That section was added by the band during rehearsals in Woodstock. When Robert first came to visit me to begin the new band he brought a DAT of ideas he had worked on with Trey. There was a short 30-second piece which contained the chord changes to the verses. I changed the chords slightly to allow for a melody I had in mind, then wrote the chorus. I had only written enough words for one verse and chorus, but was so anxious to hear it, I recorded the demo with the same words repeated. No one seemed to mind the repetition so I left it that way. For anyone interested I'm putting the demo version on a rarities record I'm making. Along with an un-released Krimson track from 1983 which was recorded in my rehearsal place in Illinois. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: goedhart at citenet dot net (Bernie Goedhart) Are King Crimson's lengthy hiatuses an act of necessity for you? That is, would you still be involved with King Crimson if the band released a new studio album -- and toured for 10 months -- every year, thereby leaving little time for you to pursue outside (re: solo and side) projects? ** Adrian replies... No. I could not be involved under those conditions. But in all fairness, neither could most of the band members. When the band first met in 1993 and began rehearsing, the issue of touring was discussed. Some of us favored a large dose of touring, some of us preferred less. I voted for less touring. Mostly because of reasons listed below but also because I believed it would insure this band a longer lifespan. It's likely that the stresses of touring played a large part in the dissolution of the band in 1984. After a civilized round of debate, we agreed to keep our touring to four months a year. Recently I answered questions about touring from the readers of Rob Murphree's Adrian Belew web site. Here's what I wrote: "People often comment at how "happy" I look when I'm playing and it's true. That's because it's the highlight of any day I spend on tour and the only reason I'm there. I enjoy performing and connecting with the audience. It's amazing to travel around the world and there are certain cities and countries I thoroughly enjoy. I love to eat dinner in Italy. Those are the good points. Unfortunately, for me, they're outnumbered by the bad points. First, there is my wife and children. I miss them. Touring is very lonely. Unlike some people, I have not found solace. I mostly sit in my hotel room and read. Secondly, there is my work. I've gone to great lengths and expense to put a recording studio in my home in order to accomodate as much creative activity as possible. Touring takes me away from the ability to create new music (except whatever might be improvised on stage). Some people are driven to perform. I'm not. I enjoy playing in front of an audience, sharing music, but I prefer writing and recording new music. Some people are "entertainers". I'm not. I'm a recording artist. Lastly, I have a horrible legitimate fear of flying. The minute a plane begins to take off my hands drip sweat. Only someone who has this unfortunate malady can begin to understand how stressful it is. I don't like drugs and don't take drugs, but flying requires me to take something called Xanax which makes me dull for several hours." I'm grateful the band has been so considerate of everyone's needs. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: "WebMonkey" Dear Adrian, Are there any plans, or even discussions, about reviving any of the older songs, specifically _Starless_? I personally feel that this is a song that would benefit from a double trio performance. Fripp has said in the past that he considers the KC archive of material to be alive and malleable, for example, your singing on _Cadence and Cascade_ for the FxF box set. And you guys brought back Schizoid Man this last tour. So, I was wondering if something like this could be expected in the future? Eric Anderson ** Adrian replies... "Starless" certainly wins the nostalgia contest; it's requested in three different questions here. It has never been discussed, but as in the past the decision would lie mainly with Robert. Personally I have mixed feelings about the reviving of material from a different band in a different era. I prefer new. But I would of course honor the wishes of the band majority and play whatever is agreed to play. This band could make anything new. I thoroughly enjoyed doing "Cadence and Cascade", a song I always admired. (My apologies, Gordon). ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: caseyd at techoblique dot com (caseyd) Adrian - The musical playfulness of your solo releases is missing from your work with KC. I understand that the aim of KC is somewhat more fierce in tenor, but even that fierceness is lacking your twisted wrangleings. When will you lighten up, fergawdsake?!?!? also, do you ever play at Arnolds in Cincy? ** Adrian replies... Lighten up and King Crimson do not belong in the same sentence. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: jon badger Mr. Belew: Historically, King Crimson has been a producer of music that some might describe as dark. Much of its music is aleatory, dissonant, even sad; it is often black and satanic, as they say. You, on the other hand, are a bouncy, smiley sort of guy. You are fun. Nevertheless, you seem to mesh quite effortlessly with KC, even at its darkest. How do you see yourself at these moments of terror and seeming pessimism? Do you feel the evil? Do you ever feel at odds with the spirit of pieces like Red, Larks' Tongues, or THRAK? j. badger ** Adrian replies... >You...are a bouncy, smiley sort of guy. You are fun. >will you lighten up, fergawdsake?!?!? You two guys need to get together on this. What am I...a puppy or a sourpuss? First of all, Red, Larks, and Thrak are all mainly Robert's compositions. Thrak is aurally terrifying, but evil? I think not. We're talking about music not mutilation. Frankly, there are times when I feel I don't "fit in". Krimson isn't a comfortable love seat, more like a dental chair. But I work through it and try to offer a suitable musical contribution. To me King Crimson is multi-faceted, capable of handling far more than one emotional timbre. I enjoy sweetly singing "One Time" while fishing for the electric screwdriver just in time to crank up the appropriate level of stratocaster angst for a good THRaKaTTaK. The trouble with smiling is people may mistake you for someone who's not serious. I'm very serious in my efforts to create a body of music which can rightly be called my own and in my efforts to be part of a compelling collaboration called King Crimson. Maybe that's why I am admittedly thin-skinned concerning criticism. By the way, have you ever heard Desire Caught By The Tail? The Guitar As Orchestra? Downward Spiral? They're dark. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: Terrence Dorsey Seems to me some of the 80s KC work could be arranged for a traditional string quartet. discipline and requiem are obvious examples that come to mind. Has anyone thought of or tried doing this? terry dorsey terrend at microsoft dot com ** Adrian replies... Quick! Call Kronos! Sounds like a good idea to me, I love string quartets. Someone sent a tape of a sax quartet doing "Frame By Frame". Also there was a band we met somewhere on tour who had done horn versions of several Krimson tracks. Very nice. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: "Mike Lockyer" Hi Adrian I would like to know more about the process KC goes through developing new material I have always hoped for a CD or CD-ROM or video which showed the group developing material. How much is prepared before you go in the studio ? How much is developed within the studio ? If it is very different with each piece then an example would be useful Best wishes Mike ================================= Mike Lockyer,University of Teesside,Middlesbrough ================================= ** Adrian replies... CD-ROM?! Our first (and only) PHOTO session was somewhere between a wake and a root canal. We're light years away from a CD-ROM. It would take something like a documentary to truly illustrate the various ways the band interacts. It's different from piece to piece and I'm not sure I can give an explanation which would do it justice. Most of the music is complete before we reach the studio. If at all possible it will even have been performed in front of an audience. But there are things which occur unsolicited in the studio, in fact, some of my favorite things. And the last ten percent of making a record is often the most crucial. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: Graham Nelson Two questions for the excellent Mr Belew: 1. I would guess that King Crimson lyrics and subject matter are more or less composed by yourself alone, since they sit so well alongside your solo material. Do you write lyrics in a different way, though, when writing for the band? I wonder if more deeply personal songs, such as the beautiful elegy "The Man In The Moon", would seem inappropriate to you as works by King Crimson. Do you feel, when writing for the band, that a song should speak for the whole band and not yourself alone? 2. [Everyone will ask this one, so please delete it if someone else asks it better!] You've recently been singing on "21st Century Schizoid Man", so can we assume that you wouldn't object to singing on, let's say, "Starless", if the band wanted to give it a shot? -- Graham Nelson | graham at gnelson dot demon dot co dot uk | Oxford, United Kingdom ** Adrian replies... Ever since I first joined the band in 1981 I have always written the lyrics. The idea being that since I was the singer I should sing my own words. Since the 80s band had an entirely new musical vocabulary I felt it was inappropriate to continue in the medieval stylizations so favored by the 70s bands, even though it worked perfectly for those bands. I tried things like spontaneous prose (fashioned after the beat writers), wordplay, and metaphor. A few lyrics were personalized but I found them almost embarassing in the context of what was considered "art rock". At the time I did feel a responsibility to "speak" for the band. Fast forward to the 90s version and I don't feel as compelled to draw a line between personal and other lyrics. Why? Because I have realized no one cares about the words but me. I don't mean that to sound like a bad thing. It's not. But the band never really comments one way or another so I figure I'm doing it for myself. I spend more time on the lyrics than anything else and it's hard work, but it matters to me so I do what I can. I'm starting to wish I had written the words to "Starless". ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: Jack In a broad sense, the band that was put together in the 80's and had a ten year lapse, coming back with the triple double. Was this planned or did you have any idea that the band would be reformed during this ten year period? Also, what is your opinion on what is going to happen next and what are your plans? Thanks to the Tony Levin page, I have seen a picture of your family.It must be tough to be on the road with out them at times. I think your music, both with crimson and solo, is so creative and beyond it's time. Thanks for your time! Jack Fickes York, Pa. ** Adrian replies... Thank you. I had no inkling the band would ever start again. At one point I began to hear rumors about a new King Crimson. I was on my way to Austria to perform, and so I called Robert to ask if I could visit during my stay in Europe. Martha and I stayed in Broadchalke for three days. While we visited Robert and I recorded my vocal for "Cadence and Cascade". At Robert's house we talked about the possibility of a new Krimson, who might be in it, and so on. Of all the singers who have been in King Crimson, Robert told me I was his favorite. I told him if there was to be a new King Crimson I would want to be in the band. I said I'd rather be in the parade than on the sidewalk. He seemed relieved and in so many words said "let's do it". And the ball started rolling. The plan as it is now is to continue the slow development of new material. Robert visits about every six weeks. The first full band rehearsal is scheduled for late April here in Nashville. The next segment will likely be club dates in the fall when we have enough material to play in front of a brave audience. Then comes more writing, fine tuning, possibly more dates, and at last, the making of a new record. My personal plans are to create as much new music in the meantime as possible while continuing to work on new Krimson. I have several projects including a second acoustic record which features versions of "Cage" and "Dinosaur" as well as a live version of "Free As A Bird" from the Longacre Theatre during the last tour. The rarities record I mentioned earlier. And brand new solo material is stewing on the back burner. One of my aims is to create material deemed acceptable for more of the Krim supporters. It has occurred to me that most of the people who buy King Crimson records don't buy mine. For example Thrak sold something like four times as many copies here in the US as my last record Op Zop Too Wah. Here is an interesting statistic. In 1996 there were 29,000 new CDs released. 29,000! Of those 29,000 new releases only 3 percent (or 800 new releases) sold 10,000 or more copies. Still, Op Zop Too Wah DID sell over 10,000. This means that with less than a fourth of the King Crimson buyers' support I was still able to be in the top 3 percent of all records sold. Imagine what would happen if, say, half of the Krimson support group bought my records too. That's what I would call success. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: Weirdy2 at aol dot com Subject: Questions4Adrian Hi, I only have a few brief questions for Adrian (my favorite Crimson vocalist): 1) Was That Adrian telling the story on Discipline's, "Thela Hun Ginjeet", and was it a true story? If not, where did the idea come from (very general question). 2) Often times I have trouble deciding what is Fripp and what is Belew (concerning guitar parts). One song in particular is The Sheltering Sky. I was wondering if both Fripp and Belew played on this. If so, who is playing (or who wrote rather) the melody that is found in the first few minutes of the song (the melody that comes back a few times in the song). If this is not specific enough, perhaps you could give me tips on how i could tell Fripp and Belew apart. thank you, chris bogen ** Adrian replies... The story of Thela Hun Ginjeet began as fiction but ended up as fact. I had written some words about being attacked on the street. In order to achieve a "realistic" sounding recording of a victim being interviewed I took my tape recorder out on the street to record my phrases (He had a gun...This is a dangerous place..) and while doing so I was attacked. The voice you hear on the song is me telling everyone in the studio what had just happened to me. I'm not sure you're alway supposed to know who is playing what, especially in the case of interlocking guitar parts. In "Sheltering Sky" Robert plays the melody which he wrote while I play a simple rhythm part. In the middle I play some early "clouds". At the end it returns to Robert playing his melody; me playing chords. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: "Mr. Music Head" Dear Adrian, I know we're not supposed to talk about your solo stuff, but I just wanted to sincerely thank you for writing and releasing "Op Zop Too Wah"...It was the only time in my 18 year life that I have been truly awestruck upon first listen to something (And it gets better with every listen)...It is easily, with "Thrak," the best album (from anyone) in the last 15 years... Anyway, back to Crimson...I just wanted to ask you how much the audience during live performances influences the way you play?..I saw you guys with the H.O.R.D.E. tour in New York and Crimson was at it's best for a short forty-five minutes...I was just wondering if the fan support, even though there weren't many Crimsonites there, had anything to do with the spirit with which you played...And I also wanted to thank you for the thrill you gave me when you looked out in the audience a number of times and caught my eye...It was awesome! Just a little added note...When I saw Crimson play for forty-five minutes, it was easily the best concert I have ever been to. Thank you so much for your music and the spirit in which you play...You have influenced my life and that of many others, I'm sure...As an aspiring musician, I sincerely hope that one day, I will be able to play with the skill and spirit that King Crimson plays with...Thank you! ---John Galgano ** Adrian replies... An audience can make or break a show. In many ways the band responds as much to the audience as the audience does to the band. The two surefire things that can ruin a show for me are a bad sounding venue and an insistent person screaming the wrong name at me. I've experienced both. Fortunately most of the people who come to see our shows are true music supporters who know and enjoy our work. But the guy screaming the wrong name....hmmm. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: khoffman at giantfood dot com (Kurt Hoffman) Questions for Adrian- 1) Do you feel that you bring more of your Beatles influences to your compositions used by King Crimson than you do your solo work? 2) A long while back I remeber reading where you had suggested that a return to a less gadgety KC appealed to you (I can't remember the exact quote, something about going back to Fender Twin Reverbs and no effects... sorry), yet the newest work seems to be even more mired in digital technology. What happened to that stripped down idea? 3) To the level that some of your lyrics seem autobiographical, what was the subject of the painting (assuming it was a painting) that "Indiscipline" seems to be about? 4) Knowing that you are more than acceptably capable of playing a great many more instruments than guitar, is the any thought of you using any other instrument within the band? 5) In a lot of improvised music there often seems to be a melodic thread which holds the piece together. I have trouble finding the thread that holds many of the improvs on ThrakAttack together. Is improvised cacophony the overall intent, or is there generally an intended point of departure and arrival on these songs? 6) Do you use NST, and if not, do you find it more difficult working in an environment with a NST guitarist/composer than the same environment would be without the NST? Six questions is probably being piggish. Thanks for the opportunity to ask. Kurt ** Adrian replies... ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* 1) The Beatles influence is my musical heritage, I take it with me wherever I go. 2) I'm still thinking about it but it's difficult letting go of that "Dinosaur" string sound. 3) It was a painting, but one I never saw. 4) Bill and Pat have mentioned three-part drumming, but otherwise I have no plan to branch out further at this point. 5) As you may know THRaKaTTaK was edited together from the nightly live improvs in the middle of Thrak. There were times when an approach was discussed backstage before going on. Someone may have suggested for instance, that we all play long held notes. But most often the band simply flew off into the clouds and tried to land before running out of gas. 6) What on earth is NST? After a week of head-scratching I recalled seeing somewhere the term "New Standard Tuning". Who makes up these names? Well, I suppose it had to be called something. Recently, I've been holding my pick slightly askew and I'm thinking of calling it "Preferred Universal Grip" or PUG. In the 80s Krimson I used several different altered tunings (for example, a different one for "Heartbeat" than for "Dig Me") while Robert used what I now suppose must be called OST (old standard tuning). Apart from the need for several guitars it caused no complications then and it causes no problems now that Robert is using NST and I've reverted to OST and PUG. Meanwhile T-Lev has adopted FF on certain songs, while BB still uses 5B to my knowledge.....phew. ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* From: Joseph Basile Hi, Long time KC fan (1970). Love your work, amazing! I feel this is the best Crimson ever! Will this line up stay in tack? Also any talk of doing starless in concert? Thanks for the efforts!! Warmly, Joe Basile Pittsburgh, PA. ** Adrian replies... Bingo! It's official, "Starless" is the winner! ******* Adrian Belew answers questions from ET readers ******* ------------------------------ End of Elephant-Talk Digest #354 ********************************