Photo by Scott Irvine
A musical polymath, singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Andee Blacksugar seems to be able to do it all! Fresh off a stint playing lead guitar in Peter Murphy's touring band, Blacksugar's back with music of his own - the thrilling and passionate "Violent Muses" from his long-running Black Sugar Transmission project. Andee was good enough to email from his home base in Brooklyn to discuss the new album, his time on the road with Murphy and the understated inspiration of Robert Smith...
“Violent Muses” is
tremendous, and really a step forward for you as an artist. You seem to have
collaborated much more heavily on the recording side of things than in the past
– was that an intentional choice? What impact
did it have on the way the songs developed?
Thanks!
Actually, The Glamour Pantomime had just about as many outside musicians, some
of whom returned on Violent Muses (Timo Ellis, Jimmy Lopez, Leon Gruenbaum) and
the USE IT ep is chock full of guests (Vernon Reid, dUg Pinnick, etc). But overall,
musicians' contributions add a more varied texture, which seems important
considering so much of the music is made in the computer. It's nice to get some
sweat and oxygen into the mix so it all doesn't sound too insular.
It's really
fun to hear other peoples' ideas blended into the songs, too - makes it way
more interesting for me. Plus I get a kick out of saying, "these are the
cats I run around with, musically." It tells a more interesting story than
"I made this all by myself".
It’s
such a cliché to say that “NYC is a character” in your work, but “Violent
Muses” really has a “downtown” vibe to it. You’ve been living in NY for the
better part of your life…how does it influence your writing?
It's funny
you used the term "downtown" - I know what you mean by that, but the
actual geographical place that "downtown" refers to (lower Manhattan)
has long been vanquished by hyper-gentrification. The artists who used to give
that place its character, its "downtown-ness", are in the outer boroughs
now or have left NYC altogether. New York is a constantly morphing organism,
for better and worse, and there's plenty of fodder here for lyrical material.
Nowhere is
gentrification more rampant than in my particular neighborhood (Williamsburg,
Brooklyn) and I've watched the landscape around me turn into a
glass-and-concrete theme park for the wealthy, who have brought a bland,
artless suburbanization to the place.
"The World Is Yr Ashtray" pretty specifically describes that
process.
On more of
a positive note, NYC is a dense place chock full of people, energy and
experiences, so there's always plenty of inspiration here.
Yeah, I certainly
didn’t mean it as a pejorative…but there is a certain slinky, other-worldliness that is quintessentially “NYC”. Even if
it may be dancing with ghosts at this point.
You came to a bit
of prominence stepping in as guitarist for Peter Murphy during the “Bauhaus 35”
gigs and got to tour the “Lion” album (which was Murphy’s strongest in almost 2
decades). I have to imagine that that was quite an experience! Can you tell me a bit about how that came to
be and what you took away from it?
A good
friend of mine had heard that the guitar player slot in the band had opened up
and also told Murphy's people about me. Peter himself did a little YouTube
vetting and offered me the gig with no audition. I had just a few days to learn
30 Bauhaus tunes and fly to LA to jump on the tour.
We went to
some markets where neither Peter nor Bauhaus had ever previously performed
(China, Russia, Australia, NZ) and the fans there had clearly been waiting
their whole lives for this! It was intense to see the devotion and it was
really very important for me to replicate the Daniel Ash vibe on that material
(it was an all-Bauhaus set), which is so stylized and iconic.
On the Lion
tour, the set was more of an overview of Peter's deep solo catalog, which,
guitar-wise, is really diverse and varied, so the challenge there was to
interpret many different guitarists rather than drilling down into the style of
one guy. All the same, Peter encourages his musicians to bring their own
character and style to the band, and I certainly injected a bit of my own vibe
into things.
I saw Peter on the
Bauhaus tour with Gemini (Mark Thwaite) on guitar, and I have to say that your
playing reminded me more of Daniel Ash…no disrespect meant to the guy! (Ash
always had more glam than goth in his playing)
Speaking of which,
your guitar playing is virtuosic in the best sense of the word…extraordinarily
technical, but imbued with such passion and character. I hear shades of everyone from Vernon Reid
and Reeves Gabrels to Mick Ronson and Trey Spruance in there…who inspired you
to pick up the guitar and how did you develop into such a unique player?
Why thank
you! The players who made me wanna pick it up in the first place were all the
Mt Rushmore hard rock/heavy metal players. I wanted to be able to play the
monolithic riffs like "Smoke On The Water", "Highway To
Hell", "Iron Man", etc. I learned most of the technical stuff
and how music works overall by studying the virtuosos in that world: Brian May,
Tony Iommi, Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Yngwie, etc.
Then I
discovered the (for lack of better term) postpunk guitarists - people like John
McGeogh, Robert Smith, Daniel Ash, straight though to so-called shoegaze, from
Jesus & Mary Chain, Cocteau Twins to MBV, Swervedriver, etc. These players
taught me invaluable lessons about creating heaviness without necessarily using
aggression, distortion or even much inflection in the notes at all. Robert
Smiths' watery 6-string-bass parts, for instance, are extremely simple and
played completely flat: no bends, slurs, vibrato, hammer-ons, or anything like
that. Just absolutely dead-sounding in a way - yet it somehow comes across very
powerful and stately. These were the guitarists that got me into using a lot of
effects, too, which have become a big part of my style.
And
finally, electronic music has been my main inspiration for years, as it's the
only music that's aiming for the future instead of trying to repeat the past.
I'm referring to anyone from Richard X and Basement Jaxx, who are virtuoso
dance/pop music producers, to artists like Autechre and Actress, who make these
really abstract soundscapes that border on being nonmusical. All this really
drives my production style, but also my guitar-playing style. In BST, I try to
use the guitar like a synth in some ways, and I do a fair amount of cutting and
editing to some of the parts to make them seem less human at times. I have no
desire to make "earthy", "organic" "rock"
records.
Your music with
Black Sugar Transmission is very danceable, almost consciously so. The
dichotomy between the thrust of the music and the weight of your lyrics is
impressive and something of a rarity in the dance world. I’m curious…why do you think it’s so
difficult for dance music to be euphoric AND introspective?
Probably
the first hardcore dance music I listened to was New Order's Substance, which was
often dance-y AND introspective. There were these relentless beats but overlaid
with incredibly melancholy vocals and sheets of often tragic-sounding synths. I
get a lot of pathos from that music. A lot of dance music is just party fodder,
of course, but there are some artists out there who expertly combine
intelligent lyrics with first-rate beats, like Roisin Murphy and Little Boots.
And a track like Chemical Brothers' "Sunshine Underground", which has
no lyrics, sounds incredibly emotionally powerful to me in a way that goes far
beyond "dance all night". It sounds celestial and otherworldly.
I know
what you mean…a track like Orbital’s “Halcyon” or Moby’s “God Moving Over the
Face of the Waters” does the same for me. We all have influences or things that
hit us in the right spot at the right time…what are some of your musical
touchstones, those things that you heard and loved and go back to? What
influences your writing?
For
me, The Cure are an evergreen source of inspiration. Hearing the Disintegration
album for the first time was unforgettable. Robert Smith has really created a
vast musical universe you can get inside of, with so many degrees of emotion
and color in there. Prince has done the same thing. I remember hearing
"Take Me With U" on the radio one day and suddenly its genius hit me:
it's an utterly unique slice of music, like a tiny snow-globe village. Not like
anyone else's song and not like any other Prince song.
That's
what I aspire to. Not to sound like those artists but to create a body of work
that you can absorb yourself in, with each song being its own little 3-minute
snow-globe village. Most of my favorite bands - Led Zeppelin are another
example - simply can't be summed up in a single song, or even an album. You
really have to follow their whole story to get a sense of their full range.
I
imagine your songs are like children – it’s tough to choose one above the
others. But let’s say you are asked to make a “Sophie’s Choice”; is there one
that you are particularly proud to have written or one that is particularly
special to you?
Probably
"Nine Butterflies" from the first BST album. That was a breakthrough.
Is
there any plan to tour the new album or is BST simply a studio project for now?
BST is a
live band too, but there probably won't be any onstage activity for us until
the spring.
What’s on tap for
you next?
To go out
and play in the snow!
“Violent
Muses” can be purchased directly at http://blacksugartransmission.bandcamp.com/
Also, check out the video for it's first single - the slinky and delightful, "Taboo":
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