Andrew Cohen interviews David Fiuczynski (part 2)

there's something that you're try that you're going for in when you're when you're having these these different styles Collide against each other you can you try and describe what that is no what I am trying to do is actually I'm actually trying to change Styles less I I do find that sometimes it it it can be jarring I I think it should be a device used to achieve the effect of heightening the energy the the the Zone the trance the colors no that's clear um the thing it wakes you it has waking you up exactly but I have had people have criticized me um where you know it's too much so I'm starting to listen to that um I do actually want [Music] um sections to go on longer now okay um or actually mix it up because sometimes that is that is very effective but again too much of the same thing too much of like one Groove for like 10 minutes you know sure sure but that does seem it does seem something very original about the way you're composing these Tunes in terms of what you're trying to but has so it has to do with really keeping everybody awake and creating kind of a um you know I I it's an intuitive thing um um I I really like uh late impressionist [Music] and German expressionist painters I I like uh I like matis Picasso Van go those colors really very bright and strong yeah Jackson Pollock um and I just love going to museums and sometimes I'll go to the same Museum see the uh the same picture and I I hear music it it's not like a direct chemical reaction but it it's inspiring and I try and put these colors into my music and I'm trying to I I I really love uh Turkish Indian Bulgarian Chinese inflections these Melodies they really they're so they're so beautiful it's spiritual but if I could briefly say at the at the intersection of these new new grooves um these Eastern kind of simple melodies or at least my Melodies inflected in a yeah a a Eastern style microtonal Harmony right putting those things together and and drenching it with with heavy grooves and a heavy dose of Blues I want it to come from here and I don't hear anyone that's that's the place I want to go can you define just for uh for listener what microt microtonal microt well we live we our Western system is 12 notes per octave right um and it's equal tempered there each note is equidistant M so for example for some Arabic Melodies they use quartertones they use notes that are smaller um at the same time we when when when you hear a a a blues player that moves you the way that guitar player bends those notes it's it's in spots that are outside of the tonal system mhm and um I you can get completely new Melodies and and harmonies from from and there's so many different systems we're in 12-tone uh I have a quarter tone guitar which is 24 tone 24 notes per octave a lot of people work in 1931 36 uh the Turkish system is 53 the Greek system is 72 notes per o per octave they don't use all those notes at the same time but it's a finer grid and it's not always smaller notes it could be larger leaps but they don't fall within the 12 tone system and one is not better than the other but there are a lot of new um uh uh flavors that you can do that that are I I find them really really beautiful I'm really tuning into to um julan Kio a Mexican compos composer aloise Haba a cze composer Harry parch stuff that's been laying around for 60 80 maybe even a hundred years and and improvisors haven't really picked up on that yet some classical composers but I see tremendous opportunities for for um uh experimental pop Jazz Groove um I I it's it's it's boundless people say oh I I uh you know everything's been done I you I feel like Captain Kirk you know [Music] oh [Music] [Music] you me mentioned about harmonizing microtones yesterday you were talking about what because that was well if you take for example well not all Arabic music is in quartertones but you can kind of start there um what we often do in the west is we'll take a mode and we stack it oh these are the harmonic possibilities they they don't do that with Indian Turkish Chinese music it's modal right it's it it it's maybe there's some pany but there's not like you know one cord I'm very much that's kind of a no no um and it's tough because I mean music is yeah they don't they don't well they don't they but but it's also it's it's it's tough It's it's very Out Of Tune it can be harsh on it can be harsh on the ear but as we've seen with with uh Western uh uh composers if it's done right it can be very beautiful I mean sherberg was a shock to people um the opening sequence of uh Richard vogner's uh Tristan anelda that Opera he completely obliterated functional Harmony debiec started taking cords and he thought oh I like this cord and I like that cord it kind of turned into non-functional color cords uh realized that there was a time when what is it the open chords of Beethoven's thirdd Symphony the heroa were two unresolved seventh chords people were appalled that was unheard of that you know bethoven the look what he's done now the audacity you know not only one but two you know unresolved seventh chords any blues these days starts with that that's completely normal for us so I'm very excited about you know taking some of these 43 note proactive parch harmonies I'm I'm having guitars built or it sounds great to me I want to jam out and that's that's where I would like to go great it's going to change music just because the reference point because you want you want to work with kind of the sounds like the the the rhythmic structures that are already here and are developing and add a whole new harmonic context that'll make anything possi even for a pop context which sounds we have to open everything up I it has to it's almost like something's going to be released it's just been going around and around and around well not not only that at Berkeley I can tap into um all these new Styles I I get that from uh students as a matter of fact I turn it into a homework assignment I asked them to write something in a current style that they enjoy and even just write me a a short phrase and then write it again with a different mode they've never used and then try and take that and put it in an odd time phrase so it's it's it's it's it's a mutual learning experience for myself and the students right well you're you're forcing them to get into the future and as soon as possible I want to try and use use that in in with with Eastern music and these micro microtonal modes so I'm going to try and infect them right right from the get-go [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey hey [Music] oh