Work in Progress

1.    How long have you been making music for?

38 years.  I started playing the trumpet at the age of 9 and played
regularly in school and marching bands until I was 14.

In 1970, when I was 11 years of age I manipulated my first sound recording. 
Cassettes were still fairly new at this time and a friend and I discovered
that we could take them apart and flip the tape over so that what was
recorded on it played backwards.  Our most successful experiment was with
Revolution # 9 from The Beatles White Album.  We discovered a whole new
world of sound.  This sonic experiment sounded almost as coherent backwards
as it did forwards.  Playing it backwards we clearly heard the phrase, “Are
we not all dead?  The answer is yes, yes.”  The phrase “ Number 9, Number 9”
came out as “turn me on dead man” when played backwards.

At 19 I started mixing live sound and began working fulltime in professional
recording studios when I was 27.

2.    How did you become a 'professional' musician?

I lived in a house with a group of friends that included a drummer, Mark
Cosman, who rehearsed his band in the basement.  They were called White
Alice.  We were all recently out of high school.  This was in 1978 in
Calgary, Canada.  Cultural changes took significantly longer to reach up
north so there was still very much an attitude of the sixties there.  With
no clue about what to do next in my life but with the hippie attitude of
wanting to change the world I thought that I would join the Peace Corp and
go to Africa or something like that.  I told this to Mark and he said, “ No,
I think we’ll find something else for you to do.”  I didn’t know what he
meant until a few days later.  White Alice got their first booking and Mark
asked me to help out with the sound and lights.  After a couple of weeks
with them I had a satori experience when I realized that it was possible to
make a career out of sound mixing.  I suddenly had a direction in life doing
something that I loved passionately, listening and helping to create music. 
White Alice’s bass player had an older brother with a more experienced band
higher up in the bar band food chain.  I hooked up with them after White
Alice broke up about 3 months after their first gig.  Working with that band
led to getting a fulltime soundman position with another band of that
caliber.  I bought an advanced (for that time) mixing board that I had to
learn how to use and a tape delay effects box and worked for the next 4
years in the Western Canadian bar band circuit.

3.    Who and/or what are some of your musical influences?

John Cage is, perhaps, my biggest musical influence.  He taught me how to
recognize music anywhere.  Brian Eno is another big influence for his unique
and experimental approach to sound construction.  His album with David
Byrne, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the first album to use samples, was
what caused me to get into the recording side of sound engineering.  Prior
to that I had been dead set against it due to a negative experience in the
studio with a top L.A. producer.  Everyone I’ve ever worked with has been
influence but particularly Bill Laswell and Tom Waits.  Coincidentally,
Laswell played on and had a songwriting credit on the first song from Bush
of Ghosts.  Laswell and his engineers, especially Jason Corsaro showed me
how to make things sound big and spacious.  Waits taught me the fine art of
low–fi sound.  Introducing interesting sonic textures through the creative
use of distortion and other radical methods of audio processing.

The work of Aleister Crowley and of G.I. Gurdjieff  strongly influenced my
approach to music.  Crowley’s techniques made it possible to connect with
musical archetypes and instilled a sense of the sacred in my work with
music.  Gurdjieff’s practices instilled a strong degree of mindfulness and
presence with my work in music.  His ideas also opened me up to the
Pythagorean notion that the structure or patterning of many systems in the
Universe obeyed the same laws as the Western musical scale.

Robert Anton Wilson had a very general but profound influence.  Upon first
reading his book, The Cosmic Trigger, I came to the strong realization that
I knew very little.  Consequently, I began a vigorous program of self-study,
bringing a wide assortment of textbooks from the library wherever we played.
I didn’t know exactly why I was studying various subjects but soon found
out.  Another big influence, Robert Fripp, used to write an excellent
regular column for Musician magazine. In one of the articles, he mentioned
that music has geometric form and that he approached the construction of the
sound mix as a kind of geometric architecture.  I then realized why I’d been
studying geometry.  However, Fripp approached the mix in terms of Euclidean
geometry whereas I aim to apply the energetic geometry of Buckminster Fuller
called Synergetics.  Fuller was another resource that I’d discovered through
The Cosmic Trigger.

E.J. Gold turned me on to recording ambient sound, street sounds, found
sounds and found , and sounds from sacred spaces such as churches and
temples.  He also encouraged me to put the best of these recordings together
which eventually got released as the cd All Around The World.

4. Could you explain a little bit about how you
applied concepts from 'Synergetics' to your musical
mixes?

Mainly in a very general sense, by looking at the ‘ whole system’ that goes
into the creation of a recorded piece of music.  I use Synergetics,  a
geometry of energy, as an overview for considering all of the physics and
metaphysics involved in the creative journey that realizes the musician’s
vision onto a medium for mass distribution.  The common phrase, ‘ the whole
is greater than the sum of its parts describes that mysterious something or
other we call synergy.  The ‘parts’ or subsystems represent, in a music mix,
the various individual tracks of instruments and processing effects.  You
basically have all these sound waves combining with each other in
unpredictable ways to produce one complex sound wave.  Synergetics includes
having an awareness that changing one small thing can affect the perception
of the whole mix.  For instance, brightening a guitar track to get it to pop
out more may change how the attack on the snare drum is heard.

The tools for combining these  sound waves represent another set of ‘parts’
or subsystems – the mixing board, outboard processing, the mixdown recorder
etc.  The third general area of subsystems is the brain and nervous systems
of everyone involved, the artist, producer and engineers.   All of these
components, the music, the equipment and the people affect each other
sometimes in predictable ways but also quite frequently in an unpredictable,
nonlinear fashion.  The synergy involved in a great mix can’t really be
rationally planned out to my knowledge, but awareness of this whole system
effect can suggest many alternative creative possibilities.

For example, we know from repeating word tape loop experiments documented by
Dr. John Lilly in his book, The Center of the Cyclone, that what we see
affects how we hear.  Since I started mixing professionally fulltime, I have
brought high aesthetic visual images into the studio control room with the
idea that this positively enhances listening .  I also encourage artists to
bring in any visual image or artifact related to the atmosphere of the music
we are working on as a way of coaxing a resonant synergetic effect.



5. You've mentioned a few heavyweights in the realm
of what many call 'consciousness studies,' do you see
music and sound as a tool to achieving higher forms of
consciousness?

Yes, one among many.    Music is a tool for changing mood.  Sometimes those
moods can get quite exalted and expansive though there seems no predictable
musical formula for getting there.  Both Gurdjieff and Crowley used music in
their public performance invocations that were intended to raise
consciousness.  By most accounts, they were quite successful.  Robert Fripp
studied extensively Gurdjieff’s theories on octaves and the role they play
in modeling universal processes and cycles.   His playing live, the unusual
and odd chord changes and progressions he chooses, always take me pretty
far.

Also, by becoming aware and appreciative of and sound music outside the
parameters of recorded music one can gain a stronger sense for the beauty
and musicality of everyday life.  By stopping the mind from identifying
every sound, just listening to them and the relationship these random sounds
have with each other can get one high quite quickly.  Anyone can try it
anytime they have 3 to 5 minutes to close their eyes and just listen.  I
learned this trick at a Robert Anton Wilson workshop.

6. What type of music, in your opinion, lends itself
most to reaching higher states of consciousness?

I think it’s pretty individual.  What works for me might not necessarily
work for anyone else.  Also, what works one time may not work in the same
way again.  Each higher state of consciousness, or what Sufis call ‘the
waking state’ seems as individual as a snowflake.  But it sure is fun to
musically experiment with.

I think all types of music true to itself can potentially work depending
upon one’s individual tastes and circumstances.  I have worked with all
types of music except classical opera and nearly every project has some kind
of uplifting quality to it.  Commercially orientated schlock seems too
superficial to take one past mindless escapism.

7. Where does your inspiration come from?

Basically it can come from anywhere.  I draw a lot of inspiration from the
seemingly random events of ordinary life.  I can’t really explain how.

Scenario Universe or Coincidence Control somehow arranged an incredible
education for me in the field of musical sound engineering by some of the
most talented players alive.  I feel obligated to use my education to give
back what I can.  I have a strong suspicion that music can help ease the
pain on this backwards planet we call home.  In fact, one of the best bands
I worked with for a number of years was called Painkiller.

In a mix situation, I look for inspiration from the music itself which I
consider to potentially serve as a vessel or landing pad for a (hopefully)
higher intelligence, the spirit of the piece.  When starting a mix I will
put up all the faders and listen to the song and begin tuning in to the
essential nature of the music and get an idea of what direction to go in. 
The artist’s vision also provides significant inspiration.

I think the world is at a crossroads where its either going to have to radically redefine the paradigms regarding the distribution of resources and wealth or possibly face a complete collapse of the system leading to social disintegration and widespread, even more so than now, violence.  

Fortunately, small enclaves and individuals around the world have made significant lifestyle changes starting with the basic raising of consciousness that sees a holistic Spaceship Earth.  The inherent truth discovered by both quantum physicists and mystics alike, that everything appears connected, underscores the Tibetan Buddhist notion that no one can be completely enlightened until everyone is enlightened.  This gives rise to the bodhisattva, the spiritual master who has known enlightenment but rather than choosing to move on, turns back in order to help his fellow travelers reach the light.

These days I see more and more genuine bodhisattvas at work spreading the art and science of accessing and utilizing higher modes of consciousness causing change to occur for the benefit of all.  However, I also see an increase in the brute world aspect of humanity, those caught up in situations of violence and anger.  The worsening of certain situations such as global climate conditions and terrorism (both religious and state sponsored like the U.S.) could be construed as positive if it forces more creative alternatives to occur by necessity.  I know that’s a big “if” but it does seem that we have to get collectively smarter or die.

So I see some aspects of the world  improving , mainly small, culturally underground groups while conditions for  large portions of mainstream humanity still seem incredibly bad.  It could be that those who have learned to optimize their nervous systems for maximum fun and efficiency may have to the carry light of their knowledge in an occult fashion for hundreds of years until everyone else catches on.  Such people are generally able to transcend local conditions most of the time and create, to some degree, autonomous zones of harmonious living.  Or we could have much more rapid and dramatic changes, I really don’t know.

Overall, the state of the world feels like a balancing act that could go either way.  On one hand you have those individuals primarily orientated towards service to self.  Those stuck in the obsolete belief that there isn’t enough resources to go around and therefore act compelled to get and hoard as much wealth as possible.  On the other hand, there appears an increasing number of people orientated toward service to others, those who have seen or can intuitively sense the big picture and realize that service to others really means service to Self, the collective Self.