So it is on June 10th 2001 2pm, at Erwin Rado Theatre. ‘Save Your Breath’, the latest Brass Bed album will be available for sale at intermission. I sent Stu some questions by mail. Here are the results.
1. Could you briefly detail your beginnings as a musician?
I was 5-ish when I received a plastic toy guitar with fishing line strings. When I broke them all, we threw it out. Some 15 years later, turned pro-bassist.
2. Training/Influences?
Early age had me prostrate before stereo speakers, soaking in the cheesy record collections of the previous generation. Was deigned 2nd trumpet in the school big band. Snuck into learning bass in practice time. Obsessed by all musics at different times with an ear for odd sounds and production. Trained on the world stage.
3. When did you start using Super 8? What camera do you use?
1990, attended a final film night @ Swinburne. Amongst the program was a film called ‘Daliens’, about aliens entering Earth via a Dali painting. That was my first collaborative full-length 3-minute reel. After that, I bought a second hand Agfa with lots of functions, especially good for animation. It’s black with a big lens.
4. B & W, Colour, or silent......preference?
I don’t prefer one over the other. B/W has a wider mood range, perhaps, but both have been good to me and my filming. I usually have a soundtrack. I must make noise. Sound is another creative aspect.
5. When composing songs, do words or music come from first, and how are the instruments arranged?
I like different things to come first each time I go to write music or a song. The experiment always comes first, and additions will suggest directions. Once an idea is realised, re-arrangement is always possible. Recently I’ve written with particular singers in mind, such as Shirley Bassey, Leonard Cohen/Olivia Newton John...The instruments on a piece are usually the ones immediately at hand, unless there’s a premeditated concept, or it’s blindingly obvious. With the Brass Bed, I arrange the bits for horns and bass, each player having a skeleton to flesh out in the playing.
6. As an artist I’ve seen commercial gallery commissions go from 25% in 60’s, 1/3 in the 70’s, 40% in the 80’s, now 48% in the 90’s. How has your situation changed? How much does the band get in % on sales of albums, Cds etc...What about when doing a gig?
The music industry is so much about negotiation and reputation that the variety of possible deals is endless, and the quality of the deal will depend on your strength as a negotiator. Therefore I couldn’t talk of specific %’s. It depends on the deal. Same with gigs; every place has a different way of cutting up the pie. The %’s towards the artist could be a whole lot better, that hasn’t changed.
7. Do you keep a diary or just jot down ideas/words for songs etc. at random?
My diary is good for my memory. The pointform diary. I like notebooks for words/art/ideas etc : a creative diary. Songs are also a diary, albeit a selective and veiled one. I’m big on improvising words over music.
8. You are now making videos - what subject?
The video I’m working on is so far about objects that fit together to give a curio-store feel to the film . The word “hokey” springs to mind. There are broken toys, instruments, machines, bones.... It’s like these old ubiquitous items that hang around are like hauntings from a forgotten past, the only tangible things left. It’s all very raw and intended to have animations edited in.
9. Do you make home recording or only in a hired studio etc?
I used to make multi-layered recordings with a double-cassette player as a teen, using headphones as a microphone. Discovered the 4-track, most useful tool for much songwriting and home and filed experimentation. The first Brass Bed EP, “Low Key” was done on 4-track. But the new album “Save Your Breath” is mostly a studio LP with some 4-tracks thrown in. I’ve seen the insides of many a studio. Now I’m using Pro-Tools for recording at home. With home recording you can be more freely inventive; the studio to a lesser extent, unless you take complete control.
10. How do you relax?
That’s what I’d like to know. I find a sauna, red wine and film watching not a bad start but being creative also relaxes me, so it becomes something you must plan to do.
11. Motivation - is it like me as a visual artist, making images to see the equivalent of my thinking/feeling?
Firstly I’m motivated by the creative act itself, then having the creative result make a point. It’s really just about expressing itself. You can be motivated by events or feelings etc., and the art is a way of working out these things.