the london spitz is a charming place located in the old spitalfields market (near the liverpool street tube & rail station in london) and last night ronald cornelissen, davin brainard (owner of the timestereo label), ian masters (formerly of pale saints) and warn defever (of his name is alive fame) were there for their one-night only performance in the uk.
before their whole set started, the resident dj delighted us with the weirdest experimental mix of acid jazz and industrial sounds (along with some hnia samples that warn at the beginning did not notice until i pointed it out). it was pretty much like listening to coil playing along with throbbing gristle and aphex twin acting as a mediator. if this is the direction the underground is going, count me in. fabulous indeed.
the first on stage was i'm sore, a new alias for ian masters. ian delighted us playing the musical saw for some 20 odd minutes, reminding us of the beauty (in his own words) of the sound of primitive instruments. i had the chance to speak to ian before his set started and he let me know that his inspiration came from a guy he saw playing the saw in the streets in germany. using pedals to echo and distort the original sound of the saw, ian created magnificent sounds that sometimes sounded not unlike the harmony in a whale's call. in addition to the traditional method of playing the saw (using a small bow), ian also used a maraca and a cork little hammer (or so it looked like). this was chill out music for people (again in ian words) that "got tired of making music simply pressing buttons". ian has a new single out, with one side sounding, as ian puts it, "like real noise" and the other one sounding "pretty much like pale saints without the rest of the band".
after some music from our non-traditional dj, princess dragon mom came in scene, with warn and davin brainard dressed like barefoot campers and creating this "noise camp" using microphones, pedals (old and new ones), a megaphone, while at the same time they re-decorated the whole stage with nice snowy mountains painted in the background, some wooden penguins ("toss the penguin" read a sign), a "noise camp" sign giving the place a whole name and attitude) and a walking bush (ronald cornelissen) that grabbed the audience's legs and whatever that was on its way. ian came on stage to use his saw the way it's supposed to be used and started sawing everything on its path (penguins, bush, trunks, you name it). let's put it this way: marcel duchamp would have been jealous at this display of dadaism. as for us, we were laughing our heads off. it reminded me of not so long ago days when i used to "play" with some friends in a "band" - simply marvellous.
when all this mayhem seemed to go weirder and weirder, silence came and warn came on stage to play a beautiful acoustic set. one felt transported to another different place where calm was the day to day state of mind and where, instead of paying attention to thousands of noises and motions, one had the chance to relax, listen to the words and enjoy. even though i had to leave right after his third song (damn last train to nowhere!), i had the chance to sit through all his sound check before the whole concert started and had the chance to talk to him.
for me, talking to warn was an unbelievable experience. i was sitting down when this guy with a guitar came onstage and the sound engineer (a very nice girl if i can add it here) asked him when was he supposed to play and he answered that he'd be the last one. i looked at him, raised my voice and asked him: "are you warren defever?". he just nodded and i went speechless. this was the guy who blew my mind away with his songs and he was right there, sitting down and playing his guitar... after he was done with his sound check (he sang 2 beautiful songs) and after i had drunk 2 smirnoff shots, i decided to ask him for a short interview for this, my really humble and hey, let's admit it, not too visited website. warren, being one of the most down-to-earth person i've ever met, agreed and we went to the spitz's third floor to sit on the floor and have a chat. since i didn't have a tape recorder with me, i just had to write down all he was saying and therefore i won't be able to do this the usual q&a way. this was what warren told me.
first of all, you may have noticed that i wrote "warn" defever. at the beginning, i thought it was a typo on the flier i got from the spitz people but warren told me that he changed his name just to make it shorter. we talked how he helps davin brainard with his timestereo label (they have a brand new catalogue with many his name is alive live tapes and videos). [for those who don't know about this label, it was started by davin out of boredom when he was working at a record store and had access to a tape recorder and some blank tapes… the rest, as they say, it's history…. thanks to davin for telling me all this, by the way!]. check both time stereo label and his name is alive sites by clicking on their names.
warn was asked by the lo recordings label to record an album for them, which had to follow the label standard, electronic music. at the beginning, warn sat down, composed a few songs but did not like the way they sounded, so instead he ended up recording an all acoustic album. thankfully, the guys at the lo recordings label liked it and the album was released a couple months ago and has been well acclaimed in the us (i don't know if it's been released in the uk or europe, neither did warn). the whole album was recorded in one single day!
even though warn doesn't like his voice when he sings (you can actually see the pain in his face while listening to himself on the monitor while he sings; take my word: he sounds really good), he has already toured the usa, done a festival in holland and will go back to the usa for a second tour in october. his next step is playing live in japan. when i asked him why, he simply said because he hasn't been there (well, i said, you haven't been to costa rica either! he said he'd like to go there, too, but as a tourist i guess…). warn doesn't really care if his show in japan flunks or not, he simply wants to go there and have a good time playing his music in asia.
as for his main band, warn wants us all to know that, in spite of what people might say, his name is alive is still going on. the new album is already half-done (ivo has received quite a few tapes of hnia's new material and seems to like it) and warn emphasised that it is indeed very, very different from other hnia albums. this one will have lovetta pippen(she sang the gospel track in the stars e.p. and some tracks in ft. lake) on vocals and she will really be the one to listen to.
the new album was developed around lovetta's voice, the music serving only as a r&b background. warn loves her voice; for him, she's like aretha franklin. lovetta was raised by her father, a preacher, and wasn't allowed to listen to any other music but gospel until she was 16! for this album, she even helped warn by co-writing some of the songs. warn starts composing his new songs using simply a drum beat, some melody, vocals, the piano or his favourite instrument, the guitar.
to end with the interview, we talked about warn's favourite bands. curiously, he doesn't like any of the bands on the 4ad label! one of his favourite bands are cornelius (from japan) and they have already recorded a song together for a forthcoming album. but his all time fascination ("i love him, i love his philosophies, i really love him", said warn) is the american jazz saxophonist pharaoh sanders, and warn's goal in life is to play along with sanders.
then, we will have to call warn's new project "his name is egyptian".
thank you to warren defever, ian masters, davin brainard and everybody at the spitz for the incredible atmosphere and the wonderful night… and for the pimm's and the vodkas.
interview by francisco j. brenes
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