and that’s probably all just fine.  The world in an egocentric way is all for you.  me .  you.

When I was 16 I heard some great music, I liked one song on this cassette tape, then I gave that cassette tape to a girl.  I bought other albums by the band and eventually I lost my virginity listening to them, and off and on for years I listened to them.  And every fucking time i get into them the coolest thing happens.

I quit for a few minutes, thinking the world is all for me in the shitty way,  thinking about how fucked up everything is and how bad I sometimes wish I weren’t alive, or that I am stuck in this really horrible situation,  and I feel pretty good.  and smiles don’t seem forced and the mystery of the world, and the right to use and over and over agian, and attachments  to misspellings and misproper grammar, really become really ridiculous.  Because, I remember, I am in a world, that includes with that shitty shit that makes you want to quit, politics, diseases, I have the ability to create.  and besides that.  It really doesn’t matter if its super duper good and would sell tons of albums or even one.  because, when it comes from that same place that place where all that other shit quits, its pretty good to me.

So yeah, its all for you its all for me,  escapism is totally valid, and the truth of the fucking matter, is everything is big all the time, not just when your exploding.

Once I was walking and I was sober, or on psychedelics, and I said to my friend, imagine all the stars just rushing into you all at once.

and another time I was walking, and I was on psychedelics, or I was sober, and I felt my body separate into all the stars at once.

Miles Davis-Evil Live.

and as for the band,  attempts to direct a living thing thwarted..  and once these mistakes came easy

Pretty sure I am going to delete all of this in a couple days.  If for some reason you want the info here, please copy it.

L’aventtura by britta and dean, is pretty enjoyable.

Forever Alien by  Spectrum is top notch.

and delia… I was born too late and too me… sorry

d

Prior to my hearing any of Max and Toni’s collaborative efforts, I had already become familiar with portions of his musical output, and most notably for me his wonderful song “Wild Strawberries.”  Within that song I heard a wonderful depth and sincerity that I often seek in my own completion via music, a goal I feel I’ve yet to achieve.

What follows is meandering transcripts of an email Q&A conversation that transpired over the period of a couple weeks.

Q: Le Bateau De Revel could be translated as Drunk Boat, is it safe to assume this another sea song like “Black Fish Pearls”?

Toni: I think you may be confused about the translation. The title of the first song is Le Bateau de Reve which means the Boat of Dreams.  Drunken boat would be Le Bateau Ivre which is a Rimbaud poem.  As for the question, it is a sea song like “Black Fish Pearls”?  Water is a metaphor for the emotions because in the second half of my book (A Love Letter to the Transformer, which the music is based on), Ic’s journey is an emotional journey.  Le Bateau de Reve is the boat that Ic and the Transformer essentially fall in love on and begin on their journey together.  The reason it is a Boat of Dreams is because falling in love feels a lot like a dream.

Toni and Max

Q: Is there any reference in the title to Mars Volta “Drunkship of Lanterns”?  Only in the sense that the songs tells stories about traveling on boats. I do love that song though — lyrically, you have some very nice imagery, would you say that you can see this song as clearly as it is described?

Toni: All of the lyrics on the album are very visual to me and I can see the places very clearly in my imagination, but I think that is because the piece started as a storybook and so it is all mapped very clearly for me. It is a world I’m very familiar with.

Q: Fantastic arrangement, beautiful use of backing vocals, I really love the slide guitar, the synthy bits, and the ocean samples.  Do Toni and Max always work well together musically?  Are the synthy bits done with Reason?  I remember previously you told me you expected you’d be using Reason a lot on this album.  For the most part, are all the synth parts Reason or hardware?  Is the waves lapping sound a field recording that you acquired?

Toni: Thanks a lot.  As for the question about us working together, we do for the most part, as we both come from a place where we are trying to do our best and make sure our hearts are free and really in the music.  Sometimes we argue about things, particularly if one of us is very passionate about a particular idea and then we love each other and respect each other enough to go with that person’s vision at that moment.  I probably am more of a brat than Max, but he puts up with me.  All in all, I enjoyed making the songs that we wrote together the most.  I have so much fun working with Max on music!  I learn a lot from him and he really inspires me to push myself and get my vision across.  I’m looking forward to making new music with him so much.  I am going to let Max answer the technical questions, as he loves technical stuff!

Max: Hmmmm, this song was really a collage to record.  The seed came from a 4-track demo idea that had a capoed guitar part where I played two chords percussively with a bundled rod drumstick in addition to a Funkadelic-inspired synth part I did on a Micro Korg, (the actual synth part on the song is from that demo, I just dumped it into Logic).  I played the demo for Toni with the idea that it might be a good Ic song and she agreed.  The “slide guitar” I think you’re referring to is actually Toni playing a Fender Mustang thru an MXR phaser pedal thru a tiny Guild practice amp we got from Hella’s tour manager.  We liked it because it reminds us of Siouxsie and the Banshees.  As far as using Reason, we only ended up using one plug-in synth from Reason, which was the Mellotron sample on track 2.  Initially Toni thought we would use Reason, but rewiring that stuff is a headache sometimes and so often we would just use a Roland Juno-106, the Micro Korg, and a few soft synths from Logic.  The water is a sample from within the recesses of Logic’s labyrinthine annuls.

Do Toni and I always work well together?  Essentially, yes.  Any hurdles we have had so far have been overcome.  Toni is good at editing the big picture and I’m good at myopic little things.  Toni tends to go for a feeling or a vibe and I can get lost in the details from time to time.  The different approaches tend to balance each other out.  For example, at the last minute of mixing Toni insisted I turn down or take out a lot of the reverb sends on things, which ended up giving a much more lo-fi, raw, and pre-digital recording vibe to things –which was important because part one is pretty lo-fi and raw.

Toni and Max II

Q:  Over what length of time was this album recorded?

Toni: A couple of years, on and off. Writing and arranging began in Nevada City where we used to live.  The piano songs and overdubs were done in Boulder.  Some of the songs were written a few years back in LA, including one of the outtakes, “Broken Birds,” which was also recorded with Josh and never used.  So we did a piano version too which also didn’t make the cut this time, but we might release both on a B-side thingy one of these days.

Q: Would you like to talk about the additional musicians a little further?

Toni: When we were living in Nevada City we became friends with Pete Newsom.  He’s an amazing drummer and keyboard player (played with Devendra Banhart and tons of others), and Max and him started playing together a lot. We just knew we wanted him to play on the record, so we got him to do some drumming for “Invocation of my Demon Sister” as well as “When I was 7, I met Marcel in a Dream.”  He is a wonderful musician and wonderful friend.  Also, while living up there Max’s mom, Roberta, came to visit us and she plays an African instrument, the Mbira.  She was playing it every morning and I kept thinking how good it would sound in something, so Max recorded her playing some things and one of them ended up on “Transcending the Ghost,” which is the third part of the trilogy.  The other musician, Hagan Caldwell, is a friend of Max’s he has known since childhood.  He came over one day to play cello on the “Broken Bird” track (which, as said above did not make the cut) and also brought along a bunch of percussion stuff for the that track as well.  We also got him doing some percussion on “Former Tides” – he plays the little glass Sun Ra chimes.

Q: Great cover art, are there plans for a physical release so we can see/feel/smell the art?

Toni: I would love to release part one and part two as a double vinyl; we’ll see how that goes.  If it does happen, I will be including some of the book in there as well hopefully.

Q: Was the album recorded more at day or night?  Do you find yourself more creative in either day or night?  I find I have a lot of creative energy in the middle of the night personally.

Toni: The album was recorded at all hours actually.  The only songs recorded late at night were Former Tides and Invisible Influences and a song that got cut called “The Me I Never Knew” which we are going to put out eventually on an outtakes album.  The main reason was because that is the most quiet time at our house although the trains come by late sometimes, but they have vibe.  For me personally, I feel most creative in the earliest part of the day when no one else is awake yet and also at night around midnight, but I don’t try and record then or anything like that on purpose, I think I just go with whatever available time we have.  I think the night tends to be a creative time because there is silence so one can actually hear the muse, but whenever it is quiet is a good thing for me in the creative department.  Max does tend to work at night when it is quiet.  He sometimes will go to sleep around 11 p.m. and then get up again around 2 a.m. and work into the morning.

Q: There is on “The Lawns of Morpheus” a lyric “You gotta get in to get out.”  If I’m correct, that is a reference to “The Carpetcrawlers” from Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.  That is a really terrific album and you pay tribute in the liner notes to both Genesis and Robert Fripp.  That album notably is produced by Brian Eno, who I am greatly fond of… Do you ever see yourself turning to Eno for inspiration in songwriting and recording process, be it Oblique Strategies, or other aesthetic?

Toni: I love that album a lot and it means a lot to me as well.  It is a deep and mysterious album and that line really resonates with me.  The line exists in a place in my book where the character of Ic Explura goes to a reality called The Land Of Dreams, so it just kind of entered the lyrics of “On the Lawns of Morpheus” as that song is about that experience of the character.  As for Brian Eno, he is definitely a huge influence on me when making music.  He calls himself a non-musician, and I can relate to that as I kind of collage music together a lot of the time without being a really technically skilled musician.  I know sound and I have an ear as to how things should go and I think he does that to a certain degree as well.  I also love his solo records so much as well as the Bowie stuff, and we do use the Oblique Strategy cards as well.  I used them with Josh on the first record and Max and I used them here as well.  I like playing with chance when creating something.  I am of the mindset of wanting to see what happens and where something might take you rather then always going with your own idea of how things should go.  I use The Burroughs/Gysion cut-up method a lot as well for writing lyrics.  I personally want to get out of the way and let the spirits and the air come through.  What can I learn from those entities?  I am always there anyway as it is coming through me, but I am not all that interested in ME being the main thing.

Max: Early Genesis (with Peter Gabriel) was a bit of a guiding light for us during the arrangement of songs on the record.  Toni is one of the only birds I know who digs Genesis, so we often used the colors and aesthetic of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (seeing as how it’s a concept record too) to help us get this stuff down.  The song “When I Was 7…” has a complete Genesis homage in it on the bass part.  I have been enamored with the bass on “Back In NYC” for many years now, and I just couldn’t resist using a one note bass line in 7 for that particular song.  ENO is always a bit of litmus paper for us, a reference to ways to think outside of the box, try something different.  Toni was just saying to me how for ENO essentially being a self called “non-musician” (he doesn’t actually really have a tremendous mastery of any instrument per se) he has effectively changed the face of music quite drastically.  Yes, we like Brian Eno.

Q: That panning guitar solo at the end of “The Lawns of Morpheus” is fantastic!  I really like this album’s dedication to fascinating sounds.  Max, do you want to talk at all about what sort of tools you used for recording? Mics etc…?  I find it interesting that in my previous interview, Toni mentioned a Neumann mic that she used at John’s.  I’d imagine you don’t have that mic, yet, throughout the album everything recorded sounds really good.  This is a definite vote toward making due with what you have – especially with such results.

Max: Thank you, I’m glad it came across! It’s funny, at the last minute we were re-mixing that song and I kinda questioned whether or not to leave that effect, which was some rotary pan type emulator in Logic.  Basically, everything we recorded ended up in Logic.  But we also recorded some songs/parts to a Tascam Portastudio four-track cassette machine and then dumped it into the digital realm. As far as mics are concerned, we did end up using a Neumann TLM-49 that we borrowed for the vocals on “Former Tides,” and “The Valley of Tears” trilogy, as well as some of the guitars on “On The Lawns of Morpheus.”  But funnily, that solo you like was actually recorded straight into the computer thru a MOTU Ultralite into Logic.  So no, we didn’t have that Neumann (which was actually not John’s, but Toni borrowed it from another friend–if I’m not mistaken). Toni and I definitely have a modest recording set up, but in a way we have more than the Beatles had, a least more options, because of the computer.  The argument could be made that limitations actually help people to engage deeper and work longer and harder to get it right from the get-go.  Toni and I talk often about how people get G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and then never do anything, never put anything out, never finish stuff.  A lot of this has to do with the way Westerners have been programmed to buy.  Now it’s worse than ever, with software updates, new versions, X Y Z.  I realized that the version of Logic I had worked fine at one point and that getting the new version and having to relearn the little differences was time I could be playing or writing music, which is the point, right?  So yes, definitely a vote for more with less.  For example, Toni told me that Niandra Lades was almost completely recorded on a little Tascam four track on a practice amp with a $100 mic.  We like that aesthetic, we wish it were still around more. People!  Use those Shure SM57′s for vocals!  We do.  We love to.  And we’ll do it again.

Toni: To add to the less is more argument, I just wanted to say that having less stuff (music gear, in this case) encourages one to think outside of the box and be inventive about things. When I get some sound in my head that I want, but maybe do not have the so-called gear to get it, it makes me think of ways to do that in a different way with things I do have around the house that might not have anything to do with music normally – like kitchen stuff that one plays while singing nonsense through a distortion pedal and then one loops a tiny part of that to get one sound kind of a thing.  Also, in reference to all of the fascinating sounds on this record, I think it all began, as I am obsessed with Scott Walker, and after we had been watching the documentary “30th Century Man” about him on a daily basis.  Hehe, we recorded parts of the “Valley of Tears” trilogy inspired by his use of strange things to make interesting sounds, for instance hitting fist on a slab of meat to get a sound he wanted for a song about Mussolini and his mistress being hung in the streets.  This was the way we began to record the album.  I had already written a couple of songs on my own on guitar, but this piece was the one we started with.  It just kind of came out of us.  We didn’t go to that extreme with the meat, but I want to!  Hehe 

Q:  On “Invisible Influences,” which is a gorgeous song, you sing “I’m a killer, you’re a killer, too.”  Previously Toni, and I don’t recall where, I remember reading something you had written that said something to the effect of “We’re all murderers.”  If I’m correct, can you talk about what you mean by that statement?

Toni: Well, we are all killers.  We live in a world that is destroying nature, people, animals and so on every single day and even if you are not doing the killing yourself, especially as Westerners, we are responsible in some way as we drive cars and use plastic which has created a war to get oil.  We mono crop the world over which has destroyed the livelihood of millions of people and driven them into cities with sickness and poverty.  So no matter what you think, no one gets out of this.  We are in it together because we are not out in the streets protesting the destruction of our planet by corporate interest, which we support by shopping and buying their products.  (I encourage everyone to research and try to fight this with only buying from companies that are ecologically and humanely sound and do not have covert interests.  That is a start.)  Having said that, the lyric is the character having come to that conclusion through her experience of transformation, which is also my own experience as well, as Ic is an alter-ego of sorts.  As I have said before, Ic Explura is how I make sense out of the things that have happened to me in my own life.

Q: Regarding Oblique Strategies, did you ever go against the cards?

Toni: I have gone against the cards before, hehe, but usually because the answer was so abstract to what it seemed to relate.  I didn’t quite know what to do with what the cards were saying.  Although, many times as well, I will just do something abstract in a way that makes sense to me, which is quite fun. I am not completely stuck to my vision at all, except maybe in a left brain way.  For instance, if somebody says they think I should add drums or change the vibe of a particular song…in that case, I can be stuck to my vision unless it really makes sense to me and helps the vision in a way I had not thought of.  When trying to realize an idea I have, I just try to be true to that particular vision/story or whatever you would like to call it.  I have found throughout my life that things that emerge without my forcing them too much are always the way to go.  I trust in the spirits, if you will. So, for me, the Oblique Strategy cards are a great way of getting “me” out of the way, and if I am completely connected to what I am doing, the cards are almost like an oracle tapping into the bigger vision of what is trying to emerge from me.  I am a firm believer in the idea that I am just a vessel and whatever art or creation that comes through me is something much bigger than little old me, but that my particular life, energy, and experiences color that particular message/idea being created and made into form.  Sometimes the cards are very mysterious to me, but in a way, those are the ones I find most interesting as if I can find a way to do what I think they are saying something very interesting emerges that I would never have ever thought off without them.  It is kind of like using cut-ups, which I do a lot, wherein something emerges from the unconscious – which in the long run I find has so much more wisdom and accuracy and revelation than what I thought something might have been about.  I love the feeling of six months or a year or even longer looking at something I have made, whether a song, poem, film, or painting, and seeing something completely new and very different from what I had originally thought the piece was about.  Art teaches me so much about myself and allows me to make sense of my life in many ways, but it sometimes takes years before I understand something I did.  It is all kind of mysterious to me and I adore mysteries.

Q: For instance, an occasion such as, ”Remove the Foundation,” or something similar?  I feel as an artist making songs that there may be a difficulty in allowing yourself to do what you think is contrary to your vision because the cards told you so.  If one was to allow the cards to play that definitive of a role, would it become the cards album?

Toni: Well, maybe it would be the cards and your album, hehe, which does not bother me in the least.

Q: Do you think that the whims of one’s imagination are just as suitable?

Toni: Absolutely, and the cards are just part of the imagination as well because it is we who translate them according to our own understanding of what they say, and that involves imagination.  I actually use all kinds of fun things besides the cards.  On the first album Josh and I had a stack of books and would randomly pick one and then pick numbers out of hats and go to the corresponding pages in the books and whatever emotional description we first looked upon we would use as a starting point to a feeling we wanted.  I love chance operations and am heavily influenced by the ideas of people like Duchamp and John Cage in that area.  I always incorporate them in some way when I am working on something, as more than anything, it is a fun thing to do and always interesting and surprising and helps to get the critical mind out of me.  Creation is a way to understand, to learn, for me.  I’m not really interested in forcing my ego all over everything.  That actually seems to prevent me from seeing something miraculous, at least that is my experience in these things and in life in general really.

Q:  When might we expect the conclusion of the trilogy?

Toni: Well, the album is complete now. The book kind of falls in three parts, but with the music I decided to make it parts one and two, so it is now finally complete.  Mainly because I really would like to release it on vinyl and a double vinyl is way more easy than a triple, hehe, also I am moving on to other worlds besides residing in Ic’s world.  I have a few new projects I wanna do by myself and with Max as well, so it is time to let Ic Explura go a little bit, at least until I find someone to put it out on vinyl.

So with the music finished we bid adieu The Diary of Ic Explura.  It is always inspiring to see the creative will of a person take an idea and firmly hold it to completion, as is the case here.  I highly recommend both of the Diary of Ic Explura albums for some in depth headphone music, as a wonderful aural escapism.  They are full of tidbits of wisdom and sounds from the aether.

Part 1, A Loveletter to the Transformer (newly remastered!) can be found here:  http://tonioswald.bandcamp.com/album/the-diary-of-ic-explura-part-1-a-loveletter-to-the-transformer

Part 2, The Daughter of the Flood can be found here:  http://tonioswald.bandcamp.com/album/the-diary-of-ic-explura-part-2-daughter-of-the-flood

In these moments of action I see songs and albums assemble, and succumb to exhaustion, never to encounter other ears excluding those that note my quickly flushing face and the abrupt stoppage of sound.

Its ok.  Really it is.

In the next week, I will post a review/interview with Toni Oswald and Max Davies of  The Diary of Ic Explura, based on the second part of  A Love Letter to the Transformer.

There is a difference between a map and a journal for a thief.

Is it possible that the desire for order that occurs naturally in some people should be intentionally tampered with?

Its interesting that unusual sounds have traveled back and forth from more challenging music to pop music throughout time.

We live in a pretty dynamic world.  More attempts to reflect that.

I once argued that intent was as important as the actual sound.  That by making sound we were sharing what we were, and that perfecting that sound was a not a natural occurrence, but refining for the sake of better communication.  Some ideas can get so simplified that all that is left is the simplification.  Reduce reduce.  I think upon realizing what I already hear everyday, most things sound less weird.

Marching, laser yellow light.  and that big explosion.  The mini sun.

First Thoughts

In a band setting thought should be given to balance, and how balance can be used as a tool for music.  Anyone can fill up musical space time with notes, special care should be taken to play what the music not the ego demands.  At the least this opens more possibilities of using overwhelming sound as a result of keeping a previous dynamic tension.

It seems to me that a band that is trying to do something interesting or new should work very hard in private until they can no longer keep themselves secret.  Fuck adoration, fuck glory, the music is the reward for working your ass off.

Its fine to intellectualize music, and its fine to animalize it.  Both have very important places, the incidental and accidental are valuable.  A great thought by Brian Eno ” I shoot my arrows and paint the bullseye around where they land”.

Rebirth.

I returned to musiking.  There is a glitch in my head, a strange beep.  Its silent.  My brain makes my body make sound, its constantly sending signals of scattered abortive reverberated ejaculate musical glossolalia.

and down to business.

I will attempt a guide for myself and the new band that is currently being created.

There are a lot of people that feel lost.  Feelings of another time pervade our senses from time to time.   I set off in search of the desert, I contain the desert, as I seek it outside myself.

It is in this search that I become further from myself, as I grow nearer to the center of the desert and once again myself.

The same me at the center of the desert, as the one at the outskirts of the sand.

I search relentlessly for him, as he is my enemy, my oldest friend. 

and in the center of the desert we will meet.  Mektoub.

it is fate.  Kill Fated.  Stabbing Fate with disciplines knife.

The desert is my friend and I seek its terrain with the longing of  a lost pilgrim.   I feast upon its sand.  It quenches me.

The song of the desert blinds those that view it from hilltops,  it is within the desert that you hear the sirens sing, wise asses don’t have the senses for it.

I don’t have the senses for it often, but weep knowing it is there at the limits of my perception. 

There is another place.   A fool laughs at that place, it is the fools way.  

I often feel like I should be in that other place, that other life, and as a spectator, I speculate what would there await.

First of all, it is a really, really incredible album, and I find it extremely listenable yet challenging in a good way. There is a lot of unusual music on the album, yet it is formatted in what I consider an extremely palatable way.

The album is titled A Love Letter to the Transformer, and you’ve mentioned it is a Lou Reed reference. Does it specifically reference the album Transformer by Lou Reed? If so, how?

Well, possibly (Laughs). What that is about is that I initially wanted to write a whole album of love songs to Lou Reed and I did write some of those songs, but only one of them ended up on the album. I won’t say which as I think it is about so much more now and I don’t want to take away the listener’s experience and what they may read into things because that is such a wonderful experience: Finding your own meaning and stories in music. Also, because it is a story. The album goes with a book I wrote and all of the songs fit into that story – this album, being part one. As for the whole “transformer” thing, as I began to write more songs I realized there was something much bigger inside of this – A bigger story than my love songs to Lou Reed (Laughs), and also at that particular time in my life I was going through a dramatic transformation. It was very painful but beautiful at the same time, and all of the ideas around transforming became very interesting to me. This story is something that had to come through me. I could not stop it and in the process it has continued to transform me in many ways. So, it is a love letter to the process of transformation, along with a love letter to a particular time in my life.

Since the album deals with transformation, would you care to give some thoughts on transformation, or that particular time in your life?

Well, I am always thinking about transformation really. This is the creative act and it is something I am doing in my life as well all of the time. All of life is constantly changing and mutating. Who I am today is not who I was yesterday, and so on into infinity – the piece A Love Letter to the Transformer is my love letter to that process and also to different people and spirits who have either encouraged me to change and transform or even forced me to do so at times. It is based on some specific times in my life that were both amazing and also very difficult as well and really the only way to make sense out of any of it was to transform, to grow and also to realize that this ability to transform is a great gift for all of us. One must shed the old skin to begin again so to speak. [We must] burn in the flames and rise again. My sun sign is Scorpio, so I suppose on that level it is natural for me to be focused on these ideas of transformation, as Scorpio rules this. I have found in my life many times that if I do not transform, I get stuck. Sometimes it is very painful as well, but necessary.

Prelude starts off with some really cool synth and drum playing, then rises into what is kind of a pretty rockin’ guitar part. It almost feels with the rock guitar part like you are having fun with the listeners, like “this is going to be a rock album,” and then you pretty much abruptly cut that off. To me, it’s like that macho element has been disrupted and then some grainy synth line introduces Space is Dawning. It seems like a sort of ushering in a new emotion, while giving a nod to older style rock. Is any of that intentional, do you see what I mean?

What an interesting idea! I didn’t plan it that way, but I like that idea. I think I was really just thinking about David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars at that moment (laughs). Josh [Klinghoffer] played the guitar part and I think it was just a fun thing to do and I wanted some kind of guitar in the beginning, as I love guitars!

Are the synth parts through out the first two songs divided between you and Josh, or just you?  

They are divided between us. It was very loose and improvisational in many ways. I would have a feeling in my head relating to the story and Josh and I would play around and find something that resonated to that.

Was the album recorded to tape?

It was actually recorded on digital 8 track.

What was it mixed down to?

Hmm, Josh did that. I think just a master CD and then eventually my friend Martyn Lenoble dumped it into his computer and mastered it properly.

I think you said it was recorded at John Frusciante’s house, was it recorded on the “King Crimson” 8-track?

(Laughs) What is that? I would lie to believe that! It was recorded at John’s using his 8-track that he had used to do a lot of the stuff from to record the To Record Only Water for Ten Days album on. We used his synths, too.

The reference to the King Crimson 8-track was about an article where John said that Curtains was recorded on the same 8-track as In the Court of the Crimson King.  I always wondered if he meant that literally the same, or the same model. Then wondered if you had recorded on the same.

Curtains from Niandra La Des? I think he meant one like King Crimson (laughs). I recorded on a different 8-track of his.

Are there any plans to release the book that this album is in conjunction with? I am sure a lot of people are curious about the details of places such as Blossom City.

I would like to eventually release the book, but when I have shown it to people they feel it may be too expensive to reproduce, which I actually disagree with, but yeah I would like to. Right now I am working on the music for part two and when that is finished I would like the whole thing to come out really. I am also making some short films to go with the whole piece. Blossom City is a place of innocence, if that helps.

Inside/Outside is a really beautiful track, very atmospheric, and a little reminiscent of ice cream truck music towards the end. Was that intentional?

(Laughs) That’s funny. I didn’t have an ice cream truck feeling in my mind (laughs). It is actually a Wizard of Oz music box that I had at the time. I loooove music boxes and I wanted to use one as they feel very child like and nostalgic for me and so then Josh just mic’d it in the bathroom as I wanted an echo-y type feel for it. Also, in the story Ic Explura finds a glass music box cube in the forest and when she opens it the transformers’ creature friends jump out and start playing the song that comes next: The Harmonium Song.

On the track A Serious Dream, was the classical sounding part in the middle done with a keyboard?  The strings and woodwind sound really good!

Oh yes, here is the next song, A Serious Dream. It is a harmonium done in rounds, like when you sing, you know? It starts and then it starts again and then again kind of thing. I wanted it to feel like a dance, it is very much like a waltz for me. The middle part is a Mellotron, I think. It’s been a while (laughs). I work very spontaneously for the most part. My ideas are very, very specific and I am going for a very particular feeling when I write with this particular piece as it is a story, but everything is very open and free as to how one can get there. I like to try a lot of different routes if you know what I mean. For instance, I might have an idea where I want it to sound like a mountain falling in slow motion with a red filter tainting that image. So, the routes of music that we take to achieve that, like which instrument to use or combination of sounds, etc., are chosen very spontaneously, although sometimes I have a clear and defined idea of that, too (Laughs) Contradiction as always, you know, I just really like the actual process of things – how they come to life.

Would you say that the instrumental tracks are in a sense traveling some mood spectrum towards the vocal songs, and was that intentional if so?  

No, no intention in that direction. Basically for me, there are times where words are necessary to communicate and a lot of times they are not, they just get in the way. It is just going with a feeling really. Also important for this piece always is the fact that it is a story. The music fills in parts of the story. When the whole thing is finished it will be a musical in two parts, a diary, some film and a storybook and all of these parts fill in pieces to the puzzle of the entire story. You cannot see the full story without all of the parts.

The Longing – the vocals on this are really great. Do you remember if more than one mic was used for your vocals? I really like how they run into each other. And what is that first line? Inside this forming …?

Well thanks for that. Only one mic was used here. It was a Neumann mic and that’s why it sounds so great (laughs)! Sometimes I’ll do fill-in vocal takes to get that call-and-response or running-on-vocals style thing. The first line is, “Inside this forming I can see out.”

Is that you on tremolo guitar? Or Josh? Or both?

I believe it is both of us on this track and, of course, Josh is always doing the drums. I love the drums on this! I just adore his drumming so much!

Ic Lands – some great “channel changing” sounds start this off. It’s a lot of what some people would call mistakes or edit out, but it sounds terrific. Do you follow your ear in taking risks using what some people would consider non-musical sounds?

Oh yeah for sure. That is some of the best stuff. I love mistakes, or what ever you wanna call them. I like to think of them as the spirits bringing you gifts; helping you to find what’s underneath it all. All of us tend to be so afraid of mistakes and problems and all that jazz. In music and, more importantly, in life, but these mistakes or obstacles or problems, or whatever you wanna call them are there for us. If we are open enough to see that they have a very real magic of their own and if you can learn to work with them, I find that is where you can actually see great beauty and wisdom. And in music and in art, I think they mirror something more true to life as life is full of mistakes and obstacles and problems and so on but that is where all the learning takes place. It is the gold. In alchemy, the “negrito” comes first, before the gold.

Black Fish Pearls — What a marvelous piece of work! This is honestly one of my favorite songs in the world. It’s got great back-and-forth vocals, meeting up to display beautiful symmetry, beautiful music.  Is that ice shaking in a glass at 46 seconds into the song?

Thanks again. I don’t know actually! (Laughs) Josh did all of the percussion here and he did it at home after we recorded everything else and then brought it to me. I love all of that stuff, too, so much. It is a sea song of sorts.

Is that a dog barking during the instrumental towards the end?  I didn’t think John [Frusiante] had dogs. Were they sampled? Field recorded? Also, was that a spray paint can used as a shaker?

Well, those would be neighborhood dogs. John is a cat man (laughs). I don’t know anything about a spray paint can. As I said before. Josh did the percussion at his house.

The Lesson in Eight Parts – Is there any expanding you’d like to do on the title, or is the lesson something to be learned by listening? This is one awesome track that shows Avant-garde music fits right in with songwriting.  Reminiscent of Yoko Ono and John Cage.

The story here is that when Ic lands on the transformers planet, there is a magician of sorts who teaches her how to communicate only through sound, so these are her lessons. They are also games of chance, and that is a kiss to John Cage from me.

Any further words on John Cage, have you read Silence? I’ve been absorbing that book for a while now. Any particular favorite John Cage piece?

I have read Silence and a few other books of his. There is a great one called Conversations With Cage, which I adore. As far as his pieces go, I really love all of the prepared piano pieces.

The Mirrors in Him – another great track! No specific questions, but there are great breathy vocals. Tangled Up in Music – A lot of guitars happening here. Were these tracks all you?

Yes.

All in all, I think it’s a truly marvelous album that definitely rewards repeat listening. Thanks for making it and making it available!

Well, it’s not only a love letter to the transformer, but a love letter to life and all that exists.

You’ve mentioned in the recent past that you are getting ready to make another Diary of Ic Explura album with Max Davies.  Has work on that begun yet?

I have started writing and recording. So far it has been me as well Max and also some drumming by Pete Newsome, and Josh is going to do some stuff as well. There may be some more people as well. I have a wealth of amazing musicians here in Nevada City. Slowly, but surely. I should have it done by next spring at the latest. I am also making a film to go with the piece and when it is all finished I would like to put out parts 1 and 2 of the music on a vinyl set.

Somehow I had missed Invocation to My Demon Sister being posted on your MySpace,  Is this track going to be on the next album or is it mainly posted to share because it will not be?

It is an early demo for the next album.

Also, I’m sure people will also be curious about any intent you might currently have towards releasing The Desert in the Shape? Would you like to address that at all?

Well, I may put it online at one point and people can pay-a-few-bucks-and-then-watch-it kind of thing, or maybe for 10 bucks you can download it. I am so busy with other stuff; I don’t know when though. I have a friend who is going to do this for me most likely though, just want to protect the film though as I don’t want it all over the Internet. It is something from my heart and it is really meant to be seen in a theater, ideally speaking. I would only do it because people have expressed so much desire to see it.

Is there anything you’d like to say to anyone that may read this?

“Don’t try to build in the space you suppose
is future, Lydia, and don’t promise yourself
tomorrow. Quit hoping and be who you are
today. You alone are your life.
Don’t plot your destiny, for you are not future.
Between the cup you empty and the same cup
Refilled, who knows whether your fortune
Won’t interpose the abyss?”
-FERNANDO PESSOA

For more The Diary of Ic Explura info, please visit http://www.myspace.com/thediaryoficexplura

For hand crafted art items created by Toni, please visit her Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/seminafilligree

Toni is also involved in a collaboration project with Chris Oliver Sounds. Visit http://www.myspace.com/magicandfunmusic for more information.

Max Davies is a great singer/songwriter, and partner musically and otherwise with Toni. His songs and other information are at http://www.myspace.com/maxdavies

I recently completed two books by David Toop, Ocean of Sound and Haunted Weather.  Both of the books were very interesting, Ocean of Sound had a bit of an ambient focus, and Haunted Weather was packed with experimental musicians doing absolutely amazing works of art.

I remember being so taken with some of the ideas that were used in Ocean of Sound that I wished I had thought of them myself, or had ideas that were on the same playing field.  For instance; a cd you can pick up in an English library that takes you on a Soundwalk, a sort of sonic adventure. Also sound sculpture gardens, or Max Neuhaus, who created the sound art equivalent of Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate, by descending into the grate installing a sound circuit and connecting it to a nearby light power source, so when people walk over the grate they are in a site specific sound installation.

I truly love sound, and reading those two books filled my mind with wonder and the impulse to participate in sonic creations of my own outside of the song world.  It would seem music can still be moved so far forward out of the song realm, like it still has ways to evolve, but what would be great is if there was a way to bring the song along with the musical sound evolution.

And in these thoughts I wonder, if I were to use the ideas presented in Mr. Toop’s books, would I be a thief, or would it be like taking those Chuck Berry guitar licks, you always hear about people lifting?   To what degree should artistic integrity be held?  One option is never play guitars because they have been played, and only play instruments of your own invention. 

Harry Partch invented some pretty neat instruments, go to http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/feature_partch.html to see and virtually play some of them.

The notion that everyone is a distinct individual, yet bears similarities to other humans, points that like each of us having our own genetic code/makeup, it is just as reasonable we all have our own creative makeup.  For years I spent my time emulating a particular musician trying as hard as I could to copy this person, probably because their work resonated with me. It is a just goal, to at one point leave your heroes behind, and create your own great work.

“Every Man and Every Woman is a Star” – Aleister Crowley.

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