What attracted you to King Crimson originally?

I had no clue of KC up until I was about 23. I was into Peter Gabriel at the time, and discussing the phenomenal talent of Tony Levin with a friend, he suggested "here, listen to this..." Hearing the first notes of Elephant Talk I remember the fascination being almost immediate. Discipline was my initial exposure to KC and I was overjoyed to be able to keep discovering layer upon layer of pattern, texture and meaning - the music just seemed inexhaustible in terms of listening staying power. Only afterward did I discover the "improv" King Crimson by way of the Red/SABB/LTIA edition. I thought the group dynamic of especially the quartet to be quite magical, the way they could conjure up such powerful and beautiful music from way out in uncharted territory.

 

Did you already play guitar then - if so, how long had you been playing ?

I had been playing guitar for about 7 years by then, electrical (self-taught) and classical (properly;-) (coincidentally, my guitar was a black Gibson Les Paul Custom, for no good reason other than a good purchase opportunity at the time, but it must have been some foreboding :o)

 

When and how did you start to practice seriously (assuming you do)?

I always had some discipline of "practice" vs "learning to play stuff" - I ported the practice of running scales and scale variations back and forth from having had some years of formal lessons on organ in my youth, to the guitar. I started seriously after my brother made the painful (but saving) remark that "I can't play worth anything" (using a rather more effective colloquialism). I started inventing my own etudes such as arranging some classical pieces (e.g. Badinerie - JS Bach) on electrical guitar which improved my right and left hand technique simultaneously as well as refined their mutual coordination. I think I acquired, in a search for optimum efficiency and consistency, a rudimentary cross- or alternate picking style rather spontaneously. Finally a lot of motor skills from my classical guitar studies made for a good synergy with electrical left-hand technique. From classical guitar I'm especially grateful for a properly developed angle of the hand and position of the thumb (which is notoriously poor among purely electrical guitarists - some legends included!)

 

Would you credit your ability as a guitarist more to talent or hard work?

I would actually rank an ongoing curiousity to improve as the driving force over the years. That coupled with the belief that improvement is possible at any point, provided the necessary sacrifices are made. The hard work follows almost inevitably from that. Most of my skill improvements have been quantum in nature, and always follow a pattern: realization of current limitations; analysis of most likely obstacles; elimination of the culprit technique or approach; substitution with the fresh, better thought-out approach (which then requires practice, practice practice). This sounds analytical but the experience and driving force in fact is quite emotional: happy complacency to dissatisfaction to frustration, through a deep trough of turmoil, to finally (hopefully) a "joyous moment" arriving at a new level. Talent I feel lies mostly in hearing (first and foremost). Technique will only develop to the extent that one can resolve the difference between how something sounds and how one thinks it should sound.

 

Similarly, would you credit your ability as a musician more to talent or hard work?

Well, it couldn't be hard work since I know I'm lazy, so by elimination... Musicianship to me is to a large degree interaction with other musicians. If this were a skill to be acquired by hard work, I would doubt that music would ensue. But defining or describing the "talent" required or involved is difficult - it is so many things even including the (much dreaded by me) interpersonal dynamic. Being inside the music, living and breathing it, and again hearing it (so obvious but so inexplicable) - one starts to develop some type of musical compass by which one can be guided as to what to play, when to play it, when to shut up, etc.

 

Do you have perfect pitch?

No. Like most musicians (one might hope) I have a fairly keen sense of relative pitch, aided by some amount of "pitch memory" which allows one to bridge intonation across considerable lengths of time.

 

Can you sing?

Not by a whole bunch of fairly acceptable standards. I'm definitely no singer, but I've sung backing vocals in my previous bands.

 

Do you have a difficult personality? By this I mean, are you a Raging, Venal, Heartless etc etc...?

Probably, my personality is most difficult for myself and less for others. I believe (and insist;-) that most musicians don't find me difficult to work with on the whole, but I have some silly traits that I'm aware of. The most irritating my being somewhat on the sensitive side to the music on one hand, and an inability to properly express said sensitivity on the verbal-communicative level on the other. This leads occasionally to states of whiny or introverted insultedness, where instead some amount of eloquence and a view of the bigger picture might probably be more satisfying.

 

Do you like an audience? How does the presence of an audience affect your playing?

I have until present always been amazed at the amount of generosity in any audience - the patience, preparedness to listen, gratitude even for what is being played. This is immensely gratifying for me as an occasional performer and enhances and elevates the music being played to something entirely beyond what's present in a "performance" in isolation.

 

How important is good technique?

My position on this has changed over the years. At first, it was almost an end in itself. Moving past that (which is mostly accomplished by being sufficiently humbled and outclassed by, face it, BETTER players:-), technique becomes a highly valued servant to the content, feel and aim of the music you're aspiring to perform. Then, much later, with agility, flexibility, accuracy and speed comfortably under the belt (ha!) - proper technique becomes important again to improve endurance, avoid injury, poor circulation etc.

 

Do you always cross-pick?

Yes. I have to think hard to identify the exceptions. I sometimes stick my plectrum in my mouth or lodge it between my knuckles and play with a classical right-hand style in these cases: when playing harmonics (of the proper kind, like e.g. in Fairy Fingers, Guitar 2); when playing two distinct, simultaneous parts (e.g. the middle "bass cello" part of Red: thumb plays the bass notes, fingers play the Fripp chords); when going for a certain effects in solos or accompaniment such as rasgueados (but not often).

 

Rasgueados? Really? Do you grow the nail on your pinky for the purpose? Do you play flamenco for real?

I'm not a flamenco player - the music just doesn't seem to grab me. I do play a fair amount of contemporary South American music such as by Abel Carlevaro and Astor Piazzolla. Rasgueado is a quite common expressive technique in this genre.

Pinky nails might be a flamenco thing. I maintain only the i,m,a nails but fairly short - my personal preference for better sound and control (the same reasons for my preferring the tiny droplet-style plectrum for electrical guitar).

 

Do you sit or stand to play and why?

I stand, but at great penalty. Even when I make a conscious effort to keep a straight back and balanced posture, it is not. The left shoulder, left foot and lower right back muscles (not to mention spine) take the brunt of the pressure. Just play long enough sessions with a Les Paul and you'll know. I would sit if not for two reasons: I feel uncomfortable being "pinned" to one spot; and I would actually *look* like I want to be like Fripp (now, I just sound like I want to be like Fripp;-).

 

Do you use NST?

I don't use NST - I just haven't been prepared to make the necessary sacrifices. Issues arising from this refusal are that some things sadly become impossible to play, such as The Moving Force. Fortunately, FraKctured can be played almost adequately in POST;-)

 

What guitar and equipment do you favor and why?

I don't like loads of effects or processing such as filters, flangers, wahs etc. I think I'm fairly basic in using a limited palette of clean and distorted sounds coupled with looping devices. My Gibson has been my faithful companion for almost 20 years now, and I like its clean tone, its sustain, its solidity and I've come to accept its sheer weight. I also have a Strat-type guitar: a Levinson Blade which is (besides much easier on the back) an engineering feat and just a joy to play. For amping I use a Trace Elliot rig which I like for its lack of coloring - flat all the way through. For coloring I rely on the guitar itself and on digital modeling processing from Line6, which I like because it sounds anything but digital (I still have but don't use a Roland GP-16 processor, so I know what digital sounds like!).

 

 

Which part of your body is your weakest link vis-a-vis guitar playing?

Sorry for the perhaps smart-alecky answer, but I'd have to say the brain. Oddly it can also be the strongest link occasionally, provided it can be made to let go of set ways and attitudes. Of all the challenges involved in guitar playing, the mechanical ones are much more easily overcome than the mental ones. A common trap for guitarists is the misled belief that the left hand is where it's happening. Posture, eyes, attention all get channeled in that direction involuntarily. Unless you're like Allan Holdsworth and can play and drink a cup of tea at the same time, a lot of the blame for things sounding not quite the way they ought to, should be directed eastward. Plus, if the right hand is only there to "serve" the left hand in what it's playing, there would appear to be no point for the right hand to acquire any agility beyond what is being demanded from the left. What if the left hand could be made to serve all that a richly developed right hand were able to summon up?

 

What are your best and worst habits as a player?

Worst: Hmmm... the problem here is picking one, not being at a loss to list any. I myself would say sloppiness. My wife would mention the involuntary grimacing and facemaking.

Best: Permutation. In learning to play a piece, dissecting it, playing bits and pieces in different ways, tempi, fret positions, fingerings until it all comes together finally. This happens rather haphazardly but I do believe there's no successful linear approach to learning, as in playing one note after the other the same way every time. Sort of like: in order to play something right, you have to know where the next closest approximations are. These become a kind of global set of contingencies which you draw upon to increase your robustness and consistency in the face of the timeliness and urgency demanded of a performance. I might be able to explain this properly one day......

Did/do you practice FraKctured slowly and then increase the tempo?

Yes. Many permutations, including very slow, slow, comfy, at-speed and (messily) above speed. But it's not the gradual increase that gets you there necessarily, because different things are required (or being addressed) at different speeds. I'll give an example: I find it works occasionally to play the damn thing at a forced high speed even messily for a while, because it feeds and excercizes the motoric portion of the brain with certain impulses which are needed in abundance and for an extended period of time (especially in the right hand) to execute the full piece. Then gearing down to a comfortable speed "puts the notes in order" and improves the accuracy. I would contend that if you develop the piece gradually and purely incrementally, at slow speeds you develop certain habits (on the micro level, such as fingerings; or on the macro level, such as right-hand positioning) that work well at slow speed but are completely in the way when you need to speed up. You would then later need to get rid of these, which is much harder. Thus spake the utter hack:-)

 

Can you describe in a little detail what "non-parallel arpeggios" reveal about the structure of FraKctured?

I'm not overly educated musicologically, but I have a picture of what they mean to me. The top voice leads, takes intitiative but is errant, searching, insecure. The bottom voice (alternating two notes which allows it to function as an anchor) follows but in an anticipatory way, drawing back or stepping ahead at times, thereby providing counterbalance and reference to the top voice. This in my pop-psy understanding of things means to me that the top voice represents the masculine, the bottom voice the feminine component part of a whole. I am not sure how that analogy would apply to the structure of FraKctured as a whole, but it does provide some clue. Speaking from experience (playing, that is - although listening probably does the trick too), the experience of a sense of reconciliation is a prominent emotion throughout the final sections, especially after the Brutal section.

 

Jakub Misak has noticed that certain finger patterns in NST in FraKctured closely resemble fingerings in Fracture which was originally written/performed in OST - what's this all about?

I was quite puzzled by it, unsure of how significant it is. It might mean that, for Fripp to play the first notes and recognize them as FraKctured was a form of miraculous accident, a remnant of a past practice being reincarnated. Then again, the elaborate nature of the piece might contradict that, suggesting a rather more deliberate origination. Then it might mean (because two alternating 'modules' are involved - one OST fingering played in NST tuning, and one new fingering) that this alludes further to the concept of reconciliation of two distinct, complementary elements, the tension among them, and their potential to coexist.

 

How do you transition into the Fairy Finger sections so effecticvely - how do you dissipate the preceeding momentum?

At one level (in my experience) the momentum is not dissipated but rather stored temporarily, like kinetic energy in a flywheel ready to be tapped again later.

At the purely mechanical level though, it pivots around of course the last note of the Moto Perpetuo simultaneously being the first of the Fairy Fingers. It helps thinking like a classical guitarist too perhaps - the last 'module' of the Moto Perpetuo is one barre position , the first few notes of the Fairy Fingers is another - things don't appear to happen quite so intimidatingly fast if you think of it that way rather than a sequence of notes. Finally, cross-picking quite dramatically reduces the level of excess motion in the right hand to a level of minimum wasted effort / highest efficiency. The experience is that of a proportionate step-difference in effort between fast and slow bits, rather than a drastic difference.

 

Who else, apart from Fripp, has influenced your playing and why?

I note that your subquestion is "why", not "how".... Allan Holdsworth, not necessarily for his obvious technique but mainly for his ability to mentally project so many notes so fast and always in complete touch with the chord progression and tonality at hand. Pat Metheny for his natural, lyrical, intuitive style which speaks so much to the emotion.

 

When will Fractal perform FraKctured in public?

Our first official public gig is at a company event for two of our members' employer, on August 10th in Mountain View, California. Our expectation is that most of the audience will question exactly what hit them. It will of course be recorded!

 

Is this a private party or are tickets available?

It's a closed company event. We're using this as a springboard for a proper gig.

 

Thank you Nic - good luck!

26/7/01

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