The Tin Lustre Inner-views

Monday, March 24, 2003

The Tin Lustre Inner-views:

David Thomas

andrew: david, as an
artist, a musician, what do
you believe sets you apart
from other artists /
musicians?


DT: The only possible
response is: unique vision.
The fundamental principles that
shape my work are not unique...
the folk methodology is as old
as the hills. My life experience
is no different from hundreds of
thousands of others. The culture
I was raised in is shared by
millions. So I guess all I got
that is different is me.





andrew: do you see
yourself as a revolutionary?


DT: No. I see what I do
as being firmly rooted in the
mainstream of American musical
culture. The music we create
comes in a clear and unswerving
line that tracks the evolution
of American culture thru the
magnetic age. Like an
apprentice I studied at the
feet of master craftsmen
(metaphorically speaking), to
emerge at the end of the process
as a master myself.

All of this is tradition-based.


andrew: david, tell
the TLM audience a little
bit about your past
and present projects...
what bands / projects have
you been involved with?


DT: All of this can be
found at these websites:

http://www.projex.demon.co.uk/bio.html

http://www.projex.demon.co.uk/solo.html

andrew: ...and what
projects / bands are you
involved with currently?


DT: I just finished
a tour with Pere Ubu and
curating the Disastodrome
Festival at UCLA. I am in
the middle of writing the next
David Thomas and two pale
boys record for release in
the fall. I have prepared a one
man show called "Surf's Up In Bay
City." I am preparing an
UBUDOLL series of events
with Jackie Leven in the fall and
I am preparing a series of events
with a group of Danish improvisors.


andrew: would you say
that your work is influenced by
the great alfred jarry? would
you consider yourself a surrealist?
a pataphysician?


DT: The thing I found
interesting in Jarry's work
was his theatrical methodology.
It seemed to me to foreshadow
American radio and provide
some visual tricks for the
translation of the power and
poetry of American radio onto
a rock stage. I am not a
traditional surrealist. All
that DuChamp's, etc, work in
the earlier part of the century
is alot like Absolutely Free
by Frank Zappa-- it's really
great when you're a high school
kid but if you don't grow out of
it and evolve to find it
mildly embarrassing then you're
gonna get stuck somewhere tiresome.

On the other hand, the musical
methodology I pursue often
attempts to find a sur-reality
thru the use of overlaid
seemingly un-related information.
I guess if you say Elvis was a
surrealist then you can say I am
to the same degree.

Pataphysics I find tiresome
and irrelevant.


andrew: do you push for
a sense of drama, of the
theatrical, with pere ubu
and other projects?


DT: I don't "push" for it.
it's simply there. The object is
to stuff as much data into as
small a unit of time/space as
possible. if you don't use
every trick, every technique,
available-- if you don't look
to invent new methods every
project-- then you're wasting
your time. I am naturally
theatrical, I suppose, but
the object is to always shove
more data down the pipeline.
Remember in 1976 we called
it Datapanik In The Year
Zero. Most important,
though, is to be in adequate
control of what's going on.
Which means knowing how to
balance the known with
the unknown. That's
why I describe myself as a
laissez-faire perfectionist.
Know when to let go of your
artifice and allow it to
be mugged by reality.
My own ideas have never been
good enough. I rely on working
with others, stirring a soup
of conflicting ideas out of
which a whole greater than the
sum of the parts can emerge.


andrew: do you think
that the music of pere ubu
can radically alter states
of consciousness?


DT: That's not
for me to say.


andrew: david, how do
you believe revolution starts?
is it an inner process, or?


DT: Got me. I am not
a revolutionary. I am a
traditionalist, if anything.
As I said above I see myself
inside a stream. I like being
in the stream. It's exciting to
see the levy pass by, to see
the cities and towns along the
bank come and go. I try to
avoid the eddies and backwaters
and brackish swamplands that can
pull the unwary out of the
flow... out of the mainstream.

(NB "Mainstream" is defined by
the future NOT by what is
temporarily popular. The
Beatles will be forgotten
in 20 years. Beefheart won't be.)


andrew: when you think
of the term "musique
concrete" what
thoughts immediately
come to mind?


DT: Tape recorder.


andrew: you're from
ohio, correct? how do you
think living in
the midwest has affected
your work?


DT: I like one chord rock
a WHOLE LOT. I don't like talk.
I don't like art. And I REALLY
don't like to talk about art.


andrew: david, do you
have any last thoughts before
we conclude this interview?


DT: I never volunteer
information.

Photograph of David
Thomas provided courtesy
of David.

---

Inner-views 3:12 PM - [Link]
...