As many of you may already know from reading these pages, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic are one of my favourite bands. I was lucky enough to catch them six times this past year, and I'm already looking forward to seeing them again this year. Their unique blend of such different genres such as classical, jazz and rock into a complex, yet inviting modern chamber style is like nothing I've heard before, and will always rank among my favourite music. I've been able to chat with the band on various occasions, but never really got into much detail about various aspects of the group, and I am honored to present this interview conducted via e-mail with pianist Erik Lindgren and reeds player Ken Field. Enjoy. 

 

Birdsongs has been together in various forms since the early eighties. How do you feel the group has progressed since the beginning, and what do you see as your strongest moments?

Ken:  Birdsongs has certainly changed through the years, and I hope we will continue to do so in the coming years.  But I also hope that there is a recognizable element that consistently characterizes the "Birdsongs" sound.  I think our strongest CD is the next one, due out in January 2003 on Cuneiform.

Erik:  I am especially partial to Birdsongs' first era circa 1980-'87 (you could call it our "Triassic") which included Roger Miller on piano, myself on Mini/Memorymoog and crude rhythm machines, Rick Scott on Farfisa organ (later DX-7), and Martin Swope on guitar. Much of the material was written by Roger and the pieces were very quirky and angular in a good way. That was when the band was at it's punkiest and we did a considerable amount of touring throughout the states. We would go on these 10, 20 or we even had one 30-day tour and it was pretty insane since we usually played every night and had to sleep on peoples floors and couches. Often we would have local bands open for us so we really got a heavy dose of what indy rock was about during the '80s.

Right now, I'd have to say right now is the most satisfying phase for me personally since we've never had a higher degree of pure musicality and musicianship. I also tend to favor the more complexities of our music and like the direction of our recent compositions. Usually a musician will tend to think that what they are currently doing is the best. I'm actually quite proud of the entire musical legacy that we've created. Birdsongs has never been able to be pidgeon-holed which is a good trait although confusing for our prospective audiences and booking agents.

What do you have in mind, if anything, when you get together to write and record new material? How much of the pieces are written individually beforehand?

Erik: All of the compositions are written by individual members so there is very little collaboration. This winter the group is currently in a phase where we are composing new material for the forthcoming CD slated for release in January 2003. We go from having prolific and creative periods like these, to times when we are primarily rehearsing, to other times when we are focusing our energies on recording or performing.

Ken:  As Erik says, almost all of our music is written individually, and then brought in to the group for feedback and performance.  Each of us has a different approach to composing for the band.  I generally write using Finale music notation software on my Mac, which lets me listen to what I'm writing as I go along.  I try to create music that I haven't heard before.   Writing music for Birdsongs is very different (and much harder for me) than writing music for my other projects.  For one thing, writing for two keyboards and guitar presents many more possibilities than writing for saxophone trio or quartet...

For me, your material has always been instantly appealing, before revealing the complex structures beneath. Is there a conscious approach to this, or is that just how it happens to fall into place?

Ken:  I think that we write music that above all appeals to us personally.  The underlying complexity is often a direct fallout from some other simpler aspect of the music.  For example, what might appear to be a complex time signature might be the result of the needs of a specific melody line.

Erik: It's fortunate that all of us has a sense of Pop inherent in our compositions. I am just glad that none of us have an Elliott Carter or Schoenberg fixation. Aside from Stravinsky, I am also a big fan of good melodies and intelligent harmonic movement. It's probably sacrilegious to say this but I probably own every Hall & Oates album ever made. I'm also a huge Big Star and power pop fan and things get interesting when you try to merge that aesthetic with the complexities of Webern, Steve Reich, or Varese. Most of my compositions these days work both sonically and as puzzles on paper. I like international relationships and consider that to be one of my strengths compositionally.

How do you approach writing the drum and percussion parts on the Mac [computer]? Is this something that Michael does solely, or is there more of a group involvement?

Erik:  I've always been a "note" man and conceive the percussion parts after the score has been written down and rehearsed with the band. Many of my pieces are constantly changing meter so it's hard to lay down a 4/4 groove underneath. On Petrophonics, I did an interesting experiment with "Birdhead," in which I took a pre-recorded rhythmic 4/4 groove played by the NYC band Drumhead and literally composed a complex work overtop that constantly shifts meter. It was a very bizarre experiment but I like the end result.

These days I much prefer working with acoustic percussion rather than sequenced parts. We were fortunate to have 2 members from the Alloy Orchestra play percussion on a bunch of the pieces on our latest CD.

Not having a traditional drummer suits the more chamber-like aspect of your sound, but are there any times where you feel that the electronic percussion has limited you in any way?

Ken:  The biggest drawback to sequences is that they do not listen to you.  A human player listens and responds to the other players, maybe only in very subtle ways, or maybe in dramatic ways.  Playing with sequences, whether they be percussion or other sounds, is very demanding on the human players because of this one-sided listening thing:  you have to listen and follow the sequence, but it doesn't reciprocate.

Erik: Much of our music from Faultline and Pyroclastics employs too many stock '80s drum machine sounds and stiff sequences. I'm actually working with an all acoustic ensemble consisting of flute, clarinet, bassoon, myself on grand piano, and a world percussionist and have reincorporated some of those vintage works into our repertoire. Having ethnic percussion on a rocker like "The True Wheelbase" really turns me on. It breathes, which is something sequenced parts don't necessarily do well.
 

Your music covers a wide array of styles. What are the individual influences that are brought together to form the end product? Do you see any dominant individual influences showing through the finished pieces, or have they become melded to a group sound?

Erik: The unique thing about the members of the ensemble is that each person brings something unique to the table. I am a huge fan of '60s garage/psychedelic rock and try to incorporate aspects of that era of music with my compositions. Rick is very into jazz harmonies, improvisation, and sound design. Ken comes from a groove/funk background while Michael is strongly influenced these days by Bulgarian Music and techno. So with all these diverse styles, it makes for an intriguing melting pot of sounds and synthesis.

The final product of your songs seem very composed, and while playing live, you all read sheet music intently. Is there any point during the writing process where improvisation plays a role in the songs? Has improv ever been a part of your live performances?

Erik: I'm primarily interested in contemporary classical composition these days in which every musical parameter is specified. But I'm always doing some very experimental works outside my work with Birdsongs. Two years ago I wrote an 5-movement 25-minute experimental opera called "Rude Awakenings" in which all four musicians followed stopwatches and a timeline. The libretto was a series of pre-recorded phone answering messages written by my good friend and author Pagan Kennedy. I also incorporated a lady back-lit from behind a screen talking on the phone. It sounds fruity but I was satisfied with the end result and released it on the 1999 CD "Stimuli' (sFz-003).

With Birdsongs, there are pockets of improvisation in which a member will solo on given parameters for a specified period of time. Michael does a hellacious guitar solo in "Nevergreen" which atonally dive-bombs and swerves in a chaotic frenzy.

Even though there are masters at improvisation like Thelonius Monk or Benny Goodman, I feel that it is often rehashing ideas that easily fall on one's fingertips. If you go to a lounge and see people do commercial jazz, you'll usually hear something that sounds like jazz but is probably a string of clichés that the musician has played for years.

You've played a number of live dates this past year, and your shows are always great and a lot of fun (I should know, I've been to almost all of them ;). How do you choose which songs will get played live? Are there some that can't, due to overdubs or studio effects?

Erik: Live, we generally like to focus on newer material although there are always old Birdsong chestnuts that we just like to play. Recently we've been revisiting some older compositions and doing more contemporary arrangements of them. One in particular that has been revived is "Lost In The B-Zone," in which Michael has brought the sequenced rhythmic track into the new Millennium. He's also reworked the percussion part to "Birdgam" so that now it now sounds like a Donna Summer disco track!

Thanks to Michael's hard work, the group recently brought back our 7-minute suite of Stravinsky's "The Rite Of Spring". That was always a defining piece in our repertoire and works as well now as it did in the past.

Oddly, some pieces don't seem to work anymore and have been dropped for good. When Martin Swope left in 1991, we tried to keep Brian Eno's "Sombre Reptiles" in repertoire but it just never worked. Michael obviously can play the notes but there was something Martin brought to it that just can't be recreated again.
 

The band's performance at NEARfest 2001 seemed to go over great with the entire audience. Do you feel that the band fits into the current progressive rock scene? What were your thoughts on some of the other bands that played that weekend?

Erik: NEARfest was a real revelation for me personally because I was unfamiliar with the current state of progressive rock. Again, most of my listening is of contemporary classical composers from the first half of the 20th Century like Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Debussy, Satie, plus Steve Reich who I consider to be the Beethoven of our era. I also listen constantly to obscure '60s psychedelic and garage rock since I run Arf Arf Records, which focuses on preserving that musical chapter in American history. I'm also an avid record collector and am always looking for new discoveries from that prolific dayglow era.

I really had a fantastic time connecting with many of the people who attended the festival. NEARfest is without doubt the best run event I've ever been to and both Chad and Rob should be raised to sainthood! Even though I am unfamiliar with many of the progressive acts today, I am an aficionado of first-generation prog rock bands like Egg, Arzachel, Khan, Soft Machine, Magma, Caravan, and early Kraftwerk.

Are there any other projects you are working with outside of the band?

Erik: As I mentioned before, I'm playing piano with the Sonare wind trio and our repertoire is exclusively my original compositions, works by Raymond Scott, or anything else I personally want to do. We're not a function ensemble but curiously the group performed at Julia Child's going away bash in Boston this Fall. It was really satisfying to be playing our unique repertoire and have someone come up and enthusiastically say, "Hey, That's Powerhouse." We're currently working on a CD which I hope to release on my sFz label later this year.

Ken:  I have a number of outside projects.  I have released several solo CDs of my compositions for layered saxophones, and I perform regularly with a saxophone quartet ("Dig Big"), a New Orleans influenced brass band ("Revolutionary Snake Ensemble"), and an improvisational groove project ("Board of Education").  I also write music for Sesame Street.  My projects are detailed at my website, http://fieldk.home.att.net.
 

The cover of "In C" you played in September in NYC was amazing. Any chance of this piece being recorded for an upcoming album? Are there any other pieces the group has played that have not been released?

Ken:  That's a great idea, which we hadn't considered:  to record and release "In C" for a future album.  It's a great piece, and I agree that the performance of it in NYC was special (maybe due to the circumstances - we did this piece specifically as an opportunity for us and the audience to reflect on 9/11).

Erik: Speaking of "Powerhouse," that's one we played out and even performed live with the Rova Saxophone Quartet a few years back. As for "In C," it's always been a nice cerebral piece but so far we haven't chosen to record or release. I would want to do something radical with it--like put a hip hop beat behind it. We're getting a new repertoire together this winter and will hopefully perform many of the pieces live when we tour this April.

Every Birdsongs album has steadily evolved from the last. Can we expect anything radically different on the next recording? Any other thoughts on the forthcoming album?

Erik: I've recently done three new music/psychedelic arrangements of traditional American spirituals and will be sampling my good friend/bass baritone Oral Moses next month when he comes up to my studio. Having vocals out front on a couple pieces will be a radical departure from our previous instrumental stance. Obviously we'll "Birdsong-ize" it so don't expect us to compete with Britany Spears or Michael Jackson.

Outside of that, I think it will be a logical extension of our previous work. How that will take shape sonically is anyone's guess.

Thanks for the interview guys. Anything you would like to add?

Erik: Esquivil passed away on January 3rd of this year. If any of your readers are unfamiliar with his outrageously original arrangements, I would strongly recommend checking out his remarkable recorded legacy. He is a master of orchestration and will hopefully become more than just a footnote or sidebar in the History of American Music.
 

       - Mike Prete [January 2002]