trumpet

interview by Sarah Midrow

Amarevois asked me to do this interview for her website. Coming from a 'trad' jazz and big band background, I wasn't sure what I was in for from the blurbs I had read, but the tracks she sent me were less pop than I'd feared, and more interesting than I had hoped.

SM: You don't call yourself a trumpet player, but you still managed to play some pretty convincing lines on the new album, how does trumpet figure in your musical life?

A: Well, because I like to play around with lots of different instruments I really don't have the time to practise them all, in fact, I'm pretty bad at practising as a discipline at all. I just write a line, learn how to play the line the way I want it to sound, record it, and then the instrument tends to sit amongst the pile of pars and tapes until it is next needed. The down side to not practising is that you lose the strength in your lips and have to start almost at the beginning again (laughs).

SM: Did you study formally with anyone? How did you go about learning?

A: I had a lesson about embouchure and mouthpieces from a local guy 'TOC' who's played with some legendary Australian bands, but I lost his notes a few months later, so hopefully some of it stuck! I mainly learn to play by picking tunes out of my head, singing a line and then trying to replicate it on the trumpet. A friend of mine used to call this trial and success!

SM: How was learning trumpet different to any other instrument you've taken up?

A: To be honest, I'd say that next to the viola, trumpet is the most challenging and difficult instrument I've ever attempted to play, because you only have three valves, and you have to make everything happen from just those three valves, unlike say, the luxury of a guitar or a piano where all the notes are laid out for you like a banquet. I've only given up on one instrument ever, and that was the trombone, but the trumpet runs very close to that in terms of effort required. Its deceptively difficult.

SM: Who are some of your trumpet heroes?

A: Jon Hassle and Arve Henriksen who have both recorded with David Sylvian, are unbelievably inspiring trumpet players. To me, there's a completely relaxed attitude to their playing, and the lines and the phrasing are absolutely fluid and more like a voice than just an instrument. They seem to go for emotional texture over technique for its own sake, I mean - some of the notes aren't clean at all, and you could say that there's too much breath, but they use whatever works for the line and they can make you cry, it's such poignant playing. They can sometimes make the trumpet sound like a completely different instrument like a shawm or some funny middle eastern pipe or something, I don't know if they used a wind controller for those effects or what, but they are my two favourite players. I don't really know any others.

SM: What about players in history that have influenced you?

A: Hard to be original with that list, it would be Myles and Dizzy and Satchmo and a few Spanish guys whose names I'll never know.

SM: Have you ever played trumpet in a live context?

A: Yes. I toured through Asia in 1996 with a funk covers band and I played keyboards and trumpet and did a few vocal duties. It was a lot of fun. Other than that not much, I'm afraid.

SM: Any cool touring stories?

A: Well, its not very cool, quite the opposite, but I stupidly left my mouthpiece in my trumpet after the last late rehearsal before leaving Melbourne airport, and somebody just happened to kick my trumpet case, a soft case, and the mouthpiece got permanently stuck in there for the whole tour! I couldn't remove it. We went to the only music shop in Bali, but they didn't have the vice tool required to remove it, so I wasn't able to warm up the mouth piece or my mouth, ever! It was a total nightmare. I learned how to fake my tuning on that gig and will never do such a thing again. SM: You told me that you don't read music for trumpet and that you're not a fan of transposing instruments, is that right?

A: No, I don't read for trumpet, I just play by ear. I think the whole transposing thing is silly. I can, in theory, understand the need for it, but I write all my scores at pitch and then each player can take their part away and do what they want with it. It does my head in otherwise!

SM: What kind of an instrument are you playing these days?

A: I own a terrible student model Bb trumpet that a dear friend bought me as a present and it has definitely served me well throughout the years…but, I've been lucky enough now to borrow a friend's Bach Bb Trumpet which has the sweetest sound and is at least 10 times better than mine, so I'm using that right now. I also have access to a really nice D/Eb trumpet which I'm having fun with as well. I like that all the notes are in the 'wrong' place and I'm coming up with some interesting lines on it. You see, you just wouldn't get that happening if you actually knew what you were doing, now would you? (laughs)

SM: Do you have any special recording techniques for trumpet? Some of the lines I heard sounded like they'd been processed?

A: One thing I like to do, and probably because my horn is so crappy that I've learnt to do this to try to make it sound better…is that I play kneeling down, quite close to the floor, preferably on carpet, and I mic up the reflection coming off the floor. This fattens the sound and makes it sound a bit more flugel like. The if it's a brass section that I'm trying to build, I'll do each take from a progressively greater distance from the mic to make more or less of the room come into play. It works well and makes a small group sound quite a lot bigger and more evenly balanced. Some of the lines are processed with phase or a wah pedal or something. I try to keep it natural and open.

SM: Do you have any plans to play in a more traditional jazz vein?

A: It's certainly something I'd like to do in the future, maybe when I have more stamina and can play for more than 20 minutes on the trot!

SM: Do you think you'll ever be taken seriously as a brass player?

A: You mean I'm not now?! Well, I don't think I want to be taken too seriously as anything, and I very much doubt that I'll be on the cover of 'trumpet monthly' or whatever, but I do enjoy playing the instrument and who knows? I might get asked to do something more legitimately jazz-like! (laughs)

SM: (laughs) Cool, thanks for speaking with me.

A: A pleasure, thanks for doing it.

Sarah Midrow
freelance writer
Sydney Music Journal