Altered Zones

[Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography]

By Max Burke

Colin Stetson: "Those Who Didn't Run"

Colin Stetson is an American born, Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist who has worked with Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, and Arcade Fire, among many others, and currently tours with Bon Iver. Stetson's solo work hinges on his virtuosic command of the saxophone, with a particular emphasis on the intimidating and cumbersome bass sax. Live, the tremendous physical commitment required to play and his baffling circular breathing technique make his ambitious compositions doubly hypnotic. It is difficult to describe the otherworldly strains Stetson conjures from his instrument, but sometimes it sounds as though an entire orchestra has taken up residence in his horn. In the studio, these are documented on the first two volumes of his New History Warfare record series and the just-released Those Who Didn't Run 10". The third and final installment of the New History Warfare series is due next year on Constellation Records. I caught up with Stetson just before a rapturously received set at Asbury Park's Paramount Theater on the first day of All Tomorrow's Parties' inaugural I'll Be Your Mirror festival, curated by Portishead.

Have you ever played an All Tomorrow's Parties event before?

I was booked by Jeff [Mangum] to do the Minehead All Tomorrow's Parties a month or two before I was asked to do this one. That's my only previous experience. I was surprised when Jeff asked me and I assume that somebody talked to somebody else but maybe not.

And did you have a relationship with Jeff beforehand?

No, not at all. Only with his music, I adore his records.

In the broadest possible sense there are primarily "rock" bands on the line-up at ATP. When you play solo, do you often find yourself playing for rock audiences that aren't necessarily expecting a solo horn player?

Not really. I used to tailor a set to different crowds when I would open up for bands. To a certain degree, if I'm opening up for a band and have a thirty-minute set I will avoid going into long-winded spatial areas just because I'm limited by time. I don't really do that anymore, though; I just have the music I want to play and I play it. I used to differentiate between different situations: these are free jazz shows and these are rock shows. But now they all come together. I've made a conscious effort to make there not be a musical distinction.

Has the overall direction of your set list changed significantly over time?

No, the arc is always the same. I try to create a certain shape out of the set list, just like I try to create a certain shape out of a record. That hasn't changed but the songs that go into it have changed. It used to be that when I played a long set I'd just go, "Okay, I'm gonna play everything I know."[Laughter] But now I can't do that; physically, even if I tried, I don't think I could do that. Although I've been talking about, after the third volume is out, doing a long show where I present all the music of all three records live. My booking agent's just worried about me physically, but I think I can do it.

Your live set is extremely intense and physically demanding. How do you prepare for a performance?

I was just lamenting these past few days about how I never have enough time to take a break. I never get in a situation where I've taken a break and then get back into it; my regimen has to be pretty much constant, and that regimen has to be pretty in-depth. I have an hour yogic breathing thing that I do every morning that really helps to dilate and expand my lungs. I run between three and five miles every day and I do an hour to an hour-and--half of yoga and then practicing. When I'm doing shows, I try to at least play warm-up material, and then at least one time through the set; I prefer it to be twice through the set along with everything else I do. Two to four hours of practicing. All in all, it's like a work day.

[Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography]

Is that physical strategy an adaptive response to performances or was that the plan early on?

I've always been kind of crazy practicer since I was young, so that discipline has always been there. But the running, the yoga, the breathing-- that's been new over the past couple years. It wasn't like all of a sudden I had new music that I couldn't play unless I did that; it just came hand-in-hand. I started seeing the way to do certain things and there wasn't a physical way to do it unless I did [the regimen]. If A then maybe B-- maybe I can attain this thing that I have in my head. It's been pretty successful in terms of that: the more I do, the more I get better and it adapts everything on the instruments to be better. That being said, if I go a few days without practicing or without doing the stuff I totally feel it-- it's a huge swing. I'm in one shape when I'm on a solo tour versus a Bon Iver tour. So right now I'm kind of in the middle of Bon Iver tour shape so there will be some sweat today.

How did you decide on the concept behind the three volumes of the New History Warfare series?

I think pretty cinematically and the trilogy is an archetypal cinematic concept. I've always been obsessed with the number three, with things coming in threes. When I started working on the music, putting it down and codifying it for Volume One, I realized that was just going to be scratching the surface and the beginning of something that I knew would have an ending. So I decided I would say then that this was the first part of something that would be three parts. Over the years it's been developing as I write. The way that I've been writing music is that I write a companion piece, so to speak, that's a plot-driven surrealistic story. The way that I'm thinking of it is almost in terms of film or graphic novels and very visual. Dealing with imagery, the development of character and the development of place helps me to write the music and sculpt the direction and the overall thematic structure of the record musically. I attained that much more clearly on Volume Two and Volume Three.

Colin Stetson: "Judges"

What is the status of Volume Three?

I haven't started recording it, I've just been writing it over the past year. I keep on saying this but I would say I'm about 95% done with the writing of it and now I'm trying to wrangle it and push and pull stuff and I'm dealing with a couple of vocal guests. My plan is to have it recorded by the end of this year.

How did your relationship with Constellation records come about?

Ian [Ilvasky, Constellation founder] and I had friends in common. He saw me play for the first time about a year before Volume Two came out and immediately he felts strongly about the music. I had heard a lot of their records and felt strongly about them as a label. We're good friends and it's a really nice relationship. It's the way that I always like to do things, and it was really beautiful to have it happen so effortlessly.

Would you say you feel an aesthetic kinship with the other bands on the label?

Certainly, but I don't know what I would put my music next to. If you're talking genre specifically, trying to pair me with someone. No one has ever done that and people who try... when I'm on the bill in more of a free jazz festival, they'll always put me close to the rock things because they see me as this kind of rock music. When I'm on some sort of bill with rock music they'll try to put me close to something experimental or noise stuff. I get tossed around but it's never quite like, "Here's my corner where we're all alike." I like it that way; it's nice to occupy the fringe.

You don't personally have an idea of your own music in terms of genre?

I avoid speaking of genre when it comes to my music, or when it comes to most music. I feel like on its face it just detracts from the experience. Everyone has expectations based on these codifications that we have. If I say, "Oh you're gonna really love this, they're kind of a country band," somebody who hates country music will be like, "Oh, I'm not gonna like it" and when they listen to it their understanding of it will be colored already. So if I told somebody to listen to my record and said, "Yeah, it's free jazz saxophone," then they would hear that immediately and that would sculpt their understanding of it. If I said, "Listen to this, it's electronica, it's this new techno," then they would hear it another way. I don't like for people to have an expectation or that color coming in; I just want people to hear it anonymously. Glenn Gould has said, “The ideal audience-to-artist relationship is a one-to-zero relationship.” At that point, when you're presenting that music on a record, you're no longer there. It's operating by itself. Long story short, I don't care to put labels on stuff. It's absolutely necessary to sell things and to get people to places. I understand that, but for my taste everybody else can do that. The label has to do that. The publicist has to do that but I don't have to.

Who are your influences on the saxophone specifically?

Ben Webster, one of the big ones growing up. Peter Brötzmann and Cannonball Adderley, Thomas Chapin, Henry Threadgill.

Evan Parker?

I have listened to Evan Parker but I wouldn't call him-- that's one of the things most people would say-- "Oh, you're totally Evan Parker's boy." That's not been the case. Not that I don't love his music, but it's not been one of the bigger things. I've spent countless hours listening to Brötzmann and Laswell's Low Life,but I haven't sat with any of Parker's records like I did with that one or [Threadgill's] Too Much Sugar For a Dime. Those are ones I had a lot more time with.