stomach clenching, resonant bass excursions by Rothko

Rothko

Many thanks and appreciation to Alison & Martin www.moid.be for the Rothko
live photos. All photos (c) copyright Alison Orr & Martin Bowman.

THE FIRST STAGE OF ROTHKO WAS COMPRISED OF 3 BASS PLAYERS, WHAT KIND OF REACTIONS DID YOU RECEIVE UPON YOUR LIVE PERFORMANCES? Firstly, thank you so much for even considering to ask me about the music. Well, at first I think people were surprised to see us turn up to gigs & plug in our bass guitars, other bands found it curious, some thought it was a joke, but they were usually bands who played what always seemed to be Oasis cover versions even though they were playing their own songs. The thing is, without drums, we had enormous amounts of sonic space to exploit, & this meant that we could play at extreme volume, demolishing pa systems along the way...the bass trio will always be seen as something dubious by a few narrow minded people, but for me, it was deadly serious. We usually got a great reaction from audiences, no matter who we played with on the bill. I think our achievements as a bass trio speak for themselves. I'm very happy with the remnants of that period of the band.

WAS IT A CONSCIOUS DECISION TO GO OUT THERE & SAY "LET'S SEE HOW MUCH WE CAN ACCOMPLISH WITH THIS LINE UP", OR WERE THERE NO INTENTIONS? Truth is, there was no plan or thought behind it other than I wanted to make music. I seriously had no idea of the music scene or what was out there so to me it just felt like the natural thing to do, but I also thought we'd just do a small handful of shows & it would evaporate in it's own time... I honestly, in my wildest dreams, never expected that we would ever have anything released & if you'd told me I'd still be here making music nearly 6 years later having worked with some of the most special & inspirational people I've ever met... well... I'd have just laughed.

THE BEST QUALITY OF THE EARLIER ROTHKO MUSIC IS THAT IT IS VERY MELODIC & ACCESSIBLE YET AT TIMES QUITE EXPERIMENTAL IN THE DIFFERENT TEXTURES YOUR GROUP HAVE CREATED WITH JUST THE BASS GUITAR. QUITE VAST & EXPANSIVE WITH A VERY MINIMAL USE OF EFFECTS. DO ANY OF YOUR COMPOSITIONS HAVE PARTICULAR THEMES / IDEAS, OR DO YOU PREFER THEM TO BE MORE OPEN TO DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS? There has been quite a few different things that happened in the early days. At first, there was no group, it was just myself, with the help of Nick Olofsson from the group "Cay" at the controls, recording onto a 4-track. I don 't even know what purpose I had in recording at the time, but Nick encouraged me along the way. most of those early recordings appeared on 'a negative for francis' (blowing the myth of the bass trio out of the water) & I only thought about putting a group together after I was told that someone could help me with getting a gig. I hadn't thought about playing live or putting a band together until then. I continued to record tracks on my own & do cassette only releases (five in total) for about the first year or more of the group, & all those recordings eventually found their way onto 'a negative for francis' - 'forty years to find a voice' and 'no anchor no chart no rudder no sails' which contained 10 tracks from my early cassette stuff. It wasn't all about the bass guitar though, it was about sound. I can't play any other instrument & have always just written stuff on the bass. There were other things in there too; pianos, voices, sounds from the TV, sounds from the outside world... all sorts of stuff. As for effects...I've tried to lay off them as time has gone by. Crawford is a very technically proficient bassist, far more so than myself, & his playing style definitely shaped the live sound of the band, I've yet to hear a more powerful bass player. He's pretty incredible actually. Yes, some things had a definite theme... in fact for me it's vitally important regarding titles, especially when it comes to naming singles, albums, EPs. All the titles mean something to me. I put a lot of thought into it, but of course it's down to us as individuals as to how we perceive what anything really means to us on a private & personal basis.

YOUR SOUND HAS A CINEMATIC FEEL TO IT. HAVE YOU ANY REQUESTS FOR SOUNDTRACK WORK? People have always said that, & I dearly wish that I could get some work of that kind, or even get a track in a film or advert, as to be brutally honest, the money would sure come in very handy. But the bare truth is that, even though I have a Publisher, I've never had any requests of that nature. Unfortunately.

HOW IS THE NEW ROTHKO BAND WORKING OUT? There hasn't really been a 'Rothko band' since June 2000. It's just been me & those kind enough to be involved, although the gigantic input of Delicate AWOL definitely made 'A Continual search for Origins' a complete band recording. They helped make that album a very special experience for me, as I'd wanted to work with them from the very first time I'd met them & heard them play. Beautiful people.

YOU HAVE ALSO BEEN PERFORMING IN A SHIFTING LINE UP? CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE THIS HAS MADE TO YOUR SONGS? Since I split the original line-up, it's been a shifting live group for over 2 years now, it's been absolutely fantastic & liberating. It's made each gig very different but definitely more exciting. Presently, at this moment in time, the live line-up is fairly solid, with myself on bass, Michael Donnelly, also on bass, & Frances Morgan on violin. it's a very gentle and delicate sound right now, & it shows me that the music is always open to change. it's what helps keeps it alive.

ANY PLANS TO DOCUMENT DIFFERENT PERFORMANCES AND RELEASE THEM? None at all. I really can't bear to listen to live recordings anymore.

HAVE YOU ANY PLANS TO VISIT AUSTRALIA FOR A TOUR? That would certainly be a dream come true. If I get a couple of tracks on a film or an advert,(!!) I'll try & come over, but the way things are financially... sadly I doubt it will ever happen, which makes me pretty sad, & I'm very sorry to have to say that.

WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS TOWARDS CD COPYING, MP3 AND SHARE WARE MUSIC WEB BASED PROGRAMS? I think this is an exceptionally contentious and controversial issue. It makes me sick to see the big labels saying how hard done by they are & bleating about 'sales being hit'...they rip their artists off anyway... but small people like myself (where 50 sales are seen as amazing) have to dive in to this world of mp3's & embrace it as it's a good way of getting sound & information out there... I'd be lost without it to be honest...but I'd be lying if I said I was totally happy about the situation ..I'm now running my own label to put my stuff out & believe me, selling 50 copies goes a long way to paying the mastering costs etc... & if small labels want to keep putting things out they have to rely on sales far more so than the huge Sony's & BMG's of this world... yet they want it stopped & we want it to grow... you see my point? It hurts the small label/artist much more so than the major ones. The big labels aren't bothered about their artists, they say they're 'protecting the music buying public' - bullshit - a CDR done well is of totally equal quality to a shop bought CD. They're upset because they aren't in control. It's a difficult issue to talk about. As I said, I'd be lost without having a web-site where people can find out stuff about what's happening with the music. It isn't perfect, but what is?

YOU HAVE A BURN ON DEMAND CDR RELEASE AVAILABLE ON THE BURNING SHED LABEL ("No Anchor, No Chart No Rudder No Sails) WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS ON CDRs BECOMING MORE WIDESPREAD FOR INDEPENDENT LABELS IN THE FUTURE, AFTER THE LINEUP CHANGE DO YOU CONTINUE TO SUPPORT CDR RELEASES? 'No anchor no chart...' has been on sale with the fantastic Burning Shed for over 2 years now. If you look at their catalogue now, it's very extensive indeed & will grow & grow I'm sure. I'm thinking of putting out some CDR releases also, it's a great way of getting things out & I'm a firm believer in it. One reason that Burning Shed are so successful is that they can keep costs down by producing cd's to order & their packaging quality & design is just superb, & they distribute the money from any copies sold directly to the artist. I think they lead the way in the field. A rare & precious label indeed. As I mentioned earlier, 'no anchor..' contains mostly things I recorded on my own either before the band started or just afterwards. Changing the line-up was a matter for me of my psychological well-being. I had no choice. The first release on my own label was originally going to be mail order CDR, but then it grew into something more, into a proper album, so I decided to put it out properly, but there will be some CDR's once I get some nice packaging sourced.

THERE IS DEBATE IN REGARDS TO USING LAPTOPS FOR LIVE PERFORMANCE? DO YOU AGREE WITH THE "AS LONG AS IT SOUNDS GREAT ITS OK" PREFERENCE, OR DO YOU BELIEVE IN GIVING AN AUDIENCE MORE OF A SPONTANEOUS IMPROVISED PERFORMANCE USING LIVE INSTRUMENTATION COMPARED TO SITTING BEHIND A MONITOR? It's whatever works for the person making the music I think. If they feel comfortable in front of an audience with a laptop... then great, let them do it. It somehow grants certain people instant credibility too for some reason I've yet to figure out. But out of the endless list of those I've seen using a laptop, I've only seen/heard about 3 or four people do anything remotely interesting in live performance using one, namely, Richard Thomas, Kid 606, Simon Fisher-Turner and Kaffe Matthews. I've been in audiences watching people watch people using a laptop, & it baffles me. At one 'gig', while there was someone on stage looking intently at his laptop, someone turned & said to me 'is he answering his e-mail?' Myself, I prefer to play backing tracks using a cd or mini-disc player. At least they don't crash. Unless the batteries run out.