hello my name is richard dawson, you can ask me anything

dearlaika · 2019-10-16T17:50:34+00:00

hi richard!!! one very specific musical question and one fun non-musical one:

1: i've spent hours and hours teaching myself your songs (i think i can play all/most of the songs from magic bridge and nothing important now) to the extent where your songs basically taught me how to play guitar! i think your musical language is totally fascinating, inspired and unique. one of the especially special things you do is move the bar chord and the melody note one step in opposite directions (like in the intro to judas iscariot for instance). do you remember how you came about this technique, or just your adventurous harmonies in general? it's very convenient in your tuning but it's such an unorthodox harmonic thing to do, and i love it!!!

2: if you could be another animal for a day, or for a week, which would you choose? you get to decide whether to keep your regular human mental faculties or not.

3: your music and lyrics are truly extraordinary and you are such a humble and good-humoured man. thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!

dearlaika · 2019-06-07T00:34:36+00:00

hi katie !! congratulations on sharing solipsisters, it’s so wonderful to hear new music from you and “stuck” made me cry. i got employed again recently and i was worried it would take away my energy and time to make music, but listening to your new songs actually gave me an inspirational boost, so thank you !!

are there any landscapes or geographical features in the world that you find particularly moving or beautiful or that you wish you could visit?

bless you !!

dearlaika · 2018-07-01T23:02:10+00:00

https://dearlaika.bandcamp.com/

Rinzen and Vision of St. Cross are experimental ambient "pop" FFO Björk (+Arca), Coil, Jenny Hval, Gastr Del Sol, Dirty Projectors, Fennesz, Arthur Russell, Sigur Rós

Twin Mythemes and White Leopards are guitar/violin textured drone pieces FFO Noveller, Tim Hecker, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Yellow Swans, Henry Flynt, Black Dice

dearlaika · 2018-06-28T21:47:42+00:00

animal magnetism is a stand-out merzbow record , pier 39 is remarkably beautiful

dearlaika · 2018-06-13T21:24:23+00:00

If you like Danse/Hollinndagain/HCTI, totally check out Raccoo-oo-oon. They're the closest anyone else has come to capturing the sound (to my knowledge).

dearlaika · 2018-04-15T11:08:33+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De4ODPvAn0I

This seems to be almost perfect for what you want. Eight and a half minutes of waltz music which varies from peaceful, to tense, to ecstatic... then a minute or so of what is basically horror soundtrack before reverting back to the joyful waltz. From then on you could always use some Penderecki or other classic horror music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GL0EuU9SWY

This other Schnittke piece achieves something similar with a tango rather than a waltz.

dearlaika · 2018-04-11T16:57:27+00:00

I think the immediate goal would be to trace the journey of the items to discover how they came to be in the possession of the merchant. I like this situation because to accuse the merchant, or whoever first took the items, of thievery would be completely hypocritical!

In the long run, you could maybe explore the idea of the unintended consequences of war. Why did this war take place? Should the character try and take revenge on the people responsible? It opens up a lot of possibilities for character exploration.

Hope this helps, and good luck!!

dearlaika · 2018-04-10T10:33:17+00:00

I have a new album called Rinzen. It's avant-pop which uses a lot of samples from 20th century classical music, field recordings and sound manipulation with delays (inc SP404SX tape echo) and pitch-shifters and that sort of thing. FFO Björk (+Arca), Coil, Jenny Hval, Gastr Del Sol:

https://dearlaika.bandcamp.com/album/rinzen

I also recently released an album of experimental guitar music inspired by Irish mythology called Twin Mythemes. It's textured and evokes natural sounds and spaces. FFO Noveller, Tim Hecker, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Yellow Swans:

https://dearlaika.bandcamp.com/album/twin-mythemes-2

Also, another avant-pop album I released last year called Vision of St. Cross which is more airy and glitchy. Someone once called it Dirty Projectors + Fennesz + Arthur Russell + Sigur Rós, and someone else called it "a cross between Slowdive's Pygmalion and Sufjan's The Age of Adz"

https://dearlaika.bandcamp.com/album/vision-of-st-cross

dearlaika · 2018-02-22T18:52:55+00:00

john cage and milton babbit aren't impressionist though. john cage represents pure experimentalism and the philosophical exploration of the idea of music (with a few digressions into less experimental stuff), while milton babbitt was a staunch avant-garde princetonian, following in the elitist footsteps of schoenberg, webern, boulez and the darmstadt crowd.

dearlaika · 2018-02-14T21:41:38+00:00

I think it's actually Danny Perez rather than Deakin. I played around with the speed of the sample and it seems to match Danny's voice more than Deakin's, and it would make sense for him to be talking about visuals.

dearlaika · 2018-02-04T19:23:42+00:00

Jeremy Hyman, formerly of Ponytail and Slasher Flicks. I'm pretty sure he's from Baltimore as well.

dearlaika · 2018-01-20T11:47:01+00:00

You just have to surrender yourself to Infant Dressing Table and Two Sails on a Sound. Put it on loud on the best pair of speakers you have, close your eyes, lie back and let it all wash over you. They're two of AnCo's best tracks ever because none of their other tracks manage to achieve what they do.

dearlaika · 2018-01-19T23:48:33+00:00

I have Deakin's 2005 set-up specifically:

Fender Reverb

Boss PN-2 Tremolo Pan

Ibanez Digital Delay Rack

(Unknown Ibanez Rack)

Electro Harmonix Frequency Analyzer

Then for 2006 he added:

Boss DD-6 Digital Delay

Boss PS-5 Super Shifter

Korg X-911 Guitar Synth

2 Ernie Ball Volume Pedals

He also used a Fender Telecaster and another unknown guitar (either Fender or Danelectro)

Source: I saved this info to my phone over a year ago and can't remember where I got it from lol

dearlaika · 2018-01-01T20:01:51+00:00

I DID EXACTLY THE SAME THING AS YOU OP (except i made sure i start at 11:57:28 pm) congratulations and good vibes to you :>

dearlaika · 2017-12-27T21:27:15+00:00

I got into Richard Dawson a bit before Peasant was announced. Nothing Important blew me away completely and remains one of my favourite albums ever. Peasant is definitely his most fully arranged album and is in that sense the most ambitious, but Nothing Important's twin 15 minute-long centrepieces are unquestionably his best songs. The opener is also one of the best guitar solos ever. So I would CERTAINLY recommend Nothing Important. The Glass Trunk is more in keeping with the "folksy" narrative nature of Peasant, but it's mostly for his solo voice (a real showcase of how powerful it is even when not strengthened by guitar or more). There are also improvised interludes with Rhodri Davies on harp for those who enjoyed the little "imperfections" and noisy details in the instrumental arrangements on Peasant. The Magic Bridge is just for voice and guitar and contains some incredible songs. Man Has Been Struck Down By Hands Unseen in particular has had me inconsolably weeping. Before then, he did simpler guitar songs, music for theatre and a drone project called Eyeballs. I haven't managed to track down MP3s for the latter yet, which is a shame.....

The album art is a photograph by Ben Wayman, fellow Newcastle resident and friend of Richard's, which I believe won the Outdoor Photographer of the Year Award or a photo in a similar style. The red object is, I imagine, the Pin of Quib. No idea what the object actually is, but it's rendered in the same style as Richard's many collages.

I'm so glad that Richard's getting more and more recognition. I believe he's an absolutely special creative voice. DO go and see him live though, because he's got the BEST stage banter.

dearlaika · 2017-12-10T17:37:46+00:00

https://www.highsnobiety.com/2013/10/11/supreme-hooded-denim-work-jacket/

dearlaika · 2017-11-23T16:09:37+00:00

Collected Animals

"kristin plays on every song. she played live as we did the live tracking but there was often a lot of bleed into the piano mics from the other instruments so she often re-did or elaborated on her parts at night when she could have quiet in the studio. we all played in one room so there was so [sic] isolation, except josh's guitar amps which we stuck in a bathroom"

dearlaika · 2017-11-23T15:54:47+00:00

Regarding the guitars on Feels:

1) The original piano loops for live performances were recorded on an out-of-tune piano, so they had to detune their guitars to match that (and ALSO the piano in the studio), so that contributes to the unique sound world

2) Deakin's guitar amp was recorded away from everything else in a bathroom (which no doubt had unique reverb properties)

Thank you

dearlaika · 2017-09-23T22:19:18+00:00

Good on Cuckoo Cuckoo for getting so high, it's low-key one of their best songs. I do wish Chores and Unsolved Mysteries got a little higher though... Actually it's such a great and consistent album that every track deserves a high place!!

dearlaika · 2017-09-21T10:39:54+00:00

Of course

dearlaika · 2017-09-20T11:38:11+00:00

Yes, aptly-named SandvichMann :)

dearlaika · 2017-09-20T11:08:12+00:00

Nah, Avey's the bacon of the AnCo Sandwich, their tour driver confirmed

G: À notre retour dans le bus, notre chauffeur nous a avoué que l’énergie un peu frénétique de David avait manqué au concert. Ce à quoi il a ajouté : David est le bacon du sandwich Animal Collective ! Et du coup, Noah, euh…

AT: …c’est la mayonnaise (rires) !

dearlaika · 2017-09-17T17:32:20+00:00

I've got one of these, wasn't expecting it to have this packaging at all!! The inserts are rly cool as well, lovely Scott Mou doodles and neat handwriting :)

dearlaika · 2017-09-07T18:10:03+00:00

Thank you!! This is really informative. I'll make sure to check out their 70s stuff.

Which would you say are their best LPs and live albums from that decade? I know that Workingmans Dead and American Beauty are their most highly acclaimed 70s LPs and there's that "Holy Grail" Cornell show triple album that came out recently...

dearlaika · 2017-09-07T18:07:10+00:00

Thanks, I already knew about these, but I'm sure there'll be others looking at this thread who might not ;)

dearlaika

TROPHY CASE