BEN WILLIAMS VS. VON HEMMLING
Spring 2004
Von Hemmling
responding members: Mike Snowden (M) Jim Mcintyre (J) Trevor Tremaine
(T)
WHERE DID THE
NAME ORIGINATE AND HOW?
M: If you
put cotton in your ears and have a nearby friend say "Don Henley," you
will get a pretty good idea. Jim has the full story.
I NEVER KNOW
WHERE YOUR MUSIC IS GOING, BOTH BETWEEN SONGS AND WITHIN THEM, AND-DESPITE
HAVING SEEN YOU GUYS A FEW TIMESI'M EVER SURPRISED BY THE SEGUEWAYS AND
TIME CHANGES. THEY DON'T MAKE SENSE, BUT THEY WORK. HAVE I JUST BEEN REALLY
FUCKED UP? OR, IF YOU AGREE, COULD YOU CLUE ME INTO THE SONGWRITING
PROCESS?
J: Well
I've written all the songs so far. the
arrangements the band plays are more or less rigorous. Some songs such as
make your dad insane we're basically playing my composition while other
songs are very
collaborative
especially orchestration. The performance improv
has been dictated by a fancy set list which defines the placement and key of the
improvised segues. M: Within our shorter, more self contained songs, there is
usually a great deal of structural play. Many songs have codas, which I think is
a great way to introduce a new theme into a song without
go
ing for a more traditional
bridge/solo/chorus set up. Some songs don't even have choruses. Structural
play allows us to play simple melodies and progressions to a slightly unsettling
effect. Live segueways are usually
improvised under the direction of a chart. This chart basically maps
key changes between the self contained songs, as well as directions for
mood changes along the length of the set. It also does other, secret things that
I really can't go into here.
T: Jim
brings in a tune, and sometimes the parts he writes for us are fairly rigid.
Other times, it's a bit of a group effort. It seems like the drum parts are
always pretty wide open, or based on a really lose rhythmic idea. As far as
segueways, etc., we're all big jam geeks, and so
improvisation comes naturally. We work it into the sets based on
different musical cues, so that it doesn't become the central focus... you know,
noodling.
IF ALL CIVILIZATION EXCEPT MUSICIANS WERE WIPED OUT BY AN
ALL-POWERFUL, MUSIC-LOVING WARLORD-DEITY-MONSTER NAMED
J: That's a pretty good
allegory for the music biz. I'd obviously resist and
suffer
the consequences.
M: We have
a song about the fear of poor sexual performance. I think it's beautiful. I know
that at least Trevor would survive (based on his DRUM performance), and
that would be good enough. T: I don't know, none of
them have names. There's this straight up jazz-fusion/Steely Dan tune we've been
doing lately that blows my mind every time. I practice it whenever I sit down at
a drum set. Like, every note and every beat is pre-meditated and scored
exactly. It's my favorite Von Hemmling song so
far, and when Jim played it for me last spring, it pretty much jump-started my
re-interest in pop music. I almost typed `poop
music.'
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
HAVE YOU ACHIEVED IT? IF NOT, BY WHAT FEAT WILL YOU ACHIEVE IT?.... LET'S QUALIFY: HAVE YOU REACHED SUCCESS WHEN YOU
RELEASE A RECORD? PLAYA GOOD SHOW? PERHAPS WHEN YOU DON'T NEED ANOTHER JOB AND
CAN SOLELY SUPPORT YOURSELF THROUGH CREATION/ PERFORMANCE? OR, IS IT ART FOR THE
SAKE OF ART? SOMETHING ELSE?
J: I'm
obsessed with music thats the
motivation. Success is submission to art and denial of self doubt. And patience. Success is. patience. M: For me, making art for the sake of art will
suffice, but success is not acheived until I can
support myself financially playing music. I do believe, though, that
playing music would become much more like a bad job if art were removed from the
process.
T: Success... dunno. I guess just mastering
ensemble playing, and being involved with something
that is great and unlike anything else any of us have ever done. Recording, having a t-shirt, etc. Every show is a new peak,
for me.
Do YOU GUYS PLAN TO RELEASE SOMETHING SOON? IF NOT, PLAN ON IT
ANYWAY AND TELL ME IT'S A CONCEPT RECORD....
J: We're recording now. The record's
about four dreamers who rock.
M: We are working on an exploratory piece- call it a decollatage a tete- in which we approach the dialogue between the fibonacci sequence and the circle of fifths. We started by painting John blue and then going out for a bite to eat. Expect to see it out last week. T: We've recorded a ton of stuff. We're a concept band. The concept is `music.