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A Q & A with Phil Western

What is your musical background? How did you get started? Where are you from? Where do you live now? Do different places inspire different kinds of music from you?

My background, for going back to the very beginning, is as a drummer. A lot of drummers end up making music, because when you play drums in bands, you tend to lack any outlet for musical ideas you might be having. I started getting interested quite early on in the recording process - renting 4 track machines and being excited when I could turn the tape over and hear things backwards. I started in Vancouver - I lived there for most of my life. I moved to Los Angeles a couple of years ago, and I would say that while it hasn’t inspired me as directly as traveling does, it has made me feel more motivated to work harder. I still think that taking 3 to 6 months and going to a completely foreign part of the world is probably the most inspiring thing to do in terms of getting new ideas, and new songs written. That and having the tools to make the process inspiring as well.

What are you working on now?

I just released several albums in a row. There were two Download albums last year, a Plateau album. One for a project called Kone, which is the most recent, just went out this week. I also released an album called 4am at the end of last year. As well, Mark Spybey and I completed an album together which will be released in April, and finally, I released a live cd of a performance I did in December. Now I am working on getting a new show constructed so I can start playing some of this new material out. I do want to keep writing new material as well, but there has been a lot of writing lately, and my batteries feel a bit drained. I would like to do some traveling, or work on someone else’s music for a while to just sort of get recharged.

Describe for us the composition and recording process as it applies to your work.

Well, it has changed quite a lot due to the fact that I have much less equipment which has been a blessing and a curse. It was not a practical option for me to bring down a whole studios worth of equipment to Los Angeles, and so therefore I have found myself working with a laptop and several small monosynths and my effects processor. What I am really missing is having a large console and lots of effects to work with. I became accustomed to a dub approach to mixing over the years, and using a lot of sound sources acoustically, which was enabled by having a large space and a lot of equipment to work on. People who have followed my work over the years probably notice that lately it has become more minimal and more electronic, which is largely due to this fact. I will work in the old way again, when it is possible, and then I will probably infuriate people by releasing albums that run the full spectrum of genres again….something I have had a tendency to do in the past.

Do you prefer to work alone or with collaborators?

I think it depends on the collaborator. I have worked with a few collaborators over the years -Tim Hill, Kevin Crompton, Mike Kandel, Dan Handrabur and lately, Dave King. My favourite people to work with are the ones who are excited by the process and bring something new and exciting to the project. Tim and I have always had a certain telepathy in the studio which makes him the one person I prefer to work with again and again. Doing live shows with Dave is fun because he is a consummate showman. Dan and I made some really great music together, and Kevin and I have as well, although our personalities are such that we always end up wanting to kill each other at the end of every project we do.

People today have so many options when it comes to listening to music. The MP3 player in particular frees us from radio, and leaves radio scrambling to maintain relevance through satellite, podcasting and other sources of so called new media. What do you listen to for pleasure and how do you listen to it?

I still prefer to listen to LPs. I prefer the tactile nature of putting them on, checking out the cover. This is how I started listening to music, and it remains my favourite. The problem is carting 2 or 3 thousand records around. MP3s are ok, but I don’t really like the way they sound. I find the whole act involved with digital music kind of cheapens the experience, but that is probably more due to my age than anything. It is the way people listen to music now, and as long as they still get goose bumps occasionally, then I say go for it.

As an artist, what are your thoughts and feelings regarding p2p / file sharing? How do you feel about copyright? Is the current law too strict? Does it last too long? Do you think that reform should happen? And do you think there will be any changes in copyright law as a reaction to p2p?

I don’t really care one way or the other about file sharing. I obviously like to make a living making music, but money has never been the sole objective of making it. If someone hears my music for free, and enjoys it, then I have still done my part. Its not something I lose sleep over. I think people who get really uptight about the whole file sharing thing end up usually being people with plenty of money who want still more money. That has been my experience anyway.

Your music is very cinematic, and is wonderful for setting moods. Are you a visual person in general? Do you compose with your “mind’s eye” focused on pictures, scenes and other visual ideas?

I tend to close my eyes and listen to the song over and over and then approach it like painters approach a painting. I read a really interesting interview with David Lynch where he said he would sit in front of a painting for a long time, and then an idea would come and he would jump up and do something….then he would sit back and continue to look and look and wait for the next idea. Music is a lot like that. You listen over and over and over and wait for the next idea. Its important to wait for the idea and not just throw everything at it and clutter things up senselessly. It takes motivation as well, because sometimes you don’t feel like investing energy in the idea, but that means that you might lose what could be the turning point in turning the song into something really special as opposed to something just ordinary. So, no, I don’t really see anything outside of what is in front of me, but the process is analogous to visual art in some way.

Your music seems to lend itself to setting very well. Some of it is clearly made to for lovers, and so on. When we interviewed the visual artist Robert James, he indicated that some records were made for certain activities. Do you have a favorite driving record? A favorite BBQ record? A lot of your work seems to encompass themes of travel, escape and human interactions - do you travel a lot? Where have you been in your life? What places were the most interesting? Where would you go back tomorrow if you could?

I find records enhance experiences much the same way that drugs used to. I remember traveling in India the year Spiritualized released Ladies and Gentlemen we are Floating in Space, and that cd didn’t leave my Discman for several weeks. It seemed to heighten the experience in a way that cannot really be described. I loved India anyway, but music was a big part of my experience there. I listened to music all the time - a lot of the time I listened to Indian music there obviously as well, which lent a certain authenticity to the experience. I would return to India in a moment if it was financially possible. As far as making music for certain activities, I haven’t really done that, but if people are having sex to my music, I find that kind of flattering and totally surreal at the same time.

Aside from music, how do you keep your creative juices flowing?

Again, travel is key. Reading good books. Listening to other people’s music, although that can be discouraging. Sometimes other people make music that is so good that I just want to quit and learn to knit or something.

Looking down the road, what do you imagine the music of the next couple of decades will be about? Do you think music will remain the shared experience of youth and youth culture? How can music transcend the stigma of youth culture and still remain relevant?

I think music will always be the unifying and dividing theme of youth culture. It will be the most immediate example of self identification among young people, and will continue to influence fashion and other things like that. Music is basically a language of emotion that helps bring people together and helps individuals connect with something and not feel alienated. The more personal the music is, the more Universal it tends to be. My favourite music is still the music that makes me feel like I am not so alone in the world. Music that is constructed from fads - be it the sort of electro punk thing, or other homogenous music, is probably the least interesting to me.

Any parting words or ideas? What does Phil Western think about that we should all be thinking about?

Well, that is something I can’t really say. Hopefully we are all trying to be a little nicer to each other, The strangest thing to me is how separate people are. I believe we are born connected to the Universe and spend our youth trying to carve out a separate identity. Then we go too far out, become too separate, and we lose our connectedness with the rest of the world. I think that separateness, which is fueled by religion and by other forms of self identification, is what ends up resulting in different types of prejudice and hate, and basically is why we are killing each other. So as John Lennon said, “Come Together”.

Phil Western dot net — a great resource for Phil Western fans

Colour Speaks — the record company

Phil Western — on MySpace

About Phil Western — Wikipedia

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