Sound Colour Vibration (Music | Art | Film | Technology | Science | Culture)

Owner of Bridgetown Records, Kevin Greenspon is a Southern California based musician whose construction of sound is something we really respect and cherish any time we have experienced it live and listen to the albums. Utilizing texture over technique, he creates landscapes of tones that cover the entire spectrum of human emotions and in the most subtle and honest of ways. Where many musicians who create ambient and texture based music look for extremes, Kevin Greenspon reaches for areas of sound that are more common place to the everyday pace of the lives we experience that is in a middle ground where as he mentions, “things just are”.

Kevin Greenspon works relentlessly on the materials for his independent label along with his own path with touring and all the other extensions of music culture he expresses with his platform. We opened up communication with Kevin in the last year or so and knew right away that he was an artists we really wanted to find our more about it in our interview projects. Below is the results of this exchange along with a plethora of media to absorb from Kevin’s catalog. We are also presenting two new premieres from Greenspon today in the tracks “Against Words” and “Betrayed By The Angels”.

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*All performance photos of Kevin Greenspon by Sarah Collins

Q&A with Kevin Greenspon of Bridgetown Records
Conducted by Erik Otis
2012-2013

www.kevingreenspon.info | www.bridgetownrecords.info

Erik: Hello Kevin, I have been slowly going through the last materials released with your Bridgetown Records imprint and I am very happy to say that we will be following what you are doing very closely in 2013 for reviews. Thank you for your time with this interview and we hope to open up some good dialogue on your new records, your label Bridgetown Records, your thoughts on current music and more. Can you explain your background with music and why you have chosen the type of music you present to the world?

Kevin: I started playing guitar around 1999 and recording a few years after that. I’d try my hand at a lot of different sounds. One thing I remember when I was a teenager, I’d sometimes think about how it’d be interesting to take a brief moment of a guitar note ringing out and imagine that as the basis of a piece of music instead of assembling a series of riffs and repetitions. A single note or chord had all this character in it that was overlooked because song would take precedence over it. But I’d analyze this in a really casual manner, thinking about how the overdrive gives the note a bit of crackle that’s different at every instant, or chorus would have this sound weaving into and out of itself. Any effect or combination would give that single note a multitude of diversity in its character that could fill a space. I didn’t do a lot with this idea at the time besides a few recordings, but it’s sort of stuck with me. These days I’m still pretty interested in blending that notion of how you can put a note, chord or series under the microscope, and apply it to writing and arranging songs that aren’t necessarily traditional, but aren’t clinical science experiments either.

For most of my records, this has been my palette for expressing personal stories in the same way that an acoustic guitar and voice are for a folk singer, or a pen and paper are for a writer. I want to put myself out there and music is a huge outlet for me, but I don’t really consider myself that talented musically. The elementary parts of playing an instrument or producing a recording are at my disposal but getting bogged down in the minutiae of details with instruments, software or equipment doesn’t excite me. The bottom line is that I don’t think that music or any kind of expression is about being technically proficient in the classical sense. It’s important that anyone can do it by any means available to them.

I may make a lot of music that falls under the ambient/experimental/etc. umbrella, but it’s not really for the sake of experimenting, and doing something that’s cutting edge or unique isn’t at the top of my priority list. There are things I want to express and this is the way that feels most comfortable.

Erik: I feel that your music is very spiritual and also visual. With your music, a closing of ones eyes and a nice sound system can create something very surreal and beautiful. Where does your mind go when you are deep in performance and creating the material that eventually ends up on your records? Has music ever given you an out of body experience or any other form of unexplained phenomenon that will stick with you forever?

Kevin: It’s always nice to hear that, it’s really fulfilling when my work is able to help people step out of the moment and take a break from the real world in some manner, especially if it takes them somewhere that is comfortable and relieving. It’s not my main intention to write music that is an escape from the world though. It’s just how some people interpret that, and I’m completely fine with that. It can mean anything they want to them. I’m not really a spiritual person though, so the mental focus is more on summarizing emotions and experiences.

Erik: What types of feelings or emotions do you try to convey the most through your textures of sound?

Kevin: From my perspective, most of my recordings are dominated by a somber or bittersweet emotional theme that I try to translate into the music. It’s a direct representation of what life feels like to me: not quite sad, not quite hopeful. Sometimes I feel like a lot of music or art focuses on extremes. There are so many albums out there that really show how someone fell into a dark and depressing spiral, or is celebrating pure joy. In experimental music, it’s really common to think of harsh noise being a document of utter distaste for one’s own self or their social surroundings, and bliss is often the go-to descriptor for melodic ambient sounds.

We spend a lot of our lives in the middle ground though, and sometimes that gets overlooked. It can’t always be great or terrible. Sometimes, things just are. It’s okay to get carried away with a tiny victory or be unhappy with one’s present situation even if it’s not that bad. Most of my songs are about being bounced around it all. Things always find a way of averaging themselves out. That’s something I’ve always wanted to convey, that though there are moments that sway towards different extremes, it’s all still somewhere in between when you step away and look at the big picture.

Erik: I’d love to hear about your approach to creating music. What type of atmospheres and settings do you prefer when composing your pieces and what are some of the most memorable places you have ever played music at?

Kevin: Ideally, I’d like to be alone for a good while and not have much interaction with others when I’m writing and arranging. Having pressure on me helps too. Probably the most productive times for my music were when I had a lot of weight on my shoulders and important things to do on my own but didn’t have many outlets for personal issues. It’s a lot easier to let it out that way, because there’s no fighting it. It just has to come out. It’s a situation of stress, but one where working on music is the relief, not the other way around. It’s different from having the pressure of having to finish a recording because it has to be done for some reason or another.

Playing songs live is different and comes more naturally to me. You can’t control the situations around you when you’re playing a show but being committed to the songs, what they mean to you, and putting it out there for someone to experience is really fulfilling. Usually by the time I start playing something live, it’s because the song and all its tangents are so familiar. Like when a band locks down a song from playing it together so many times. I get more personal satisfaction out of a show and having the chance to present music in person than sitting for hours working on a song at home and questioning yourself if people will understand what you’re trying to express or find their own meanings in it. You run the risk of someone’s first exposure to you being when they have eight tabs open on their web browser. Hearing something on laptop speakers when you have all this other digital stimuli makes it hard to build a connection.

At a show, it’s all right there on the table. The best feeling comes from playing shows when people find something in what you do that clicks with them. It can happen in any sort of place. I think the most memorable time that happened for me was playing in the Reed College chapel in Portland, Oregon last Spring. It felt like everyone there got something out of it more than I’d ever felt at any other show.

Erik: You are close to a 100 releases out in the world on your imprint. Can you tell me about the full history behind Bridgetown Records formation and where you’d like to continue to see the imprint go?

Kevin: I started Bridgetown a little over five years ago as a means to share music that my friends made. It’s always been the primary outlet for my own solo music as well. It just feels more comfortable making my own releases. Most titles would be in editions ranging from 50-200 copies but ideally it’d be more practical to make larger runs. It’s kind of tough though when production is so hands-on. I’m into making Bridgetown releases look as professional and classy as possible while maintaining a high level of manual labor. I use a razorblade to cut and score all the artwork by hand on big sheets and try to go the extra mile to bring myself as physically close as possible to the music I release. The way I see it, how committed to your releases can you be if you are just having something manufactured at a place without getting involved? Maybe the extra work is unnecessary, but it puts the back catalog in perspective. It shows there is nothing in the label’s discography that I wouldn’t be willing to clock in the hours to make myself. I can count the number of totally manufactured releases on one hand.

In the future I’d like to be able to release titles in larger editions. It’s slowly getting to that point. I handmade over 600 copies of my “Maroon Bells” cassette/CDr and 550 of the “Already Dead” 7″. That’s around the sweet spot I’d like to hit with more titles coming up.

As much as I’ve tried to deny it in the past, digital is the new preferred format for media, so I’m starting to get into that as well. A lot of sold out titles in the back catalog are going to be available online soon.

Erik: What are some of your latest projects that you listen to now and are really happy with the results?

Kevin: I’m so happy with how the songs that are going to be on my next full-length are coming out. They’ve been forming so naturally and without any pressure. They’re just developing at their own pace.

There are also a couple of one-off side projects that aren’t publicly known to be my work that I’m pretty pumped on. Listening to them is kind of a guilty pleasure. Not trying to expose those or the people who have released them though.

Another project I just started is a blog about my U.S. tour last fall. It doesn’t really talk about my own music, but is more about the experiences, feelings, and trivial events. I also include music by lots of people who played or that I met so that readers can check out some new bands they might not have heard about otherwise.

http://bridgetownrecords.tumblr.com/tagged/tour-blog

Erik: You are a part of a special community of musicians and other creative people. Who have been your biggest mentors since putting records out? Which people come to mind the most when you think about the inspiration you receive from your peers?

Kevin: All of my friends play a huge role in what inspires me to do this. For the most part, everyone I know is making music, putting on events or running another little label or at least supporting them with heartfelt dedication. This isn’t a casual thing for them, like going to one show a month or getting a CD on occasion. It’s about contributing. So everyone I know, and that they know, they all serve as mentors or influences to me. I think it’s a very interactive thing. You just see what everyone else is doing and know that it’s something you’re a part of and can add to as well. Some of them include Family Time, Lillerne Tape Club, Solid Melts, Rok Lok, Juniper Tree Songs, Folktale, Monorail Trespassing, Hi Shadow, Patient Sounds. There are so many more.

Erik: What releases would you like to talk about that just came out on your label and others and what’s some material we can look forward to in the future?

Kevin: I’m really happy with how the new “Already Dead” 7″ came out. It’s a collaboration with my friend Nicole Kidman [real name Jon Barba] where we’re doing these raw, blown out pop punk songs that were recorded by extremely meager means. The songs and recordings are so raw, confessional, and constantly on the verge of falling apart. We had years to do it but went with these versions where we played everything live into a junk TV set because it captured what we wanted to express so accurately. It’s a drastically different way of materializing the same kind of feelings that are prevalent on my solo works. If I had only one record out, it would be this one because the whole package is this hybrid of so many things I like about underground music all rolled into this weird mongrel… blown out home-taper recording style, emphasis on songs over technical proficiency, hyper-personal subject matter and imagery, crude punk/hardcore-inspired art elements, classy visual design.

It’s how I’ve always wanted to represent my group of friends and world to a stranger using a 45 RPM single.

Future releases on Bridgetown are mostly going to be in the same vein as much of its past: sincere, passionate albums by my friends. Mostly artists that aren’t very well known but are doing something that should be heard by strangers who aren’t afraid of genre restrictions. All the releases are pretty different from each other musically but fit together so well.

Erik: Really looking forward to hearing the new content from the label. Thanks for your time again, cheers.

www.kevingreenspon.info | www.bridgetownrecords.info

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Upcoming Kevin Greenspon 2013 Tour Dates