William Fowler Collins - Interview: SoundLAB

Interview: SoundLAB

Originally posted September 24, 2006 at SoundLAB

1. When did you start making music, what is/was your motivation to do it?

I began making music in 1988, when I was 14 years old. I had always enjoyed music as a child, but the specific motivation for playing the guitar came from seeing the footage of Jimi Hendrix playing at the Monterey Pop Festival.

2. Tell me something about your living environment and the musical education.

I grew up in rural western Massachusetts where I took guitar lessons that focused on Blues and Jazz styles. I moved to San Francisco in 1992 to attend the San Francisco Art Institute and receive my BFA in Interdisciplinary Studies. I later attended Mills College from 2002-2004 and received my MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media. I recently moved to the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

3. Is making music your profession? What is the context in which you practice music nowadays?

Music is my main creative interest. I perform live and produce my own recordings. As far as making a living goes, I work as a Visual Designer for web-based projects.

4. How do you compose or create music or sound? Have you certain principles, use certain styles, etc?

The process is different each time, but in general I compose my pieces in my home recording studio. I'll record myself on guitar(acoustic, electric, lap steel) and/or electronics(laptop) and then develop the piece through the mixing process.

5. Tell me something about the instruments, technical equipment or tools you use?

As far as instruments go, I play the electric, acoustic and lap steel guitar. On my laptop, I use a text-based audio synthesis software called SuperCollider 2 to process my recordings or create electronic sounds. I record using Pro Tools LE and my favorite new microphone these days is a Shure KSM32.

6. What are the chances of New Media for the music production in general and you personally?

I think audio recording software enables more people to produce and release their own musical/sound projects. It certainly has enabled me to do so.

7. How about producing and financing your musical productions?

Aside from the compilations or recordings produced by my collaborative partners I produce and finance my own musical productions.

8. Do you work individually as a musician/soundartist or in a group or collaborative?

I do both.

If you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?

Working individually has its obvious benefits such as being able to control the project's direction and the ability to develop one's own timeline. Working with a group can be just as profound an experience as making music on my own, but it can be trickier as far as getting people together at the same time, getting everyone to agree on the direction of the group's sound, etc. Each person is going to have their own goals, priorities, tastes and schedules. It depends on who I am working with. Some group experiences are more productive than others.

9. Is there any group, composer, style or movement which has a lasting influence on making music?

There is no one particular influence. Before incorporating laptop/electronics into my work, I was primarily focused on the guitar and the influences ranged from Hendrix, Neil Young, Black Sabbath, the Stooges, Pink Floyd, and the Velvet Underground to Minor Threat, Sonic Youth, the Melvins, and Slayer. At Mills I was opened up to a whole new world of sound. There I discovered the work of AMM and also composers such as Morton Feldman, Penderecki, Scelsi, Henry Cowell, Schoenberg, Webern, Ruth Crawford Seeger, John Cage, etc. I was also turned on to the electronic music of David Tudor, Gordon Mumma, Stockhausen, and Xenakis. Native American, Indian and Indonesian musics were also explored. The list could go on and on and my interests are constantly changing and expanding. Lately I've been into some of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" productions, Rhys Chatam's electric guitar orchestras, and the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds", among others.

10. What are your future plans or dreams as a soundartist or musician?

I would like to continue recording and performing my own music as well as collaborating with other artists both here(US) and abroad.