INTERVIEW WITH DARIN GRAY TO CELEBRATE ONE OF THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2003 !

francais

i started playing bass when i was about 16. i didn't really get serious about devoloping any sort of concepts about what it was i was doing with a bass until i was around 19 or 20. this entailed many hours of practicing, reading, watching movies, and listening to as much music as possible in any given day.

DAZZLING KILLMEN

i don't really have much to say about dazzling killmen. it did end badly but it seems most bands do. i still keep in close contact with nick. i haven't spoke to blake or tim in years. as far as how i see this period now?- i learned so many things during this time; how to rehearse a band, how to prepare mentally and physically for a perfomance, how to deal with the business side of things, etc... we worked really hard on that music. nick really couldn't even play when we started. if i carry anything with me from that period it is an image of us practicing, sweating, and yelling until the music was exactly the way we wanted it.

YONA KIT & BRISE GLACE !

i met jim o'rourke when he opened for dazzling killmen at a club called lounge ax in chicago. we hit it off and just sort of took things from there. many phone calls and faxes later i found myself in a loft in chicago where i met i met dylan and thymme.

brise glace changed my life in many ways. i wasn't able to look at what i was doing the same way ever again. whether i be the music i was making or just the life i was leading in general. all three of these guys influenced me profoundly. many things from this period i am just now understanding today. thymme's drumming really opened alot of doors for me. his freedom with rhythm and his sense of dynamics and space are very original. i remember him specifically telling me NOT to play 'with,' him when we were improvising and coming up with riffs and parts. a profound moment for me. it sounds simple but, as a bassist you rarely hear a drummer say things like this. the concept of a rhythm section was for me up until this point about playing together. thymme opening that door is something i am forever grateful for. dylan had come up with this parts that were like little mobiles. i had never heard anybody do this before. really great and ear opening for me to come up with counter parts.

dylan had a certain patience for some of my inabilites which aloud me to take a little more time with coming up with parts for this music. he would play his mobiles over and over until i came up with something. jim was and is just a huge presence in my life. we are very close to this day. it is hard to even scratch the surface in an email of how big of an inspiration he has been to me.

yona kit was basically formed out of brise glace. dazzling killmen toured a bunch with zeni geva. null and i became friends and wanted to do something together. i wanted to play more with thymme so i brought him in and to my surprise jim expressed interest in doing this album as well. a funny memory or two--the band made up it's parts from a tape of riffs that null had sent us. we didn't hear each others music until we got to the studio to record the album. hence, the polyphonic, poly rhthymic quality to much of the album. we didn't even know nulwasgoing to sing until we got there. i think our parts would have been much simpler had we known. for me it was a great honor to play with all of these musicians. i felt very much out of my league with all of them. things i had only scrathed the surface with they seemingly had it all figured out. it made me work that much harder from that point on. i felt i had wasted so much time and to this day feel like am playing catch up.

SKIN GRAFT / FAMILY VINEYARD

no comment on skin graft. sorry. i met eric weddle from family vineyard at a festival in st. louis. i was playing with loren mazzacane connors. eric liked the show and things just went from there. it's funny how this things come together. there really seems to be no way to plan it. you just put yourself in a creative enviremont and just sort of hope for the best. i had mentioned to eric that i had flown loren in to record and album with me. he had jsut started putting the pieces of family vineyard together at that time. sort of going off on his own from sect. canadian. eric and i jsut hit it off and here we are five years later still working together. his commitment to my music has been great. no one outside of tim barnes at quakebasket has supported my music to such a degree. grand ulena sent out over 50 cdrs to labels with not one single person expressing interest at all. eric came in aroung this time and made an offer that seemed really great. i hadn't even thought of eric putting this album out. at the time his label was more or an improvised music lable. just goes to show anyone that you should never pigeon hole someone.

LOREN MAZZACANE CONNORS

loren loren loren. hard to find the words. i have learned and am still learning so much from loren. how to shape a melody, how to shape one note, how expressing yourself with music is not a bad thing, how to pace a performance, how to pay intense attention to dynamics etc... the biggest thing for me with loren outside of his music isthe inspiration of someone who did all of this before me, is still standing, and living a profoundly creative life. you just can't keep this guy down. it isn't possible. he lives ever single day creatively. that is so huge. so difficult. he is kind of a musical father to me. he isn't old enough to be me dad, but he has this huge history, which he shares with you verbally and musically. it just fills you up. when i get back from a trip to nyc with loren i feel supercharged to do my own music. loren and i really have a special bond. when we play it just sort of clicks. we were put together by jim o'rourke for the hoffman estates album. the album was pretty much recorded. we had some time left so loren and i jsut started playing duo style. that long last track ti the result. really cool moment. one of jim's greatest talents is putting people together. most of us that have been put togehter by jim going on to have lasting friendships musical and otherwis.

tDANNY McCLAIN

i knew of danny as the drummer of the great st. louis hardcore band johnny angel. chris knew him personally and things just sort of went from there. danny has developed immensley since we started. leaps and bounds in fact. i knew if i were to ever be in a band again it would be with young, energetic, original, and profoundly talented musicians. chris and danny both fit this bill in a big way. they are both more than willing to make the sacrifices neccasaary in order to be grand ulena.

DAZZLING VERSUS GRAND ULENA...

i can't really remember that much about the killmen's rate of songwriting. i remember it being really slow. i think that grand ulena might be even slower. i do know that by the time and audience hears a grand ulena song it is the exact song that we want you to hear. no question.

THE TOUR WITH TEN GRAND ! (Matt Davis , the singer of TG died a month ago...)

the ten grand are just the best. most of us only dream of doing what they have actually done. for me they are and will remain a huge inspiration. they gave it all up, piled in the van and just hit it. incredible. never once heard them complain. i found it really impossible to feel bad around them. no easy feat for me and every single night after grand ulena got done playing we were treated to a great performance by a great band. i would gladly tour with them again at the drop of...well... a hat!

TOURING

we now have a booking agent in steve brydges so things are getting better. as with most bands in the states we drive great distances, for very little money, to play in front of just a handful of people. it has been this way for years for me. i wouldn't know what to do if this ever changed. i many way i like it. i get to meet most of the people personally that are into the music that i am making. many of which i become friends with. i think one of the main reasons i do this whole thing is to meet people, hear what they are up to, and hopefully gain some better understanding of how i fit into this whole thing.

you have a familly now, i'm just wondering how do you survive financially?

yes, i do have a family. i have had a family my entire adult life. i work at a record store and that is how i attempt monthly to make my bills. good luck to anyone who follows in my footsteps with this. surviving is about all i do.

FUTURE PROJECTS

in october of this year grand ulena has a cd ep/10" coming out on family vineyard. glenn and i are working on the new on fillmore and it should be done in november for a release early next year on quakebasket. i am working on a new solo bass album as well.

MUSICS, FILMS, READINGS

here is a list of the last 10 things listened to in the grand ulena tour van walt dickerson- patch of blue phil niblock g2 4x4 john weise - bubble pulse ten grand - the way to rule mayhem- wolf's lair abyss bill fay- time of last persecution sotos- platypus sparks- kimono my house mirakle lester young - the immortal

i am currently reading bright moments the roland kirk story.

my film watching has went way down this summer. busy with my kids. i love punch drunk love very much though. anything herzog. just watched fitzcarraldo again. amazing!

your pal, darin

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