David Bernabo
Interviewed for Riffin' by Webjockey Heidi Patalano
Free Track Download: "McQueen Bear"
Check out David Bernabo’s Rifflist: Influences
For such a soft-spoken man, you'd never guess that David Bernabo had quite so much to say. But for the prolific Pittsburgh artist, of disciplines ranging from photography, visual art, filmmaking and musicianship in folk, free jazz and graphic score composition, creative energy is on endless supply. Having churned out a staggering eight records in 2007 with his various musical projects, Bernabo's aim in 2008 is to slow down, maybe just a little bit, so that he can see his girlfriend once in a while.
As an artist publishing his work through grassroots label Sort Of Records, founded by renegade artist Raymond Morin who prefers to design and manufacture each CD by hand, David Bernabo has found an outlet for his creative musings. Riffin' chats here on the artist's current projects and why opening for Ted Leo is kind of a drag.
Photo Credit - Dina Bernabo
Riffin': Some of your music seems to follow a conventional song structure and some goes into experimental places. Can you speak on how you bring the two types together?
David Bernabo: Let me think on it a minute...(pause) I guess if I have a song, I want to do what's right for the song, not overload it with experimental tendencies if it doesn't need it. Some of the pieces on my records are based on those experimental tendencies. That decides which direction the songs will go.
I'm working on a new record and a lot of the songs border on being soul songs. I've been writing a lot of string and horn arrangements for them. The other half of the record is more technical playing, prog-like I guess. I started writing for a string quartet too, so I'm including some of that on that too. Sometimes I feel like it would be great to keep taking it further and further out and get it so that it's pure abstract music by the end of it.
Riffin': What's one of the oddest things to inspire a song of yours?
David Bernabo: I've got a new song about The Arcade Fire. I could never get into them. It's called "The Newest Thing" and it's about how I'm not feeling it. I want to like it but every time I put on the record, something about it is not doing it for me. I've put in the time. I've tried.
Riffin': You're so all over the place with all these projects. Is there any artist whose career you're hoping to emulate?
David Bernabo: This may sound cheesy but my idol, you know Jim O'Rourke? His career seems nice. I don't know how successful his records are, but I sure like them. He started off in minimal experimental music and then he did a few pop records, a few noise records and basically can do whatever he wants and there's a slight market for it. Anything more would be great but if I could get to a place where I could keep putting out records and there's some people who will pick them up and check them out, that would be enough I think. And also, Zappa. Aside from his constant frustration with everything, he could basically do whatever he wanted. I would like to get into more orchestral music eventually.
Riffin': As an artist of so many disciplines, having done films, visual art, graphic scores, free jazz and folk music, how do you decide which medium to say what with?
David Bernabo: Part of it is a matter of when an opportunity comes up to do something. Like with the art show, I was making graphic scores and then the art show came up so I just focused on that for a while. A lot of the projects lend themselves to more projects. We made a graphic score records. As of last week I have a new trio and now all of us are making graphic scores.
Riffin': Is that your group DBL-D?
David Bernabo: No, this is a new band. It's baritone sax, violin and accordion. The DBL-D, I guess we're calling it Double D, not the bra size though. I didn't even pick up on that until we made a record. Whatever opportunities come up, whoever I end up working with, that kind of dictates what project...
Riffin': Can you explain what you mean by graphic scores?
David Bernabo: It's a tradition that started in the 50's and 60's. John Cage and Cornelius Cardu started making these scores to depict musical notation that was not restricted like regular musical notation. Rather than a time signature and a given scale, now you have either instruction pieces or there's blotches on the paper, lines that mean crescendo. It gives more freedom to the player, less totalitarian I guess. It takes control out of the composer's hands. It gives more control to the player because they are performing the work. It's a search for pure sound. It's a different organizational structure. A lot of jazz improvisation defines itself by certain systems.
The graphic scores for me are a way of breaking out of those certain ways of performing and writing. Each performance will vary. It will be an eternal composition. There are always new ways of looking at it. So much of what I do ends up being fixed. If I make a record, that record is there, I can't go back and change it every year. With the performances, we try to integrate different instruments or different rules of playing each time we approach them.
Riffin': You also do sound engineering and have mastered some compilations of local artists. How did you come to do engineering? Was it more a product of trying to record your own material?
David Bernabo: In fifth grade, I started recording stuff with my dad's tape player and then from there you get a four track and an eight track. A lot of the recordings I would make would, because there weren't any other musicians around, I would learn different instruments and make it sound like a band.
Riffin': I always wonder if garageband was around if I was a kid, what I would've done.
David Bernabo: It's definitely great. I tried it one day on my girlfriend's computer but I didn't have any way to get my own sounds into it so it kind of lost its interest to me. It's great that it's so accessible that anyone could start recording. Of course, with that - just like how CD manufacturing is easy now - you get everybody putting out records. There's so much out there that it's hard to wade through what's good and what's not so good. It's almost like an information overload. That's the danger in it, but I always think it's better to have more accessible, cheaper means of recording. With computers there's economical gaps. Even though it's more accessible, you still have to be able to buy a computer.
Riffin': Many say that the conventional record industry as we know it is dying. What's your take?
David Bernabo: Me and [Sort Of Records owner Raymond Morin] talk about that a lot because he has a record label. Are CDs going to be relevant in five years? Should we keep doing it or should we switch to digital releases? But just today I bought twelve records. Anything I download, I never listen to.
There's something about having a package and artwork that makes me want to listen to it more. I like having liner notes and all that. At my job I'm at my computer nine hours a day. I don't want to go home and look at a computer to listen to music. That's just me. I don't represent the population. It definitely feels like it's moving towards download-based distribution.
Riffin': What's the music scene like in Pittsburgh?
David Bernabo: It's good and bad. This past year was really successful for a number of bands. Girl Talk, I know him all right. We used to be on a lot of bills [together] and it's weird how overnight, one Pitchfork review blows a person up. He's been doing well. Black Moth Super Rainbow, they're cool guys and girls and they got real big. I have some friends in Midnight Snake, they played South by Southwest. There are a lot of people getting bigger and touring more. That's always good for the city. The city on the whole is on the up and up too.
Riffin': What has it been like opening for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Wilco?
David Bernabo: Wilco is awesome because I got to be friends with Glen [Kotche] the drummer. Haven't really had to pay for any Wilco records lately. We trade music. I played with his band On Fillmore, they're an amazing duo. It's mainly percussion and upright bass. It's some of the best music I've heard. His solo records are amazing. So with them, it's a little more comfortable because I have at least one of them to talk to. Ted Leo was weird. They weren't very talkative. I opened up for Low at one point, they weren't very talkative either.
Riffin': So what's the situation? You're all backstage and you're in your corner, they're in their corner staring at their shoes?
David Bernabo: They have a green room. Say, we make a hundred dollars. They're making a couple thousand. It's a little separated. It was really funny. We played the arts festival two years ago. Our friends Modey Lemon were headlining. The stage lady said not to hang out with them in their dressing room even though we're all friends and we use the same studio. They were considered bigger, so we couldn't hang out. It's kinda strange. But most bands are cool.
Riffin': What's your approach to making a mix tape?
David Bernabo: I guess a strong opener. I've never liked those event mix tapes so much, like someone's birthday or anniversary. It seems like you have to conform to certain themes. I try to approach mix tapes like a record but with different people's music, stuff that would tie in and make logical sense one after another.
Riffin': Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
David Bernabo: I have to stop making so many records in 2008. I think it affects friendships and relationships. It doesn't seem to be healthy.
|