Exclusive John interview in Discussions Magazine
Another great interview with John has surfaced, this time it was done by Spaz of Discussions Magazine, which is free in its digital form and has a lot of interviews available online. Just like all the other recent interviews, this one is mostly centered around Enclosure.
Here are some excerpts.
SPAZ: I noticed on this album that rhythm plays such a big role. Do you use these dynamic rhythms to convey an emotion?
JOHN: Yeah. On these albums, I’ve really looked to counter what would be the predictable drums that you would have in a particular song. I really like writing songs that are slow and then programming drums that are fast. I like the juxtaposition of the two things and so I like doing drums that are off time in various ways or drums that are a completely different feel. I like to juxtapose several different conceptions of the rhythm at once. I gradually learned how to make fast drums that feel slow because I’m adhering to a slow vocal performance and so when I first tried to put fast drums with that, they sounded too jerky or too jumpy or whatever, and it took me a while to be able to retain what was good about the slow groove of the vocal and the guitars, but also be in a completely different tempo zone.
SPAZ: Do you remember the exact moment when you realized that you were going to be a musician? Or was it a series of events?
JOHN: No, it was just ingrained in my head when I was four-years-old. It was just embedded – it wasn’t ever a decision. It was more something that I just knew that I was supposed to do. And, the feelings that I had hearing music at that time were feelings on such a higher level than anything that I felt in any other part of life. I felt a sense of enclosure in music when I heard it. I didn’t really know much about music back then, but as time went by, certain pieces of music would catch my ear. It was like years before I ever actually started playing instrument, I could tell which music related to what I was supposed to do and which….. and those are the most meaningful moments of my childhood.
Please, go to Discussions Magazine website to read the whole interview.
*Thanks to TL for the tip.
