This interview with Gavin Russom of Black Meteoric Star was conducted last Saturday at a secret location in Dresden. Turns out it wasn’t such a good idea to do it in a middle of a buzzing club at 4am completely drunk with a respondent feeling terrible and sick with flu. Add to this a recording device that only captured parts of the interview and well….I’m just telling you beforehand, so you don’t get too excited. Thanks to Gavin. Hope you are feeling better by now. Here we go.

Keep it it kind of short. I feel terrible.

[Yeah! Good start for an interview]

First of all. Thanks for the amazing performance.
Thanks. This party is great. I had a really good time

Is this your first time in East Germany?
Well, I live in Berlin. But I have only been to Leipzig before.

What’s your impression? I don’t think you have seen much, right?
No. Haven’t seen anything. Got here at six. It was dark.

What set setup did you use today?
Exactly what’s on the back of the CD actually.

[laughs]

[Interviewer doesn't]

[Next day I find out that the setup he is using is pretty much the same for every show...Tam Taram Tam Tam
a) a Roland TR 707 b) Essential Russom mantra and c) a Korg EX-800.

Now, like all of you (or some?) I would like to know what's hidden behind the mystic words 'Essential Russom Mantra'. But. I don't. Does that mean it's a secret? I guess we will never find out. Or will we? Because. I have just sent Gavin a Facebook message and asked him. And if he replies back in time I'll put that right in here. Allright? You geeks:]

There is a big, handwritten note on one of your machines that says: ‘Keep it simple’. Why is that there?
The difference between making the recorded version and the live version of a track is that live they are really stretched out. So I’m just taking things apart, let them really sit for a while, build things up slowly. Basically this is just my approach to playing live. To keep things simple as possible, because there is so much going on sound-wise.

Due to the nature of analog equipment every of your live-sets ends up sounding slightly different. How much control do you have over your machines and how much are you actually surprised with what ‘they’ come up with?
I chose the machines that I play live with because I consider them as somewhat stable as far as analogue stuff goes. But still I get surprised by stuff. Maybe 25% of the time very surprising things happen that I can then respond to live and take a turn that i never thought of before.

Some of your equipment is self-built. Is that, so you could get sounds that you couldn’t get anywhere else?
Not so much sounds, but just a way of being able to manipulate sounds. The stuff I built is something you have in a modular synth but it’s set up a bit differently so that i can choose the sounds I’m playing live and sync them to a rhythm and use filters to create different melodies and rhythms.

You seem to have a close relationship with your instruments. Have you given any of them nicknames?

[?]

Not so much. But we are very close…

…But has there never been a case during a live-set that one of the machines didn’t do what you wanted it to do. And you where like. “All right, Korg!, Fuck you!!! You are staying at home the next gig.”

[???]

They usually do what I want them to do.

[laughs]

Ok, where does the name Black (Meteoric) Star stem from…

[At this point of the interview i suddenly couldn't pronounce Meteoric anymore. I just called it Black (Mumble) Star from here on. I think he noticed. Also. The quality of the recording has since deteriorated dramatically so that i can't transcribe his answer. I'm therefore quoting from this excellent interview that Fact Magazine did with Gavin last year.

Begin quote:

Black Meteoric Star is one of the objects found in a Pawnee Indian Medicine Bundle. This is something I was researching over 10 years ago and when the name popped back in my mind it seemed to 'rhyme' with the music I was making.

End quote.

What were you researching. Or just out of general Interest?

General Interest. I spend a lot of time in the library and pick up books that look interesting. And this book "Ceremony of ...

[bad sound]

There is a narrative structure behind each of the six tracks on the CD, isn’t there? Can you describe this to me?
It’s basically about going into night time.Darkness and transformations that can occur on that journey…

[bad sound]

Now that the CD is released, will that be the end of Black Meteoric Star?
For now. Yes. Possibly not forever. I don’t know. I have the feeling it will be back.

[In a conversation I had earlier with him Gavin mentions that this will be one of his last gigs under the guise of BMR]

You have been enjoying it so much that you actually don’t want it to end?
I don’t know. One of the really good things about Black Meteoric Star was that I got to pick a very specific set of sounds that I was interested in and also an attitude that I was interested in and I could channel that all into this project. It’s certainly a part of my personality and I really enjoyed that experience.

You said to me earlier that you are thinking of going maybe into a more pop direction. Or at least that is something you are interested in?
I like pop music a lot. I have done some remixes of pop songs that I like.

Which songs did you choose?
I did one by Britney Spears. Piece of Me.

Realllly?

[Interviewer getting all excited]

What does it sound like?
It’s pretty dark.

[laughs]

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It sounds like an amazing idea of having Britney Spears remixed by you.
I would definitely be interested in producing pop music. I’m actually working on a pop song now. Dirty Soundsystem from Paris have asked me to be part of this project, where a bunch of artists record as this band that this artist woman invented.

[Bad Sound]

Cool, What ruled Gavin Russoms life when he was 15?
I was really into Punk and Hardcore scene. And skating.

Could you do all the tricks. Kick Flips?
Yeah, I could do kick flips.

If you you would meet one of your old classmates now, how would you describe to them what you do for living?
I make psychedelic music

[Bad Sound]

Tell me about this track you have recorded with Delia Gonzales that hasn’t been released yet.
We started working on that track before Days of Mars (Gavin’s Album with Delia). But it didn’t really have our sound. We just turned on a bunch of machines and played…

[Recording stops]

That’s it. Told you. (Insert Interobang)

Black Meteroic Star self-titled album is available in all good record shops. You have to look a bit harder for all the 12″ he has released.

Gavin will be playing with Assume Vivid Astro Focus & Amateurboyz in Athens on the 7th of November and dj at Bar Tausend in Berlin on the 13th of November. Go check him out or listen to one of his mixes over at allez-allez. Here.

Posted by L Moroder 06.11.09 | 12:51 pm | Straight Up