MORPHEUS
MUSIC INTERVIEW - DON PEYOTE
31.05.09 - on release
of Eternal Now
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| Q:
For the benefit of those less familiar with
your music can you tell us about your musical background.
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Raised to the sounds of Afro
Cuban music, Celtic bagpipes and Opera, music has been a part
of my life for as long as I can remember. Got some classical
guitar lessons in my early teens but quickly swapped the nylon
guitar for an electric one. The 'Jimi Hendrix' approach to
making music using wild, distorted sounds was more my cup
of tea..The late 60's early 70's was a very inspirational
era for me ,with bands like Soft machine, Pink Floyd, Gong,
Tangerine Dream etc. doing long experimental psychedelic tunes...
this left a long lasting influence on my style.
In the mid 70's I moved to Australia, started writing songs
and playing guitar for the “Luminous Eggs” a funk/avant-garde
band in Sydney, we did a lot of gigs but I was always more
interested in the production side of music than playing the
music live. Each time the band got to record, I took on the
producer role, I learnt a lot watching the sound engineers
mix &shape sounds on those big analog desks and great
hardware Fx ... So the years with the band taught me about
song arrangement & composition and the time spent in the
studios how to polish the sound before it ends up on a cd.
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Q:
How did the Don Peyote project originally
come into being? |
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Don Peyote came to life around
1998. At the time I was living in a cabin converted into a
music studio in the rain forest near Byron Bay.,Creating some
pretty wild world infused dance tracks. Someone asked me to
Dj at a party, I came up with the name Don Peyote, I guess
years of reading Castaneda's books about the sorcerer “Don
Juan” rubbed off on me...The early tunes I produced
in the 90's were quite banging and fast, a contrast with the
quietness associated with living in the bush... |
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| Q:
What was the vision behind the new album
Eternal Now and how did you go about putting your plans into
action? |
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My intention was to create a
'journey' instrumental piece without beats, a soundscape to
be used in sacred circles and for meditation. We live in very
intense & stressful times, I feel there is a need for
music that has healing, relaxing qualities and helps evokes
stillness within.
Eternal now was produced in 3 weeks, which is a record
time for me ... It was written as a 1 continuous 55min piece
and later broken down into 7 tracks. When I listen to it,
it takes me beyond time....I hope it will have the same
effect on the listeners.
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Q:
How would you describe the new music in comparison to your
previous output? |
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Compared to my previous
ambient release this one is sparser, even though a lot of
the sounds are multi layered, there is a good sense of space
throughout the album. As I mentioned above, living in the
bush gave me the chance to record an amazing array of birds,
frogs and rain forest samples. This was heavily featured
in previous releases. Between worlds had an”earth'
feel to it and featured insects and frogs, Dreamcatcher
had water themes running through the whole album. With this
one the Air element is explored. I didn't rely so much on
pre-recorded samples on this one, the approach is more 'hands
on' as far as creating sounds. |
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| Q:
How do you get your inspiration –
what gets you writing new music? |
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I guess
my passion for music is the main drive, I love nature, the
beauty and mysteries of this planet inspires me. When I
am in the studio playing with sounds and creating, I feel
like I am fulfilling my purpose on this planet. I have received
emails from people saying the music has affected and touched
them deeply.
All this is fuel for my creative fire. |
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Q:
Can you share with us some of your recording
or writing methods? |
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For the down tempo beats, it
often starts with a simple back drop, drums & bass lines
and then add live elements. I play guitar, bass and live percussion
on my recordings and often enlist the help of other instrumentalists
. I like to give it a 'live' feel, a good blend of natural
and synthetic mix and the unquantized human factor....
For ambient journeys, anything goes, I have no problems coming
up with lots of different ideas which end up as drawn out
pieces with lots of changes, the next step, creating the arrangement
needs a ruthless approach to get rid of the unnecessary and
turn it into a coherent piece.
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| Q:
Are there any interesting stories or
background details you would like to share with us about the
creation of Eternal Now? |
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At the beginning
of the recording you can hear a chime tinkling away.....Most
of it was written during our summer, most days temperatures
can reach 40 degrees and more, so here I am plugging away
in the studio, late at night, front door is open to let some
air in, the wind was blowing the chime outside, playing this
little tune on only three notes. This had to be in the piece,
I dragged a microphone on to the veranda , started recording
the outdoor ambience, wind and chime and layering keyboard
pads over it. This became the intro.
The bowls and gongs were recorded 10 years ago and may not
be in perfect pitch with the rest of the instruments but somehow
it all fits. |
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Q:
What does the future hold for your music? |
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I am doing
the composition and soundmix on a friend's short film at the
moment, really having fun mixing music and sound effects with
visuals, creating moods and textures.
For Don Peyote there are two projects in the pipeline,
a downtempo world/dub album and an ambient one, the last
one of the quadrilogy on the elements, exploring 'Fire',
enough to keep me busy for a while...
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| Thanks
to Yvon for allowing us that interview.
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