kev interviews barn 20 minutes

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[barn, re: previous interview] sorry, we didn't really talk about your thing... [kev] so your name please? barnabas yianni. and how did you get started in music? what is your earliest musical experience? probably - i don't remember primary school - but probably, recorder or singing or shit - and then i had lessons on the piano very late primary school, really. thats just it. was your family musical? we all had the option - damaris played flute, tryphena played violin. my little brother thaddaios had piano lessons. i think they all started with piano lessons, but moved on to other instruments, but i stayed with piano. The girls quit eventually anyway. and then i had - well, i was into music then. i did theory at the same time, so then i was just like - it was one of the first things i found out about. know what i mean? you're a kid, theres this guy, you're not really into stuff, you're an amorphous identity, and he gives me this book about facts about this weird thing - its really weird, and there's all these rules, and you can do stuff wrong, but you can [inaudible] stuff. strange. and then obviously he was teaching me to play piano as well, so i'm like, oh it all works out, as well? you can hear it working out. so i was into it then. at school i met music guys, on the scene, joined bands, played bass really. because i'm an awesome bassist. thats true. so would it be fair to say there are 2 currents - up to 17 or so, you've got the classical or

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theoretical, formal relationships with music, and then you got the bass and so on... the writing. were you always writing? well, really, before i met YOU kev, i didn't know because i DO improvise, and i always have done. but i didn't know because i thought it was writing. because it doesn't - invariably there is some sort of repetition, and there is an element of learning - figuring out stuff - but then, as soon as you get into the rock stuff, yeah, it started proper. but prior to that, my piano teacher tried to get me into jazz, as a response to my playing. because writing is a natural result of learning theory. what the fuck else are you meant to do with learning traditional music theory? you're not going to sit at home analysing ancient classical pieces of music when you're 12. so you mess about on the piano. what do you think about those people who DO do that? the musicologists rather than the actual creative people - i mean, thats a bit unfair but - can you understand their mentality? well, yeah, but not positively. like, academia meaning: beside the point, right? i reckon at one point in the development, composition and theory were hand in hand. composition was probably ahead at one point. so, whilst there are theories used in composition, thats not musical theory. thats someones concept. are you saying... like, beethovens 1st starts on an f... sharp? i think, but it's in the key of C. but in a sense, that musicology was created after, so beethoven was just creating, and then music theory caught up. but, he would have a theory. but it may not be the theory that was then, you know, caught up...

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the orthodoxy of musicology... well, at one point it was so far behind that it was irrelevant. now, we're talking about theory as though it has a lot of power. its more destructive. there's a lot more of it - at one point you could create your own theory, freely, and then developed a group of people who would analyse that, and they overtook, i reckon. so, something i'm interested in... you always seem more interested in making, writing and creating music, than you are in listening to music. you don't have that many records... you don't keep up with music very much... [barn laughs nervously] do you ever think about why you do that? because it IS unusual. i mean, its not unusual for a non-musician to not really give a shit about music... [all round laughter] but i've never known you to go: hey i've got this great new record, listen to it. no... you talk about grisey and the spectralists a bit but... its because... i don't know really. theres a few things that relate to it but i don't really understand it either. i'm just not interested really...! i used to listen to some music, thinking that it would go somewhere, but it doesn't go somewhere that is not easy to imagine. not that i'm saying MY music goes to those places... its much easier to imagine. but that is clearly not satisfying but... it relates to... this thing about ANY.

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any? so theres music i like, but thats not about me being conscious. i think that stuff i've found and that i like - i already have a slot where that will go - so i dont need to stuff loads of crap into that slot - so don't even need to listen to the music. let me think of music that i like... metal? i hate metal. maybe hardcore? hardcore punk? hardcore? i kind of can say that i like that, and because i know that, i don't need to listen to it. it always lets me down anyway. but there's something about the feeling of hardcore that i like. and there's other stuff like, songs - i like songs. i like the odd song. i don't like bands, genres - i like songs. i just love the odd song. i like albums, sometimes. would it be fair to say there's that old thing you get it a lot with visual artists, where they're really disinclined to analyse what they do too much, just because - well, i don't what to put words into hypothetical people's mouths but... there's that thing where you think about it too much and you stop being able to do it. because i listen to lot of records, and that seems to be how i work, or how i play or whatever - but you seem the opposite. like you don't want to listen to it almost as if you then won't ever produce anything. does that seem unfair? well, no, but i don't think - i would never stop writing. coz i don't have a problem with - because invariably one DOES listen to music. we talked about that i don't like to, but the rest of you do.. visiting peoples houses, people want to share it with you and stuff...! yeah. but i would never stop writing.

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so you see yourself more of a, a composer... or a metaller? what, a label? or do these distinctions even make any difference? [a shared chuckle] [pause] because you are a composer as well as a guy who drums in fresh milk. and who drummed in tales of folly. [laughs ironically]. and sings in its a lunken. but thats all shit. i... i would say that i'm a musician. thats all. not really bothered to make the distinction. no. because of 'any' - the idea of 'any' - it becomes interchangeable. well, coming back to tradition - fresh milk are very traditional in a way. well, not in a way, they are very very traditional. absolutely generic. its great, but absolutely generic. true. does that relate to tradition in any way...? its very hard to not relate to something traditional - and that band is a effort to be a genre and its funny you say that, because it's actually not. it's really not very genre-ific. the only other bands that anybody has ever said that we are remotely like, apart from all the d-beat shit - the whole approach: stuff like minor threat which isn't really true; converge, which is very true, and i'm not saying that we're good like converge or anything, but its a similar

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approach to older converge: and botch, again which i don't think is true. botch and converge are awesome... yeah they are awesome. but how much of that is to do with proximity... as soon as you are close, as soon as you are the person... exactly... creating the music, you can notice all the finite differences that differentiate yourself from botch converge and minor threat.. even an audience with quite a nuanced ear (and i'm going to assume that's me) can't hear that necessarily. can people hear the difference between gerard grisey and tristan murail? there's a world of difference but - they're both spectralists and they both do something which is more or less the same... i mean, its NOT more or less the same, but... yeah well you've basically just said my argument about that shit about 'cultural already-knowns' in music. and 'any'. that i keep saying. any? whatever you've just said, you said something which at the end of you could've said 'so you may as well... any'. yeah, but you end up developing an interest in some areas, and that feeds into the music... i really enjoy drumming... IS it physical? yeah, i like physical things. you know that. i like to chase kites around and stuff.

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you used to play ruby right? as a prop? yeah i was a prop. tight head. but its funny, i turned my back on all that stuff for a really long time. i get a kick out of running around... i just hate competition... but... i mean... but musically... ...is music about an immanent event - i am here in this space, i will create - and not worrying so much about 'i'm going to create something new'...? [splutters] yeah i think / if, yeah /what, who? yourself? are you not your ultimate audience? you're NOT your ultimate audience? or are you? thats being indulgent isnt it? do you write only for yourself? the act of standing up on a stage, or standing up in front of some people and saying, 'i am a musician' even if you don't consciously say 'i am a musician' even if you're kind of saying 'this is a job, this is what i do' - there's still as aspect of that which is saying, 'this is me doing it and not you'? there's no difference between you and i and the greatest musician in the world, in as far as.... we're humans? see, i do like to think one could be an everyman, on stage. if you do it right - i dunno, maybe. how would that be possible? well, everyone puts themselves in your boots, basically. if you're... [surprised echo] how would it be possible...?!

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are you talking about empathy, or...? are you just talking about the literal practice? no. music, as some sort of... universal? some bollix like that. if people could go... like lorna said to me about the elms gig - she said, 'i feel really inspired; like i could just go and do some stuff!' and it was because i was just feeding back a bunch of guitars; and playing the drums; and it sounded cool; she says, so maybe i should just go do some bollix, and it will sound great!' and i was like, you know, thats what i've been trying to train you up to do now for a couple of years, without you knowing... (laughs) basically. maybe it just took that long, but... has anyone ever done that for you - galvanised you into doing something different to what you were doing before? [laughs] uuummmm - [big pause] i'm completely responsive to my surroundings. perhaps thats why i don't listen to much music. so constantly... without realising... but you can't think of a conscious time when you've said, 'yeah this guys cool, i'm going to do what he does'. or she does? well! i can say that 'stuff' is cool - so, my little brother... like, because i don't listen to music i'm not really interested - so why would i start writing hip hop? or even rapping - its only because my situation was... like, my little brother and his mates were into hiphop, briefly. so then i listened to hiphop with them for a bit, and then... you know...

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are you saying that music is a predominately social thing for you rather than an intellectual thing? or a practical thing? its all three of those things. [echoes] its all 3 of those things... definitely social - definitely intellectual - well, maybe at different times... but - analytical? does analytical come into that at all? no, i don't think so. no, not at all. (i'm just checking the time...) no i don't have an explanation. i only really think about things that only relate to music. most of the time. and i mean sound really, or the poetry of sound. do you have any emotional relationship to music, beyond than social? do you ever listen to a piece of music and think oh that actually made me quite sad? [laughs] actually, there are a few that i have that make me cry immediately. every time it comes on. there's an ash song? angel interceptor?! the one with, 'take me in your arms again...' yeah. oh err, a life less ordinary, yeah. coz they're about - those people, those writers, are trying to push my buttons. often, some songs, they really have pushed the right button. maybe unwittingly, but [inaudible] private... but you see that as episodic instead of an end to music...?

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episodic? episodic... it happens occasionally infrequently...or, i know. yeah. erm... i'm assuming you're saying that you can listen to something and go: 'it was alright', and not have any more profound or in-depth relationship - but then there are those - but would you like to have written a song like 'a life less ordinary'? no i think, being IN it... that relates to social. when its a song like that, its been recorded at some point... sums up all sort of shit at that moment - and its only being really generated by the music. especially when you've been in the band... you know all of like... its mates, and then theres stuff, and you have to turn on this kind of... (laconically) you know, the relationships that you see on tv and shit... do you think you could ever create something like that? like that song? or would you like to create something that makes people you don't know cry? erm, well - yes. i would like to make something that makes people cry. i wouldn't like to write something like that song. i'd realllllly like it if people said: 'that song really depressed me and make me want to kill myself, and it made me feel very very sad'. that would make me really happy. see, if i had someone say that it would make ME sad, but vindicated in some obtuse way -like inverted

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snobbery... and it would be a bad thing to hear, basically. do you have intention? do you have an idea, kinda? a conceptual basis? there are 3 really... '1' would be the all encompassing one that generally comes along, that seems to be about dissonance... and the other one would be... but we dont have dissonance anymore do we. well, no. since wagner. or strauss... depending on which side of the fence you fall off. [to self:] strauss??!) doesn't matter who says what about those fellas... of course it does! it matters what YOU listen to... thats all that matters. but i listen to wagner and strauss. well then, great. they're amazing. cool. maybe i could think about it, and remember, but i don't want to. its like marijuana. i don't want to know how much it is - for how much weight - or what type it is - i just want to SMOKE it. [kev laughs] its a shame when the world gets in the way of a good time. [pause]

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[barn] not necessarily a GOOD time. [kev] a time. some time. something.