I was a punk rocker at Ucluelet Secondary School in the 1980s. It was during that time that I taught myself electric guitar by listening to Black Flag and Crass. I was also toiling in the largest fish factory on the West Coast of Vancouver Island: Ucluelet Seafood Producers with the rest of my family. I don’t know if you’ve worked in factories, but I’ll tell you that the environment was intolerable. My bandmates and I hated the blatent racism, homophobia, and sexism that was constant in the workplace. Add to that a violent disregard for the environment or any kind of intellectual stimulation and, for us, the factory was an embodiment of everything we came to hate. Our band left Ucluelet for Victoria. I spent the next eight or so years playing in Anarchist bands. We lived in poverty, and played music.

I was on Social Assistance at the time and, around 1993, was forced to take one of their many forced job programs. Such programs, rather than assist, were generally designed to degrade and humilate. It was at this time that I lived near a Conservatory of Music. Having played electric guitar in various bands for a number of years, I, on a whim, entered and inquired about classic guitar lessons. When I heard the cost, I told the receptionist that there was no way I could afford such lessons. She promptly informed me that I could apply for student loans and take a few courses. Since the welfare program was giving me a hard time, I decided to enroll. My family being poor, I was able to aquistion the loans necessary for the courses. I took theory, classic guitar, music history, and sight singing.

While studying guitar, my teacher, Alexander Dunn, who was a student of Pepe Reomero, noticed my interest in certain twentieth century compositions that I had been playing. The music was not very good, but I was never-the-less more interested in modern music, as well as that of the 15th century and Baroque, much more than the Romantic and Classical. Alex informed me that the “modern” music I was playing on guitar, Leo Brouwer, and Toru Takemitsu, was not the most challenging and that I should, in fact, check out the leading composers of the era. He introduced me to his old composition teacher’s music with whom he’d studied with at UCSD. This composer was non other than the great Brian Ferneyhough. I was immediately attracted to the energy, and life, of the music. I went to the Conservatory library and there discovered Stockhausen, Xenakis, and Cage. After that, there was no going back, so to speak. I fell in love with the music of the 1940s on. After a few months of listening, I decided that I must write music. The guitar repertoire, with the exception of a few works, left me unimpressed. I left behind the idea of becoming a guitar performer. I told this to Mr. Dunn. He informed me that if I wanted to make any headway with music composition that I’d better think about enrolling in the University, which I did the following year.
Ever since then I’ve written, and performed, what one might call “extreme” music, while at the same time written what one might call “classical” music. For me, neither title fits. The music I play with my band ISKRA is, in many ways, more “classical” than that which I write for acoustic instruments.

I can’t say because I don’t think about “the end.” I am extremely dedicated to both, and prefer to work through them, on my own terms, without any end goal in mind. I try, in both fields, to simply do my best. To write better. If I reached some kind of “end” then I think I would no longer need to write.

I never mix the two different genres. For me, this post-modern idea of pastiche is far to simple and contrived. Personally, I would much rather push the limits of both, but on their own terms. Different things need to be done within each musical sphere. They are not the same language.

No. I never think about punk when writing classical music. Ironically, the music I write for my band is more “classical” than my “classical!” That is, in ISKRA, I write tonal music, mostly in sonata form. There are of course elements that cross over, mostly because they both deal with sound. Distortion, for example. One could say that I use distortion in my classical music. In reality this so-called “distortion” is simply complex sounds. That is, there are many frequencies present.

I don’t believe that one is “democratic” and one is “emperical.” I suppose one can think of it this way, but I do not. Obviously it depends on how one views the process of making music as well as how one approaches the process. First of all, I don’t see the composer ias being a tyrant, telling people what to do and so on. When a composer writes a chart, s/he needs a community to ensure the piece happens. When I walk into a room full of experienced, and talented, musicians, I am not there to be a dictator, I am there to make music with them. To bring music to life. We work together and great things happen. It is a communal effort. I am sure some composers have a different outlook, but, as I am an anarchist, that is how I view the musical process. The band is the same thing. The group gets together and brings the compositions to life. We work out alternate ideas, find the rhythms we want, and make the songs happen. So these two worlds are not contradictory, so far as process goes. They are seemingly contradictory, however, in terms of their historical root. Anarchist punk/metal is rooted in working class revolt to a status quo system that, in reality, doesn’t work. Classical music is rooted in an aristocratic tradition, or at least that’s what most people think. That is the apparent opposition. Times have changed, however, and now we can have someone like me who works in both worlds.

The music I make is mediated through a political, or anti-political, lens(depending on what one thinks when reviewing the word “politic”). I work with crumbling foundations, and open experimentation. Multiple possibilities are present at every stage of my work. I work without law. As well, the laws of our society have no place in my creative process. I work with sound only. My sounds are alive. They communicate with me. I work with them to create a labyrinth of communications. In my music, the sounds are interactive. In fact the sounds write the music. I am a type of medium that listens to what the sounds require. There is no clear method, but I am fully conscious at every moment. The real “performance” is happening for me in each moment of the creative act. I don’t work from sketches for fear of, as Feldman once said, “pushing the sounds around.” The piece is the sketch and vice-versa.

The Quasar have performed my piece ISKRA about 12 times all over the world. Now we are working together on an octet that will be performed by the Quasar and Arte(Switzerland). I will go with the group to Europe and work with both quartets. In addition, the Quasar just performed in a work I wrote for Walter Boudreau and the SMCQ entitled IRONS. This piece was for saxophone quartet, amplified strings, contrabassoon, and six percussionists. I’m also writing a piece for an instrument invented by Montreal composer Jean-Francoise Laporte, which will be premiered in May. Aside from that, I have a record coming out of all my string music to date.

Yes, you should know about Mark Molnar from Ottawa, and Charles-Antoine Frechette from Montreal. These are great composers who also work with sounds, not systems. They are original, intelligent, and uncompromising sound artists.