ABC

Here's a nice titbit on the ABC website where I got interviewed by Siobhan Maiden (down from Launceston) as part of the MONA FOMA!!


Macroscopic is how guitarist Josh Santospirito describes the music he makes.
Detailed textures within landscapes inform the music Josh creates.

The dirt, bark and sand of Australia inspire sounds Josh he loops live in his improvised performances.

The electric guitarist performed in the Peacock Theatre as part of Mona Foma 2010.

His project Drive West Today is a collaborative one, and for Mona Foma Josh worked with visual artist Anthony Magen who created backdrops to the music.

After living in isolated places in Australia Josh developed his own style of music.

"I didn't have anyone else to play with so had to play on my own, and improvising was much more fun than playing something composed.
"I lived in Alice Springs for three years and worked in Aboriginal communities which influenced my music.
"It reconstructed my view on living and what is important in life.
"The vastness of Australia is filled with lots of shapes and colours and if you remove yourself from cities where most Australians live, you do start to reconstruct your way of thinking and that has influenced my music quite heavily.
"I grew up playing classical guitar but felt it was always someone else's music.
"I enjoy the thrill of not knowing what I am going to be doing in ten seconds.
"I feel letting go and seeing where a performance goes is often rewarded.
"I like to create recreate the mood of moving through a landscape, the feeling of driving up the Stuart Highway for days on end, staring out the car window.
"My music is sort of a soundscape."

The name Drive West Today comes from a sense of exploration that is part of everything Josh does.

"West is a romantic concept I have had since I was a kid.
"I always wanted to go to Broome, but I never got there.
"The name I suppose evokes a propulsion, the immediacy of driving right now, the demand, drop everything and take off."

Anthony Magen provided unique backdrops for Josh's music.

He describes his work as a cacophony of visual mess, but the effect they create is a mesmorising.
Anthony places objects on an audio visual presenter which are projected onto the back wall of the theatre, the beautiful natural rock of the Peacock Theatre.

Objects he uses include fake grass, jelly, lasers, tealights, water, an egg beater, kiwi fruit, maggots and lots of simple objects that create interesting textures and shapes.

"I avoid the MTV approach to visuals" explains Anthony.
"People like to see their rhythms and visuals match, but I don't like to work that way.
"I prefer the random nature of art and the stories and threads that can be created are magic, there is no way of controlling it and making it the same every time.

Anthony likes the detail the audio visual presenter device creates.

"It allows you to interrogate an object visually.
"When you see an object like a maggot or a tealight its interrogated beauty, it becomes something different and beautiful.
"You can get a sense of otherness which enhances the spontaneous nature of the music."

DWT @ MOFO 2010!!

Whew!

I'll be fuggered.

The performaces that I done with Anthony Magen at MOFO were great fun
... the format was exhausting - a bit.

I was a titch delirium tremens after three 20min performaces in 2 hours ... twice.

I must admit that I was a touch nervous in the beginning of the workshop that I gave about inspiration, landscapes and soundscapes ... but once I read out Jen's poem and the audience started asking questions - including the dickhead front-right - it all started to gel a teensy bit and I was more in me element.

Yesterday I was on ABC radio in Hobart on Rick Goddard's show from 2:00pm. They have a much nicer studio than the Edge Radio one ... it has see-through windows into the next 3 rooms ... which seems a touch fancy-pants ... and a room (which I was in) which is for sound-recording etc ... verrrry nice! Played a couple of ditties on the spot and spoke with Rick himself.