Alan Dearling bears witness to the growing awesomeness of The Utopia Strong Experience and enjoys a Q&A session with the musicians….
So, last night was a pretty formidable, experimental gig at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge. Psychedelic electronica from the outer-spheres: The Utopia Strong featuring Steve Davis (6 times World Snooker champion); Kavus Torabi (frontman with Gong and guitarist with the Cardiacs) and Michael York. Plus even more awesomeness – monumental rumbling bass and surreal images courtesy of Andrew Liles. Darkness abounding – sounds from the deepest crypt!
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Alan: Cheers for giving me a slice of your time to share some brain-cells, thoughts and musings. I’ve been working at, and enjoying live music since about 1965, and was in Canterbury at uni at the exact same time as Steve Hillage, Caravan, Spirogyra, and joined in with writing about and reviewing music from rock, jazz, outsider music and arts, psychedelic music, two of the Isle of Wight Festies onwards…written lots of books and articles…a lot about festivals, alternative living across the world, even stayed with Daevid Allen (from Gong and Soft Machine) in Oz and co-wrote some stuff with him…and am still ‘doing it’… especially around Todmorden and Valleys of the Pennines…
So, all of you guys are currently involved in improvisational, experimental music and arts…Who wants to kick off?
Kavus: I’ve been following the bent path since I was about sixteen. I had always felt a deep, almost supernatural connection with music but I think it was hearing Cardiacs around that time which really blew my mind and opened up to what was possible. I don’t think I knew it could be so big, so completely about EVERYTHING until then. It’s been all downhill since. I spend all my time making stuff be it music, drawing or writing. Most of what I do to make a living at the moment is touring, with Gong, The Utopia Strong and by myself. Although there’s an improvisational element in Gong, The Utopia Strong is the first thing I’ve ever done which comes purely from improvisation. I couldn’t ask for more intuitive and hip-groovers than Steve and Mike to do this with.
Steve: It’s an area of music I’ve only recently started to appreciate and be involved in. I suppose I’ve been informed by my journey with modular synthesis and the fact that, especially because of the steep learning curve, it lends itself to a suck it and see approach. So rather than thinking of a musical idea and trying to put it into operation, you are able to fire it up, see what it starts to spit out and then decide, in the moment, whether to keep it, adjust it or chuck it in the bin.
Apart from the amazing journey I’ve been on with The Utopia Strong, I’ve taken another leap with Gaz Williams in setting up a record label called Rack Records, where we aim to put out improvised only music. The tag line of the label being “Spontaneous Electronic Conversations”.
Michael: I trained as a classical musician studying flute and modern composition, then for a couple of years in my early twenties, I pushed all that to the side and immersed myself in folk music, namely bagpipes (which I now make professionally). My gateway to so called experimental music came when I was enlisted to play bagpipes (amongst other things) with COIL and I’ve never looked back. Hence my sidetrack into folk music wasn’t quite the cul-de-sac you might imagine.
Andrew: I have been involved in music since I was a teenager, about 40 years. I have been part of Nurse With Wound for over 20 years and Current 93 for almost the same amount of time. I have appeared on well over 200 albums in some way or another. I have also dabbled with Metal artists, remixing and have been involved in the technical side of music, primarily mastering records for people. So I’m not especially limited to experimental or improv, maybe a Jack of all trades, but probably a master of none.
Alan: Andrew Liles joined The Utopia Strong on the current tour… His set involved an awesome wall of bass sounds and electronica, with a backdrop kaleidoscope of film images, splices from bleak new town housing schemes, surreal cut-ups of eyes, bodies, naked bodies – it reminded me of the experimental films created by Bunuel and Dali… It also created quite a dark tone for the whole ensemble show…
Steve: I suppose if you just went to one of the 13 nights of our recent tour then maybe you could have judged things like that but watching Andrew’s set each night and getting to know it, his set became friendlier as the nights went by. What was interesting was that maybe Andrew and The Utopia Strong were approaching “experimental music” (whatever that is!) from a different perspective and as a result I really felt like it was a great marriage.
Michael: I’ve known Andrew for years as a friend and band mate in Current 93, so it seemed like an obvious choice to invite him to open for us. I think his music and film ranges from very dark to deeply emotional, but the heavy vibes rarely linger as it’s only a matter of time before his unique sense of humour shines through.
Andrew: I think it was a good contrast, me bringing the noise and speed and Utopia bringing the mellow stoner vibe. I’m punk, they are the hippies, but complementary to one another. Musically we are both audio anarchists, so it worked. The archive film of the housing estate used in the film is of the council estate I was brought up on in Basingstoke. Dark? I’m not so sure, I think, well at least to my sensibilities, the film is full of humour and surrealism. It is random yet succinct, confrontational yet funny.
Alan: All of you guys seem to relish moving out of your own comfort zones… and you have all shared in interviews some of your influences from the worlds of music, arts, perhaps especially the melting pots of experimental electronica – Kraut Rock, drones, weirdness, quark and charms, perhaps… And the challenges and wonderment of working collaboratively…
Kavus: The noise we make together came as rather a surprise the first time it came out. It still does. I love that, collectively, we go to places I’d never think to go by myself. We’ve said it a lot but we didn’t have a plan. It started with a day of improvising which turned out so well, The Utopia Strong was born. We weren’t planning on doing a band. I wonder if it had been rubbish whether we would have just left it there!
Steve: I’ve sort of been out of my comfort zone from the very moment Kavus, Mike and I shook hands with Chris Reeder from our record label Rocket Recordings, and Chris said, “…and obviously you’ll be doing gigs to promote the album?” And Kavus and Mike instantly nodded in agreement! And then it dawned on me what a can of worms awaited me! The nerves of playing a gig are just as bad as the first round at the Crucible!
For me it’s all about the collaboration in the moment. Listening back to gigs and jams that I have been part of, often feels like magic has been created. Being involved in this process is amazing and while I’ve never attempted to write or ‘create’ music, I can’t imagine the thrill of doing that being anywhere near the same buzz.
Michael: Being out of your comfort zone whilst making improvised music always leads you to unusual places which is ultimately more satisfying for audience and performer alike than treading more familiar paths.
Andrew: I have created a lot of music over the years, plenty of it is wildly different, from Doom Metal to Electronica, even Dub reggae and of course lots of experimental pieces. I guess, in a way, it’s my downfall. Listeners tend to want the same thing again and again. That’s why I will never be commercially successful. I am just too unpredictable. David Bowie once said something along the lines of, “To be creative you need to wade out into the sea and get to a point where the water is just below your nose.” I imagine he was implying to creatively go to where it’s uncomfortable, but not entirely out of your depth. I think I have maybe gone too far sometimes, drifting all at sea in the middle of nowhere, spewing micro-plastics and wading through raw sewage, but I can’t rein myself in. Maybe some people want to join me, they can admire the wonders of the ocean, but they might also drown… along with me.
Alan: Tell me about what The Utopia Strong means to you? Where is it at, at the moment? Where is it heading? And how are you enjoying promoting your new, ‘Doperider’ album.
Kavus: The tour we’ve just completed has been our most successful so far, in terms of our performances and finding our people. I think opening for The Steve Hillage Band a few years ago turned quite a lot of people onto us. There was probably an inevitable and unavoidable novelty element initially due to Steve’s participation, although it’s never felt that way to us but on this last tour, more than ever before, I feel that has completely dissipated. We were meeting people who had seen us multiple times and were fully invested in what we do after the shows. I do think it helps that we have just put out what we all feel is our strongest studio album too. I just can’t wait to start on the next one.
Steve: We are nine albums deep and I still can’t believe it’s happened! I think we are currently gaining momentum and while we don’t have a huge fan base, we do have one! The gigs were very well received and it feels like more people are being alerted to our presence. Where it’s heading? Who knows! But our plan is to continue to put out studio albums as well as our long-form jams and gig highlights on our Alphabet of the Magi series. When listening back with Mike and Kavus (while editing or selecting pieces from a jam) I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve said, “…in 20 years time, people will be shaking our hands because of this track.” It’s become a bit of an ‘in’ joke but we’re 6 years in now and it’s already started happening!
Michael: As our good friend Katie once said, “The Utopia Strong is the sound of three guys falling in love.”
Andrew: I’m not qualified to comment where they are heading. But hanging out with them for two weeks was filled with forever memories. They are three very unique talents and personalities, a close brethren forging their own path and I think that’s all that matters.
Alan: I felt before and during The Utopia Strong show that there is almost too much, too many subjects we could talk about. So, let’s try ‘art’, ‘cartoons’, ‘films’…
Kavus: Virgil Findlay, End Of Evangelion, Synecdoche New York.
Steve: Severance.
Andrew: There’s far too much of EVERYTHING. Give me a Classic Rock album, Netflix and a cup of tea.
Michael: I’ll join Andrew on the sofa.
Alan: I realise that we sadly have limited time, so can I ask about the diverse range of instruments and the gear that you use to produce your musical improvisations. There’s a lot there that is unusual, almost fantastical, like Steve’s Eurorack box of tricks.
Steve: Modular Synths is all I’ve known. It’s obviously not a conventional musical instrument but it occupies a unique area of music creation, especially when improvising.
Maybe the blend of instruments in The Utopia Strong is an unusual and important consideration, but it might just be that Kavus, Mike and myself have this unlikely magic flowing. I regularly listen back to our early jams and while we were still finding our feet (me especially) there was something special happening even then! Of course it has helped that Kavus and Mike are exceptionally talented musicians!
Kavus: Although I play it on studio recordings, in addition to affected guitar, harmonium and synth, I added bass guitar into the live arsenal this time round. It’s really changed how I approach the live thing and one of the reasons, for me at least, the recent tour was so enjoyable.
Michael: Live, my electronic set up is 2 Moog semi modulars, a couple of Eurorack sequencer and clocking modules and ‘guitar’ pedals. On the acoustic side, I bring bells, bagpipes, flutes, duduk and a gong.
Andrew: I’m totally different from Utopia. I am very much a digital performer. I have a simplified backing track over which I improvise. I use several USBs with literally a thousand sound FX which I slow down, speed up, effect and edit on the fly. I also use two iPads with literally hundreds of synth patches. So it can be very different every night.
Alan: Many, many thanks for your time – hopefully to be continued in the future. So, the inevitable last question to you all. What’s the one album/artist you’d recommend readers to seek out?
Kavus: Lost Crowns.
Steve: My current rabbit hole would be anything by Phillip Jeck.
Michael: Muuntautuja by Oranssi Pazuzu, it’s metal but it isn’t.
Andrew: I introduced Mike and Kavus to Trelldom. I have been listening to the latest album for over a year and it never fails to enchant me. So for me it’s …By the Shadows. https://trelldom.bandcamp.com/album/by-the-shadows
Alan: Cheers, and look forward to sharing some more musical and creative banter in the future. And I know that as well as playing at Hebden’s Trades Club, you’ve all played with pointed sticks on the pool table in the Golden Lion in Todmorden! Luv ‘n respect…
Kavus: Much appreciated, thank you!
Steve: Special places, both of them!
Michael: ‘Til next time!
Andrew: Keep it chalked. Thanks for the questions.
Alan: Oh, could you add in some URL links to videos of your work to add into the article, pretty please! Ta muchly.
Andrew: I don’t really have a music page, but if people want to hear me talk some more they can go here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx-tNf_TnLU
The Utopia Strong, ‘Harpies’: https://youtu.be/r86AVQAc8m8?list=RDr86AVQAc8m8
Podcast by ‘Birthday Cake For Breakfast’with Kavus Torabi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8yITkZnONU
‘Live from the Doperider Tour’ at The Bullingdon, Oxford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7LcnAQILvQ
**********************************************************************************
The audience at the Trades Club kept Steve and Kavus mega-busy signing merch before and after the gig. Respect!