Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Brian Joseph Davis

Brian Joseph Davis

A friend sent me a link to "10 Banned Albums Burned, Then Played," by Brian Joseph Davis a few months ago. The project is very conceptual, which is kind of a weakness of mine. I love the idea! The project was simply a (destructive) reinterpretation of work by ten artists with albums which had been banned. Another of his projects is "Five Box Sets Played on Fast Forward, Then Edited Into Songs." Nice.

He's a writer, composer and conceptual artist. His most recent project ("Original Soundtrack") is a collection of major motion picture DVD menus, stacked and played simultaneously. Davis also manipulates the sounds being played, and the results will be available as CD and free mp3 download in October. He will also be installing/performing the piece in Vancouver, New York and Toronto in the coming months. Find out more HERE.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Brian Joseph Davis...


*Name: Brian Joseph Davis

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: No

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations:

*Another genre descriptor: Depending on the project, either sound artist or composer. Albeit a composer who works with off-label use of common technology as an important part of the process. I've only been comfortable with "composer" this year, as my musical training, such as it was, was self taught, long ago, and 2 chord-song-based.

*Why you use this descriptor: Everything I've done does draw on a tradition of some kind. Eula (turning the punitive Sony BMG contract into a choral work) is like a Fluxus score, but also, I thought it was an update of Orson Welles reading the credits for the Magnificent Ambersons. I like commonalities. With the upcoming project (Original Soundtrack), even though 20 TV sets and DVD players with movies left at their self-looping menus SEEMS like a recipe for a-musicality, it's actually the most conventionally musical thing I've done since the Adorno 7-inch. In Original Soundtrack, there's arrangement, a score, a live PA performance, and these lovely genre moments in the middle of the utter chaos.

*Location: Toronto, Canada

*Original Location: Wallaceburg, Ontario

*What is your creative/artistic background: Like anyone else who came of age in the 1990s, all over the map: very incomplete cultural studies, 8-hour graveyard shifts at a college radio station (where you're bored of rock music within an hour and go digging), silk screen print work, video. My sound stuff seems informed by all the above.

*History: As a serious producer, about 5 years.

*Born: 1975

*Motivations: My dad is a millwright. They solve problems with pre-existing machines. I've just gone into the family trade.

*Philosophy: There's no one unified thing, probably other than the idea comes first, the sound comes after and if it's a compelling sound for other people, the idea was an interesting one.

*How would you like to be remembered: ???????

*Web address: http://www.brianjosephdavis.com


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