LIQUIDAMBAR BY JULIAN WILLIAMS .. to be released in May 2008
Hello, My name is Julian Williams and I've been doing my thing in music and experimental theatre in Melbourne for years now, how they go so fast. This is my new album and thanks to the Synaesthsia and Spill labels, it now comes to your electronic world in May 2008.
The album is pretty dense sound wise. It took me nine months to complete, which is probably the longest I've ever taken to make a rekod. If you're counting, this would be my 15th album or so, but most of the others are ridiculously obscure, mostly in part to my lack of promotional savvy, but they're around, and vary from early 90's noisy hum squelch, to drone poparama song type things. On this album there are conventional instruments like guitars, organs, and wind instruments. There are also sampled everyday sounds from around the house, generally slowed down or speeded up, and then harmonies galore. It reflects my taste in music from the Beach Boys to Pauline Oliveros, although the music I listen to is all over the shop, so it's hard to make comparisons as most of the press love to do (go for it people. I always love to gets some new - sounds like this or that). The byways of this musical world are as varied as a china polluted stream.
Lyrically, I'm writing about my usual interests: spirituality, meditation, understanding humans role in the universe, various rites and ceremonies of tribes in Africa, South America and Asia. Yep, I love the arcane and esoteric landscape my fellow beings.The process of writing lyrics is weird. It's like I'm the antenna catching vibrations, or like a radio picking up frequencies in the air. Even I don't know what they mean most of the time. If you're looking for a literal order, I think it's up to each listener to make their own judgement. I don't consider myself the author of the work, just the facilitator. My feelings about the album are no different to those reading this. The power of mystery is a great thing to be enjoyed by husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, mums and dads, and every being with ears.
As some kind of reference, I also take part in the activities of a congregation called THE HI GOD PEOPLE. We've recently released a split 12 inch album with the DEAD C (whoever they are), and have a new split 12 inch with Australian drone rockers ZOND. There are plans for a 7 inch single and a new acoustic drone album.
The E.P at the end of the album is a soundtrack of a one man experimental movement piece I did in the summer of 2005 at an environment park in Melbourne's inner suburbs. Its just organs and drum machines, and words researched about paganism in Europe before its absorption by Christianity. Actually, I sang as I was performing in a muddy swamp to a bemused crowd of organic food shopping city hippies.
There you go. While I reside in Melbourne, I'm presently in China going through a tropical summer. It's a long story so it's best to let you come to your own conclusions.
Farewell
Julian Williams
Nanjing, China , August 2007.
Interview with Julian Williams in China.
JULIAN WILLIAMS, THE ALL ROUND RENNAISSANCE MAN IS IN CHINA. WHY ? HOW?
I ASKED THE MAN SOME QUESTIONS AND HERE THEY ARE.
AUBRY SMALL: WHY GO TO CHINA? HOW HAS IT CHANGED YOU?
JULIAN WILLIAMS: I went to china because my girlfriend has been studying traditional Chinese medicine at a hospital in Nanjing. She wanted the company, and I came along for the ride. China hasn't changed me at all. It just makes me realize what an amazing place Australia is to live.
A.S: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?
J.W: Not a great deal, Aubrey. People are pretty much the same wherever you go, it's just the Chinese culture is radically different from ours, and you have to be open to it, or it will drive you up the wall. For example: in our culture you get in a line and queue, and you wait until it's your turn. It's that colonial indoctrination thing. Here in china, people are constantly pushing in, especially the older folk. China is not a good country for people who aren't very assertive like me. I guess there's so many people, that you have to be. People don't bat an eyelid if you push back in to your spot. I find this all very intimidating. The traffic in china is nuts, and takes time to get used to. You can still see the British influence in Hong Kong, where they're very orderly, but in the rest of china, it's almost everyone for themselves. It's a controlled chaos. The think that irks me most is when cyclists or motorbikes turn a corner and join the traffic, and they don't even look.
A.S: I HEAR YOU HAVE PLAYED A SOLO GIG IN NANJING. HAVE YOU SEEN OTHER BANDS? WHAT WERE THEY LIKE?
J.W: I have been to a couple of rock shows here, and yes I did play. It seems to me like it's a fairly small scene here in Nanjing, a bit like my early days in Perth. Bands that have nothing musically in common with each other will play together. The bands I played with were pretty conservative. The first band sounded like early U-2, and the other band apparently were very brit pop influenced. I think that stuff is pretty dull. I've also seen a very Goth influenced band from Beijing. It was like when I first got into weird music. The thing that made them interesting was the lead singer's great charisma. Apart from that, they were pretty unoriginal. My favourite band I've seen has a name that roughly translates to 'fuck a little'. They were ramshackle and naive, but most interesting, especially the guitar player. Kinda like the b52's crossed with early half Japanese.
A.S: HOW DID YOUR SHOW GO?
J.W: I wrote a bunch of new songs especially for the occasion. 'Beware of nipping hand, was a weird atonal swampy thriller about some feller that nips of yer hand and rules the apocalyptic land through the use of fear. This is my favourite example of chinenglish so far. It was on a door of a train we were travelling in. 'gone for all to see' had a 19th century seance type of vibe, probably influenced by the golem by Gustav Meyrink, which I've recently read, and maybe invoking 1967 Robin Gibb. Agghhhh! 'China smells good tonight' is about my experiences in china, and 'another philosophical' is exactly that, dealing with the well worn path I've been going down for years. Most of these songs have gone to meet there maker except 'another philosophical' because I didn't like them anymore, although, I've used the lyrics in a few other songs I've written since. The audience reaction was nice. I don't think they understood me, being of a more conservative bent, but they were nice to me just the same.
A.S: YOU'VE GOT A NEW SOLO ALBUM OUT SOON, COMING OUT ON SYNAESTHESIA RECORDS. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT IT?
J.W: It's called liquidambar, after a tree, and yes it's true. Mark at synaesthesia, bless his soul, is releasing it around December/January. It took me almost a year to make, which is the longest I've spent on an album. I wanted to take my time because the last album was rushed and I think it suffered as a consequence. Now that I have computer multi tracking, it's a much more involved process. Also, I've moved around a fair bit in the last year, which is most annoying. It's been recorded in three different houses. There's quite a lot of sampling from various sources, plenty of speeding up, slowing down, time stretching and reverb; I'm immensely pleased with it. I guess I could tip my hat in the direction of Richard Youngs. He has been combining pop and experimental elements in his recent work, and it seemed like a good idea for me to do something along similar lines. The last song by the way is dedicated to Alistair Galbriath, and it's a kind of answer to his song 'stone'. I love that man. He is such a nice human being.
A.S: WHAT ABOUT THE HI GOD PEOPLE?
J.W: the lads have done a few shows while I've been in china, which I'm pleased to say, It s a good thing that the band kind of exist as this all moving blob, and doesn't rely on one particular member. It has been a strange year for the band, with health problems, and a lack of focus, but it seems like the band is coming out of its slumber. We did some recordings, which are very different; more in a folk improv vein. When I return to aurstralya, I want to finish them, and maybe they'll be enough material for an album, or at least one side of an album. I also want to take the band into more structured theatrical territory. I think we're being held back by our easygoing attitude. I don't think ideas get as fully developed as I'd like, so I think it would be good for the band to go this way. Seems like the band and my performance/ theatre side are merging, as Greg has always hinted they should. In fact I've been thinking about my next performance and I want the hi god people to play an active role in it.
A.S: TELL US ABOUT YOUR PERFORMANCE / THEATRE SIDE. IT SEEMS TO BE VERY IMPORTANT?
J.W: It's a huge side of my life. I find playing music comes naturally to me. It flows easily from me. My performance work is still of an improvisatory nature, but its all about starting with an idea, and exploring that idea, by 'cracking it open'. I'm a very intuitive person and I trust my instinct in this process, and an idea opens up like a flower. The more you explore, the richer the idea becomes, and that's immensely satisfying. I often fantasize about taking a year to work on a piece, and not necessarily show the work. It would be only for the performers and the room. I'm very mystical about such things as the room having its own life.
A.S: I'VE NOTICED YOUR MYSTICAL ESOTERIC SLANT ON THE WORLD. I FIND YOUR LYRICS TO BE IN THE SAME VIEN.
J.W: Yes it's true. I'm pretty abstract in my lyric writing. They're usually related to spiritual, esoteric and philosophical matters which interest me. I guess you could call me an amateur anthropologist, in the fact I love to learn about various culture and their rites and ceremonies. I find that much more interesting than our increasingly homogenous culture. Animism, paganism, tribalism; all the isms you could need. I'm always interested in the poetic side of other cultures, and I use that in my lyrics and my performance work. I'm a person, who is very intuitive, and the lyrics usually come to me and I don't change them. This has its pitfalls because one word keeps coming up. That word on the new album is sun. It's almost like Kevin Ayers saying banana on every track of his first solo album, but not quite. I should edit more but I'm lazy in that respect. I'm not a lyric craftsman like jimmy Webb, although musically I do craft my songs a lot more these days on the guitar.
A.S: ANY LAST THOUGHTS?
J.W: I'm looking forward to getting back to Australia, where I've got lots of stuff to do. I'm even getting a band together which kinda stalled because of china. So tally ho.
