samedi 22 mars 2008

Entretien avec Simeon Coxe (Silver Apples).






Les Silver Apples (réduits à Simeon Coxe) se sont produits début mars à Paris, au Nouveau Casino, pour un concert évènement et sold-out, réunissant le petit peuple des branchés et les vieux fans déplumés. Première partie assurée très logiquement par le duo Zombie Zombie, très chaotique au début puis qui est parvenu à installer une vraie ambiance psyché/kraut à grand renfort de claviers hors d'âge et de vociférations. Wow ! Puis arrivée de Simeon (improbable sosie de Michael Jones, le guitariste de Goldman !) et ses machines, oscillateur et synthés compacts, pour une prestation dense et brève (une petite heure) : enchaînement de vieux "tubes" revisités ("Oscillations" en version péri-ragga) et nouveaux morceaux, quasi indus-électro et étonnants, à moitié réussis, il faut bien le dire. Chant intact, toujours aussi fragile, et personnage très modeste, un peu dépassé par l'engouement (poli) du public.
(Live à retrouver ici : http://tontonmahood.blogspot.com)

Entretien réalisé par mail le 06 mars, qui prolonge mon article de poptronics.

Silver Apples' music seems to be associated with a very peculiar kind of poetry : how would you describe that poetry ?
When we started playing as Silver Apples we decided that, besides my own scribblings, we would like to invite poets to submit poems for use in our songs. We spread the word among our artist friends and the next thing we knew, poets were coming up to us in bars and at parties giving us poetry. There were dozens to choose from and so we went to work. There was no particular theme to it or anything, just the poetry of young people at the time.

Who is Stanley Warren ? Would you mind introducing him to us ? (how you met him, and what you liked in his work).
He was one of the many young poets in New York who submitted work to us. I don't have any idea where he is now, but I was struck with how easily his poems were adaptable to a music structure- the rhythms, and also I liked the variety of subject matter.

Are there any connexions between Silver Apples and other poets or a specific litteray field ? Were you interested in the beat scene, for instance ?
No- I thought the beats were kind of old fashioned.

How would you describe the Simeon machine ?
A cantankerous pile of junk with a mind of it's own.

How do you manage playing with such a sophisticated instument ?
The thing grew over a period of time to suit the needs of our music. If we would get an idea for a song that needed more or different sounds, we would go to the second hand shops an find more oscillators or effects circuits and solder them in. It grew as we grew.

What are the physical feelings or effects (for you and the audience !) ?
One girl came up to me after a concert, crying, and said that I actually made her float... levitate. I love the rumbling vibrations of the very low sine waves.

Why did you have this will to play with such specific and electronic instruments ?
I couldn't play a guitar or keyboard- in other rock bands I was just the singer. I could play the banjo, but I wanted to do something different. So I just started making things up. There was no plan or reason to it- I was just having a good time.



And were you aware at that time about your absolute "avant-garde" touch ?
No. It wasn't until years later that people started describing us as "ahead of our time" and so forth and I started hearing our stuff in other people's music.

Did you try to play another instrument after the Silver Apples split ?
No. I've dabbled with guitars and synths but not for performance.

How did the audience use to react during the live acts ?
Usually there was a pattern and Danny and I used to laugh about it. They would spend the first 10 or 15 minutes just staring at us with open mouths. Then one person, usually a girl, would start dancing, then another, then another, and soon almost everybody was smiling, dancing, and having fun.

Were you aware during the 70, 80 and 90s of this growing acknowledgement from an electro/rock scene ? I can't help thinking about Alan Vega, who always talked about Silver Apples in this past interviews ? Did you ever meet him ? Or even play with him ?
Oh yes. Suicide and Silver Apples have performed on the same bill more than once, and Alan and I even collaborated on a song which was released on a German label- a tribute to The Monks. I wrote a song called "Silver Monk Time" and Alan added his unique singing to it.

You used to be a painter before experimenting music, and you came back to that after the Silver Apples split : could you tell us about your (past and current) painting work ? (subject, aesthetic...).
Like my music, my paintings and installation art are about "found" objects- discarded or unused things that can have new life if you breathe it into them. I've done a lot of paintings of broken bicycles. Somehow they symbolize our society to me.

What is your look on the current musical scene ? Do you listen to electronic bands ? or are you more interested in the experimental scene ?

I love to listen to, and play with, musicians or bands that are seeking new expressions. That to me is the essential ingredient.

How came the (brilliant !) idea to come back and play ?
I'm a musician. It's in my blood. When the times finally came around to me and there was an opportunity to put something together, I grabbed it.

Any new album in the air ?
I have a lot of new material floating around in my head in various stages of completion. There are talks with a record label to do something with it later this year.

Merci à Virginie@Discobabel

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