{"id":9863,"date":"2024-12-04T23:08:36","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T05:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=9863"},"modified":"2024-12-14T01:41:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T07:41:04","slug":"normal-fred-frith-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/normal-fred-frith-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Normal Give or Take: A Conversation with Fred Frith (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We continue our conversation with Fred Frith (read part one here<\/a>) with a focus on his work with homemade instruments, specifically his duo with Sudh Tewari, Normal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PostGenre: A little earlier, you mentioned how you put aside the guitar for a few years in the early 1980s. What led to your stepping away from the instrument? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fred Frith: I did a solo tour of Japan. I was very excited to go there. Then I was still relatively new to playing solo performances. Even though by then, 1981, was so long after Guitar Solos (Caroline, 1974) came out in 1974, playing solo was still a relatively new idea for me. In Japan, I did eleven concerts in eleven days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there, I got fixated on the idea that being an improviser meant I could never do the same thing twice. This is a really stupid way of thinking, but I became obsessed with the idea that if I did something very good, I had to make a point of not doing it again. I was always looking to do something new, and as a result, I became a mess. I was neurotic. My fingers were bleeding when I came off the stage. I was physically exhausted. I was both exhilarated and depressed from that tour. Exhilarated by the whole new world that opened up to me from experiencing Japan for the first time. But I also felt that, as a player, I got lost, even though a record came out of that tour eventually, Live in Japan (Recommended, 1982).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided that the guitar was something I should put aside for a bit. Part of that was also because I’d started to become quite violent with the instrument and was afraid of damaging it. I started building things I wouldn’t be afraid of damaging, which were mostly planks of wood with strings that I could bang nails into if I wanted. The odd thing was that the homemade instruments turned out to be rather delicate. And an instrument that I thought would sound something like a guitar ended up sounding more like a koto or incorporating some other sets of references. I made my own instruments for a while, and I’m doing it again now.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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