When envisaging Ash Bowie it's easy to imagine some sort of ethereal creature that doesn't really exist. He is yet to release anything sub standard and it was thought likely that he lived deep underground or in out of space. He is a musician's musician, a genius and a damn good example of what humans will be like in fifty years. It's just a shame that the two guys interviewing him had no idea what to ask.
Since the demise of Polvo you've been quiet musically, even a lot of this new album was written during Polvo's existence, what have you been doing with yourself? Watching daytime t.v?
Just working a lot and otherwise trying to make time for the usual leisure and social activities. I generally don't watch much tv. Yes, I went through a period where I more or less forgot about playing music, but I've started playing guitar more lately and thinking about ideas for recordings. But most of the libraness record is old stuff that was "in storage" for ages.
This album seems to be more experimental and less structured than Polvo, did playing in Polvo restrict your song writing at all? Or is this a result of mapping out ideas on a four-track?
Polvo restricted my song writing only to the extent that it was a band with a fixed instrumental line-up, so I wasn't composing pieces for strings, or for toy piano and tambourine, for that matter (though I did squeeze in a few stripped down, "not-everyone-playing" songs here and there). But in general, my "job" was to come up with pop/rock material that we could attack collectively. With regard to my four-track recordings, naturally there was a lot more freedom, since I didn't have to leave room for anyone else's parts or accommodate anyone else's ideas. Some of the four-track songs are less structured because I didn't plan them out. I just recorded the first instrument, then added the next layer without thinking ahead very far. That's also why many of the songs don't have proper endings, they just sort of fizzle out. If I'd gone into a real studio to record an album, it would have been a completely different thing.
Were any of the songs intended for Polvo?
No, they were all done for my own amusement, and to learn how to use a four-track. I guess most of the songs I wrote during that period became polvo songs when at all appropriate, whereas the libraness songs seemed, as you say, more experimental, and not really band-style material. There are a couple songs which could've gone to polvo, but once I four-tracked them I wanted to leave them that way.
Are you planning any Libraness shows? If so who and what is the line up?
Right now I have no plans. I'd like to play a few shows at some point, theoretically, with a few friends helping out, but haven't prepared anything yet.
Will Libraness evolve into a band? Or are you happy to continue to grace our stereos with uncontaminated Ash Bowie four track recordings?
I don't think it'll become a band. I'd love to include some contributions from other players on future recordings, but will probably keep doing everything myself, at least in the foreseeable future. It's fun. Also, I've bought some fancier recording equipment, so it won't be all lo-fi four-track stuff next time. While I do like lo-fi, I am very much looking forward to escaping some of the limitations of recording to cassette tape!
During the Polvo Peel sessions John Peel said a lot of things that didn't make much sense, but at one stage he said "Ahh, there's still some truth and beauty left in the world" are these qualities that you try and convey in your songs?
Well.... I don't think I'm (consciously) trying to convey abstract qualities. Then again, juxtaposition of notes and chords and rhythms does suggest certain... moods (qualities, perhaps), obviously, and this influences the choices I make and directions I take when working out songs (almost always the guitar first). But I try to write and play music intuitively, as much as possible, and let my own sensibilities and instinct provide the "coloration", without thinking too much about what the music is supposed to do for the listener. Of course, it's really impossible for me to listen to music I've written or played on objectively; to "receive" it as would another listener, so I don't think I can really understand what it is that people hear when they listen to, say, the polvo records, 'cause I know the music too well and inevitably just listen for the little details that make me cringe (like my singing). That's why I never listen to those records. I usually enjoy the process more than the product.
It seemed for a while there that everything we heard come from Chapel Hill was biblical, what happened? We haven't heard anything from there for awhile.
I don't really know what the current state of the chapel hill scene is, since I haven't spent much time down there in the last few years and consequently find myself a bit out of the n.c. loop. I think maybe chapel hill showed up on the big radar screen back in the day largely because people were looking for "the next seattle" and there really was a lot happening in our little town then. But anyway, there were good bands in chapel hill long before the area attracted attention from the outside, and I imagine that's still the case.
With a name like Ash Bowie, it would seem that you were destined for rock stardom, however you never got your face on the cover of rolling stone, or were MTV favourites, or headlined at a big stadium rock show (yet). You've been touted as a genius, misunderstood in your own time and all that, how do you respond to these allegations? Do you think you'll sell more records when you're dead?
And I never met Bono or the Pope either... I can't think of much I want to say about mtv, rolling stone, stadium rock shows and the like, except to assure you that success or failure as a rock musician doesn't have to be assessed vis-a-vis inclusion in entertainment industry marketing schemes. At least not to me. Rolling Stone magazine? Gimme a break... At any rate, my personal experience as a "musician" has nothing in common with anyone's perception of what I "represent" or what I'm "trying to do" musically... Polvo was a band which practiced as little as possible and wrote/recorded/mixed records very quickly and recklessly. So I never felt that we were putting ourselves in a position to make any sort of musical "statement". Also, it wasn't "my" band, despite people's perception of me as the "frontman". I was one of the two songwriters, and my guitar/voice was more or less just one-fourth of the instrumentation, that's it. (Live, I sang more by default, because Dave almost never wanted to sing more than three or four of his songs on any given night). Otherwise, we wrote and recorded pretty democratically, especially on the first few records, so it's like a mural painted by four different people. As far as being "misunderstood", I'm not sure what it is that anyone would claim to understand. I think some people definitely took the music a lot more seriously (i.e. intellectually) than we (the band) did, thereby making assumptions about our pretensions and projecting their own ideals (and, possibly, in some cases, pet peeves) onto our music. I think this happens to a lot of bands. With regard to whatever opinions people have about "me"... I usually shrug it off either way. I've approached music as an interesting diversion, not as a "calling", and my life really didn't change much after I realized that a few people knew my name, had an opinion about the music, etc... You realize music isn't my "career"(?). I spend most of my time like most everybody else - working, doing my dishes, trying to learn new things and be less stupid than I was the day before... and I feel quite detached from any rock persona that others may believe in, and I worry about what I'm doing with my life just like everybody else I know. Playing in a couple of bands and putting out records is just something that happened to me, and (writing/recording) music remains a part of my life for the time being. That said, I have had a great experience with the whole thing and consider myself very lucky to have enjoyed some attention and gotten so much support when I never would've expected it, and especially lucky to share a lot of interesting experiences and memories with the band-mates. But really, selling records will be the last thing on my mind when I'm dead, and I honestly don't think the records will sound any better in the future - they'll just sound more and more dated, like most rock music.
What can we expect to hear from you in the future? Musically and otherwise.
Well, I have some more old four-track songs in various stages of completion, some of which will probably appear on my next record(s). Mainly though, I'm really eager to start recording with my new equipment, which will allow me to experiment more, and I have a lot of new things I hope to record before they're forgotten. Mostly verse/chorus song ideas and then lots of long, meandering guitar breaks, as usual. And otherwise? well, I suppose you might hear me talking to myself if you happen to pass me on the sidewalk one day...
Are there any plans to come to Australia (don't worry the Olympics are over)? After all, we were teased with the possibility of a Polvo tour at one stage.
No, no plans. I'd love to visit someday. I don't think anyone was ever serious about bringing us to Australia, to be honest. We would not have said no.
Complete the sentence:
Comics are- rarely read twice
UFO's make me wanna- ignore earthly advice
Snack foods are good when- monkeys munch lice
Kung fu is- dangerously loaded dice
Guitars make good- woodchips for mice
Ash Bowies latest offering "Libraness" is a collection of four track recordings from the last several years and is now available on Tiger Style records.