Gary Thomas: The Sovereign Crusade

Gary Thomas speaks in his own divergent musical diction, wailing through visceral fissures and flaunting sentient labyrinthine technique. Having established a cavalier relationship with his guitar, the affair can be arduous. Gary ranges from gentle dulcet seduction, before manic percussive cacophony disjoints your repose. The recondite Wooden Boxes and Thought Hunting was released at the start of Gary’s solo career after parting ways with the highly regarded Cape deuce Cabins in the Forest. This new direction in 2009 saw over 30 South African cities on the tour schedule, features at all major local Music Festivals, highly acclaimed reviews and much more. Having just finalised the recording of his next solo album, Gary shared some insight with Calibreed.

Photo By Greg Lomas

With song-writing and performance seeming to be such a personal expression for you, was the solo-artist route inevitable? Have you always considered yourself a solo-artist?

I’ve been a solo artist all my life really, apart from the couple years I was doing Cabins. But I only started doing work I consider ‘good’ once I moved to Cape Town. I did a few gigs here and there in Durban while I was studying. But I sucked. I guess leaving your hometown forever does something to your creative side. It kind of exploded.

Do you think there is a mainstream market for the acoustic guitar outside of the James Blunt folk sing-a-longs? Has challenging your audience alienated you from a more mainstream appeal, and has this been by choice? Do you have mainstream aspirations, and do you think this can affect the creative integrity of a musician, or motivate them to take their art more seriously?

There are so many acoustic musicians who are doing great work who aren’t world famous. But they are known widely enough to tour the world and rely on music as a career. I don’t want to get to this place where everybody knows your name and your face is on stationary at Checkers. If EVERYONE loves you, you’re probably making shitty pop. Uh oh.

Your voice definitely plays as an additional instrument in the band, but do the lyrical contents also hold a lot of weight for you? There seems to be a rhythmic storytelling aspect in your music that almost reminds me of Fleetwood Mac themes. What kind of themes do you explore, and how do you find the lyric writing process as part of the whole package, especially in such an intimate solo medium?

I don’t know any Fleetwood Mac music. Except ‘Landslide’ because a million people covered it. Lyrics are very important to me. It’s the poetry side to vocal music. A lot of people assume I write nonsense and just fit words into songs like Tetris, but its not really the case. It’s just that I sometimes explore multiple ideas in one piece. It starts off in one place and then like a dream, ends up somewhere completely unrelated yet somehow symbiotic. I also think I’ll try put lyrics in my new album art because I think it will solve alot of word mysteries out there. I have pronunciation laziness. That’s all.

Vocally, you’ve stated before that you draw a lot of influence from female vocalists, and I know that folk such as Billy Corgan also played a big role, definitively tending towards left of middle with regards to typical delivery. What do you find personally exciting from a vocal offering, and what do you look for in that regard on a personal basis, when listening to music?

These days, when I hear new music, I can usually tell in the first 30 seconds if I’ll like it or not. And if not, I’ll write it off forever. I guess I’m interested in anything unique. Something that makes me go “well I wish I’d written that” or “how the fuck did they do that?”. I’ve spent way too much time exposing myself to the same music played by different people every day. Lets progress. Lets push boundaries. Lets fuck out.

Photo by Tyrone Bradley

You worked with some amazing musicians through Cabins in the Forest. Does the Gary Thomas model leave you open for these kinds of opportunities in the future?

Definitely. The freedom of being a solo artist is uncanny. I like being in control. To have freedom to go wherever you want. But music is great it’s flexibility and playing with others is just another level. It’s not better or worse. It’s just a different headspace. One that I will never say goodbye to. I have plans to get a trio / quartet / quintet together maybe in a year. Write some songs, do a tour, have some fun.

A notable aspect of the Gary Thomas experience is your humility on stage in face of obvious technical bravado. How do you stay humble about the process, and do you think the attitude affects the delivery of the music? You could very easily be hailed as the forefront of the next generation of the South African Acoustic Guitarist … in that regard where do you see yourself in 20 years? Do you find that technical aspects of your musical sometimes allow you to get away with more other ‘alternative’ creative explorations?

Thanks, that’s very kind. I have two recurring nightmares. One is that I’m back at school, after all these years, and I’ve neglected to keep up with my Maths and there’s an imminent exam. And they want me to shave my beard off. The other dream is that I’m about to do a gig but everything keeps going wrong. Electronics die. Strings break. There are wolves between me and the venue. I forgot my guitar at home. I have this dream so often that when things do go south in real life on stage, it’s just so surreal that I sometimes have to laugh at the state of affairs. Apparently I’m good at hiding my frustration because there have been times when I’ve wanted to leap off stage, break something and drive far far away. And then people come up to you afterwards and say ‘that was really awesome, probably the best show of yours I’ve seen’. It baffles me. I guess you just have to remind yourself that you’re the ONLY one who knows the music meticulously and fuck up’s are probably sneaking right past the crowd.

20 years? I hope to be alive. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

You worked on Wooden Boxes & Thought Hunting during the Cabins in the Forest run. How did you differentiate between what you brought to the Cabins table, and what you kept aside for personal projects? Do you view the two sounds as very different, and what kind of differences are you most aware of between your solo work and that of the ‘band’?

Oh it’s a completely different thing. Wooden Boxes was a casual project for which I didn’t have any release plans. I just churned out a bunch of music and decided I quite liked it. And when the opportunity arose,  I put it out. Two songs from those sessions became Cabins songs. Andy liked ‘Precipitation’ and ‘Toast’ and we ended up turning them into symphonic monsters after two years. We have very different styles. I tend to fall in love with darker music easier. What does that mean? Maybe it’s a Scorpio thing.

You’ve just finished up recording a brand new album. Was this a lengthy developmental process, or did you spend specific time in studio laying down the tracks? How is the recording process affected by being a solo artist, with such a hands on approach as yourself?

I did a lot of shows in a lot of new places in 2009. But I held from recording for the whole year because I wanted to develop material on the road, out in the world. And I’m glad I did, the pieces have matured. So I set up the Cabin for one last time, and laid down 19 or so songs. Half of them were from this year, the road. And half of them are new. Despite all of what I mentioned above, there is an element of spontaneity that is imperative to me. I axed a bunch of songs that I was sure would make the record. But they just lost their fire. For now. And I’m happy with the new songs.  There are 15 on the record.

I don’t like recording with anyone else in the room. I want to be alone. With my thoughts and my destinations. I have to let go and turn into a crazy person, bring out the monster. And I often find it harder when someone else is waiting for it to happen. If a 30 second take gets done in 3 hours, So be it. I had help setting up though, Andy and Guy Buttery lent me some gear and helped me find healthy sounds out of things. It’s the first time I recorded my stomp box too. We got it sounding super fat and bombastic.

Musically, are you exploring similar themes in the new album? Has your sound evolved or changed for this new recording? Are you excited / intimidated about the tracks you’ve done for this release? Have you worked out any interesting ways to beat new sounds out your acoustic?

Definitely. Like I said, it was the first time recording stomp box, which just adds so much to the sound. A pulse. I kept a lot of it simple with the solo performer size of the music. But there are times when one cant help layer the shit out of something. There’s something so rich about watching music unfold and expand. I played ‘snare’ drum with a big tin box  with coins inside. With my fingers. That’s on two tracks. Then there’s Ebow and the occasional distorted acoustic ‘string section’. In terms of guitar, I think I just like to explore every possible sound that you can create. I’ll always be learning new things. That’s the beauty.

When working on the album yourself, specifically the production, how are you able to step back from the project and decide that it is finished? Is it a matter of compromise? What ideals would need to be met for you to have the perfect Gary Thomas recording process?

It can turn into a nightmare and a mind fuck. I like mixing my work because I know exactly what’s going on and how I want things. But I am sending it for mastering at Peace of Eden Studios in Knysna. Howard Butcher’s the man there, he knows what’s going on. It’s a huge release / relief to send of a disc with everything completed. It drove me a little crazy for a while there, but I made it through without hating the record, which is pretty much the goal isn’t it?

Ideal recording zone: Cottage next to ocean / mountain / valley / something earthy and beautiful. Remote enough to make so much noise that no one hears, maybe a forest cow or two. New places tend to keep things fresh. I like moving around.

Photo by Leon Wolmarans

You did the recording in Cape Town, and are going to be producing the album in Durban. Any specific reason for the choice to do it that side? When can we expect a release?

I just happened to be headed up there over the new year, so it was perfect timing to take all my gear and look at things in a different space. Release… February… Maybe March. I have to find some ducks and put them in a row.

East Coast vs West Coast? Who wins?

We’re all the boss.

Photo by Tyrone Bradley

Check out more from Gary online here: www.garythomas.co.za

Banner photo credit: Colwyn Thomas.

~ by Calibreed on January 16, 2010.