Vancouver, British Columbia's Phil
Western (a.k.a. Philth, Cap'm Stargazer) is a rising electronic musician who
has been closely involved in several groups including OFF & GONE,
FLOATPOINT, PLATEAU, and DOWNLOAD. His debut solo release, "The
Escapist", is due out in 1998 on Vancouver's MAP Records. Phil was
interviewed in mid-February, 1998 by GODSEND's Todd Zachritz.
GS - How did you first become interested in (electronic) music? What led you to create your own?
Western - Electronic music became an interest for me as a result of the inability to produce music in the studio because of financial reasons.
By getting into electronic gear, I basically paved the way for myself to work full time on music without spending millions of dollars. The basic studio set up now gets cheaper and cheaper, and if a person gets good at producing at home, then they have a better chance of getting budgets down the road.
GS - Were your solo tracks on "Coordinate01" and the Subconscious 12" your first released tracks?
Western - They were the first things that were released yes.
GS - How did you hook up with Dan Handrabur and Mike Kandel?
Western - When I was running a dance music store in Vancouver called Odyssey, it was quite easy to hook up with like minded people musically by just making a phone call, Mike Kandel had just released the high Lonesome Sound System EP on Exist dance when I called him out of the blue and we hit it off, we still talk now all the time...Dan was someone who I met through the store as well...Vancouver didn't have a huge electronic music scene then, so networking happened quite naturally between like minded people.
GS - Describe your projects Floatpoint and Off & Gone...and whether either are ongoing concerns.
Western - both are collaborations with Dan and both of them are finished for now...however Dan and I still intend to work together...we both wanted to get into recording other forms of music that were more performance based. We wanted to see what we would do by ourselves and we’ve both gone on to other things, but we still want to collaborate again..he plays violin on the new album...
GS - Your involvement in Plateau and Download has been your best known (and most physically accessible) work...to you, how do these projects differ?
Western - Plateau took 2 weeks to make and III took 6 months so obviously, III represents more time and care...still I think that the next Download album will take things much further in less time because the whole recording process feels less laboured recently (for me anyway) and also we've met so many cool musicians lately that will help make the next album a bit more of a performance album.
GS - On "Grass Bars" and "III", your influence in these projects is undeniable and obvious, do you consider this work with cEvin Key to be your "main focus" now?
Western – no, the new Phil Western album is my focus now and I hope it will redefine a few things for me. It is definitely drawing on broader influences than Download and is less of a techno album per se...the real fun in making music for me lately has been to use a more eno style approach i.e. calling all kinds of players to come in and jam over a groove and then cutting those performances into a track, obviously digital audio has opened up exciting new possibilities.
GS - Discuss your solo album, "The Escapist"...and it's influences/sound/etc.
Western - The Escapist is an exploration of the past and how it is affecting the here and now...it will have lots of live instruments and even a little singing and I expect it will freak out some people as it is yet another departure in terms of musical styles but again, look at Eno - how similar are his albums?.. yet they are all undeniably made by the same person....basically I want to involve the listener...if people try to get into the escapist, I think they will...
GS - I know you've done quite a lot of remix work, from Brothers & Systems to Dead Voices On Air to Metallica and Dink...your thoughts and philosophy on the remix process...
Western - If someone gives me carte blanche on a remix then therein lies an exciting challenge...basically its fun because you have all the parts at your disposal to keep or throw away so I would have to say bottom line that remixes are fun and liberating usually.
GS - Vancouver seems to have quite a thriving electronic scene, from the post-industrial side (Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly/Delerium, Numb, Decree, etc) to the more techno/ambient side (Sect, Mere Mortals, Map Records, Adham Shaikh, Pilgrims, etc)...why do you think this is, and to what do you think contributes to this?
Western - I think that some bands in the industrial scene had success when I was a teenager and this inspired me to have a go at it...I was quite young when the first Skinny Puppy record came out (grade 8) and I bought it as a young music fan...I was still only drumming then so it was a fairly influential record for me in terms of electronic music. Skinny Puppy were sort of like Kraftwerk to me at the time, cutting edge, it was unusual that they were from Vancouver so I guess that inspired me to keep trying with music because some other bands had made it from here so why not try?? I think its been the same for a lot of people in my age group...the momentum was already there when we were very young.
GS - You had left Download after "Furnace/Microscopic", only to return for the "Eyes/Sidewinder" tour...why the return?
Western - Dwayne and I were close friends/roommates, after he died I left town for several months and travelled. When I returned, Kevin was getting ready for the tour...when he asked me to go I had to say yes...touring is still to me the ultimate life experience.
GS - Your thoughts on the whole so-called "electronica" trend...
Western - why not??
GS - As you were a close friend of Dwayne's, whatever happened to his solo Duck release that subconscious was planning?
Western - Kevin has the master tapes and Dwaynes family has the rights so as soon as they all decide to do it they will do it. However a lot of that material of Dwaynes seems to end up getting released here or there anyway...one complaint I had with "eyes o s pain" LP was that a lot of the tracks originated from Dwaynes demos that he did before he died...it seemed silly to me to propel a band further based on a dead persons material...how do you follow it up??..and I think this is why there is such a noticeable difference from the second to third record-entirely different songwriting structures...you see there will never be another Dwayne...
GS - What's up with the Download "Moth" and "Resilient" EPs?..and isn't there another Plateau album finished now?
Western - The EPs are being remixed by Autechre so I’m told...the Plateau material exists but I want the next plateau album to be a lot stronger than the first one was.
GS - Aside from your solo album and the upcoming Download/Plateau releases, what else are you working on (new projects, remixes, anything)?
Western - The only thing I’ve been doing lately is the escapist and after that I will probably chew my fingernails while I wait to see what the reaction is...
GS - Any closing words to fans of your work?
Western - If there are fans of my work, thank you!!! I hope the escapist provides you with a temporary escape.
For more information on Phil Western's projects, visit these web sites:
http://www.bsg-inc.com/offngone/
http://www.www.subconsciousstudios.com