Solar Mass - Interview

Interview with Christopher Petkus 

From Solar Mass

Kim: What made you decide to call the band Solar Mass?

Christopher: Good question, this band originally didn't have a name at all, but was instead hand-picked by me to play this concert piece I'd written called "Solar Mass" for the Church Of The Friendly Ghost's 2010 NMASS festival. When it became apparent that it was not going to be a one-off performance, we needed a name.  And since the piece was already called Solar Mass, I figured why not just call the group that? The Monkees have a title song, why shouldn't we?

Kim: Tell me about how you formed the band. 

Christopher: They were picked from a larger pool of people, a group called Mongoose I'm involved with that does music based on John Zorn's Cobra game piece.

Kim: How would you describe the music and experience when one attends a Solar Mass show?

Christopher: It was written to be a mass-like piece.  There are a lot of drones and tribal-sounding percussion in it, and they're meant to evoke the sun worship rites that the piece is about.  

Kim: I understand all of your performance members are prolific artist who have worked on independent projects of their own. Can you tell me about each of the members?

Christopher: Yeah, they are all performers in their own right.  Daniel Hipolito, who does tape music and plays bass, performs electronic sets under the name Smokey Emery.  Eva Luna who plays percussion and sings, performs her own songs under the name Sprills Of Ore. Rebecca Ramirez, also on vocals and percussion, is a songwriter who plays guitar, ukulele and autoharp.  And Matt Burnett, who plays electronics for us, is also a songwriter who's just released a new album called "things@now.good."

Kim: How do all of you collaborate with your creative ideas to develop a finished piece of music and visual art?

Christopher: Well, the music is all written by me and developed in rehearsal.  I'll write a loose score telling everyone the bare bones of what I want and they we flesh it out through playing. Some pieces are more improvisational than others--our set right now includes a second piece that is not part of the Solar Mass called "The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World" where the only written piece is a two note bassline, and the rest of the score just tells the musicians when to come in. The visual part is something that's still evolving, and will hopefully continue to evolve.  I like the idea of the Solar Mass being a long-germinating piece that is never quite "finished."

Kim: Please tell me about the various forms of performance art that has been included in your shows?

Christopher: We've included dance in previous shows, and for our next performance this friday at Cherrywood Coffeehouse we'll be working with a projectionist named Katie Rose Pipkin and our friend Tim Doyle--he plays an amplified bicycle wheel.  For the future, we're working with the Sugar Puppet troupe to provide shadow puppet accompaniment.  

  

Kim: What direction do you wish to see Solar Mass move forward to in the future?

Christopher: I'm actually working on material for a new concert piece for us--more drones, more pagan drumming, MANY more guitars....

Solar Mass Event

Friday, July 29 · 7:30pm - 10:00pm

Cherrywood Coffeehouse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hUOqAgvBJ4

Photo by Sandy Bowie

SOLAR MASS SCOR

Call—struck note on Vibratone

M1 (7 mins)

0:00 – 1:00 breath music—Rebecca/Eva

1:00 – low drone—Matt

2:00 – tape music—Daniel

3:00 – guitar—Petkus.

4:00 – held sung notes—Rebecca/Eva

6:00 – drone and tape music stop. Then sung notes. Then guitar.

Call

M2 (5 mins)

0:00 – intonarumori sample loop--Matt

0:10 - Eva tom

0:15 – bass/tape music 

2:30 -  Rebecca 

Call

M3

0:00 – Rebecca: “I’d like to tell you a story.” (sun crow story—see below)/harmonic guitar

Daniel/Eva vocal accent

Call

M4 (9 mins?)

0:00  loop/bass in E (Daniel)/guitar /drum/Rebecca freakout

Call

M5 (7 mins)

0:00 laptop drone/tape chants/held sung notes

Drop out as cued by Petkus.

SUN CROW STORY

According to a story I once heard, there were once long ago ten sun crows which settled in 10 separate suns in the Chinese sky. They perched on a red mulberry tree called the Fusang--the Leaning Mulberry Tree, in the East at the foot of the Valley of the Sun. 

This mulberry tree was said to have many mouths opening from its branches, and the crows perched on their lips. Each day one of the sun crows would be rostered to travel around the world on a carriage, driven by Xihe the 'mother' of the suns. As soon as one sun crow returned, another one would set forth in its journey crossing the sky. 

There were two sorts of grasses the crows loved to eat—both were grasses of immortality. One was called the Diri (or "ground sun") and the other was Chunsheng (or "spring grow"). The sun crows would often descend from heaven on to the earth and feast on these grasses, but Xihe did not like the crows forever eating the grasses that gave her immortality so one night as they slept she covered their eyes to prevent them from doing so. 

This angered the crows, and they determined that if Xihe was going to keep the grasses of immortality only to herself that instead none should be able to eat from them.  And that day all ten sun crows came out at the same time, causing fires and famine upon the earth!

But Houyi the celestial archer saved the day! Taking careful aim to hit their wings, he shot down all but one of the sun birds.  And over time the birds healed and learned the error of their ways.  And Xihe, the mother of the suns, learned to share the grasses of immortality.  And the burned region of the earyh, now called Gobi, gave new homes to many forms of life, such as the gobi bear, the ibex and the black-tailed gazelle…..