From Jessamine's ashes...

1. Introducing the bands. What instruments do you use and what is each member's activity ?
Brian, Andy and Paul are all keyboard players. We have a variety of keyboards, mainly electric pianos (2), synthesizers of various kinds (many), and an organ. I specialize in organ, Andy tends to play bass synth & piano, and Brian usually a polyphonic synthesiser and piano, but we do not always stick to this formula and we change it up. Rex is our one and only guitarist, and he's very into electronics as well, so he becomes synthetic like one of us. We all play through amps for a really live sound. Often we don't have a drummer at all, that part is always changing or we ignore the need for a drummer altogether.

2. How did you get started creating music? Would you like to tell us about your first musical experiences ?
Between all four of us, I think we have very different stories about our beginnings as musicians. As a band, we came together during a time when we were all searching for more musical community in Portland. In the 90s, Portland was not very receptive to experimental music (especially because of narrow-minded concert venues that only accepted Rock), and we all found each other at the same time in the late 90s when the music scene started to be more open-minded and clubs were having stranger music. In many ways Fontanelle began because our various past groups came to record at Magnetic Park, which is now only used to record Fontanelle and other private projects or projects of friends. The studio was central to our beginnings as a band as Rex and Andy would "fly in" musicians that they'd meet through the studio work.

3. What was or is the general idea behind this project? When and this project has started ? Where does the name "Fontanelle" come from ?
Initially, I think the project began as a way for Rex, and Andy, Michael Faeth and Charlie Smyth to attempt improvisational music based on the explorations of their previous bands- a little more emphasis on a sophisticated call-and-response system of interlocking patterns and improvising by varying the patterns, as opposed to verse/chorus songs with occasional free passages (the format of 90s US out-rock bands.) From the beginning it seems like electronics were a central theme because of the ability to be abstract, but with all the advantages of a live band over programming. The name "Fontanelle" was not chosen for it's meaning but for the sound of the word. Until a few years ago, I thought a "Fontanelle" was a variety of mushroom, like chanterelles, etc.

4. How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it ?
I describe it as a kind of abstract improvised electronic funk music because of our longtime fixation on syncopation, and the use of synthesisers to create imaginary, non-instrumental sounds (or to mimic the sounds of synths with other instruments..) I would not call it jazz or jazz fusion, which would be the "easy" answer since we have Fender Rhodes type pianos and vintage equipment. But that's not a good description. Sometimes our end results do not reveal how complex our methods can get- so the question becomes, do we describe how the band sounds on record, or do we describe our working process itself?

5. To what is your albums inspired? Which kind of atmosphere do you like to describe most ?
I do not know how to answer this question. We simply improvise and then try to collage together a result which captures the original energy of the improvisation. I don't know if we are trying to describe a type of atmosphere- as friends, I think we are drawn to certain themes but they are
largely unintentional. Some of these themes are very general- "open spaces" in the music, tension between dense, fast syncopation and rhythmless abstraction. Some of the themes are more specific, like improvisations that sound like a suspenseful chase-scene soundtrack, or a romantic interlude in a movies. But this is accidental, we just share themes because of our common interests, but we never really discuss them.

6. Differences between your debut album "Fontanelle", 12" "F" and "Style Drift".
"F" is a collection of recordings from the period of the first album and captures some of our live songs and the beginnings of our work with computer editing. They are not throw-away songs, but they do show our explorations very plainly. "Style Drift" is much more careful, we recorded many of the songs to adhere to a 4/4 tempo for "tightness" and we also did much more elaborate processing. In that way, "Style Drift" is like a firm statement on the various experiments we started for "F".

7. Can you tell something about your creative process ?
How does an album of yours born? What does it happen in studio recording ?
We improvise and record ourselves in the process. Then, we edit the tracks in the computer. This usually takes a long time, and we often will process the sounds while editing, so that there is more of an imaginary component. At this point we spend a lot of time removing mistakes in our playing. The real magic of our creative process happens in the improvisation itself. Most people would probably find our editing sessions boring, but in the improv we have a way of intuitively of trading phrases, passing tunes and rhythms from person to person like a "round," or like passing the ball in basketball. We will sometimes plug our effects boxes & synthesisers together so that we can effect each others' sounds. We create a web of interrelated musical events based on a shared set of patterns, and sometimes someone will solo or change the beat and take things in a new direction, it's like a game.

8. What artists or bands have had the biggest impact on you ?
What are your favourites currently ?
Too numerous to name. Lately: Rex has been listening to current major hiphop artists like Missy & Timbaland, etc. Brian and Paul DJ experimental dance music (techno, house, disco, etc.) on the weekends. We all devour a variety of music that is just too diverse to list. Certainly the rhythmic
forwardness of major-radio soul and hip hop is important, but as a band we have some old reference points. Many critics/reviewers simply mention Isotope, Miles Davis, and Can, because these are the easy/lazy comparisons. We love Miles & Can, but we do not really identify with the Chicago fusion bands very much, and instead of Miles & Can I would say we have more love for Herbie Hancock and Cluster- similar artists from a similar era, but with different emphases.

9. A positive and a negative thought about the actual musical world. Labels, radios, TV and who works in this area....
We have been lucky enough to always work with Kranky who are very honest and treat us well even though we are not a high-profile touring band. They treat our secretive studio work with as much import as their big bands like Low. We don't perform very often, so we perhaps don't have opinions about the general music business, and in Portland radio isn't very good, sos. Some of us have been doing music so long we are tired of the industry's corruption to some degree, but mostly we are focused on our immediate Portland community and the diversity within it and how to keep clubs/scene/fans in favor of experimental artists & DJ's. Because we have the honor to work with Kranky we don't have to work first-hand with music-biz corruption, and we can try to bring the positive ethic of quality & honesty in music to our local scene. Mostly we're very private, so this is a hard question to answer.

10. How does your sound change and evolve in the future?
What do you think about it? Do you have any ideas about new sounds or themes to experiment?
We are trying to decide what to do with our current batch of recorded improvisations. Our processing/synthesis perhaps is a little more complex, but not much. Our playing as musicians is always improving as far as our instruments go, so I would say that some of the new material has some moments of bold solos and melodies, and moments of surprising, disorienting abstraction. At first we thought the new material was only OK, but on second listens, there are some very brave moments that range from overtly strong rock guitar statements, to very relaxed funk grooves, to scattered, chaotic electronic soundscapes- moments that show how much braver (and more humorous) we've become as instrumentalists. But probably in terms of the studio/editing process, it's unclear what changes/evolutions we'll make and we are trying to decide now what to do because not all of the methods used on "Style Drift" will necessarily be appropriate for the current material.

11. Future projects? Is it coming any new album?
We're not in a hurry.