Psychedelic, experimental, free-folk, freak-folk, raga, drone, John Fahey. These are just some of the words used in connection with Oakland, California's Ben Chasney aka Six Organs Of Admittance. I'd be tempted to simply call him a guitar explorer if that didn't ring a bit corny... okay, I might say it anyway. He plays electrics and acoustics—sometimes singing—to the accompaniment of everything from drums to tone generators to other singers. More intense and less "eccentric" than the Devendra Banhart thing, Chasny nonetheless finds himself in such company, whether in music pages or on festival bills.
The new record, The Sun Awakens, is Six Organs' eighth since 1998. Not accidentally structured like a certain Pink Floyd album, it unfurls a meditative, side-long song cycle, followed by a side-long doomscape writ large with gongs, chant, and something called a Persian ney. His other band (one of his other bands) is the exploding hard-psych quintet Comets On Fire, whose Avatar album will be released later this summer.
Chasny and I swapped emails, talking about the Six Organs record, music theory, and God's place at the mixing desk.
The song cycle of the album's first six tracks begins and ends pretty blissfully, then the side-long "River Of Transfiguration" goes to some scary places. Can you explain that construction?
Meddle. Also, I wanted to make a record that could give inspiration and happiness but also one that you could take a sonic voyage with. Songs are too short nowadays. Everyone has lost the ability to sit and listen in this MP3 world. There's a lot going on in that last song, but I recommend some good speakers. The tones we were manipulating at the beginning are so low that little speakers won't pick them up. Besides, it's a bit of a challenge to write a piece that long that doesn't get stagnant. I feel I succeeded and it's one of my favorite Six Organs tracks ever.
Drag City's press release is calling this record really dark. Does it feel that way to you?
Not compared to Khanate or Scott Walker! But compared to School of the Flower, yes, it is much darker. I just want people to know what they are getting into if they get it. It's not going to be strumming the acoustic guitar and singing about rainbows and shit. But the darkness is luminescent on the first side, and opaque on the second side. That is a very important difference.
Your stuff is undoubtedly experimental. Being purely experimental all the time would seem like a difficult thing. Do you ever find yourself slipping into formula?
That's funny. I don't consider my music experimental. Compared to the music that I listen to, my music is very tame. I always feel a bit ashamed about that, but it's just how it is. It's just the way that the music is made. As far as it being a difficult thing, I would like to lie and say no, but really, yes, it's too easy to slip into a formula. I don't think every one of my records totally expands in new ways, but every record does expand different ideas. They move from one to the next. This record sounds very different than my firstor second.
How close do you come to what would be considered music theory?
I'm about a million miles away from music theory. It's good for some people and horrible for others. I'm just sort of indifferent to it. Not that I just "jam." I do know some chords and things. But for the most part, too much music theory just bogs people down with the idea that they have to prove they are good musicians and then they loose that connection to their heart. That's why most of my favorite musicians play direct, action-as-now music.
How is your experience of hearing chant and drone different from that of creating them?
I guess it would be very different because I really don't listen to too much chant music at all. I just feel like doing it. it's soothing to my brain. It's calming to me to build up a chant with layers and layers. I don't know how to describe it.
I've read interviews with you, and you talk about a lot of authors and musicians that are way off the pop culture radar. What led you to discover them?
One usually leads to the other, actually! And I have friends who are intelligent and went to college, which I never did, and they recommend books to me based upon what they know I like and I take it from there. I actually really don't read all that much. I just get a lot out of a little.
What leads you to learning new things about the guitar?
That's a great question! You know, generally, I am a bit embarrassed to play guitar. Such a horribly generic thing to play. But I think right now, I am inspired to make the most communicative music with the least amount of ego that I can. This is why I have given up playing long extended acoustic guitar solos. I mean, I love Shrapnel records and all, but I just can't do it.
How do you title your songs, many of which are instrumental?
Titling instrumentals is the hardest thing. I don't know. It sometimes takes me longer to title the songs than it does to record them. It's just a thing, just get inspired, find where you want the song to take someone. For instance, the same exact instrumentaltitled two different ways will be listened to very differently once the person knows the title. It's a really hard thing for me.
Your songs like to build. What is it about that dynamic that appeals to you?
I'm interested in changes and movement in songs, but by changing the chord progression, an entirely new feeling is set into motion. i guess I like exploring different intensities within the same emotion. I never really thought about it before this but now that you've asked, it's pretty clear to me that that is why I write like that.
Does being in Comets On Fire and other bands and projects compartmentalize your creativity, so to speak, or do you think of it as bringing "your thing" to each of them?
I think that I love all types of music, so that is why I love to play all types of music. I don't feel my creativity is compartmentalized in any way. It gives me the ability to explore music at different levels. That's all. It's exploration.
You often play both electric and acoustic guitars within a song. Should the two instruments be equal in the eyes of God or history or whoever's deciding these things?
If God is concerned about the balance of guitars within a song, that probably explains why so many things are neglected in this world. Are you saying that the Bird Flu is due to God going to the WFMU record fair? I can see it. Why not? In reality, the balance is only important song by song.
What kind of direction, if any, do you give the musicians playing on a Six Organs session?
Not much. Sometimes a melody or an an idea of texture. Since they are built up, like we mentioned before, most of the direction is just telling them how long the song is and telling them to do what they want. I don't play with musician's who need direction and thereason I ask if they'd like to record with me is because I know that whatever they do, it will sounds great.
Describe the environment you grew up in.
A peaceful household. My Mother and Father are still married. We lived a very rural existence, near dairy farms and rivers. Good memories, really.
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