In my various guises I get an enormous number of emails each day. The other day, in between a selection of pdfs about new species of lizard and emails trying to sell me a Far Eastern mail-order bride, I received an intriguing email from a man called René van Commenée. I dug a little further and found this statement:
"As a musician I work mainly as a percussionist, electronic music performer and sound designer. I am a member of the trio The Art of Doing Nothing with Pipe Organ master Willem Tanke and MIDI-wind-controller/flutist Martijn Alsters. With Alsters I formed a duo for live-surround concerts and installations also. Separate from this I create visual sound art installations. I always like to use my voice though. I was a singer in several Dutch rock bands in the seventies and eighties, and like to write, record and perform more song-based music as I call it. But if you do so many diverse things I think you have to make clear to your audience what it is they can expect when buying your work or attending your concerts/performances. Therefore I chose to give my song-based projects a separate name, Mr Averell; a band in which I am the main writer and performer."
I then received a copy of his smashing new album Gridlock and wrote THIS.
I was so massively intrigued that I arranged an interview.
JON: Tell me about
the album; I think it is really, really
good. How did it come together?
René: I first started
in my own studio to do, let’s call it, the skeletons of the album and the songs
using a computer and very – I call it – low end synthesiser work; what we call
general media. So the compositions became clear then and I knew what I wanted
with sound. Before really starting to do the thing in the recordings etc and of
course I needed the lyrics. Sometimes I
already had the lyrics, and sometimes I had the music earlier than the lyrics.
I had to write the lyrics and I am not very fast of that. So that was the way I
started the recording.
JON: Did you know
from the beginning what special guests you wanted to have?
RENÉ: No, I
didn’t. Because for me it is important
to have the right sound, and this is what I fill in with the right people.
JON: I was
particularly impressed by Mike Garson’s playing.
RENÉ: Me too. And that is another story because Mike and I
already wanted to work together for a very long time, but since he is living in
the States and I am in Holland, it is always very difficult and expensive to do
things like that, so when we had an opportunity because we were together, and
we could plan the studio recording, we didn’t have anything, we didn’t have any
plans what to record. We just went into the studio where a grand piano was and
we said well let’s compose a song there, and we will see what happens. That finally became the song
Sightseeing. That was composed together.
JON: He really is an
extraordinary musician.
RENÉ: Yes, he’s
fabulous. And I am very proud having him on the record as well, especially that
we composed something together, because also that’s quite unique. He is also on
Deliberately and that was already composed by me and I knew already what I
wanted there so I gave it a chance to ask him to do the piano, and whatever you
ask him he comes up with beautiful things.
JON: I’ve always
been a big, big fan of his, ever since hearing him playing on the Bowie song Time about
forty years ago.
RENÉ: Yeah, everybody
is referring to Aladdin Sane isn’t it?
JON: Yes –
absolutely amazing musician
RENÉ: Yes, he
is. I am a bit surprised he is not on
the latest album.
JON: It’s quite
interesting when you hear the new David Bowie album. All sorts of people you thought were going to
be on there aren’t. It’s like his long-time bass player Gail Ann Dorsey is not
on there either.
RENÉ: She’s doing
some vocals isn’t she.
JON: It’s a very
good record….oh she sings on it doesn’t she, but she doesn’t play bass I don’t think.
RENÉ: No, he worked
with a lot of different people than before.
I thought even Tony Levin is on isn’t he?
JON: Yes. That is an amazing record. I think it’s going to be nearly everybody’s
record of the year.
RENÉ: Yeah
probably. I had hoped it would be mine
<laughs>
JON: You’re coming a
very close second.
RENÉ: Oh well…..
thank you
JON: How long have
you been doing the Mr Averell project?
RENÉ: Quite some time
already. Actually I started the Averell
project without a ‘Mr’ in the late-‘70s, as a kind of solo thing apart from my
event playing. I was a drummer and a vocalist
in some local bands and I had a studio – very primative I must say – so I
worked on this sound on sound principle with cassette tapes, and there I did my
own work and I called myself Averell.
Actually I was called by other musicians Averell because I was a very thin, punky, young lad.
Always hungry. So they started calling me Averell, so I thought that was
a good artist name to use for my solo projects and there I started actually.
And there is one song on Out of My Mind…. did you get it?
JON: Not yet, no.
RENÉ: Okay, that’s a
pity. There is one song on it which is called
Temples of Ice, and that was actually composed in that period in the ‘70s. So
that is where it started and then I forgot the project and I didn’t go on
because I was working more in the visual art field and I did a lot of art sound
projects in galleries and museums, sound installations, for a long time and,
in - I think it’s about 2003 or so, I
can’t remember - I started the project again.
I wanted to make some of my own recordings and because I did all this
other work that was in your article, I thought I need a name so people who know
me for instance from David Jackson, and come to a gig they shouldn’t expect to
see me as a drummer because I am a vocalist performer there. If you understand what I mean. So I thought, well why not take back the name
Averell, but since I am a bit older I started to call it Mr Averell. Out of My Mind I use Averell still as an
artist name, so on the album cover my name is not there at all. You see Averell
is doing the things and the whole copyright is Mr Averell, but I thought with
this album I want to stop with that, because why should I be someone else, if I
still am myself, so now I use it as a project name, so it’s still clear it’s my
song projects, but I’m still the same person, René van Commenée. So that is actually the first time I do it
this way.
JON: Do you play
live?
RENÉ: Yes, we did
gigs with a band, but it’s very hard to get gigs and it’s very hard to finance
it because, you know, I need a band with at least 3 other people to make live
versions of the songs which are comparable to the album and still can be recognised
that it’s the same song, but it’s very difficult to finance. I’m actually
trying to get it on the road now. I recently called all the band members – the
live band members – which are different than on the album, and everybody wanted
to go for it, so I am now looking for a promoter who wants to do it. Because it’s my aim to do extensive touring. I love playing live so I definitely want to
do it again.
JON: Will that just
be in Holland?
RENÉ: No, no, I hope
we can go to Germany, which
is very near, and in Germany
there is a huge audience for the more, let’s call it, avant
garde music than in Holland
so I don’t see a lot of gigging here actually.
JON: Well I hope you manage to come to England some time.
RENÉ: Well I hope
too, but I don’t know how difficult it is nowadays in England and I hear it form fellow musicians
there they say it’s difficult in England
as well.
JON: I don’t know, I
haven’t played live in 15 years. So I don’t know.
RENÉ: You’re a
musician as well…
JON: Yes.
RENÉ: What do you
play?
JON: I play guitar
and bass, and sing. And I play piano
very badly….
RENÉ: I play piano
very badly as well. That’s what I have
Mike for isn’t it <laughs>
JON: That’s why God
gave us two hands and a piano so we could play it very badly…… Many of the
people reading this will be hearing about you for the first time and there
seems to be an overall concept to the Gridlock album. Would you like to explain
the concept….
RENÉ: Well actually,
that’s Gridlock. You know the Gridlock
song itself is about the traffic jams, very simple, but I think you can use the
word ‘gridlock’ on almost every song on the album. Because it’s not the gridlocks on the road,
it’s also the gridlocks in our lives and in our minds, and in our relationships
etc., etc. And it’s kind of the main theme in the whole album.
That’s what I
got from it. That it was about emotional
gridlock, emotional traffic jams as much as physical ones.
RENÉ: Exactly. Well you had in right then.
JON: That makes a first. I am not very good
at getting things right. I’ve written long essays where I’ve interpreted a piece
of work one way and the artist tells me no I’ve got it completely wrong.
RENÉ: Oh no, no…this
time you are right. Absolutely right.
JON: That’s good René. So what are your plans next? What happens next?
RENÉ: Well, you know,
we try to promote the album extensively now to give it some knowledge so that
people know who Mr Averell is, or what Mr Averell is or how you would call
it. Of course I want to sell the album
and that nowadays is very difficult – the other problem with this album is, it
is very difficult for me to have it as an iTunes download because I don’t see
it as a collection of separate songs, but as an album which you want to play,
or you have to play from the beginning till the end.
JON: I don’t
understand the modern way of just having everything as a collection of disparate
songs. I always think in terms of albums
anyway.
RENÉ: Yes that’s what
I do, but I am a bit old fashioned as well probably. I don’t know. But I believe we are both in
our ‘50s…..
JON: Yes, I’m
53. I am a child of the ‘70s and I still
think in terms of LPs. Even when I am
listening to something on a CD I think about it having side 1 and side 2.
RENÉ: That is
probably difficult with Gridlock, because I was thinking about it as well if we
do it, because it is becoming a bit popular again to do it on vinyl but I don’t
know where to put the break.
JON: That’s an
interesting idea. I don’t know either.
RENÉ: Well I have to
think about it. But one interesting
thing about what you say is this is always important to me, the length of the
CD. If I make a CD I will not make it 74
minutes. Because for me that is too
long. I think about 40 minutes is very
good and that is probably because I am also from the LP generation. I don’t know but out of my mind about 40
minutes I guess – this is about 44 I think.
JON: I understand
totally. Also what I don’t like about
the modern paradigm; I like having the physical artifacts in my hand
rather than just having files on a
computer.
RENÉ: Yes well that
is why I still spend too much on buying CDs all the time, and even the luxury
editions if they have them. Like the newest
Nick Cave.
I am still waiting for my box. Then I want to have the luxury edition
because I want to have really something in my hands. But that’s also with my albums. I spend a lot of time and effort to have a
very nice package. And with Gridlock I
didn’t have the money otherwise I would have it much more extensive, but I
spent a lot of time in the package because that is very important to me.
JON: Well you did a
good job. I like the package a lot. I
like the way you have that mini poster which comes out of the envelope and you
unfold it.
RENÉ: Thank you. I am happy to hear that because we spent a
lot of time on it. And I am very critical in it. As you can read on the cover,
I worked with two graphic designers and they had a heavy job I can tell
you. Because it is very clear in my mind
already. I make the concept of the cover myself, so it is very clear for me
what I see, but I can’t do it in this computer age on Photoshop and all those
programmes – I can’t work with those, otherwise I would probably do it all
myself. But they can do a better job because, you know, it’s their job.
JON: Well I think it
is a very satisfying package – the whole thing really works well. And I think
if there is any justice in the universe it is going to be a very popular album.
RENÉ: Well I hope
too. It’s nice to hear because that is
what we try isn’t it - to make people happy with it and in the end myself.
