Allan Holdsworth Quartet Montreal 1993 w Interview
Interviewer: Okay, well, uh, that was a pretty, pretty exciting show out there. The audience seemed to, uh, really enjoy it, and you guys seem to be having a lot of fun.
Allan Holdsworth: Well, the audience were the best thing, you know, they were great. Well, the guys in the band, the audience, you know, it was really great. It was really nice to get an opportunity to come back and play, you know, because it's been so difficult for us to do that really. It's pretty much like that all over. We don't really get booked at jazz festivals usually because the music falls into all the slots, you know, between...
Interviewer: That's right.
Allan Holdsworth: So it's very difficult trying to... trying to do this and get any kind of, yeah, like, you know, even... even when we play places for the first time, usually it's very difficult for us to get booked anywhere. It's only because we've got such a good, you know, like a loyal following, which I have to thank all of those people, you know, who come... you know, they've been coming for years because if it wasn't for them, you know, we'd never even be able to come back again.
Interviewer: This is a good festival because they don't restrict themselves to just the jazz artist per se, that covers a lot of different music.
Allan Holdsworth: Yeah, it's nice for us to get an opportunity. It's great, you know.
Interviewer: You've said that what you're playing is, uh, is usually what you're thinking is several years ahead of what you're playing. Waiting for the hands to catch up—is that still true?
Allan Holdsworth: Oh, you mean from a practicing point of view?
Interviewer: Well, from your conception.
Allan Holdsworth: Yeah, usually things I'm thinking about now or things I'm working on in my head now, they don't come out, you know, they... it seems... but I think... I think that seems normal. I would think it was, you know, but I don't know.
Interviewer: What I was going to say is, Wardenclyffe Tower—there's a connection with Nikola Tesla. What's, uh, what's the appeal there? Are you both misunderstood geniuses?
Allan Holdsworth: No, no, no, no, not at all! He was the genius, I'm just an imbecile. But he... no, it was a friend of mine who was really into Nikola Tesla and introduced me to him, and I was just like everybody else, you know, I was totally ignorant of all the things that he'd done. And it was a real revelation for me to find out that even the fact that I play an electric instrument, that he was responsible for, you know, in one way. So I was amazed that someone could do so much for the world and nobody knows who it is, you know? They all think it's Edison, or all these other guys who did it, but it's not, you know. So that was interesting, and I was just fascinated and I wrote a tune inspired by him—reading about him—which was the track "Wardenclyffe Tower," and then I just decided to call, you know, name the album after that particular track. There was no other reason, you know, it wasn't an album concept as such. I never really use an album concept, I just usually pick a title of one of the tunes and that's it.
Interviewer: What exactly was the Wardenclyffe Tower?
Allan Holdsworth: It was... well, basically it's really a long story, but to cut it really short is he wanted to, uh, give electricity away, and he wanted to do it like to transmit electricity like radio waves, so that you just have a receiver at your house—no wires or anything—and it would be unbelievably cheap, if not nothing. And I guess there was... you can imagine what kind of problems he would have trying to do that. They just get demolished right away, and that's what happened, I guess. There were two guys conspired basically to silence it, you know, and they did, they were successful. But it didn't stop him from doing all the stuff he did, like the hydro power plant at Niagara Falls was his design. I mean, he did a lot of wonderful things, and he was really into finding alternative means of energy, you know, without polluting the whole environment, which is almost too late now. Everybody... everybody's going to need a new set of lungs before they reach 30 years old, you know. It's sad, not so much for old people or old guys like me, but for kids, you know. I always... I always get worried about thinking, "What the hell have we left them...?" Excuse me, "What have we left them with to sort out, you know?" The whole world seems to be getting into a huge mess, you know, but I'm not a politician, so just keep playing.
Interviewer: Well, you contribute... you're contributing a lot of beauty in your way that I think is very valuable.
Allan Holdsworth: Well, I... thank you very much. But I think the only thing you can do is to try and do whatever it is that you do to the best of your ability. Whether that's classified as being any good by anybody else is really not the point. If I feel like I'm trying hard, then I can feel okay about it, you know, even if someone thinks it's horrendous, you know.
Interviewer: What's, uh... what's coming up for you, uh, next?
Allan Holdsworth: Well, we start a new album right away, actually. Right after this tour, we're going back to... going back to LA and doing a... doing a new record with this band.
Interviewer: Your new bass player is fantastic.
Allan Holdsworth: Yeah, he's amazing. I'm really happy. I think the band, I think the guys, you know, Gary, Skuli, and Steve, are really fantastic. I really have a great time, you know. I almost want to just feel like writing the tunes, hire another guitar player, and sit out in the audience!
Interviewer: You're so, uh, incredibly modest. I never understand this. I think it's good because maybe that's why you've pushed so hard to do the things you do.
Allan Holdsworth: Well, I fall down a lot of manholes, that's for sure. Because, uh... you know, the way musicians, especially guitar players, but even people who play other instruments—I know bass players who are very inspired by what you do...
Interviewer: There's a lot of wonderful... there's so many wonderful musicians out there. It's almost kind of... sometimes I feel like it's pointless, you know? I just... it's only my love of music that keeps me going. Sometimes I'll hear something now and I think it's so wonderful that I just think, "Well, why am I doing this, you know?" Because...
Interviewer: Where are you getting inspiration these days? Do you do this really just from life?
Allan Holdsworth: I think just from living, you know. I think... I think music, almost all music for me anyways, is geographical. It's so much to do with what you learned, what you grew up with as a child. It's like an emotional thing, it's not just a studious thing, you know? Some people, they just sit down and figure something out or learn how to do something parrot fashion, you know? They just play what they've read basically or what they've learned from someone else. And I mean, I don't really do that, you know. I just try and draw everything that I am or everything I want to do from the music, from my experiences as some sort of a human, you know.
Interviewer: Well, I think that there's a tendency for people to confuse the technique and the physical playing with the music itself, whereas that's just carrying the music out; the music is coming from inside you.
Allan Holdsworth: Yeah, I'd be quite happy not to have to play, you know, not to play. I mean, an instrument to me, any kind of instrument, I feel like I was trapped with the wrong instrument in a way. I don't really like guitar that much—I mean, I love to hear other people play it, but I feel like I was essentially trapped by the instrument. But after all, it is only an instrument, that's what that word means, you know? It's just a tool, like a screwdriver, a tone-deaf... or whatever you call it.
Interviewer: Exactly, this is what I mean.
Allan Holdsworth: Too much focus is placed on the actual instrument itself, and I think so because to me, all the musicians... all the musicians that I like, they all play different instruments, you know. But I've known a lot of guys who only listen to guitar, you know, I think they miss something when you do that. My listening interests are very similar in terms of guitar—I like to hear somebody who's singing with it and something that's closer to a saxophone.
Interviewer: But as far as I'm concerned, you're the only guy who can do that on guitar.
Allan Holdsworth: I don't know, well, thanks anyway.
Interviewer: Okay, well that's smart for me...
