|
ERSTWHILE : an interview with John Abbey
by Philippe Petit
Erstwhile is a relatively young label, founded in 1999 by John Abbey.
Erstwhile seeks the middle ground between improvisation and composition,
and organised meetings between good musicians, such as : Keith Rowe,
Günter Müller, Thomas Lehn, Kevin Drumm, Otomo Yoshihide,,
Marcus Schmickler, Voice Crack, Christof Kurzmann, Martin Tétreault,
Lé Quan Ninh, Saschiko M, Taku Sugimoto and many more… I
sent my questions to its curator : John Abbey.
 |
I'd like to know a little biographical information about you,
such as how old you are, where you grew up, your schooling...
Any sort of information that could help readers to understand
how you got to be who you are today.
Jon Abbey : I'm 34, grew up in the US (New Jersey), went to school
at Columbia
University. Since I was young, I've been very interested in music
as a fan and connoisseur, and gradually my tastes have become
more and more experimental. Eventually I started Erstwhile so
that I could contribute to something I cared about so deeply.
Which
friendly piece of advice would you give to someone who wants to
start his label ?
Jon Abbey : Treat people fairly and with respect, and don't expect
to sell many copies for the first couple of years, no matter how
good the music you're releasing is.
To
me the role of a label should be to discover new acts, help them
get promotion, distribution, spread the word on their creativity.
Is this important for you ?
Jon Abbey : To some extent, but what Erstwhile is more about is
arranging collaborations between established musicians who might
otherwise not play together.
|
 |
What
gave you the reason, or motivation to start yours ? Weren't you
satisfied with other labels' music ?
Jon Abbey : I was finding fewer and fewer records that I was interested
in, and as I
mentioned above, I wanted to contribute to the musical community
myself. I also feel that I'm good at helping musicians edit themselves
to form more coherent records.
Most
labels have an example, or a favorite other label which they like,
and you ? Any label you could say was an influence on you ?
Jon Abbey : oh, there are many, although none I directly copied.
Streamline, Corpus
Hermeticum, For 4 Ears, Amoebic, Mego, Matchless, Durian are a few
that come to mind.
Did
you start with a certain idea, concept ?
Jon Abbey : Not really, except that I'm primarily interested in
improvisation. Beginning with my fourth release, I've almost exclusively
focused on electroacoustic
improvisation, which I plan to continue for the foreseeable future.
How would
you describe a typical Erstwhile records act ?
Jon Abbey : Most of my records so far are duo collaborations involving
musicians using electronics of some kind to improvise in real time.
Erstwhile musicians come
from all over the world, and from wildly different backgrounds. |
 |
Could
you give us some precisions on the actual scene in USA ? Any other
local label, activists that you feel close to ?
Jon Abbey : Well, I'm based just outside of New York City, where
there's not much of a scene for the kind of music I'm interested
in. There's more of a scene in Chicago, and a nascent one in Boston.
The only US labels working in similar territory to me are BOXmedia
and Perdition Plastics, both based in Chicago.
I've been setting up occasional shows here though from visiting
musicians, slowly trying to build a local fan base.
Anything
to say on the musical situation of of our planet today ?
Jon Abbey : Everyone seems to dwell on the negatives with this kind
of question, but I feel that the kind of music I'm working with
is at a really exciting stage, breaking through boundaries and forging
into new territory all the time.
That's all that I'm really concerned with.
Is
there anything that you regret or that you'd change if you could?
Jon Abbey : Not with Erstwhile. I've only been operating since the
summer of 1999, so I feel like I've been very successful to get
where I am so far, although I still have a long way to go (in terms
of sales, mostly.) |
 |
Any
album or band that you wish you had issued on Erstwhile ?
Jon Abbey : I would have liked to do Dark Rags, the Keith Rowe/Evan
Parker duo project on Potlatch, which they recorded on 12/31/99
and 1/1/00.
I
have noticed on you site, in your list of distributor that some
of the companies are mailorder rather than proper distributors,
or better say mailorder-lists that have extended their activities
and sell to some very specialised Indie record stores. But they
do not sell to chain stores. So do you think that it would be useless
for your records to reach those music supermarkets ? Or did you
chose to keep things, prices under control and thus avoid mass-distribution
in certain countries ?
Jon Abbey : I'm working through the experimental distribution network,
not a more
mainstream one. I'm learning more about distribution all the time,
and if I was approached by someone I trusted who was able to get
my discs into chain stores, I would work with them. however, I think
fans look for Erstwhile (or Mego, Touch, etc.) records at independent
stores, and ones which go to chain stores end up being returned
to the distributors
Throughout
the past few years, i noticed that there are more and more chain
stores and less and less passionate/smaller record shops. Are you
affected by that (de)evolution, or did you delibarately chose to
stay away from that "market" ?
Jon Abbey : It's hard to know how this affects Erstwhile, since
I've only been operating for less than two years. |
 |
What
are your goal as a label. Futureplans ?
Jon Abbey : Creatively, I'm where I want to be with Erstwhile. I
think the records I'm
releasing now stand up next to any other label. My main goal as
a label is to sell more copies, by gradually improving distribution,
while keeping the quality level of the releases as high as it is
now.
Upcoming
releases ? Please give some details on every band, name of the
record, etc...
Jon Abbey : In February, I'm releasing two projects, Toshimaru Nakamura/Sachiko
M-do, and Phil Durrant/Thomas Lehn/Radu Malfatti-dach. After that,
I have collaborative projects from Axel Dörner/Kevin Drumm,
Stilluppsteypa/TV Pow, and Keith Rowe/Toshimaru Nakamura scheduled,
all of which should be out by the end of the summer.
there's plenty of info, press releases, reviews, sound clips, etc.
about all of these on my web site,
www.erstwhilerecords.com
Discography :
001: VHF-Extracts
002: Haunted House-Up in Flames
003: Earl Howard/Denman Maroney-Fire Song
004-2 (double CD): Thomas Lehn/Gerry Hemingway-Tom and Gerry
005: Keith Rowe/Günter Müller/Taku Sugimoto-The World
Turned Upside Down
006: Kevin Drumm/Martin Tétreault-Particles and Smears
007: John Butcher/Phil Durrant-Requests and Antisongs
008: Burkhard Stangl/Christof Kurzmann-Schnee
009: Dean Roberts/Werner Dafeldecker-Aluminium
010: Günter Müller/Lê Quan Ninh-La Voyelle Liquide
011: Otomo Yoshihide/Voice Crack-Bits, Bots & Signs
012: Thomas Lehn/Marcus Schmickler-Bart
013: Toshimaru Nakamura/Sachiko M - do
014: Phil Durrant/Thomas Lehn/Radu Malfatti - dach
015: Axel Dörner/Kevin Drumm
016: Stilluppsteypa/TV Pow - We Are Everyone In the Room
017: Cor Fuhler/Gert-Jan Prins
018: Keith Rowe/Toshimaru Nakamura |
|
