MORC ZINE

Black to comm had to cancel their show at last months kraak-festival, but instead we saw the doozer. Simon Loynes and his companion brought us a steaming set of sloppy early 70’s pop. just push the ‘play’ button above, and keep reading to get an idea.

- which path led you into making psychedelic pop with a 70s touch? (eg. were you listening to similar stuff as a teenager?) 

i’ve been playing music for around 10 years now, and working with Ben who played with me at Kraak for pretty much all that time. we used to play in a band called Lionshare, which made more British folk music i guess and I’ve just ended up here. i’ve been involved in improvised music and thats always on the burner, playing regularly with friends. i wouldn’t want to make sense of the journey, its just continuing on, in its untutored way. 

- quite a few of your songs seem to be refer to travelling. are you a very frequent traveller?

well, i’d like to be a more frequent traveller, but one can always aspire to do something more. i’ve visited a number of countries and spent a good part of 2009 in south east asia. i’m looking to go back to borneo in a few months as I’ll be in China. actually I’ve got a show there, which should be interesting.

- so are you taking your own gear along, or will you just rely on what you’ll be able to find there? 

well, i’m pretty much borrowing everything including guitar. i’ll take a small fx pedal, some cassettes, but that’ll be about it. its a solo show also, so thats a bit different to what I’ve been doing with Ben of late. for the current live sound we bring our own watkins pa and control our own levels, so we’re self sufficient. thats real comfortable as you get the sound you want each night, which is the first time i’ve ever been in that situation when playing live. so, this one will be different, but if you’re playing the same show each night you might as well not bother anyhow.

- you run your own label exploratory music service, with music from asia and northern africa. are these field recordings you made?

i’m not sure if I’d call the exploratory music service a label as such. i view it as more of a service as i only make limited physical copies of the recordings and hand away, mainly to friends, and then they are available for download from my website. so, its an archive of sorts.

the recordings so far are mostly field recordings that i made over the last year or so. EMSI includes recordings of the khaen instrument which i recorded in the Isaan region of Thailand, EMSII is a documentary which I made in Borneo about the Kelabit people. EMSIII is a bit of a weird one as I was kinda obsessed by this BBC series called ‘The Borneo Story’ which involved a guy called Tom Harrisson. It took me 2 years to track it down as it was originally broadcast in the 1960s, so I digitised this from VHS tapes and stuck it online.

The most recent one, EMSIV is one of my favourites. I was staying in Marrakesh and got up at about 5am to record the morning call to prayer from beginning to end. It lasted for more than one side of the cassette, and it felt like the city was awakening (as was I). Its such a sonic spectacle.

- do you consider these recordings related to what you’re playing with the doozer? are they a direct influence?

thats an interesting one. of course the experiences, whether that be in england, on my way home or elsewhere are all influencing the music. a couple of the songs played at kraak were written outside the uk and definitely reflect this. i am interested in exploring non western musical instruments and ideas and using them within the context of songs. I tend to have an instinctive approach, so its hard to say whats a direct influence.

my listening habits are almost exclusively non western music, particularly field recordings from africa and asia and this is what generally excites me musically. having said that, i never want to be too far away from a bob dylan or neil young record!

- during the show, at the kraak-fest i noticed the two of you were sometimes distracted by a couple making out on the front row. how does the audience normally react at a the doozer show?

i wasn’t distracted but more amused! i dug it and as i was in a very fine mood, it really felt good for me as it probably did for them. shame audiences don’t react in that way generally! well, i don’t know. sometimes they clap, sometimes they don’t, sometimes they cheer, like every audience I suppose. for me, i’m kinda more frustrated at the staid nature of music shows in the uk (my main exposure), you know it always gotta be solemn, perhaps its the gigs I go to! people sometimes can’t handle someone making a point with a smile on their face, or approaching things from a different angle. but thats ok, we all just carry on regardless, don’t we?

The cd Great Explorers is out now on Pickled Egg records. The legendary Siltbreeze will issue the vinyl version this summer.