Friday, June 5, 2009

AN INTERVIEW WITH GUY SEGERS

Guy Segers has been a part of the RIO music scene since the early seventies. He recorded and toured with Univers Zero and has performed with various musicians from all over the place. He's also the co-founder of the legendary Carbon 7 record label.

Hello Guy,
you will be performing with Acid Mothers Guru Guru Gong at the ZAPPANALE FESTIVAL on Saturday. How did this come along?


Guy Segers: Makoto KAWABATA contacted me. I have played twice with him, and it seems that he liked it.

What was it like to play together with Makoto Kawabata?

Guy Segers: The two concerts with Makoto were very nice. I was completely free to do whatever I wanted. We started the two concerts without any planning, just play... It went, well, mostly based on energy. Any harmony or rhythm to follow, but at the same time many changes of harmony and rhythms!

What can we expect at the Zappale? Did you already share the stage with Daevid Allen and Mani Neumeier? And have you already discussed the concert with the other members of the band?

Guy Segers: No, nothing has been said, and until now I still have to exchange the first words with Mani and Daevid. There will be many options I guess. In the coming weeks I’ll listen to some of their respective music so that I can understand with what I can help them to feel comfortable.

Are you familiar with the Zappanale festival? Had you ever heard of it before?

Guy Segers: Not really, I heard about it the first time only last year. It is Michel Delville with whom I play in a new band who told me about it. He is also playing at the festival this year.

I really like the fact that you'll have musicians from different bands playing together. It's a bit like the new band that you mentioned, The Moving Tones. Can you tell us a bit about this Moving Tones project?

Guy Segers: Yes, it is a bit like MOVING TONES, but at the same time very different. Here we come from different countries as well. But the main difference is that Daevid, Makoto, Mani and I come from the “Rock” scene, the energy is different.

With MOVING TONES, I am the only musician that is not coming from the Jazz scene. The concept is nice, and consists in bringing some own compositions as well as “covers”. This brings us in a very wide spectrum of styles. In the same repertoire we play things that shouldn’t be together, like some Tony Williams and some old Pink Floyd or Radiohead. It looks iconoclast, but the fact that we put our personalities in it, gives a new lecture of these pieces. We include in each song a large space for improvisation, and this also gives us the possibility to include a guest musician. I think that more and more this way of mixing styles will appear with new bands because most of the actual musicians have access to all kind of music styles and live with this mixed background. It is a much more flexible situation than in the past. Perhaps it will take a little time to be legitimate as “new” because some people will think that playing some old Pink Floyd is old fashioned. All the difference is how and in which context!!!


What else can we expect from you in the near future?

Guy Segers: Quite a lot I hope.

Live I also play sometimes with “Sibel” a Turkish oriented music. And soon I’ll start a new band called “Emergent Sea”, this time a “Rock” oriented band including improvisation in a “Rock” context. I also record my bass as guest with different people all over the world. I like that, because here again you are not bound to a specific style, people or instruments. I already had some good experiences, but now that I started playing again, I am looking for more, especially joining musicians for live performances.


Thank you for your time & see you soon !

Guy Segers: If you want to know more, have a look here :
http://www.myspace.com/guysegers – or ask me !


-- peter van laarhoven

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