Music from the trash can
“We decided to bring together two worlds (music and architecture), to create a family of sculptural musical instruments using materials we collected in our home town of Vancouver”
– Scrap Arts Music
From conventional musical instruments to re-use materials, One World News brings to you an amazing band which uses industrial scrap and mobile equipment as its instruments. Gregory Kozak, a musician, schooled in jazz and world music who drew inspiration from the avant-garde composer of the twentieth century, learned the art of wielding in order to create instruments.
In this context, we had a conversation with the co-founder of the band, Justine Murdy who always had a love for the environment and later became fascinated with vernacular architecture.
Crescendo Ending of ‘Agreement’
How did you form this band?
Gregory Kozak, the artistic director of the band was inspired to start an orchestra of invented instruments and creating original music. We decided to bring our two worlds together and work toward making Gregory’s musical dream a reality. Once the instruments were made and the music composed, we were able to find a core group of multi-talented athletic musicians to start learning the repertoire and developing the choreography.
Your instruments look different and unique. What are they made up of?
Our instruments are mostly made of recycled industrial objects and off-cuts from industrial production including plastic steel aluminum and wood that we have collected in and around Vancouver Canada— our home base.
Live Performance
How did the idea to using regular stuff (majorly scrap) as musical instruments struck you?
We wanted to create our own musical instruments without spending a lot of money.We were inspired by world musicians and history. Musicians have traditionally used instruments made out of resources around them. We live in Vancouver— a harbor city with a huge condominium tower building boom going on. There was a lot of construction salvage flooding into landfills or being carted off for industrial recycling. We stood in the middle of that circuit and managed to find choice pieces that looked cool and sounded great (with a bit of artistic modification) and in this way we feel like musicians of old, creating music with instruments made from the materials in our immediate environment.
How similar or different does playing on these scrap parts sound, in comparison to the conventional guitar, piano, etc?
We are creating musical sounds that people have never heard before. They might sound somewhat familiar but watching us create those sounds in performance will show you that the sounds are created in very unique ways. In addition, we have added the dynamic third element of mobile instruments. Many of our larger instruments are on wheels and the way we perform our music involves choreography of musicians and instruments on stage. It is visually thrilling as well as sonically riveting.
Spencer Cole in the ‘Engine of the Future’
How did the audience respond to your first performance?
With tremendous enthusiasm and encouragement! If we did not get such positive reaction, we would not have been inspired to continue this work and evolve our project which we have been doing for almost sixteen years now.
Share any of your memorable performances?
That would have to be at the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in front of 70,000 live and billions by telecast. That was an electrifying experience to be sure. We were part of a huge event and featured in the final ninety seconds of one of the greatest sporting events of our time. It was such a release of explosive energy!
Justine Murdy with Gregory Kozak with a drumhead signed by the band from its 24-city Netherlands Tour
How has your journey been so far?
Magical! So many unexpected high points and opportunities. We have visited and performed in so many places we would never have been able to travel to otherwise, and music is the best passport out there. It affords you the chance to meet people of other cultures and have an instant rapport because music is the ultimate international language. We are enjoying a wonderful career and the best part is that we have continued to grow artistically. We are at this moment creating new instruments, music and choreography for a show we plan to start touring in 2015-2016. Also, we have just put the finishing touches to five compositions we plan to perform with symphony orchestras around the world. It is exciting and inspiring!
Which album or song of yours is a super hit till date?
Synthesoid Plasmatron’ and ‘Agreement’ are two classics in our repertoire.It is a blast to perform these pieces and we almost always move people to their feet while they cheer us. Both the compositions are on our Phon CD which is available on iTunes or at CDBaby.com if you want to purchase an actual CD. You can see video excerpts of these on our website too. http://scrapartsmusic.com/
Performers with Pyramid energy conductors and tubes
In how many countries have you people performed so far?
We think it is fifteen so far: Canada, USA, Northern Ireland, Australia, Spain,Netherlands, Wales, England, Scotland, Belgium, Guatemala, Mexico, Korea, HongKong (China), Taiwan. In January we will be making our debuts in Germany and Italy. We would love to be invited to perform in India!
What is the theme of your band or the message you wish to give through this to the audience?
Positive energy and personal creativity can change your world for the better.
Have a news story, an interesting write-up or simply a suggestion? Write to us at info@oneworldnews.in
