{"id":7914,"date":"2015-06-02T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T09:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7914"},"modified":"2015-10-19T13:29:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T13:29:17","slug":"atmosphere-melody-david-torn-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/06\/02\/atmosphere-melody-david-torn-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"David Torn: The Audience is Here (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d continues guitarist-composer David Torn<\/strong>, \u201cI don’t intend to recreate any<\/em> of the pieces on only sky<\/em> in live performance. However, I can<\/em> accurately recreate the process. Because,\u201d he laughs, \u201cI’m really good at over-intellectualizing anything I do, after the fact. But inside the fact, all I’m really doing…is playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I talk, sometimes people expect that they’re going to get this huge intellectual stew out of me,\u201d he says. “But it’s not [the case]. This<\/em> is what I say, and that<\/em> is what I play. And they’re very different things. For me it’s all about finding the feeling that needs to be expressed, and following the fairly curvy lines to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Torn’s method of creating only sky<\/em> was somewhat unconventional. \u201cIt was made in a 1500-seat theatre,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was done that way on purpose. I was trying to expand the idea of playing like I play at home. But I love the sound of a big room, so we went to the most incredible theatre that I know of [the EMPA Concert Hall in Troy, NY], turned the lights down, set up all my stuff, and just recorded for two and a half to three days. No studio, no multitracking. None of the professionalism that goes along with being locked in a small room with headphones on. I had no<\/em> headphones on for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Torn’s upcoming \u201chouse concert\u201d at Streamside provides an interactive experience that differs from the one audiences would find in a traditional concert hall. \u201cOn this tour,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause I haven’t toured in so long, I wanted that. I probably should have looked for even more house concerts. If there are sixty to a hundred people in a room, it’s a much easier way for me to feel what they feel, for them to feel what I feel. And there’s something really appealing about knowing that people are there to engage<\/em>. It doesn’t feel so much like a show<\/em>.\u201d Though he’s a fan of the house concert format, his enthusiasm has its limits. \u201cI did one in my own house several years ago,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI’ll never do that<\/em> again. But I love the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guitarist\/composer allows that trying to recreate that ambience in a house concert setting is \u201cstrange, but it actually fits together. What I was trying to get out of the space of the big room was a space in which I<\/em> felt free to move around musically. Because that is precisely what I feel when I’m in my little studio at home. I wanted the sound to be able to accommodate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Thinking beyond his solo work, is there anyone new with whom Torn would really like to collaborate? \u201cThere are a few, yeah,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are a few regrets. I had an opportunity to work with Joni Mitchell<\/strong> in the late 80s or early 90s. But it was impossible to work out schedules. The same thing happened to me with Sting <\/strong>in the early-to-middle 2000s. And,” he grimaces, “I missed working with Ani Difranco<\/strong> because I was an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the future,\u201d Torn says, \u201cthere are a few people that I would certainly like to work with. And they’re not people whom everybody would expect me to say. And…I don’t know if I should even say it, but I’d love to do something \u2013 even if it were live \u2013 with Gillian Welch<\/strong> and David Rawlings<\/strong>. I also have an idea for a duet project with–” he pauses,\u00a0 “somebody whom I’m not going to mention.\u201d<\/p>\n