Eric Chenaux is a renowned guitarist, with a strong background in jazz and improv as well as songwriting. Martin Arnold is a renowned composer and a vocal appreciator of music. What happens when these two get together to play some songs? Tune in to Marcel Gonsalves' conversation with them to find out.

What instrumentation/s are you using? Who's playing what? Eric: Eric plays electric guitar with wah and sings. Martin plays Honey Tone distorted banjo and the Vox Invader electric guitar.

To what degree are your sets improvised? Eric: The solos are obviously improvised, but we stick pretty closely to the form of the songs. Martin: We're playing songs from a set list but with lots of room for improvising/soloing on the form.

How much are your pieces in this project informed by country music, and how much are they informed by improv? Eric: I don't really consider this music country music, though the banjo might bring that image to mind. These are songs that I have written and performed over the last few years, and with Martin we try to amplify the more fried rock elements of those songs. Martin: I think of what we do as psychedelic folk-rock'”if there's country involved, it's as much Neil Young or Lynyrd Skynyrd as Doc Boggs or Jim Reeves. And Eric writes songs from the standpoint of loving sweet jazz standards as much as anything else'”we just play them a bit dirty. By improv, I assume you're thinking of experimental free improv (something Eric takes part in more than I do). I think of that kind of improvising as being just a part of my experimental music practice. And I don't mean 'œexperimental'? as a genre '” I experiment. I wonder what happens if form or pitch or rhythm or noise or repetition is explored in a certain way. And by 'œwhat happens,'? I'm not thinking in terms of the material results of an experiment, I'm wondering what happens when that music is engaged by a listener (including myself). Anyway, for sure this sensibility is present when I'm making any kind of music even if I think I'm playing a pop song.

You are more commonly known as improvisers and contemporary composers. What is the attraction, for you, to country music? Eric: I like hurtin' tunes, though we tend not to play any. I write love ballads and that can mean many things. The ballads I am interested in traffic in the sensations of joy rather than tortured or unrequited love. Martin: Any popular song is a composition that leaves room for improvisation. Some of them alter my mind.

What is your personal goal when setting out to perform improvised music? Eric: The idea(l) of a goal in improvised music can be tricky, especially in a group situation where potentially many different goals are at play. That is not to say that I believe improvised music is a music where anything goes, but I do think that it is possible to play music without a goal. The improvised music situations I am most comfortable in are ones where we know how it goes and we don't know how it goes. Martin: I try and think like a listener, because the most mind-altering experiments are run by the listener engaging the music.

Which have you done more recently, shot your baby down or created a non-idiomatic template to explore the limits of sound and music? Eric: Most recently I have been playing in a jazz quartet with Nick Fraser, Doug Tielli, Rob Clutton and Brodie West as well as performing more of my ballads in the sextet, The Tristanos, with Janet McPherson, Martin Arnold, Marcus Quin, Stephen Parkinson and John Sherlock.
Martin: I'm not sure I've ever done either of those. I'm not sure if it's good for one to shoot one's baby down. And I guess I use templates (material or metaphorical) as tools to make music but they tend to be borrowed and rearranged more than created. And they're not that creative or exploratory in themselves. And I don't think in terms of limits'” I like to explore alleys in between.