Purveyors of: A Woodwind-Beatbucket Ruckus

Feuermusik (pronounced FOY-er-mu-zik), German for "fire music," is an apt name for this duo. Multi-reed instrumentalist Jeremy Strachan and bucket percussionist Gus Weinkauf create textures that crackle, roar, and smolder, while locking into grooves that are both contagious and unpredictable. Mika Posen tracked down Jeremy Strachan somewhere in cyberspace.

Your music has been described as "experimental jazz." What is experimental about it? What is jazzy about it?

The honest answer is that I wrote that line for our bio -- I'm not actually aware anyone has ever described us like that. A very kind writer once used the phrase "ecstatic jazz" which I thought was quite validating. I suppose it's jazzy because we improvise a lot and because there is a saxophone as the lead voice; it's experimental because neither Gus nor I would be able to tread water with real jazz musicians, and so all of our "wrong notes" are thus experiments....?

This musical venture seems to differ quite a bit from both your and drummer Gus Weinkauf's pervious projects (Rockets Red Glare, Blake, The Sea Snakes, The Hylozoists). What led you two to form this duo? How did you get from the world of "hardcore" to the realm of "experimental jazz?"

Oh, who knows really. Gus called me a few years ago asking about trying something new. Musicians are omnivorous, both in what they listen to and what they want to (and do) play. It seemed like when Feuermusik started we were not playing vastly different music than we were in Rockets, just that instead of a bass I had a horn and Gus was playing buckets. That's changed a bit now, though. We're a bit more aware of dipping our feet into the murky waters where "serious" music listeners might cast a line.
 
What is the writing process like with this band? How much of a role does improvisation play in the creation of your music?
 
More and more since we started. [There is] way less structure now and more emphasis on interaction. We're becoming less and less enamoured with playing as a duo; lately I've been wrangling other horn players to join us when we do shows. It's much more fun that way and lets the music breathe and change more. The album that we're working on now is very much composed, with lots and lots of layering like our first one, but there is a healthy dose of free playing as well.

Though your music doesn't have lyrics, are there stories, characters, pictures, or feelings that you are trying to convey in any your pieces?

Well, for myself, no. Not at all. My aim is to make every performance of the same tune different and interesting for Gus, myself, and whoever is at the show. On record, I'd say we're more concerned with making everything sound good, both sonically and compositionally. I could bore you with dull artistic aims and aspirations, but if there are stories and characters in the tunes that people here, then great. I just didn't put them there.

Does your live performance differ from the recorded material?

Yes, in a few ways. As I mentioned, we've been trying to play in a quintet as much as we can, which is always contingent on players' availability. We've been doing the duo thing live now for almost three years, and it's time for a change I think. Making the charts come to life in a performance environment is always exciting, because we try to play with lengths of sections and change the structures on the spot; watching other musicians react and contribute to that process makes it so much more fun.

How does the instrumentation of your live show vary? Do you have a rack of woodwind instruments by your side? Does Gus switch up his bucket percussion set-up? Or is it generally consistent?

If we play out of town, I bring a tenor and my bass clarinet. Again though, we've been bringing on people like Alia O'Brien (flute), Nick Buligan (trumpet), Mark Laver (alto), and other times Colin Fisher (tenor)...I'm not sure at this point who'll be joining us for Nov. 4th, but hopefully it'll be most of those people. Gus keeps it pretty consistent with the buckets. I believe he has had to replace one or two of them due to wear, but no massive oil drums are in the plan yet.
 

By Mika Posen