Transcript
Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom with Alabaster DePlume
R: Hello! I’m Robyn Rocket and you’re listening to Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom! I’m a space trumpeter and I put on gigs at Café OTO called Robyn’s Rocket.
In this monthly show I interview artists who inspire me and this month I’m chatting to Alabaster DePlume.
Right now, you’re listening to Rocket number 9 by the Sun Ra Arkestra and then we’re gonna hear Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem by Alabaster De Plume.
🎶 Rocket number 9 by Sun Ra Arkestra 🎶
🎶 Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem by Alabaster De Plume 🎶
R: This is Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom. I’m Robyn Rocket. That was Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem by Alabaster De Plume who’s this month’s guest.
R: Alabaster De Plume who’s also known as Gus. Gus I know you grew up in Manchester, was your family very musical?
A: Not really, but my mum used to play the piano. She does still play the piano.
When my Dad and my Mum were first getting close in the 70s, my Dad, he was a scientist, well he was a science teacher. He imagined that because she plays piano she would obviously enjoy a guitar, so he bought her a guitar and that is the guitar I’ve got here still, this Kimbara.
My Dad gave it to my Mum, and if you look on this guitar it’s got the name Bobb, with 2 Bs, scratched into it. Bobb is my brother’s name. But he didn’t scratch it there, I did it, to get him into trouble. It didn’t work, everyone knew it was me, but here I am years later playing this acoustic guitar, with my brother Bobb’s name scratched into it.
R: and as you were growing up, did your family listen to a lot of music like in the house, in the car? What kinds of things were you hearing?
A: Yeah, both of those. Pink Floyd, Leonard Cohen, Queen, Massive Attack, Daniel Bélanger, plenty of other things I just can’t remember right now.
R: You mentioned the guitar your dad bought your mum, what other instruments were there ?
A: There was an electric guitar that was left to us from this massive pub called the Woodthorpe.
When the owners, the landlords, moved out of that pub, they gave us some of the things that were in their pub when they moved out of it.
One of them was a big air rifle, one of them was a morning star, which is a mace kind of weapon, and one of them was an electric guitar. My dad wanted to fix it, it was a bit broken, he fixed it and we tried to play a song by The Shadows.
I started primary school late, I started in the second year of primary school, and one of the first things I probably did was to be in the talent show. You know, they try to get the kids to do stuff, and I played that.
R: so as well as playing the guitar in the school talent show were you doing other kinds of music making?
A: Yeah I was prancing around playing/listening to Guns N Roses very loud with my brother Joe. He would hit the chair with some sticks, to play the drums. I would jump around doing the singing.
R: Here’s a bit of Peace Pipe by The Shadows.
R: Hello this is Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom. I’m Robyn Rocket and this month’s guest is Alabaster De Plume. Who also goes by Gus.
Gus were you into music at school?
A: I didn’t take music. I didn’t consider it to be music. But I would secretly be writing lyrics in the other lessons, going in the back of my book writing lyrics for songs.
R: Can you tell me about the first gigs you went too?
A : I went to see like Metallica, I must have been 14. And then after that you see other things. Foo Fighters or stuff like that, and it gradually gets closer to where you are. You go to the Roadhouse in Manchester, it’s 200 capacity or something like that, and you see some people you’ve met playing, and you start to go “ I could do this, I could do this!”
R: and anyone who knows your work knows poetry is important how did you get into that?
A: I started reading things like beat stuff, maybe that’s the first thing when you’d say it's poetry as opposed to lyrics or whatever. Then there’s Captain Beefheart. Probably Captain Beefheart that got me into that kind of beat stuff, I loved Ginsberg and his Howl and so on.
R: and what kind of music were you listening to when you were a teenager?
A: what was I listening to… Corrosion of Conformity, it was supposedly kind of political. Or Tool! I was well into Tool, with all the polyrhythms and strange time signatures.
And I got well into that, and got well into making stuff like that, that no one can dance to you. That is really jagged and changes a lot. A lot like Mr Bungle, Fantoms, Melt-Banana: I love those things, so detailed and so much work has gone into, and that’s what I used to make. Really precision recital stuff that changes often.
And I’d be like, some people just make one bit of music loop round and around and that’s enough for their song. I’m gonna write as many songs as they’d put in an album into one song, and every few seconds it changes. I do much more work than everyone else, you know, that kind of vibe.
Of course now I do something completely different: live development stuff, I make simple thing. Still in strange time signatures that will repeat throughout the whole tune. That people can take and develop with their own feelings, non recital, according to how they want to play it in that moment.
R: Can you tell me about the first band you were in?
A: I wasn’t meant to be the singer, I was just gonna be the electric guitar guy.
A couple of weeks before the first ever gig the singer pulled out. He threw a big tantrum and said I’m not playing; expecting us all to not play. I just said like: “Oh It’s ok we can play my tunes and do the gig”. Thus I became the singer.
I wanted the stuff to be good even if you were just reading it. I think I was kind of taking the P*** out of some people’s lyrics. If you just read them out as words, it sounds ridiculous what’s being said. You are literally saying blah blah blah something something something. It just sounds so silly. And I didn’t want to be vulnerable to that scrutiny myself, since I was scrutinizing others, maybe, you know.
So I wanted it to be dead good even if you were just reading it out, which is kind of like a poem. But then I found no one could hear what I was saying cos the music was so loud and frenetic and furious. I would take out instruments like the guitar for the verse but then they still couldn’t hear. Then I’d take out the bass in the verse and eventually just started taking out everything and doing it by itself.
R: we’re gonna hear a poem by
poem📖 a Supermarket in California – by Allen Ginsberg 📖
🎶Doctor Dark by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band🎶
then
🎶Chemical Romance by Mr Bungle🎶
and
🎶 Drug store by Melt banana 🎶
R: Hi this is Robyn Rocket and you’re listening to Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom this month’s guest is Alabaster De Plume aka Gus Fairburn you just heard….
poem📖 a supermarket in California – by Allen Ginsberg 📖
🎶Doctor Dark by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band🎶
then
🎶Chemical Romance by Mr Bungle🎶
and
🎶 Drug store by Melt banana 🎶
R: So Gus we were just talking about the first band you were in, music at school, and out of school. When you left school did you know you were gonna become an artist?
A: When I left school, well I knew I was an artist. Now and then I would try and think I could do something related to arts. But I knew, if I was really honest. I just knew. I can’t do anything else, I’ve got to do this.
R: were your parents supportive and understanding of your art career.
A: My Dad didn’t understand but he supported it and believed in me. He was like: I don’t get it, how, how you can do this.
But he put resources into it happening. He scrutinised about what I would say, about how it would happen. That is a form of support, scrutinising, and he had some very good points.
R: and so how did you go about making yourself a professional artist?
A: When I left school I went to college and did like art and computers or something.
And I fell in with a strange family. And I had this whole 7 year period of life in a strange existence with a strange family, that considered itself to be outside of normal.
Since it looked down on all other people, considered them as beneath, less good, I wanted to be a part of it and not be just like everyone else.
It wasn’t about connecting with people.
It’s really interesting. I had to go to that separate life that was about making yourself separate to society, in order to, years later, be doing this work on connecting with more people. As many people as possible.
R: What happened after that seven years?
A : When that ended I went to another life with this crew of people. All of them seven years younger than me, in south Manchester and we ran a jam night called Frantica.
One of those people, I still know him. He’s in Vietnam, called Rupert. He saved me really, by bringing me there to that house, with all those lovely Characters.
It was really sweet, it was a really sweet entrance into actual real life. More connected with society; it was a very foolish, youthful, wonderful sunshine lovely just way. One day, someone left a clarinet in my house, and so I played it and thought hmmm maybe this is nice and it’s at the end of that time that I got a saxophone.
R: What kind of Music were you listening to at that time?
A: I was listening to 50’s rock n roll and they do that honky sax sound , which is funny cos I don’t make that sound. Mmmmwwwaa mmwwaa waaaaa. That thing, I was like, I want that. I wanna do that.
What was I listening to then? hmmmm let’s see. Tom Waits, The Mars Volta. What else. Captain Beefheart, still all of that Captain Beefheart. I had been watching the anime Cowboy Bepop, the theme tunes of Cowboy Bepop. And then, from that into Thelonious Monk. He’s great Thelonious Monk, I love him
R: this is the theme tune of Cowboy Bepop
🎶Tank! The seatbelts 🎶
That was
🎶Tank! The seatbelts 🎶
🎶Theme tune of the anime series Cowboy Bepop🎶
Hello I’m Robyn Rocket. Thank you for tuning into Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom here on resonance FM. My name is spelt R-O-B-Y-N. You can get a transcript and track listing or for this show or any of the others by going to www.robynrocket.com/zoomzoom
This month I’m chatting to saxophonist and poet Alabaster DePlume. And we were just chatting about you running a jam night. How did that time of your life end?
A: I think it’s cos I had a romantic relationship with someone that ended. And because of the way it had been and the way it ended, I was like I gotta get away, I gotta leave all this behind.
R: where did you go to?
A: I got a room in a mill. Like an art studio in a mill, and just put all my stuff there and slept there sometimes. But instead of living anywhere like in a house or whatever, and having family or friends or whatever, I just traveled. And that’s how I connected with Bristol, and I went to Ireland, and I was like going around and there’s like poetry things you can do and there’s events where you can just speak and I got into performing poetry and writing poetry for performance and learning things you can do on a stage when you’ve got no one else there. You’ve got great freedom you know.
R: Let’s hear a poem, it’s from a time slightly after the events Gus was just talking about
📖 As Once I Was – Alabaster De Plume 📖
R: That was As Once I Was by Alabaster DePlume who’s this month’s guest here on Robyn’s Rocket Zoom Zoom. Thanks for tuning in.
So Alabaster De Plume AKA Gus Fairburn we’ve been chatting about your early life, first band, 7 years you spent with a family, then some time in south Manchester then a year traveling what happened to you after that, where did you go, what were you doing with your life?
A: I was running a Night at the Thirsty Scholar called The Shooting Gallery.
It was given to me by Rory McKey who I met when I was doing a HND, and I was putting bands on. And so I had to find out bands to put on.
One of the bands I put on was Victorian Dad and in Victorian Dad there was a number of mad guitarists: James Wilson, John Fairhurst, Dave Ripcar. And these musicians lived in a Crazy Georgian manor house called the Dark Cottage. And that was in Withington, and they had a spare room so I went to live with them.
We drank a lot, we had a lot of fun. Like every night we would play music all night and drink, and I learned to play the saxophone there by having fun with them. And I learned to go underneath because I didn’t know what key we were in. I didn’t know what notes were what, so I’d play quietly until I could find out if that note was good and if it was then if it was good then I’d make it louder. You know, this is how I ended up with this tone, because they play acoustic guitar and I was playing with a singer called Liz Green who has a very quiet voice and trying to be quiet enough so I’m not too loud you know.
The saxophone is very loud and um I wanted be able to go underneath the sounds that other people were making, go underneath them and support them. Support what they’re saying what their voice is
here is a track by Victorian Dad
🎶How Do You Do, Sir - Victorian Dad 🎶
🎶Rag and Bone by Liz Green 🎶
R: Hello I’m Robyn Rocket and You’re listening to Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom. You just heard How Do You Do Sir, by Victorian Dad and Rag and Bone by Liz Green. and the reason I played them was because this month’s guest Alabaster De Plume was talking about those bands or artists.
Gus probably a lot of people know you from your 2020 release on International anthem: to Cy and Lee. I know Cy and Lee are two people but could you tell me a bit who they are?
A: Cy and Lee are my two friends in Manchester with learning difficulties, and I was one of the people who provided 24 hour support for them to live. Working with them for 10 years. And I didn’t know that I was going into that job to learn the greatest things I could ever learn about leadership and performances.
I thought I was going into that job because I have to earn money, I’ve got to do a job so I’ve got to earn money, that’s what I thought. I might as well do something that’s nice and cares for people because I like caring for people. I like looking after people so it might as well just be that. But I didn’t know I was learning the things that now I use them everyday I use them in this show.
R: so some of the tracks on To Cy and Lee are from your album Copernicus which was the first album you put out can you tell me a bit about that?
A: I didn’t start making it because I thought people wanted it. I was playing in other people’s shows and on their recording sessions, and I love them. But all the time I was like Oh My God why are you doing it this way Oh Mate! What is it, why are you worried about that when it doesn’t matter and why do you not care about this other thing that is so important, I can’t believe it.
I was thinking to myself all the time this is ridiculous. Eventually I was like “well Gus if you know so strongly, that they’re doing it a silly way the wrong way, then you better do it hadn’t you do it yourself” so eventually I did just because I wanted to run a session. Just because I wanted to make a quality thing. And enjoy it cos we weren’t enjoying it you know so much stress ”right ok we need to get it on this one, we need to get in nail it this time“ I don’t know why we need to get all upset, do I want to record being stressed? I love playing I love tunes I’m gonna record them and love it. It was like that.
So I did some extra shifts with Cy and Lee, someone went on holiday, and I saved up some money and did my own sessions and we recorded them to tape, and we did all my things the way that I do stuff, because I love it. And so then I made some more things I was just enjoying making things. I wasn’t even. I didn't even know it was an album until August of 2011. Something happened in my life that I found ever so upsetting, so very painful, and I decided well I saw I had two options I could either collapse or I could be glad.
I could see it as I have chosen this thing that is painful this painful situation. I am glad it is expression of love and love is what this world is made of. I am glad so I chose to be glad and I said ok good I’ve got tons of energy because I’m in pain. I can’t sleep that means I’ve been given loads of hours in the day and night to be awake and do something, what shall I do? with all this abundance that I have suddenly got ? and I said well of course I’m going to create a album and it will be the first album by a very strange artist called Alabaster DePlume. And the album is called Copernicus, because it’s named after a crater on the moon. The presence of an absence that gives the moon its beauty. The presence of an absence a crater Copernicus what is missing?
I am so lucky that I feel such pain today and am so alive and full of love I will express it. We must express what we feel we don’t have to communicate what we feel to anyone but we must express it to the universe . and this will be my expression it’s a celebration it’s a good thing I am glad I am happy with my choices Copernicus
R: Lets hear a track from that album, it’s also on To Cy and Lee this is I Hope by Alabaster De Plume.
🎶 I Hope by Alabaster De Plume🎶
R: You’re listening to Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom, that was I Hope from Alabaster De Plume’s 2012 album Copernicus and also 2020 release on International Anthem To Cy and Lee.
Alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com
A regular collaborator with Alabaster deplume is Donna Thompson here’s a track by Donna called Fever bubbles.
🎶 Fever Bubbles by Donna Thompson 🎶
You’re listening to Robyn Rocket’s Zoom Zoom that was Fever Bubbles by Donna Thompson. I was playing it because Donna Thompson frequently collaborates with this months guest Alabaster De Plume aka Gus fairburn you can check out Donna’s band camp
Donnathompson.bandcamp.com
This month’s guest Alabaster De Plume also has a bandcamp alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com
His name is hard to spell so I’m gonna spell it now
Alabaster de plume.
If you wanna see transcripts of this show or links to artists you can go to the website my name is spelt Robyn and the website address is robynrocket.com/zoomzoom
Thank you so much Gus for your time in speaking to me, thank you to Paul Dutnall for working as executive producer, thank you to the Arts Council for the funding to pay Paul, thank you to Resonance for putting this show on. Thank you to Heart N Soul for their support and also Total Refreshment Centre.
I know that this show goes out on Christmas eve. I know not everyone celebrates Christmas and also that you may not be listening to this show when it goes out. But if you are, I hope you are having a peaceful festive season. And if you have lost someone this year then I’m thinking of you. I hope you will take comfort from this show and knowing there are people who care about you. I’m gonna finish the show with a. track by me .
Gus’s very kindly let me use his studio while he was away on tour and I made a album or EP I’m not sure which one it is called in Alabaster’s room, this track 4.
🎶Track 4 by Robyn Rocket🎶
special thanks to
Julia Nutter for proofreading
and Paul Dutnall - executive producer