"Simple Patterns to Useful Effect": The Music of Roy Montgomery

There are probably only a handful of bands and artists that I've been truly obsessed with, and one of them is unquestionably Lyttleton, New Zealand folk/noise/drone guitarist Roy Montgomery. I've ranked him as cult guitar hero number one ever since I first got acquainted with his music through the masterpiece Scenes From the South Island (Drunken Fish, 1995). As a matter of fact, I think bored everyone silly with rambling descriptions of how great that album is for a very long time. I occasionally forget why I like it so much, maybe because its textures are so deeply ingrained into my mind. Montgomery runs his meditative guitar explorations through a squadron of effect boxes, and on the other side we find a ghostly precise sonic equivalent to the striking landscape of this musically fertile country. Scenes From the South Island is the pastoral elegance of a hidden valley, the abandoned settlements of the harsh southwest and the crashing sea in its eternal struggle to create physical shapes beyond the world of imagination. It's difficult to think of anything as beautiful as this. That doesn't mean that Temple IV, The Allegory of Hearing, Silver Wheel of Prayer and his various singles works (compiled by Drunken Fish and Rebis) are any less successful as they're all staggering sonic accomplishments. Before working solo Montgomery had been releasing music for years both in Dadamah, Pin Group and a few other combos, but I'm sure that a lot of people first heard his music on the San Francisco label Drunken Fish's triple LP box-set Harmony Of the Spheres. In retrospect, this compilation, which includes Bardo Pond, Flying Saucer Attack, Jessamine, Roy Montgomery, Loren MazzaCane Connors and Charalambides, easily lives up to all the criteria for a legendary compilation.

The reason I started thinking about contacting Montgomery for an interview was the release of Inroads, a dbl CD collection of singles and unreleased tracks that that truly works as balsam for the soul. In the liner notes Bill Meyer writes that "Montgomery's sounds do the trick because he's infused them with the power of his own memories and emotions, by drawing on his, he summons yours." It's obvious that you don't share his memories but that doesn't really matter as the effect-laden guitarscapes does an impressive job at transporting the listener wherever he or she feels it's necessary to go. As for myself these two discs made me see two entirely different things, first of all the heart and soul of a friend that recently passed away. He shared my love for Montgomery's music and to hear these classic singles played again is like walking on a vibrating guitar string straight to the place where he currently is. It's saddening but also powerful and intensely beautiful. On a happier note these tracks makes me revisit the dramatic natural vistas that my wife and I explored in New Zealand in the late ‘90s. Until we find the time to go back to what simply has to be the most beautiful part of the world, I am happy to relive those scenes from the south island and memories from the rugged coastline through the eyes and ears of Mr. Montgomery. Or as Meyer puts it: "This music carries a fade-resistant charge, it's ready to spark your own mind and help you map a life with sound. Time to hit the road."

DW: What are your earliest musical memories, Roy?

RM: I lived in Cologne, Germany in the early 1960s (my father was German). My mother worked at the British Forces Network radio station which meant a steady diet of British and American pop music at home rather than what Germany had to offer at the time - either knee-slapping oompah tunes or schmaltz around the clock. Saw GI Blues at a base cinema in about 1961 when I was 2. Elvis and I were in Germany about the same time. From there it was the Beatles' Hard Day's Night film which I saw in New Zealand in late 1964 and Rolling Stones live in Christchurch with Roy Orbison in March 1965. I can only say I saw the latter as the screaming drowned out the Vox amps. My Aunt still hasn't forgiven me for cajoling her into take me along (I was 5).

What did your earliest solo recordings consist of?

I started very informally doing acoustic recordings in about 1982 many of which mutated into later recordings of the early 1990s. They were mostly riffs or patterns rather than songs. I tend to work from that basis; if words or other parts follow, all well and good, if not, the riff may be enough to create the whole piece.

Have you always been interested in the more abstract side of the sound spectrum?

Always? No, but a few things really struck a chord, so to speak. The first was getting hold of a Hendrix EP with "Hey Joe" on it. That bent me a little out of shape, even at the age of 9. The first "abstract" (read "art rock") album that really made me sit up and listen, unlikely though it may sound, was the first Roxy Music album which of course had Brian Eno on board. That album, which I listened to every night for well over a year from 1972 into 1973 combined with "Virginia Plain" and "Pyjamarama," was a catalyst in terms of thinking that I wanted to get close to some of those sounds. In a pre-cursor of the Pin Group circa 1980 called Compulsory Fun we used to cover Virginia Plain and the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" at speeds equal to Hüsker Dü. I still have the tapes...

Did you have any specific goal in mind when you began recording as Roy Montgomery?

I think I probably had a series of sonic goals i.e., to get down particular sounds rather than express intellectual, political or other kinds of sentiments. That said, by doing solo material I wasn't bound by the idea of finishing works completely. I found the great advantage of four-track solo recording was that if I stuck to the principle of no more than four tracks for each piece in most cases it made me try to extract as much as I could from each run at it. Four on the floor and leave it at that.

Do you see any philosophical overtones in what you are doing?

If by that you mean some kind of weltangshauung, quite probably. I find Schopenhauer, Gogol, Kafka, Handke and W. G. Sebald a lot funnier than most people if that's any help.

You have a very unique voice when it comes to playing the guitar. Is this something you developed early on or something that has changed over the years?

This is a difficult question. From an early age I was something of a sponge if not discerning consumer of popular and slightly left of field music. For better or worse I am self-taught and have absolutely no idea of musical notation and am lucky if I can remember how to play a particular composition again after six months. The flipside is that I have always had a pretty good ear for music and can find out how others have made music by trial and error and consequently can experiment in my own headspace to come up with material. That seems to have held for more than a decade. Anyone can tell that my technique is not refined but I know how to layer relatively simple patterns to useful effect. The more I think about it the more I see the thread as Hendrix, Velvets, Stooges, (first three albums) Roxy Music, Pere Ubu, Wire because they all bend the guitar out of shape in some sort of primal way. I'm a footnote to a footnote to a footnote in that story.

I spent about a month on the southern Island in the late ‘90s and I have to say that I can't think of anything that better describes these dramatic landscapes than Scenes from the South Island. How do you think the natural beauty of NZ has influenced you as a musician? Care to tell us a bit about the background to this specific album?

Bluntly put, I came from a single parent family where a) Mom did not have a driver's license and b) we didn't go on many holidays when I was young whether overseas or around New Zealand. Consequently, shortly after my fifteenth birthday I bought a car, went for my driver's license and went into the hinterland of the South Island on any premise available. A lot of that hinterland was the more barren part of the Canterbury landscape which we call the High Country. Also, I'm still an immigrant at some level. I was born in London and lived in Germany until nearly five. Perhaps I don't take the landscape so much for granted. The thing I like most is the absence of things in the New Zealand landscape, especially people.

A lot of your releases have appeared on some of the finest labels on the planet (Drunken Fish, VHF, Kranky, Majora, Roof Bolt, Rebis to just mention a few). How did you first find a way into that "scene" of sorts?

Deep breath as I try to remember...I think I owe much of this networking to colleagues and friends e.g., Dadamah collaborators communicating in the early 90s with US label people and NZers such as Bruce Russell and Peter Jefferies acting as roving ambassadors in advance of my sorties to the US. I also owe much to the "radar" of mag and/or label people in the US like Leslie Gaffney (Popwatch), Jay Hinman (Superdope), the two Dans (Drag City), Scott Rutherford (Speed Kills), Mike Trouchon (Gyttja, Your Flesh), Sharon Mackenzie (Hecuba), Tim Adams (Ajax), the inimitable Bill Meyer (lots of mags and Roofbolt), the formidable Tom Lax (Siltbreeze) and of course the irascible Byron Coley (Forced Exposure). These people more or less roused me from some kind of slumber and are responsible for nurturing avant-garde music here in a way not matched by any others bar the odd German. For that I will always be grateful.

It was such a highlight to see all those singles compiled on the Rebis double disc set earlier this year. How did that release come about? How do you think it turned out?

An instrumental compilation was always envisaged as a complement to the vocal singles compilation, 324 E. 13th Street #7, and it was also slated for a Drunken Fish release. Somewhere in the early 2000s life got more complicated for me and for Darren at Drunken Fish and it went to the bottom of the ocean for a while. What refloated it was a visit down under a couple of years back by Mike Hinds of Road Cone fame. I mentioned the project gathering dust and he came up with Rebis as a possible outlet. For my part it felt good to reconnect with Chicago in some way and both Chris and Jeremy at Rebis acted in a very professional manner and I am pleased with the results.

I know you've played live in the past but is this something that you still do on a regular basis? What can you expect from a 2007 Roy Montgomery show?

I doubt whether I have accrued more than 30 performances all up since 1981 so no, I do not, and never have, played live on a regular basis. To be honest I'd rather be recording than performing. What can you expect? Pretty much what I've always done - frowning, mumbling and a lot of staring at my instrument. Riveting stuff.

You're a senior lecturer and group leader at the Environment, Society and Design Division at Lincoln University. Care to tell us a bit about what you do? Has it ever been difficult to combine an academic career with a musical one?

Basically my job is to train up future environmental policy-makers and managers. I lecture undergrads and post-grads and supervise Masters and PhD students researching environmental management topics. Not difficult at all to combine careers since I don't have a musical one. The musical work is a fitful activity and the pressures are more with family life and being a volunteer firefighter in my twilight years.

There is also a new musical project called TorlesseSuperGroup that (if the rumor is true) will see the light of day as a Rebis release by the end of this year. Care to fill us in regarding this project?

TSG is Nick Guy and myself. Nick was guitarist in a Christchurch drone unit of the late 1990s called Barnard's Star. We muttered then about a collaboration and it took a mere four years for something to be initiated. We have been accumulating material since 2004 and have a rough cut of an album now completed. Nick is more computer and sampling savvy than I am but we are both interested in aural topography and soundscapes and the album will reflect this focus. We both have a particular affinity for the South Island...

This interview was done by e-mail in the fall of 2007.

Ed. Note: A lengthy chat w/Roy M. was one of our all-time favorite pieces in the original print version of DW back in the mid-90s (copies still available!), & it's a genuine pleasure to have him back in our orbit. Thanks for Mats for making it happen.

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