In Conversation
With Bela Emerson
December 2004
A little
background:
As can be proved throughout all of the interviews over the history of Setting Sun (and before that, Rising Sun) to say I have I have shown a wide taste in music is a understatement.
From rock to acoustic singer-songwriters to experimental dance, to say I have kept it varied is part of the fn running Setting Sun, discovering music often as I go along and hopefully give you the reader the enjoyment of discovering them as it does for me.
One particular interesting discovery for me has been the discovery of Bela Emerson, who is featured in this interview.
I first discovered Bela myself some years previously with her work with the excellent Lianne Hall, with whom she played with on Cellos, although I wasn’t aware she actually recorded her own material.
Fast forward a good few years, and I saw her play an excellent gig alongside Lianne Hall and the also excellent Caroline Martin (also featured on Setting Sun), and I was certainly shocked and also stunned by the beauty of the music Bela threw into her set to quote her on the back of her debut CD “Improvised electric cello, electronics and loops” – It was startling!
I got talking to Bela before her gig and then after and sorted out this particularly interesting interview sometime later.
Fore more information about her – she can be contacted on [email protected]
Or she can be visited on her recently launched website www.cellobela.com (which features some excellent extracts of her music).
Thanks to Bela for the interview and I look forward to hearing some of your future projects / perhaps even seeing you play down in Brighton sometime
Andy N xxx
Setting Sun:
How’s things and what’s happening at the moment?
Bela Emerson:
Things are really good right now. I went on my first solo UK tour last month (with Broken Heart Club & Caroline Martin) which was great - really encouraging to find people all round the country excited by and playing experimental music... It's clearly a healthy scene. When I got back from touring, I had the whole of my first CD, Kissing Nettles, broadcast in full as a live set on Dan Bean's chill-out Oxford's Passion 107.9 show, the first time that's happened (in addition to getting lots of other airplay this year: Radio 3, Totally Radio, Radio 4a). I've just had my second CD, Cables, released by Quiet Records (www.quietrecords.co.uk <http://www.quietrecords.co.uk/>), I'm recording another studio CD in the next fortnight; also, Kissing Nettles is being remixed by various people (in lots of different ways) at the moment, and I'm planning to get that released early next year - and my website (www.cellobela.com <http://www.cellobela.com/>) is (nearly) finished. No wonder it's taken me so long to get this interview done!
Setting Sun:
Now although I have been aware of you for a little while (through your
work with Leanne Hall, I think) as I always say - clearly there are people who
don’t know
of you, so can you introduce yourself to us - tell us what got you going etc,
etc?
Bela:
My passion for the cello began 20 years ago, when I started playing it at school. I got involved with Riot Grrrl in the early 90s and was hugely influenced by it - that was the first time I was able to play the kind of music I'd been listening to, more guitar-based, heavier, darker, rock and punk, and the first time I'd ever experimented with music, as everything I'd done had been classically-based before that. My solo work, which I've been doing for the last 18 months, is all based on experimentation and it's totally improvised - electric cello, pedals, and loops - sometimes melodic, sometimes noisy, sometimes percussive. Because it's different every time it's difficult to pin down in words. It's driven by several different desires - live experimentation and manipulation (and the challenge of creating completely improvised solo pieces live), the sounds I can make with my cello, the need to play live alone sometimes...
Anyway, back to the history. After Riot Grrrl, I started playing with
Lianne Hall in an acoustic duo, HipHuggers, which we did on and off for 8 years
or so, and then lots of other bands after. I also met sax player John Gray
around this time, who was my mentor for years, teaching me about jazz (and
encouraging me to go to jazz college six years ago) - pretty amazing and
useful, as that's been a consuming interest and formed the majority of my
income since.
Setting Sun:
What are your influences (music wise) and what have you been listening to recently?
Bela:
love loud guitar music, swing/bebop/contemporary jazz, beautiful
absorbing delicate songwriting, experimental music (whether improvised
or made via creating new instruments), heavy minimal dance music,
European folk, and I like lots of other things.
Recently I've been listening to Queens of the Stone Age, Same Actor,
P J Harvey, Caroline Martin, Esbjorn Svensson Trio , and as I've just
got broadband, internet stations Totally Radio, WFMU, and on normal
radio, FIP, which is an enigmatic back-to-back eclectic French
station accessible in certain parts of Brighton.
Setting Sun:
When I met you recently during your interesting gig in Manchester, I seem to recall you saying you also play in a number of other projects (which is what I used to do myself at one point). Can you tell us a little about some of them?
Bela:
Drei is a dark-jazz all-girl improvising trio, with Kirsten Elliott
(Urban Myth, Submission Hold) on flute, vocals, electronics, and Susanne
Lambert (Tundra, Broken Heart Club) on drums. We've collaborated with dancers
and Spindrift Theatre (both for Brighton Fringe Festival, last year and the
year before). Various jazz projects (Sam Chara's quintet, Halcyon, Jim Black, a
Jobim anniversary tribute band), audiovisual collaborations (with Stephen
Wolff, Kitty Wallace), bluegrass/punk/rock/jazz/ 5-piece Charleyville,
Rodan-esque instrumental strings/guitars 5-piece Storyville, and lots of other
occasional sessions/performances (Alison David, The Lovegods, live noisejams).
Setting Sun:
How do they compare to your more freeform style as showcased in Manchester?
Bela:
Drei is the most similar in feel and approach to my solo work, though we
use themes, and also writing with others is a big difference, as is the pieces
having vocals. Our sets are more song-based, rather than being continuous 20-30
minute pieces. The other projects I do, apart from the noisejams, are
song-based, so don't really compare at all in terms of content and length. I
enjoy that kind of structure, and also really being able to explore a song the
whole band knows well and pushing it to its limits sometimes - that's obviously
made me appreciate doing freeform music, too. If I could only do one or the other
(or, especially, only one type of music) I'd definitely feel something vital
was missing - the balance is essential.
Setting Sun:
I seem to recall also ain’t you based in London / Brighton? What’s the live scene live down there? Have you seen any good gigs down there recently?
Bela:
There's a lot of music in Brighton; it's the reason I moved here 3 years
ago. Brighton Live recently showcased 150 local acts - an amazing feat (though
it was sad because John Peel died that week and that time last year he'd been
broadcasting live from here for that...RIP). One of the things I love is that
there's a choice of live music on any day of the week. The improv scene here is
growing, too - last year Jim and Adam (Urban Myth) ran Tick Outside the Box at
the Cowley Club, which was monthly and was becoming popular: routinely 20-35
people there. There's now a monthly night at the Sanctuary called Safehouse,
and a Radio 4a live improv session every month, too. Gigs I've seen recently
include Charlottefield at the Freebutt, art improvisers Wireless at their
studio near Preston Park, hugely entertaining rock/funk band Twelve Stone
Toddler at the Komedia, scratcher JFB with Drei's Kirsten and Jim Black at the
Enigma, rock band Planet of Women at the Pavilion Tavern. All these acts are
great - there's amazing music of every description here and it's brilliant.
Setting Sun:
I know you’ve just returned from tour with Leanne and Caroline Martin,
what musical plans do you have next? Do you have any more gigs / releases /
recordings in mind?
Bela:
See above (q1). As for gigs, I play out a lot, so it's best to check the
website.
Setting Sun:
Anyway, a couple of slightly lighter questions to finish off with….
Firstly, what would you like to be doing when you are 60?
Bela::
Drinking daiquiris on a sandy beach.
Setting Sun:
What will you be doing when you are 60?
Bela:
Well, I'd say that's an achievable goal...
Setting Sun:
Lastly, to finish off (Nicked from a pal's Zine in a way "Imagine you were ship wrecked on a desert Island and could have (clearly second sight here - lol) the choice of having 5 records or cds with you with a stereo of course. What would be your desert island discs?"
Bela:
Changes frequently - I'm quite fickle and I don't have a list like some people. Right now I'd have:
1) The Emerald Beak by Princess Headbutt,
2)
Home is in your Head by His Name is Alive,
3)
Straight No Chaser by Thelonious Monk,
4)
Laughing Stock by Talk Talk,
5)
and the original version of I Put a Spell on You by
Screaming Jay Hawkins (if anyone has a copy of this, please please let me
know...)
