Interview with Dave 'Fuze' Fiuczynski – Part 1 by David Fiuczynski, LondonJazz

PART ONE:

Sebastian interviews guitarist Dave ‘Fuze’ Fiuczynski, and asks him about his influences, his double-necked microtonal guitar (and why he uses it) , his use of electronics to help show his Gamelan and other world influences which he blends with the Western tradition.

Fuze is about to release a new album with his group the Screaming Headless Torsos and we listen to an excerpt of the second movement of a microtonal/birdsong/Messiaen/J Dilla inspired piece called Flam! Pan-Asian MicroJam for J Dilla and Olivier Messiaen, which was premièred last December at the Berklee Performance Center.

Musical Excerpt:

Flam! Pan-Asian MicroJam for J Dilla and Olivier Messiaen at 6:10

Interview with Dave 'Fuze' Fiuczynski – Part 2 by LondonJazz

PART TWO:

For the second part of our interview, London-based guitarist/composer Ant Law (who studied with Fiuczynski) goes more in-depth about microtonality, non-western music, and animal sounds (including a brief discussion of Alois Hába’s opera Mother). They discuss the influence of Vietnamese guitarist Kim Sinh on a piece by Dave called Sakura / Yinghua so-called because of his visit to Japan during the Cherry Blossom festival (the Yinghua aspect represents the Chinese inflections in the piece). Dave cites Gauguin as an example of bringing cultures together in art which he seeks to emulate in his music.

They also talk about the piece Roxy Migraine (so called because it reminded Dave of the track Roxy Music and it “was giving me a headache!”), another example of blending disciplines, in this case: drum and bass, jazz, and the Hijaz scale.

Musical Excerpts:

Sakura / Yinghua at 3:05
Roxy Migraine at 7:50