The Pulse of Minimalism: WNYC New Sounds (June 9th, 2009)
it was great to find out that my Music from Summerland was recently featured on John Schafer’s WNYC New Sounds podcast this past june
“The pulsing rhythms of minimalism, as heard in the music of English composer Michael Nyman, and fellow Brit Jeremy Peyton-Jones. Plus there’s music from trombonist/composer Paul Bailey and the “alt-classical garage band” Paul Bailey Ensemble. It’s possible that we’ll also hear from guitarist Dominic Frasca and his takeoff of music based on Philip Glass, and more.”
The Pulse of Minimalism (June 9th, 2009)
at this point i feel very awkward on how to respond to these really thoughtful comments and reviews. besides a big thanks to john and caryn at wnyc . i think there are two bigger points that are worth making (and its that its nice to get a pat on the back when you are the least expecting it)
i’m starting to realize that although i might have moved on from a piece like retrace (i wrote in 2002) its pretty powerful and touching when somebody “gets it”. especially right now when the PBE is on hiatus and it’s going to be a while before we get out and perform again. i’m really happy that the music is out there. i guess i never had really thought much about music we weren’t currently performing (out of sight, out of mind?), but over the past few months i have really gotten back a lot from my friends about what the music and PBE means to them. i had never really contemplated that how some pieces take on a life of their own and means very different things to different people. amazing
fearless leader
pbe live at csuf 092507
scott mcintosh, clarinet
bruce gallego, electric guitar
matt menaged, electric bass
eric hendrickson, piano
paul bailey, tbone
latest mp3′s from the csuf show and lacc show:
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lacc, 100207 cheap admiration fearless leader eye for optical theory principal of sufficient irritation principal of sufficient irritation sweater song |
csuf, 092507
fearless leader
eve for optical theory
principle of sufficient irritation
principal of sufficient irritation (with real quiet)
les moutons de panurge
"Let's Burn that Puppy Down" Rex Reason/OC Weekly (2005)
OC Weekly January 13, 2005 By Rex Reason
“Paul Bailey saw a lot of space between pop art and high art and decided to fill it, rather than just rant about it over fish tacos and soda—although he does a pretty good job at that, too. The jovial, articulate composer/trombonist/bandleader is just as likely to talk about Wes Anderson or Love & Rockets comics as elements of the baroque chamber music his nine-piece ensemble—two violins, cello, vibraphone, synthesizer, electric guitar, bass guitar, clarinet and trombone, augmented by vocalists as necessary—draws on. It’s classical instrumentation and architecture, but the amplified guitars are front and center, enough to scare off the furs-and-tiara set. And that’s fine for Bailey, who’s proud of a distinctly un-academic—though definitely not uninformed—take on classical composition, something between Weezer and Wagner. With many of his musicians coming from Cal State Fullerton, his ensemble is familiar with gigs at local art galleries, churches and other impromptu performance spaces; this month, however, Bailey will debut Retrace Our Steps , a work based on writings by Gertrude Stein, Guy Debord and Jenny Bitner that was commissioned by the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in what Bailey describes as a happy accident.
OC Weekly : So you left Kansas to become a professional musician in California, and you ended up . . . at Disney. How was that?
Paul Bailey: It’s Disney. Anything anyone else has said? It’s true. I was trained to be a musician, I practiced very hard, and I got there, and I basically had to make farting noises on my trombone and play show tunes. At Disney, you don’t have a choice. We played the same 12 songs for four years.
Is that what drove you to become a teacher?
Being a teacher is the only way I can be a composer and a musician and not have my soul taken out of me. Being paid to play trombone or being paid to write music, I have to worry about who’s going to pay me next. Now, in a sense, I have no filter. I can write whatever I want. It can be shitty, but at least it’s what I want.
So explain why you want to do what you do.
I’m 36. Are people my age supposed to listen to pop music their whole lives? The whole music industry is set up to please a 17-year-old kid. I don’t mind listening to that stuff, but am I supposed to live my life through the eyes of a 17-year-old?
But you told me earlier how much you like Weezer.
I love Weezer. They’re one of my favorite bands, but it would be false of me to write pop songs or rock songs. Is rock and pop music the only way you can express yourself in today’s culture? If I had drums, we’d be a rock band. Right now, it’s very deliberate—I’m not a rock band, although I use rock instruments
So is this something closer to an orchestra?
Fuck the orchestra. Let’s burn that puppy down and start over. The orchestra’s proper place is the museum. The idea you’re getting some cultural experience that’s going to make your life better and it’s going to expand your mind is total bullshit.
Then how do you reconcile the two forms?
There’s the technical aspect where I can say, academically, we’re not modernist music. We believe in stuff that has the same chords as Weezer, the Beatles or Radiohead. I’m choosing to deal with music I grew up with and that interests me. But I don’t want to make people go through all these things to decide whether they like it or not. In my latest work (Retrace Our Steps), there might be a message, but the actual music takes very little to understand. You don’t need to listen to Michael Nyman or Steve Reich or Phillip Glass to listen to my music—although it’s based on them. You don’t need to understand hundreds of years of music history in your mind to listen to stuff I write.”