"A Band Of Unintended Consequences"

Who is Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic? Maybe the best definition finds it in you official web site:
"Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic is the world's hardest rocking chamber quartet. A group of guys from Boston who make music so natural, yet so alien; challenging, yet elegant; fiery and instinctive, yet elevated and studied. It's loads of fun, and quite unlike anything you've ever heard". 
And we agree completely with them. With you: Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic.

By Paul Puleston

First of all I would like to thank you for this interview. It is a pleasure for me. I truly love your music.
Thank you for taking an interest in our music, and for inviting us to participate in this interview!

Lets start from the beginning. Could you tell us about the creation and the early years of the band?
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic was formed in 1980 (about 9 years before I joined the group). Keyboardist/guitarist Roger Miller was experiencing some hearing problems due to the volume of his group "Mission of Burma", and he joined with pianist Erik Lindgren, keyboardist Rick Scott, and Burma's tape loop specialist Martin Swope on guitar, for a few studio sessions recording Roger's compositions. The music was released on a compilation by the Boston label Ace of Hearts, and the group performed for the record release party. The response was extremely positive, and the decision was made to keep the group going, and to do further recordings, which were also released on Ace of Hearts, and later rereleased on Rykodisc as "Sonic Geology".

I understand that BotM began in the â80, which IMHO was a difficult decade for bands involved in complex music, at least that was the situation in this hemisphere during that period. Was the USA audience in the Eighties receptive to your challenging and innovative sound? Which is your opinion about that decade with
regard to music?
The group was initially very well received, and had a college radio hit with a cover of the theme from the Rocky & Bullwinkle animated TV show. The group toured the USA extensively to very good response during this time, so I would have to say that there was much interest in the USA during that decade in innovative music. My personal experience during the 80's was not with Birdsongs, which I joined in 1989, but with other musical groups in Boston such as the psychedelic funk band Skin. Boston audiences have always been somewhat adventurous, and this was true during the 80's as well.

Could you please give us a profile of each member of the band?
In alphabetical order:
Michael Bierylo plays guitar and laptop with the group. He joined Birdsongs in 1991 after Martin Swope moved to Hawaii. Michael teaches music synthesis at Berklee College of Music, and works regularly with Birdsongs founder Roger Miller (who left the group in 1988) on high-profile commercial soundtrack projects.
Ken Field plays saxophone, flute, and percussion. He has released several CDs of his layered saxophone compositions as well as a live recording of an improvised concert in Tokyo. He has been Composer-in-Residence at the Ucross Foundation (Wyoming), the Fundacíon Valparaíso (Spain), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida).  Ken's music is heard regularly on the children's TV show Sesame Street, and a masterclass CD of his will appear in the May/June 2003 issue of the "Saxophone Journal".
Pianist Erik Lindgren co-founded Birdsongs of the Mesozoic in 1980. He is a prolific contemporary classical composer with a catalogue of over 3 dozen compositions. He has released two solo CDs of his acoustic chamber works. Lindgren's record label, Arf! Arf!, has released over 100 titles for such artists as Willie Loco Alexander, the Brood, and the Cynics, as well as over 60 archival retrospectives documenting '60s Garage/Psychedelic Rock and Incredibly Strange Music.
Rick Scott plays synthesizer and electronic percussion with Birdsongs. He is the quiet genius of the ensemble, and while his compositional output is infrequent, his pieces are well worth the wait.  Rick works during the day as an audio equipment specialist, and his knowledge in this area is legendary.

How did your sound evolve until the present?
Most of the changes in the group's sound have been the result of changes in personnel. Each musician brings differing styles and perspective to the ensemble.  Michael has an interest in music from eastern Europe and the Balkans, including folk rhythms and odd time signatures. I have always liked groove-based music, and my compositions reflect that as well as my love of layered melodies.

How did the departure of Roger Miller and Martin Swope  affect the music of BotM?
When Roger left the group, there was a feeling that Birdsongs was doomed, since Roger had been the primary composer. But Erik Lindgren stepped ably into that role, and has been contributing the largest portion of material ever since.  And of course Roger's departure paved the way for me to join the group. Martin had a very unique guitar style which added greatly to the sensibility of the band's early music.
Michael has his own style, and is flexible in different ways, adding computer sequencing and sound design to the mix, and bringing in his great compositions.

Your music sounds highly eclectic, blending Progressive Rock with modern Classical composers (Stravinsky, Bartok, etc) and some other spices. Which were your real influences, if any?
Each of the members of the group has diverse and varied influences, including the modern classical composers you mention, progressive rock, jazz, and music from north and west Africa, Japan, India, and beyond. Michael and Rick (and Martin and Roger) grew up in the Detroit area, and were influenced by the MC5 and other Detroit rock and punk groups. As you say, our music and influences are highly eclectic.

What type of music and bands do you listen to in your youth?
We all listened to different things, but my favorite groups in my youth were Procol Harum, very early Jethro Tull, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and lots of others. Later in my youth I listened to Gato Barbieri, and his melodic and gut-wrenching playing was a big influence on my saxophone style. I developed an interest in jazz and improvised music in the following years, and recently have been playing and listening to a lot of New Orleans second line style music and brass bands.

There are some musicians that have a strong interaction with other bands. On the other hand, some other groups told us that they feel their selves as "an island" in the musical scene of their country. What can you tell us about yourselves on this respect? Do you have links and collaborate with other bands from your country or abroad?
As a group, I would say that Birdsongs is more of an island, though we do have musicians and friends, some also on Cuneiform Records like Chuck Vrtacek, that we relate well to, and sometimes play with.  We have invited many musicians to help us out on our recent recordings, including Ken Winokur from the Alloy Orchestra, and of course our founding former member Roger Miller. But in general we live on our own little Birdsongs kingdom, I'd say.
Individually, though, we all play in other projects in addition to Birdsongs.  I am probably the most guilty of this - I spent many years playing with the Boston punk rocker Willie Loco Alexander, and I currently play with an improvisational groove band called the Board of Education, a sax quartet called Dig Big, the Crown Electric Company (a 70's funk ensemble), my New Orleans horn band called the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, and with my own Alto Saxophone Project.

I have detected that many creative artists have expanded their music by listening and incorporating new musical structures, sounds and rhythms from "exotic" cultures such as Asian, Latin American or African. Are you interest in the so-called "ethnic" music?  Have you ever considered a cross-collaboration with artists from those areas of the world?
As I mentioned earlier, music from other parts of the world has definitely influenced us greatly.  A collaboration with musicians from other parts of the world would be of great interest to us. Since our music is almost entirely composed, and often not rhythmic, we need to think about what kind of collaboration would work best. Please let us know if you have some suggestions!  We would love to find funding to travel to an "exotic" culture for such a collaboration!

In this context I'm tempted to ask you a "local" question. Did you have the opportunity of listening any Argentinean music, particularly modern instrumental tango (such as Piazzola or Mederos)?
Yes, of course we love Piazzola, and as I mentioned, I grew up listening to Gato Barbieri. My composition "Why Not Circulate?" (from "Pyroclastics") is my feeble attempt to incorporate some of this style into Birdsongs' music. Recently I have been performing the Argentinian classic "El Choclo" with the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, and I am sure that some of this will rub off on my future compositions and playing for Birdsongs.

I never have the pleasure of attending one of your live performances. Does improvisation play an important role in your shows? What about during the creation of your music, is improvisation important during the composition process? How is typically this process?  have you ever thought in releasing a CD of improvised material?
Birdsongs as a group is not an improvisational group, although as individuals some of us work extensively with improvisation. Most of Birdsongs' music is strictly composed, and due to the complexity of the music (and our limited brain capacity) we perform from sheet music. But before I joined the group, Birdsongs did release one LP which was entirely improvised as the soundtrack to a movie by Michael Burlingame called "To a Random".  We also did a few improvised performances under the name Birdsongs of the Cenozoic.
The process of composing and improvising are very related, and my personal interest is in bringing the two processes closer together - to make composed music that has the spontaneity of improvisation, and improvised music that has the structure and form of composed music. So when I compose, I try to capture spontaneous ideas and put them on paper, as I think all composers try to do.

Could you please suggest us some new musicians that you consider worth listening, telling us in your opinion which are the most relevant features of their music?
I love the music of the multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio. She is based in Seattle, and collaborates with a wide variety of musicians there and around the world. Another musician I like a lot is the San Francisco- based clarinetist and composer Beth Custer.

When I started writing these questions I said to myself that I would circumvent the ãsilly obvious questionä, however, I apologize, but I cannot restrain myself: Please, could you tell me how did you choose such original name for the band?
This name was chosen by Roger and Martin - the story is that they were listening to an LP called "Birdsongs of America", and while the LP was spinning, they tried to read the title, and it came out as "Birdsongs of the Mesozoic". I don't know if this story is true, but it is a good story. The interesting thing is that this occurred before the recent paleontological discoveries showing that dinosaurs and birds have
common ancestry. So we now know that there really might have been birdsongs during the Mesozoic time!

In the name of "Nucleus" and "Una Larga Pasion" thank you very much for your time and, once again, it was great for me to have this opportunity.
Thank you for giving me the chance to talk about the group to your readers, and for posing such good questions!  If your readers want to get more information about Birdsongs, they can visit our website at http://www.birdsongsofthemesozoic.org


Nucleus interview: 08-03-03