DAVID BAGSBY

"A Mad Scientist Of The Music"

David Bagsby is a guitarist, keyboardist and composer born in Tulsa, OK and now residing in Lawrence, KS. His music encompasses progressive/symphonic rock, humanly impossible rhythmic hierarchies, translated nature, acoustic guitar works and pieces utilizing perfect tuning & Euclidian Space.
His wish is to create music that will allow you to thrash about cerebrally at maximum hormonal amplitude.

  His goal is to become the "Rube Goldberg of Rock".

By Sergio Vilar

Thank you for your time and for the interview for Nucleus. I would like to begin asking how did you start withmusic? How were your beginnings? 
My first attraction to music was soundtracks to cartoons and movies... particularly horror and science fiction films. I started taking piano lessons around age 11 when I discovered Bach's “Tocatta & Fugue in D minor” from the movie “Tales from the Crypt”. I wasn't a very good student as most of the exercises were songs for children and I had trouble practicing knowing everyone in the house could hear me. Eventually I picked up guitar at age 16 because my younger brother Steve was starting to get good at it and I didn't want to be left behind. My taste in music changed to reflect this instrument moving away from Stravinsky and orchestral music and more into progressive rock.

Can you defined the progressive rock? 
I've always liked keyboards and complex formal structures and that defines progressive rock for me. Although virtuosity on an instrument is good, I prefer composition over flashy playing. Some groups I used to enjoy have falling from my listening routine because they are displays of technique rather than music. I would rather listen to a less skilled group who has interesting harmonic ideas than an Allan Holdsworth clone. I enjoy the work of the neo-prog groups but it's taken a long time to get around hearing the influence of the original wave like Genesis, King Crimson, ELP, etc. I grew up in the 70's so I was listening to alot of lp's from these bands as they were new.  My favorites would be ELP's “Brain Salad Surgery”, Yes' “Relayer” and Genesis' “Wind and Wuthering”. Zappa is a big influence as well as many artists from Jazz, Pop and Orchestral genre's.

Does an artistic or aesthetic concept exist in particular that you want to express in your work? 
I approached composing from the idea that you had to be a very good musician in order to write worthwhile music.  At some point I realized I would never be as good a guitarist as John McLaughlin or Django Reinhardt so now I approach a composition from the angle of what a song needs rather than my instrumental limitations. If I need a super fast metal guitar, I know people I can contact for those type of textures. I try not to limit myself but you can only go where you mind lets you. I think it becomes hard to go back to 'normal' music once you expose yourself to other things.  

Which is your thought about the current music? What do you say of the scene today? 
The hard part now is finding out about the good bands since most media is controlled by a hand full of conglomerates who are dictating taste from an accountant's stand point.  I need to get more information on internet radio as this seems to be the place to hear the good stuff.  I hope that more progressive rock festivals and events will proliferate.  It seems like progressive rock is alot like Jazz used to be in that it nearly.

Do you consider yourself as an artist that is always looking for new roads to express you? 
Personally, I'm glad that there are many new avenues to explore via new technology. I still have projects written 20 years ago that I can't do because the cutting edge isn't far enough along. I've hired people to develop software for some of my projects but they involve alternate tuning systems and the problem there lies in a controller.  A guitar neck or keyboard isn't really suited for a scale of 115 notes. I wrote a letter to Stephen Hawking years ago on the subject of gravity waves but his assistant informed me that the info I needed was beyond human knowledge so there's another project I have to shelve.

One aspect of my work involves having field recordings trigger music. This phase of my work I refer to as the Translator Series. I've used field recordings of birds, streams, etc, to control synthesizers. I act mainly as an orchestrator rather than a composer in this genre. Examples of all my various experiments are at http://bagsby.com

Thanks for your kindness David. Do you want to express something more?
Thank you for you interest in my work. Let me know if you need anything else. Take care

Nucleus interview: 12/02/04