THE WRONG OBJECT

“Absolutely Free!”

Interview with the Belgian guitarist Michel Delville

By Sergio Vilar


I would like to begin this interview asking them which the history of the band is and which is the artistic past of each one of you... 
The band was formed in early 2002. At the time, Michel Delville and Andrew Norris, an English blues guitar player living in Liège, were looking for musicians to perform their compositions. At the time, the band’s repertoire consisted mostly of punk-dada-jazz pieces (by Michel) laced with live poetry (by Andrew). A few months later, Andrew left the band to form his own experimental blues combo, at a time when the band’s aesthetic was beginning to veer in the direction of (instrumental) psychedelic prog jazz.

The Wrong Object’s current members are: Michel Delville: guitar. Michel is the main composer of the band. He studied music at the Seraing Music Academy and is also a published writer and literary and musical critic.  Damien Polard: bass. Self-taught musician. Has played in various Belgian rock and blues bands. Ludovic Jeanmart: alto sax. Studied music and composition at the Brussels Jazz Conservatory and improvised music with Garrett List at the Liège Conservatory. Founded his own band in 2003 – their last opus is reviewed here: http://www.ragazzi-music.de/switch.html Laurent Delchambre: drums and percussions. Studied at the Brussels Conservatory. Has played with several prominent jazz and blues bands. Nicolas Ankoudinoff: tenor sax. Also studied at the Brussels Conservatory. Founded his own prog jazzrock band, Animus Anima, in 2002. Former members: Alain Deval (drums; 2002-2004), Yves Dellicour (sax; 2002-2004).

Besides Frank Zappa, who were your musical references in that time? 
The Wrong Object was and still is a multi-influenced collective. Michel’s compositions were influenced by rock, jazz and blues artists ranging from Soft Machine to Sonic Youth, Aka Moon, John Zorn, King Crimson, Bela Bartok, Frank Zappa, David Sylvian, Gong, Captain Beefheart, Charlie Mingus, Hatfield and the North, and Alice and John Coltrane. But the impact of Squarepusher and Amon Tobin on the overall sound of the band was also very strong from the very beginning, particularly on the rhythm section.

How was it evolving your work? 
We started playing Zappa covers in the Fall of 2002. But the point was never to become yet another Zappa cover band. Apart from our cover of “King Kong” -- which is rather straight and a tribute to the original performance by the Mothers of Invention -- all the Zappa tunes we play on stage have been completely deconstructed and rearranged, sometimes to the point of becoming almost unrecognizable.

And how consequence of it what elements do they define the musical identity of The Wrong Object? 
The pyschedelic element cannot be overemphasized. The raw energy and “local color” we try to inject into our music is perhaps what unites all the influences cited above. It’s the missing link between Coltrane and Zappa. Or between, say, Hawkwind and free jazz.

How is the compositive process in the band? Do you work their music starting from the improvisation or do you already leave of ideas certain? 
Michel writes most of the music and provides the lead sheets. The themes, structures and “moods” are determined in advance but all the compositions leave some room for improvisation. There are also a few pieces contained in our live repertoire which were written collectively, based on live improvisations. 

Do you carry out shows frequently? Are you very busy musically? 
Since its creation, The Wrong Object has played some thirty gigs in various venues ranging from small pubs to big festivals. We are all busy doing other things, of course. Belgium is a very small touring market. Money’s scarce and very local, unpaid acts fill the bills more often than not. But more and more people are interested in booking us for live festivals abroad, which is great. Last year we toured the UK, Germany and Slovakia, and we will play in Germany, France and Italy pretty soon.

How and why were you attracted by the work of Zappa? 
Michel has been a Zappa fan for years, thanks to his older brother, Gilbert, who first introduced him to the music of the “Grand Wazoo” when he was 10 or 11. He is also the co-author of a book on Zappa and Beefheart which will be published by Salt Publishing in Cambridge, UK, in the Fall of 2005. Except for Laurent, who already owned a few Zappa CDs, the rest of us knew very little, if anything, about him when they joined the band, which was just as well as we force ourselves to listen to the stuff with a fresh ear.

Which is the secret of the music of Zappa? Why does it have so much transcendency their work? 
Great musical structures. Beautiful and strange melodies. Some unbelievable solos. A sense of humor. A maximalist approach to music and culture.

Is there a before and a later in the rock starting from him? 
Most cover bands are trying to be “faithful” to the original arrangements of Zappa’s music, which is a shame really. The results are ultimately disappointing because there is just no way you can emulate the energy and musical alchemy that Zappa generated both in the studio and on stage.

Do continuators of their work exist? To who would they highlight? 
One quick look at the program of the Zappanale festival in Germany (http://www.arf-society.de/index_z.html) suffices to demonstrate that there is a lot of interest in Zappa among contemporary musicians. The Grand Mothers continue to tour Europe on a regular basis. And we were honored to play two gigs with Ed Mann at the last Zappanale. Ed’s own show, which was billed as Ed Mann & Friends, featured very unusual arrangements of classic Zappa pieces such as “The Black Page”, “Inca Roads”, “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”, “Dina-Moe-Hum”, all reworked in his own “acid-afro-jazz style.” (Btw, you can order live excerpts from the Zappanale gigs through our website or the Arf Society Shop: http://www.arf-society.de/user/arfshop/english/index.html )

Do you believe that the rock has changed its language in this time? 
What Zappa did to rock (and blues and doo-wop and you-just-name-it) can only compare to what Coltrane did to “My Favorite Things”. Amiri Baraka once wrote that Coltrane had decided to “murder the popular song” and “do away with weak Western forms”. Zappa did something similar with the language of traditional blues and rock, disfiguring, perverting the clichés while still getting a kick out of their musical and comedic potential!

Are you of listening the work of other bands? Which are your favorite ones? 
Right now, we’re listening (collectively and/or individually) to: Roland Kirk, Sonic Youth, Jimmy Agren, Henry Threadgill, Graham Connah, Sun Ra, Mal Waldron with the Steve Lacy Quintet, the new Magma CD as well as a lot of Lol Coxhill and Harry Beckett CDs.

Well. To conclude, a last question: until where do you plan to arrive with the band? Which is the goal to reach? 
Right now, we are preparing a rather different show which will feature one of Britain’s greatest improvisers, the extraordinary Lol Coxhill, with whom we will tour Belgium, Holland and France in early April. We are all very excited about this! Our set with Lol will be more radical and impro based than our current one. And we are also planning to play a few gigs with trumpeter Harry Beckett, another major figure on the British jazz scene. We have just received his charts and will begin to learn some of his compositions next week.

We also hope to be able to play with Ed Mann again very soon! And of course it would be great if we could secure a decent record deal within the next two years or so ...

Thank you friend. If you want it they can say goodbye to the readers.
Thanks, Sergio. It was a pleasure talking to you. Goodbye everybody!

www.wrongobject.be.tf

Nucleus interview: 14/01/05