Graham Reynolds

Considering what a busy man he is I am very appreciative that Graham Reynolds took the time to answer a few quick questions for me. The Austin based composer and bandleader is incredibly prolific and one of the hardest working people I know. Over the years I have seen his work live, alongside local collaborations like PowerUP and The Intergalactic Nemesis, and over major motion pictures and live theater. I'm always impressed with what Graham has accomplished in his life, which is why I wanted to present a panorama of him in his work space, and to also get and give a glimpse of where some of the magic happens.

The panorama I created of Graham is currently being exhibited in a group show at Davis Gallery here in Austin through this Saturday, October 18th. This is the final interview as part of a series getting to know the subjects of those images.

SDG: We met for the first time many years ago through our close mutual friend Jason Brenizer. Back then you had a job that was not related to music to support yourself, and now I believe you are making and playing music full-time. What do you feel were the key ingredients that took you to where you were then to where you are now?

GR: There were a million things that had to work out but of the things in my control I’d say it was saying yes to as many things as I could and walking through each door of opportunity.  I never knew what would lead to what, but little by little things came together.

Photo by Leon Alesi at Forklift Danceworks production of The Trash Project.

SDG: When did you first realize that you wanted to be a musician? What did you do to make that a reality?

GR: I think it was a gradual decision but music was my chief passion for most of my life.  I just kept making music and kept trying to learn.  And I networked a lot.

SDG: What drives you and keeps you motivated, inspired, and focused on your goals?

GR: Keeping things new, exciting, and fresh and constantly discovering.  I do that by working with different collaborators, choosing different subjects to study and musically reflect on, by listening to other people’s music, and by sitting down, thinking and planning.

Graham Reynolds' Marfa Triptych, Part One - The Uninhabited

SDG: When you think about what your life and work will be like in the future what do you imagine?

GR: I imagine expanding what I’m doing, executing at a higher level, and continually learning.

SDG: On Oct 4th you performed part two of your The Marfa Triptych: Three Portraits of West Texas at The Overlook at Mimms Ranch.  What was the experience like and when will the third part be performed?

GR: The third part won’t be for at least another year, probably two. This most recent concert was an amazing experience for me. In the middle of the desert, no power, no anything but a round bench for the audience.  I live scored the sunset into the moon rising and the stars coming out, surrounded by the Davis Mountains and the Chihuahuan Desert.

Graham Reynolds at Mimms Ranch, October 4, 2014. Photo by Jennifer Boomer.

SDG: That sounds like it was an amazing experience for you. Is there anything else coming up that you would like to mention?

GR: I’m always working on a million things but a few are a new ballet with Stephen Mills and Ballet Austin, a Pancho Villa chamber opera, and a country album.

SDG:  Graham, thank you for sharing that with us. We will be on the look out for all of those and more. You can hear an interview that Graham did for Marfa Public Radio the day of the part two performance here. Below is the album The Difference Engine, which is one of my favorites of his. Check out his website for upcoming performances, news and updates.

Graham Reynolds loves to explore narrative in his work. This tendency makes him a natural fit for the film, theater and dance work that form one of the cores to his composing career. In fusing a loose concerto format with the story of Charles Babbage and his invention the difference engine, Reynolds' composing voice finds itself in a work that is intense and driving, beautiful and intimate, personally expressive and broadly accessible all at the same time. Developed over a course of years, the initial ideas for each movement were introduced and inspired separately before being woven into this one piece. The musical onslaught of the opening movement came to Reynolds during a lecture by LB Deyo on Babbage and his work, inspired by the ferocious pace of both Babbage's thinking and the calculating speed of his invention. The fourth movement was developed in a very different form for the Rude Mechs play "The Method Gun", now touring the country. The fifth movement started as a solo piano piece, an Austin Museum of Art commission, in response to the work of Sol Lewitt. Reynolds joins other alt-classical voices in a 21st century approach that is no longer in rebellion against tonality and melody, nor desperate to prove their validity through focus on a "unique" extended technique, while folding 20th century ideas from clusters to modal harmonies to polyrhythms into a broad vocabulary. The completed concerto "The Difference Engine" premiered on February 6th, 2010 with a 35-piece string orchestra in a Golden Hornet Project performance at Ballet Austin’s Austin Ventures Studio Theater. Soloists Leah Zeger on violin, Jonathan Dexter on cello, and the composer himself on piano fronted the debut, with parts written specifically for their skill set and personal voices. Those voices were then captured for this CD. Not fully realized in his lifetime, the difference engine was the masterwork of 19th century inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage, an attempt to create the world's first computer. A remix of each movement forms the album's second half with contributions from DJ Spooky, Octopus Project, Grammy-nominated producer Adrian Quesada of Grupo Fantasma, Golden Hornet Project's Peter Stopschinski, and finally one from the composer himself.