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Interview by Fred Mitchim with Aaron Mace:
FM: Please give us a description of Church of the Friendly Ghost that someone who has no idea what experimental music is can understand. AM: The tapestry of contemporary musical expression is almost unimaginably vast. Musically oriented as Austin Texas is, there is a real need in alternative spaces for musical performance designed to invite an intimate listening experience. |
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AM: We enjoy a glut of music venues in Austin, but for the most part they come in only two varieties; one, the bar/stage (industrial) model and two, the academic/civic model. Downtown bar venues, the University concert halls, and places like the Long Center are the dominant stages. This twin-lobed approach has not been engineered with affordance to the rich variety of expression in musical art that is available to us right now, locally, nationally, internationally…Both the models I mention are business models which rely largely on profits to remain viable, and that fact limits the kind of programming that is engaged. In the industrial or academic/civic venue models, it is important to maintain a performance schedule that appeals to as broad a demographic as possible. Artists that are commercially unproven, critically unknown, or simply very new, let alone “experimental” have quite a difficult time finding a home in either one of the two primary venue models here in Austin.
AM: What Church of the Friendly Ghost wants to offer is a good stage, a dedicated listening environment, and a programming philosophy with focus on the unproven, unknown, under-heard, and avant-garde. We also work to build a community space for the artists and audience our venue serves, and a real community-oriented laboratory for new artists and composers.
AM: The “Church” aspect is really quite literal. The intent is to create a social space that is very much like a church. That is to say, a community gathering place where friends and neighbors can share friendly company and resources, as well as offering a warm welcome to strangers seeking what it is we come together to celebrate; which is, in this case, creative music. For a great number of people I think music is a spiritual experience, even for those who might self identify as non-spiritual. I should mention that we don’t focus on the spiritual experience of music, nor any religious philosophies. It’s a Church by social terms, and loosely at that, which is as far as that goes. I do think people really need that social space though, at least once a week. That community is probably missing in the lives of most non-religious people, especially artists, who burn very brightly and thrive on stimulating exchange. Funny enough, most of our performances are on Sunday evenings.
AM: So Church of the Friendly Ghost is a community organization, 100% volunteer-run, begun in October 2003. 100% of the proceeds from admission are dedicated to the artists. We organize an ongoing series of concerts, conceptual multimedia events, and cross-disciplinary experiments in media art/performance art (held against as low an admission price as we can possibly offer, usually $5.) We also serve as a community hub and resource-sharing network for the artists that use our stage, and the audience that arrives to listen. We‘re designing a new model and a new approach to musical performance in Austin. What we want is a real, functional community-based network outside the confines of industry and academia that truly supports artists and contributes richness to the arts landscape in Austin. As a music venue that it is much more a public resource than a business. We’d like to see a whole culture of these spring up in Austin.
FM: Now tell us about yourself and how you got to this place with music.
AM: I grew up in a small town in Wyoming. I have always loved music; I’ve always been lost in a love for music. From a young age all I’ve really ever wanted to do is find music wherever it exists, and listen carefully to it. In nature the vector is endless. As a kid, ice fishing, I would find an otherworldly joy in listening to the sheets of ice on the lake buckle after dark, and play the AM radio along with it. I liked the way the great dragging notes and rhythms in between stations, and the whispers or cryptic words found at borders of stations were punctuated by the deep rumbles of the buckling, expanding ice sheets. I’d stare up at the winter sky full of stars. On clear nights in Wyoming you can catch some truly distant stations. I’d think about how that music came to my ears and realize that the world was full of music, just brimming, that the sounds in the ice were only the faintest hint of what was really possible to hear. I wanted to hear it all.
AM: The “Church” aspect is really quite literal. The intent is to create a social space that is very much like a church. That is to say, a community gathering place where friends and neighbors can share friendly company and resources, as well as offering a warm welcome to strangers seeking what it is we come together to celebrate; which is, in this case, creative music. For a great number of people I think music is a spiritual experience, even for those who might self identify as non-spiritual. I should mention that we don’t focus on the spiritual experience of music, nor any religious philosophies. It’s a Church by social terms, and loosely at that, which is as far as that goes. I do think people really need that social space though, at least once a week. That community is probably missing in the lives of most non-religious people, especially artists, who burn very brightly and thrive on stimulating exchange. Funny enough, most of our performances are on Sunday evenings.
AM: So Church of the Friendly Ghost is a community organization, 100% volunteer-run, begun in October 2003. 100% of the proceeds from admission are dedicated to the artists. We organize an ongoing series of concerts, conceptual multimedia events, and cross-disciplinary experiments in media art/performance art (held against as low an admission price as we can possibly offer, usually $5.) We also serve as a community hub and resource-sharing network for the artists that use our stage, and the audience that arrives to listen. We‘re designing a new model and a new approach to musical performance in Austin. What we want is a real, functional community-based network outside the confines of industry and academia that truly supports artists and contributes richness to the arts landscape in Austin. As a music venue that it is much more a public resource than a business. We’d like to see a whole culture of these spring up in Austin.
FM: Now tell us about yourself and how you got to this place with music.
AM: I grew up in a small town in Wyoming. I have always loved music; I’ve always been lost in a love for music. From a young age all I’ve really ever wanted to do is find music wherever it exists, and listen carefully to it. In nature the vector is endless. As a kid, ice fishing, I would find an otherworldly joy in listening to the sheets of ice on the lake buckle after dark, and play the AM radio along with it. I liked the way the great dragging notes and rhythms in between stations, and the whispers or cryptic words found at borders of stations were punctuated by the deep rumbles of the buckling, expanding ice sheets. I’d stare up at the winter sky full of stars. On clear nights in Wyoming you can catch some truly distant stations. I’d think about how that music came to my ears and realize that the world was full of music, just brimming, that the sounds in the ice were only the faintest hint of what was really possible to hear. I wanted to hear it all.
FM: What is your philosophical out look on music/life/the future?
AM: I’m brief and mundane here I’m afraid. I fight against cynicism wherever I can find it. Down with cynicism! Living with an adventurous spirit in curiosity and attempting to have a positive impact on whatever I may leave behind is important.
Waking up every day, thinking “What the fuck? What could happen next?” that would be a bonus. To never know what might happen next and fully experience whatever happens, with gusto. I want to find humor in everything I can, even if it has to be invented. I try to be a little less serious, and a little more sincere everyday, if I can.
AM: With music, my taste is probably suspect. I have reached a point in music appreciation where I’m uncertain if it’s possible for me to separate good from bad. There’s relevance in most music I encounter. That isn’t to say that I like everything, I certainly don’t, but I really enjoy attempting to appreciate it.
FM: In your opinion what are some of the most interesting acts you seen over the past few years?
AM: Sonny Murray and Sonny Simmons at 33 Degrees Records back in 1998. That concert began a new kind of appreciation for me.
I saw the Bad Livers many times, and I would rewind time to see those shows again. Solas at the Cactus Café in 1997, that was a particularly beautiful concert. Shit, today’s short list? Susan Alcorn, William Parker & Hamid Drake, the Willem Breuker Kollektif, so many Creative Opportunity Concerts with Tina Marsh (another important point in my life, discovering that musical community) The Thing, ECFA, Joe McPhee, Evan Parker, Ralph White, Sabir Mateen, Han Bennik, Lisa Cameron, Peter Brotzmann, every lovely thing that New Music Coop has done in Austin over the past 8 or 9 years (NMC is a tremendously creative and clever group of Austinites!), Rick Reed, Eugene Chadbourne. (Much of this stuff wasn’t actually a CotFG concert of course…I’m mentioning a lot of Epistrophy Arts presentations here.) For me the highlight of the past 2 years at SVT has to have been the concert in 2008 with Alex Coke, Omar Tamez, Arjen Gorter, and Tina Marsh. Tatsuya Nakatani’s show at SVT was also excellent.
AM: I’m brief and mundane here I’m afraid. I fight against cynicism wherever I can find it. Down with cynicism! Living with an adventurous spirit in curiosity and attempting to have a positive impact on whatever I may leave behind is important.
Waking up every day, thinking “What the fuck? What could happen next?” that would be a bonus. To never know what might happen next and fully experience whatever happens, with gusto. I want to find humor in everything I can, even if it has to be invented. I try to be a little less serious, and a little more sincere everyday, if I can.
AM: With music, my taste is probably suspect. I have reached a point in music appreciation where I’m uncertain if it’s possible for me to separate good from bad. There’s relevance in most music I encounter. That isn’t to say that I like everything, I certainly don’t, but I really enjoy attempting to appreciate it.
FM: In your opinion what are some of the most interesting acts you seen over the past few years?
AM: Sonny Murray and Sonny Simmons at 33 Degrees Records back in 1998. That concert began a new kind of appreciation for me.
I saw the Bad Livers many times, and I would rewind time to see those shows again. Solas at the Cactus Café in 1997, that was a particularly beautiful concert. Shit, today’s short list? Susan Alcorn, William Parker & Hamid Drake, the Willem Breuker Kollektif, so many Creative Opportunity Concerts with Tina Marsh (another important point in my life, discovering that musical community) The Thing, ECFA, Joe McPhee, Evan Parker, Ralph White, Sabir Mateen, Han Bennik, Lisa Cameron, Peter Brotzmann, every lovely thing that New Music Coop has done in Austin over the past 8 or 9 years (NMC is a tremendously creative and clever group of Austinites!), Rick Reed, Eugene Chadbourne. (Much of this stuff wasn’t actually a CotFG concert of course…I’m mentioning a lot of Epistrophy Arts presentations here.) For me the highlight of the past 2 years at SVT has to have been the concert in 2008 with Alex Coke, Omar Tamez, Arjen Gorter, and Tina Marsh. Tatsuya Nakatani’s show at SVT was also excellent.
AM: Eugene Chadbourne’s percussion concert with Lisa Cameron, Graham Reynolds, and Kory Cook was outstanding. That whole 2-date residency actually, with Ernie Durawa and Walter Daniels, wow wow wow! The Willem Breuker Kollektief’s live score for Fuast was tremendous. Chris Schlarb’s Twilight and Ghost Stories project was really special. I could go on and on because in my opinion, there have been hundreds of very interesting performances. Since 2007, at SVT, there have been 80 very much worth hearing. Probably 10 of those concerts so utterly beautiful I will remember them always. Those are the numbers because we have as many performances as its possible to have with the resources at our disposal. If we had more money, we’d organize even more performances. That’s a suggestion of the amount of unnoticed brilliance that’s just lying around Austin like a beach littered with precious gems instead of shells. All we have to do is open the door and say yes.
FM: What is your connection to the Salvage Vanguard Theater?
AM: I’m a company member there now, and SVT sponsors our non-profit status. Back when they built the new theater in 2007 they had invited me to bring in some musical programming as Church of the Friendly Ghost. SVT became a natural residence for CotFG pretty quickly. Our (SVT’s & CotFG’s ) passions and goals as organizations mesh very well. We’re interested in fostering new expressions, hybrid-works, and you know, exciting-type, cutting-edge stuff.
We both want to be the best in the world at what we do, too.
FM: How can people get on your e-mail list and what are your links and contact info?
Look at HYPERLINK "http://www.churchofthefiendlyghost.org" www.churchofthefiendlyghost.org, there are plenty of things to see, including the current and upcoming shows as well as the backlist of this year’s performances, and a link to get on the email list. All our buddy-links and social media links are there too.
If you email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , I’ll answer it.
FM: What is your connection to the Salvage Vanguard Theater?
AM: I’m a company member there now, and SVT sponsors our non-profit status. Back when they built the new theater in 2007 they had invited me to bring in some musical programming as Church of the Friendly Ghost. SVT became a natural residence for CotFG pretty quickly. Our (SVT’s & CotFG’s ) passions and goals as organizations mesh very well. We’re interested in fostering new expressions, hybrid-works, and you know, exciting-type, cutting-edge stuff.
We both want to be the best in the world at what we do, too.
FM: How can people get on your e-mail list and what are your links and contact info?
Look at HYPERLINK "http://www.churchofthefiendlyghost.org" www.churchofthefiendlyghost.org, there are plenty of things to see, including the current and upcoming shows as well as the backlist of this year’s performances, and a link to get on the email list. All our buddy-links and social media links are there too.
If you email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , I’ll answer it.
