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Green Imagination
SPINART
A carefully constructed collage of Bill Doss's
favorite songs (some selected from deep down
in his and his collective friends' subconscious),
Green Imagination by the Sunshine Fix, in referencing
many intricate facets of the musical past,
takes us far far away into the future of music
to a refreshingly imaginary green world based
upon reusing, recycling, re-creating and recreation
(blatantly omitting the other much overused "r," retro).
Considering the quantity and quality of references
per song and the fluidity which they blend,
merge, and bleed together, there's no chance
of pigeonholing these songs into a genre or
even recognizing a mere portion of the whole.
Try it out. Invite all of your music geek
friends over, throw Green Imagination, on and
see who can spot the most influences. The winner
earns the right to experience it alone, with
a hit of their psychotropic drug of choice
and a trusty pair of headphones.
Once upon a time, in my own little imaginative
world, I enjoyed a conversation with Bill Doss.
PCP: Who is your intended audience?
Bill Doss: With Olivia Tremor Control we purposely
thought of the kid alone in their room tripping
with their headphones on, so we did lots of
stuff for that kid. I still do that to an extent.
I mainly do something I want to hear since
there's no way to know what the audience wants
to hear. You can't go guessing what people
want, so just do what you want and have fun.
PCP: What is your philosophy on making music?
BD: Pushing boundaries is very important and
people should have fun. It's almost impossible
to do something new; so do something different,
put elements together in a different way. The
band (along with my friends) have an ongoing
game called "spot the influence," tying
each part of the songs to its ancestor. There's
always at least one and most of the time it's
stuff that I didn't realize, or even know.
I always thought it was all just the Beatles
and Beach Boys!
PCP: Do I spot a Langley School Music Project
influence? Speaking of which, what was it like
recording with the Georgia Children's Choir?
BD: [Langley School Music Project] did the
Bowie and Beach Boys songs, right? I know I
heard it on the radio around the time it was
reissued, but I don't own it. Anyway, I recorded
the Georgia Children's Choir, with two microphones,
in a cathedral which was recently painted with
this new acoustic paint and there's this gigantic
pipe organ. The ceiling's like 40 feet high.
It was all so unreal. I remember handing the
conductor the music, hoping that the kids could
do what I needed. She said it was probably
the simplest thing they've ever done. They
started warming up, doing these amazing fifteen-part
harmonies, and I felt so embarrassed. Working
with the kids was so much fun. It gave me so
much energy. I'd love to work with them more,
do more stuff like that. It would be really
great to do the Olivia Tremor Control stuff
with them, Langley School Music Project style
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