Chris Buzby / Echolyn
Here´s the original english version of the email interview with Christopher Buzby of Echolyn












ragazzi: "The history of echolyn has a colourful past. Please tell something about the first echolyn, the finding of the band and what the music and the inspiration was."
Chris: "echolyn officially started in September of 1989 with the addition of myself (keyboards & backing vox) and Paul Ramsey (drums & percussion) to the mix of what was already Brett Kull (guitar & vocals) and Jesse Reyes (bass). Ray Weston (vocals & bass) rejoined the fold later that month....the musical inspiration was to write all original music, blending from the individual inspirations, writing styles and musical ideas of each member. From day one the main goal of echolyn was to have fun writing all original music...even to this day we keep the same mantra, as it continues to keep us headed in the right direction over all these years!"
ragazzi: "The sony-break was the end for while. What was sony expecting from echolyn - better pop music by better musicians?"
Chris: "I think Sony thought they were onto something fresh and new when they signed echolyn....only problem was that from the 2 years we were signed until our album (as the world) was written and released the grunge scene had exploded onto mainstream culture (Alice in Chains; Nirvana; Pearl Jam) and an all-original group of musicians who could actually play their instruments was now an incredibly difficult album to market and sell in a world that was into a "less-is-more" attitude. Our Sony saga is is the story of many-a-band...good intentions without the proper corporate support."
ragazzi: "After the break echolyn was falling into some other bands, which was it and is one of it working today again?"
Chris: I started "finneus gauge" and released 2 albums ("more once more" in 1997 and "one inch of the fall" in 1999) to continue pushing where I wanted to head with my writing and playing. Simply put, fg was a balls-to-the wall progressive-fusion ensemble. Solely music for music's sake....with high musicianship and strong songwriting. Brett, Ray and Paul decided to go it as a 3-piece rock trio (guitar, bass and drums) and released 2 albums in the same time ("Still" in 1997 and "God Pounds His Nails" in 1998). They took a much more staright forward approach to playing and songwriting with this project....ironically the "reunion" of echoln in 2000 with the release of "cowboy poems free" shows a pretty succinct merger of my and Brett's songwriting styles following our years apart.
ragazzi: "And then the new start of echolyn. Was it a hard new beginning? Is the new echolyn the old again - personal?"
Chris: "It was incredibly easy to start writing together again because we all know each other so well. We're best of friends again, we're smarter in terms of running echolyn inc. as our own business, we laugh more, we're less tressed, we all weigh a lot more, we all have much shorter hair, and we're all older. These things all combine for a great working and musical relationship between the 4 of us - and most recently we all rekindled our friendships and musical ties with Jesse Reyes (bassist from the first album, "echolyn") and Tom Hyatt (bassist from "suffocating the bloom," "...and every blossom," and "as the world")."
ragazzi: "The pictures of the old echolyn shows long hair, laughing faces and a relaxes atmosphere. Newer photos shows serious faces, short hairs or there are no photos of you. Was your history having something to do with it?"
Chris: "Nah, we're just older, fatter and wiser!! ;-) Sometimes we want people to see that....other times it's better for people to simply listen to our music, enjoy the artwork we've chosen to represent the music, and not have to look at us all the time!"
ragazzi: "In the beginning of Echolyn you all was younger. Now some years later is it stronger than before to hold the band together, make the music?"
Chris: "It is a belief in who we are and what we do.....we've never lost sight of what is most important to all of us.
#1. To have a good time writing music.
#2. To always progress, in the truest sense of the word, and write and go with our music to places we've never gone before.
#3. To continue releasing albums to a fanbase who has not only been loyal over all these years, but to a fanbase that is continuing to grow, worldwide, on a daily basis."
ragazzi: ""Mei" is just one track. I have heard it sometimes and was thinking, that there are some parts with own characters, beginning and end. Why you don´t have made it in individual tracks/songs? What is the idea behind this longsong?"
Chris: "We set out to write one long piece of music.....very similar to the way classical composers compose symphonies. We wanted to employ themes, variations, motives, musical, lyrical and rhythmic ideas, and concepts that linked the piece to itself.....so rather than a long stream-of-conscious piece or a song-cycle that starts in one place and ends in another (like we did with "suffocating the bloom" or "letters") we took more of a tone-poem approach this time and bookended mei with itself, so that it was as much a musical journey as it was a lyrical one."
ragazzi: ""Mei" is - for me - your ripened work. The compositions are very well done and your playing is outstanding. Where do you get the musical ideas?"
Chris: "Life and experiences and always our source of inspiration. Brett and I tend to write all of the musical passages while Paul and Ray help define the rhythmic ideas. Together as a band we all arrange sections of the tune until it flows and feels right. "mei" is simply the collective culmination of all of our musical pasts and presents combined together. It was incredibly rewarding and fulfilling to write that album...and to this day even I still enjoy listening to it!"
ragazzi: ""Mei" is more of a seventies album than the previous and modern "Cowboys Poem Free". Do you wanna go back to the progressive roots?"
Chris: "We never think about "roots" or looking back to our past....if a sound or style of playing/writing occurs because of what we write or the instrumentation we choose to use, then so be it. The number one thing we promise ourselves from the beginning of any new project is that it will always be an honest and true reflection of who we curerently are as individuals. I know we hit the mark in achieving that goal with "mei.""
ragazzi: "A question about the musical inspiration. Where do you get the energy to make progressive music? There are some models/bands do you like? At all Echolyn-albums there is to hear a feeling of the best progressive group ever, the great Gentle Giant. Is Gentle Giant THE inspiration for you?"
Chris: "We get it from our collective musical backgrounds. The inspiration for me are the classical composers from all throughout history...Stravinsky, Bartok, Messiaen, Cage, Stockhausen, Ives, Beethoven, Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakiv, Debussy, CHopin, Liszt, etc....the list goes on and on. These composers all pushed the envelope and worked to improve upon what ever thay had last written...that is th model I follow when writing, as the only real competition when writing should be the muse itself."
ragazzi: "I have heard some very interesting instruments like violin, clarinet, marimba and vibraphone. How do you get the idea to give these instruments room in you music?"
Chris: "This was an idea I wanted to employ from the beginning of the writing process for "mei." Brett and I sat down and discussed what would make a good complement to the music we were writing, and from my resources of students that I teach at Abington Friends School (my full-time day job where I'm Director of Instrumental Music and Arts Department Chair in a K-12 grade private day school) supplemenmted by several professional musicians from the Philadelphia area I was able to write an orchestral score on Sibelius for them to come to the studio and perform. Jian Shen (clarinet), Sarah Green (flute), Janosch Armer and Emily Botel Bernard (violin), Jonathan Atkins (cello) and Eric Huber (mallets and timpani) are all students at my school. We than also performed "mei" in its entirety with the chamber orchestra in June of this past year at NEARFest 2002. It was an incredible accomplishment for us all!"
ragazzi: "Is "Mei" a album of the whole band? Do you all love "Mei" or is one you just a player who is making the music because its his job? Is Echolyn talking about the music before jamming/playing?"
Chris: "All echolyn albums are albums written & arranged by the entire band - everyone's input is esential to the writing process. While Brett and I tend to write all of the musical ideas (chords, harmonies, etc - mainly because we play instruments that that task comes very easy for (guitar and keyboards)) the input of Paul and Ray on the writing process is essectial to arrangement, rhythmic ideas, bass lines, tansitions, etc. While we sometimes do "jam" over a chord pattern or riff, most of our writing process is planned and worked out in an arrangement...again, very similar to the way a classical composer purposely places liens and parts with other lines and parts to "say" something musical."
ragazzi: "What can we expect for the future? Will Echolyn make music of this kind again? You all are not more teens (like the most of the prog heads - players and freaks and me), is it more easy to make what you want or is it stronger?"
Chris: "Of course we will continue to write and make more music....what will we do next? Time will tell...the bottom line is we have always written for ourelves, and since we've been doing that for 13 years now there's no real reason to tinker or mess with that philosophy."
ragazzi: "What is the lyrical story of "Mei"?"
Chris: "It is a spiritual journey....lyrically it probably relates something to every man and woman, and for that, "mei" is truly its title's meaning - dark and intangible."
ragazzi: ""Mei" sounds very well thought-out. Do you have worked a lot of time for it? Is "Mei" the most personal work of you all, of echolyn?"
Chris: "Yes...it took 7 1/2 months to write, arrange and compose. I also put over 50 hours into writing and arranging the score away from actual writing sessions and band rehearsals....so the whole thing was a fairly complex process as well as a labor of love from the first to the last note."
ragazzi: "Are you able to play "Mei" live on stage? Or parts of it? What is your live set existing of? Do you play the older songs in a more progressive ("progressive" is a bullshit word, but I don´t no other) way or not?"
Chris: "We can, and have, played "mei" live with and wiothout the chamber orchestra - and it works either way. We wrote it that way. We are also adding older tunes for the fans from all of our prior albums....most recently a live set consisted of "Carpe Diem," "As the World," "Never the Same"."
ragazzi: "What do you think about your older albums now? "Mei" shows a change in you mind to more serious work than before. Your older albums was serious too, but not that much like "Mei". Is "Mei" the next level to come closer to your musical opinions?"
Chris: "It is very hard to go back and still like and want to play some of our older tunes. The ones we are still playing are the ones we think have stod the test of time....in some cases we have even re-arranged versions of older tunes to keep them current and still fun/interesting to play. Our older albums, however, are echolyn's living resume...so the fact that we're releaseing a box set in 1 week (due out December 9th, 2002) with all of our original catalog and extra bonus tracks and songs shows how imporant we believe it is for these albums to be available to our long-standing, as well as brand new, fans."
ragazzi: "Do you will go onto stage? Maybe in europe too? What the songs you will play live?"
Chris: "We hope to tour a litle bit in the spring here in the States. Unfortunately day jobs and families are keeping us gounded for now. We've never really made a take-home income doing echolyn - so to fly to Europe would not only cost a lot, it would be detrimental to our wives and lives back home, as we all have full-time day jobs that pay our day-to-day bills. We do all hope to someday get to Europe to play, as some of our most passionate and supportive fans are there (as well as in Asia), but we will have to wait for the right time to do such a major trip."
ragazzi: "Please tell something about your future plans."
Chris: "More music, more albums, more solo projects, more shows, more (once) wants more ;-)....we'll just "keep-on-keepin' on"....there's no real reason not to at this point...and that's a great feeling!"
ragazzi: "Is there any side project of Echolyn existing again? I have read you play acoustic music. What is the music you make? The other members?"
Chris: "We're all busy doing other side projects and recordings....it keeps us busy, making some extra money, and it's a hell of a lot of fun to play and work on other people's albums and side-projects. We do a lot of the side-work to keep our chops and minds alive and well....sort of an ongoing education process...it also helps to fuel our echolyn efforts, as we're always gleaning new ideas from others."
ragazzi: "What is making Tom Hyatt or Jordan Perlson and other sooner members of Echolyn today?"
Chris: "Jordan is away at school at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He's a sophomore and was just featured in Modern Drummer's December 2002 issue on page 148. Dennis Chambers is on the cover, and Jordan got his picture and a nice plug in his article. He's currently considered to one of the best drummers/percussionists at Berklee, as he currently carries the coveted Zildjian scholarship award. I consider myself very lucky to not only have met him, but he was one of my students that I taught for 4 years at Abington Friends School in the AFS Jazz Ensemble. That's how we connected for "cowboy poems free."
Tom Hyatt is still playing bass in an alternative rock band...he still visits the echolyn studio for fun, music and beers, and my thought is that we will most-likely have him back on a few tracks in the future...although I don't think he sees himself officially re-joining echolyn at this point - which is ok as well. He's a great guy and it's wonderful to be hanging out again as friends and musicians."
ragazzi: "A last word for the ragazzi-readers:"
Chris: "A HUGE thank you to all the Ragazzi readers. We, as echolyn, are having the time of our lives continuing to write new music...and for those who have not heard or picked up "mei" - please do. I do not think you will be disappointed.

VM



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