In the middle of a tour that winds its way from one side of the country to the next and then back again, Simon Posford, the man behind the mask of Shpongle, took some time out to answer some questions for The Daily Cardinal.
On this tour, which stretches more than 40 dates, Posford remarked on how well the experience was going while still playing six shows per week.
“It’s been great so far,” Posford said. “We’ve ironed out some of the inevitable kinks that arise when touring a new production and we are starting to get a little more experimental and weird. Maybe it’s just because of the cabin fever on the bus!”
While Posford mostly tours doing DJ sets, every so often, he will arrange a live show. The music he creates is extremely complex yet, when translated into a live show, it is truly remarkable. Despite the success of the end product, Posford rarely plays live shows due to a variety of factors.
“It’s mostly logistics,” he said. “There are so many musicians with busy careers to coordinate, and it’s almost prohibitively expensive with so many flights and visas to arrange ... that’s before we’ve even started thinking about production.”
Despite all the issues at hand—including the lack of desire to play more than the occasional live date on the part of Shpongle member Raja Ram; a 72-year-old flutist who has toured extensively in a pre-Shpongle world—Posford is still able to get the band back together, literally, from time to time.
“When the opportunity arose to play such a historic venue as Red Rocks,” Posford said, “we leaped at the chance.”
Even in a live context, the band has very little room to improvise, despite the presence of drummer Joe Russo, a veteran of the jam band scene.
“There are moments of improvisation within the structure,” Posford said, “but we are mostly slaved to the computer.”
The music created by Shpongle often gets lumped into a category defined as psybient (psychedelic ambient), or psytrance (psychedelic trance) or some combination of electronic and psychedelic music. Yet, when asked, Posford didn’t know how to describe his own music.
“I like that quote that says ‘Talking about music is like dancing about architecture’ and I’m the last person that could describe it,” he said.
But this genre, however nebulously defined, has never really cracked mainstream sensibilities, instead attracting an ardent fan base on the fringes of both the electronic and psychedelic worlds.
“We have only ever made music that we want to hear, and inspires us,” Posford said. “I think that if you are trying to appeal to some perceived idea of what fans, journalists or industry people want, then the result will sound calculated and soulless—it’s not from the heart and the intentions are wrong.”
One thing that has been a heavy influence on both Posford and his music include psychedelics.
“They’ve certainly been a big influence,” he said, “but I can’t take anything whilst trying to program stuff—it’s just too confusing.”
Posford is touring across the United States right now. However, his favorite crowds typically come from overseas.
“The crowds in Japan and Israel are very excitable,” he said. “I like a psychedelic crowd that loves to dance. The worst audiences are ones that like to just stand there and stare at you.”
While touring as much as he does, shows and venues tend to blend together. With that being said, Posford still remarked about the merits of Madison.
“Honestly a lot of the shows blend into a vague memory, unless they stand out in some way,” he said. “The city [of Madison] is great though and I hope we can fit the full Shpongletron in the venue.”
Shpongle is set to hit the stage at the Majestic Theatre March 26 at 8:30 p.m. with Desert Dwellers opening.
