DC Cross, australian primitive guitar, part 2

Seguimos con Darren, segunda parte de la entrevista:


https://darrencross.bandcamp.com/album/hot-wire-the-lay-low-australian-escapist-pieces-for-guitar

https://www.instagram.com/darrencrossmusic

https://linktr.ee/D.Cross


***last questions:
What are your music making-managing routines?

With each album i like to write the whole album at once and that takes a lot when doing these Instrumental guitar compositions. I also try and get a different guitar for each album..i dunno it adds something fresh to the whole new project- either the writing part of the process or the recording part.
With my last record most of it was recorded in 2 or three live takes....i like this way to record but that means you have to be ready to play all the album at once...
Always playing acoustic guitar without effect pedals though.


***I relate much to your "guitar stories", about "cheap" guitars you find and use, want to tell some of those?

I'm a thrift shop master and this has moved onto guitars.
Old American guitars are very very expensive to buy over here- compared to U.S where they are nearly three times as cheap so i have to look for cheaper options.

I really love 70's Japanese OOO size Martin ripoffs- guitars like Sigma, Kasuga and even Yamaha have some beautiful 70's guitars- i have about 20 acoustics atm but sell them and find new ones all the time.

I have a guitar repairs friend of mine Les Rankin who laughs when he sees me walk through his door with some old guitar to set up so i can play the low tunings without the buzz. 

Saying that though - i just toured Europe with a brand new cheap Sigma guitar i bought on facebook market place for 150 Euro from an Economics student who wanted to learn how to play guitar during COVID lockdown and gave up- i rescued it from his cupboard and took it on a European tour and it was perfect.

I have recently been endorsed by Schertler - a Swiss company that make amazing amps - i use the GIULIA X live which makes my guitars sound good lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEnOS4AxQ

People that have amazing guitars hangin on the walls of their offices are criminals lol
I love giving unloved guitars a chance to play on stage with me...its emotional sometimes which guitar to bring to the gig.
Also who wants to take an expensive guitar with them on tour?
Noone.
I almost got robbed in Amsterdam on my last EU tour and if they stole the guitar i had with me i would of been bummed but would of easily bought another guitar cheaply with no sentimental strings attached ;)
Guitar Wood is different now as well..so 70's guitars sound better as well.


***Any "secret" plans to keep your music going on?

Secret lol not sure. I am working on my 4th solo guitar D.C Cross album - wrote alot of ideas in Rotterdam in The Netherlands when i was on tour in the EU recently so working on that.

I also do electronic music as Darren Cross and might do part two of this.
https://darrencross.bandcamp.com/album/keeping-up-electronic-album


***Can you think of a cheap, physical and open music format for nowadays?

Honestly i hate Amazon but if they get wise and do cheap postage for vinyl postage only this will help everything. Expensive postage is killing the physical sales aspect.
Streaming and youtube sucks. Why does youtube have the stronghold..seriously-

i dont know to be honest, i would rather focus on playing the guitar and walking my dog.

Thanks a lot mate

https://darrencross.bandcamp.com/album/hot-wire-the-lay-low-australian-escapist-pieces-for-guitar

https://www.instagram.com/darrencrossmusic

https://linktr.ee/D.Cross

DC Cross, australian primitive guitar

Little Spanish intro, main text in English

Me encanta el sonido de este hombre. Toca la guitarra acústica, crea canciones que reflejan los duros y bellos paisajes del interior de Australia y es un currante total. Al final de la entrevista están sus enlaces, escúchalo.

****- About the primitive guitar scene and concept...how do you see it? do you think of it more as a music tag, a community, a full guitar style, etc.

Yes its all those things combined.
Its cool to be able to find similar music with the tag but also i think its impossible to put musicians all in the same box/genre.
Community is different everywhere and its really nice to find different groups of fans in different countries who loosely like that style.
After recently touring Germany for example now i know about some 70’s primitive German players which is really cool to learn about.

I dunno its like blues guitar - putting Eric Clapton in the same category as RL Burnside doesnt make sense to me lol..

In saying that though i played a private party the other night and there were young people who dont know Primitive guitar who enjoyed my show - thats the best thing about instrumental music… my only thing is if you have vocals its not in the same genre. Adding vocals is different.

Anyway the title "American Primitive Guitar" - is a title that prankster John Fahey made up..the connotation is offensive to some...somebody interpreted Australian Primitive Guitar as i was Aboriginal, which i am not and this is a very incorrect translation.
I think a new term needs to be created to describe the solo acoustic guitar music genre that we all love but im afraid i can offer no suggestions to the name change. Now i put Australian Guitarist for D.C Cross...
I really have no idea.


*****- When and how did you come across it? i have the feeling that many "primitive guitarists" come from way different music scenes, mostly rock

Yeah i come from the Thurston Moore/ Lee Ranaldo school of indie rock lol - also DADGAD , open tuned Beck- i fell into the open C tuning and started writing folk songs like that - Nick Drake as the blueprints - then heard John Fahey properly / i had heard his name from Sonic Youth / Jim Orouke 90’s fanzine interview babble and the penny dropped about 10 years ago. The Darren Cross song Blank Sabbath - with vocals used this guitar method which lead me to the D.C Cross instrumental guitar project, where i am now. But i was always searching for the primitive guitar style… one person compositions on acoustic guitar- even as a teenager.
https://darrencross.bandcamp.com/track/blank-sabbath-featuring-jessica-cassar


*****- It's great how you "translate" the emotions of traveling, raw nature, the lonelyness of the australian interior (is it called "The outback"? How doy you "channel" those landscapes and feelings into music?

ha the outback.. not really - i have been to the outback desert once or twice, but its easy to drive to the mountains or forest to the coast with oceans - yes ,

the emotions of traveling, raw nature, the loneliness of the Australian interior- Australia is naturally a very beautiful place. It changes alot over small distances. I like to travel to the places and then write ideas while i am at different locations… my last album Hot-Wire the Lay-Low i made most of the ideas at a place called Lithgow, in New South Wales, past the Blue Mountains.
I stayed in a very cheap motel and a lot of ideas came to me, eating pizza and blasting instant cofee and mountain dew. It was snowing when i was there which is weird for that area. I was fully immersed in the acoustic guitar world- its a great way to write if you can. No distractions apart from the environment, which is directly influencing your experience.





*****- What are the hard differences between touring in the '90's, early 2000's and right now?


For me , my old band had a lot of instruments onstage and sound checks went for hours - now its just me , Acoustic guitar and a Schertler GIULIA X amp.
My tours are a bit informal these days ;) I can go anywhere, anytime with a train and bus.
I guess covid and surveillance and all that scary stuff exists now. Before iphone, life was better. Also i think a lot of people don't like music anymore....with Spotify and youtube and the free music de-evolution, not many people actually care enough to buy music or go and see live music anymore...In Sydney, atleast it seems materialism is more important than the arts or music- that is if they are not making money from the arts and music!

Funny though ,it seems flying internationally is still roughly the same cost it was in the 2000's .


*****-How are the audiences now like? i mean, if they are chance listeners or are they regulars, are they "music freaks" or not? This is a weird one: do you get to know them personally?

Audience are all different.
Like i said before , if an audience will actually listen to my instrumental music they can really get inside the sounds and compositions.
For some its a nice break from people crying when they sing lol without the narrative people can go to their own place, their own narrative. i love this. SO chance listeners are sometimes a wonderful find. Lots of people love playing the guitar as well so when they see a guitarist play live they get excited and sometimes inspired. I know i do.
I supported Ed Kuepper and Jim White and The Apartments here on seperate occasions in Australia and their audiences loved my music - they were ready to listen.
Sure the music freaks will buy the records and tell me about the time John Fahey toured Australia and said crazy stories and i love that also.
Some people i know personally - ist all different i guess.
Friends of music freaks is usually a great balance but music freaks rule. I am a music freak lol. Music freaks buy vinyl and cds. God (take your pick) Bless The Freaks!!!!


https://darrencross.bandcamp.com/album/hot-wire-the-lay-low-australian-escapist-pieces-for-guitar

https://www.instagram.com/darrencrossmusic

https://linktr.ee/D.Cross