“I wasn’t shocked by Angine de Poitrine. Microtonalism has always been there. When Hendrix played 20 cents sharp, it’s the most beautiful thing he played”: David Torn is playing louder and heavier than ever, leaving a trail of trashed bridges in his wake
The prolific guitarist, producer and film composer reflects on his first solo album in a decade, lessons learned across a long career, and his rejection of “guitarists living in the hero age”
David Torn recently had successful cancer surgery on his scalp, and he seems very upbeat. Despite a life-threatening brain tumor in 1992 that left him deaf in his right ear, his incredible drive, resilience, and passion for boundary-pushing guitar has never shown any sign of fading.
“No-one can stop me,” he says. “You can’t stop this shit.”
As a guitarist, producer, and film composer known for improvisation, drones, feedback, tube saturation, fuzz, microtonal techniques and an array of digital and analog effects, he’s worked with a who’s-who of artists including David Bowie, Madonna, John Legend, Tori Amos and Jeff Beck.
Now in his 70s, Torn seems to still be gaining momentum. He says his last record with Sun of Goldfinger – his improvisational trio with saxophonist Tim Berne and drummer Ches Smith – is the best thing they’ve ever recorded.
He recently opened for earth-shaking drone duo Sunn O))) in New York. And now i imagine a place not the same, his first solo record in a decade, is about to be released.
What inspired you to do another solo album a decade since Only Sky?
My friends Charmaine Lee and Randall Dunn said they’d started Kou Records and would love me to do a record for them. I hadn’t been thinking of labels at all, but it was like kismet. It’s nothing I expected to happen in my life, at my age and in my health!
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How do you think your sound has evolved?
The record reflects where I’m at as a solo player. I don’t edit myself – “You’re using too many electronics” or, “you’re not using enough!” This is a flow that’s been building for however many years, and it’s still building. I’m now much more comfortable playing by myself and letting go.
For the last four to five years I’ve been on other people’s records only playing feedback. When it works within the material it’s incredibly satisfying. This shit is just flowing – I have the heavy stuff in me because I feel so much noise.
How has your technique and approach to guitar developed over time?
I’m constantly developing new ways to distort signals musical enough that I want to manipulate them. I have a variety of distortions I can apply to wake myself up, give myself a break, and find yet another corner of electric guitar expression that doesn’t rely more on the past than it does on the future or the now. That’s really important to me.
Is that a comment on the current guitar landscape?
Most people who play guitar are still living in the hero age, whether their heroes were in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s or up to the ’00s. Those players tend to stay in their corners. I reject the idea of the corners!
I reject ageism; and reverse-ageism as well, where older guys will dismiss younger players doing something new. I love it when something new comes to the fore. I like listening to pop music and picking out guitar playing, like Emily Green’s in Geese, and wondering, “What are they doing?”
I wasn’t shocked by Angine de Poitrine but I do like their music. I think it’s a nice push forward for those of us who play microtonally. Microtonalism has always been there; it’s about not getting stuck in certain tunings, or failing to understand that when Hendrix plays a note that’s 20, 25, or 30 cents sharp, it’s actually the most beautiful thing he played.
Are you still playing the Ronin Mirari guitar with the Foilbuckers?
No – the one that always goes around with me is the first guitar by Izzy Lugo after he left Ronin. He started a company called Fiam. It uses the same legally sourced ancient redwood body as the Mirari.
Izzy designs and builds all my pickups. They’re a cross between a goldfoil and the best of a P-90, so the top end remains clear and open for the big multitonal or dissonant chords. They have a little of those huge-sounding 1970s Telecaster humbuckers.
I have to change vibrato bridges more than once a year; for the last five years I’ve used Vega-Trem. I’ve already worn this one out – I’m playing louder, heavier stuff and doing 5-string pitch bends. It’s always dangerous!
Technology has always been important to your playing. What are the current gear highlights?
I generally have two or three very different distortions or fuzzes on my ’board by Benson Amps, Empty Head and Blue Colander, and a minimum of three looping devices for live. My old PCM 42 delay is on the record, plus a Chase Bliss Blooper, a couple of Roland expression pedals, and a Glou-Glou analog delay.
Importantly, my drolo Strands builds resonances that are akin to feedback but more obviously digital – not glitchy, but there’s some fucked-up digitization going on.
Even the things I didn’t think I did well were lessons. Playing music well is not just about being in it – you have to be it
What about amplifiers?
I play Bensons, a Sound City 50 and Fryette Power Stations. On the road I use a Fryette GP/DI, a tiny little tube amp, because travelling and carrying things isn’t healthy!
The bigger and louder the amp in general, the more headroom there is, and the more I sound like myself. I like amps that have one channel – it allows the crap I do and all the small details to be heard.
You work hard at this stuff; you wanna hear it. And if I want to make a reverb splash last two minutes at 110db, I can do that, too!
Looking back on all your collaborations, are there any lessons you learned that have become more pertinent with time?
Standing in front of David Bowie when he was practicing a lyric for Sunday the first time; playing with Jan Garbarek, Tim Berne, Don Cherry, KD Lang; everything is a lesson. Even the things I didn’t think I did well were lessons. Playing music well is not just about being in it – you have to be it. For it to be right it has to be sincere.
It’s all a learning process and I hope I never stop. I practice every day, and I only practice the weird shit I can’t do yet. My nut came loose on a gig, and at first, I was like, “Fuck! Shit!”
But now I’ve manipulated it so it’s hanging off the edge by 1/16th inch so I can get a quarter-tone on the top three strings by pulling them down off the fretboard. It’s a really odd sound I discovered because I’m an idiot. Then I looked at it like an idiot and thought, “I can use that!”
- now i imagine a place not the same by David Torn is out now.
Dan discovered guitar in his early teens – playing every day on a sunburst Les Paul copy he still regrets selling – and has never stopped. He studied English at Cambridge then spent several years working in Japan, addicted to karaoke and manga. His fiction, music journalism, essays and translations from Japanese have appeared in Granta, The Guardian and The Quietus, among others. He plays a battered but cherished Thunderbird in progressive sludge-metal band URZAH.
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