"A Speck of Dust:" Gang of Four Confront Mortality on "The Dying Rays"

Photo courtesy of Metropolis Records

Although the current incarnation of Gang of Four is more like Gang of One following the gradual departure of all classic lineup members except founding guitarist Andy Gill, the band's appropriately named 2015 release What Happens Next (reviewed HERE) had far more peaks than valleys. The album's bona fide masterpiece, the mournful ballad “The Dying Rays,” evokes the quiet desperation of Gang of Four's 1995 track “Unburden” (from Shrinkwrapped) as guest vocalist/German music megastar Herbert Grönemeyer delivers a raspy, Sealesque interpretation of Gill's moving lyrics on mortality and regret:

What I wanted
Disappears in the haze
A speck of dust
Held forever in the dying rays

Breath on the mirror, nothing in sight
The horizon's bare but in the night
I missed the pilots' light

Control and power
Empires were built in our minds
But it will all go up in a blaze
Only dust
In the dying rays.






In my interview with him last year, Gill offered insight into the song's meaning and creation.

“It's very much written from the heart,” he said. “It's not a young man's song, let's put it that way. I think with a little bit of experience and a certain amount of looking in the rearview mirror, you have some ideas about time, wasted time and things like that. I hesitate to over-explain because I think Gang of Four, over the decades, has sometimes been guilty of trying to be our own reviewers and trying to really spell out what we think it's supposed to say. I think sometimes, you can take away some of the magic in things by over-talking them. But the crucial thing about that song was Herbert Grönemeyer talking to me and saying, 'How's it going, Andy?' I explained that Alison [Mosshart, The Kills/The Dead Weather] had sung on a couple of tracks, and I was excited about it. He said, 'Do you want me to sing on something?' I thought, 'Yeah!' It was an interesting idea, and a lot of people in Germany have recently expressed quite a lot of surprise at that collaboration. I thought, 'I've got a few songs kicking around here; I've got some demos. Maybe Herbert can do this one or maybe that one.' Then I thought, 'Hold on a second. Let's not waste this opportunity.' I went and kind of really listened to Herbert's work and the things he's done. The thing that he does that most affects me and most moves me are the mid-tempo, angst-filled ballads. He has a very emotional and moving voice. He did a great track with Antony of Antony and the Johnsons guesting on it. It's quite a sad song, and Herbert really inhabits the track with his voice and his emotions; he seems to be in the track. So I thought, 'I'm not just going to give him any old thing; I'm going to have to really try to make a track for Herbert to sing.' It was hard work; I went down a lot of blind alleys and went in circles. I was really kind of getting getting frustrated; I was getting in different musicians I knew to come in to try to help me co-write this thing.

“I didn't know where I was going, but eventually something clicked,” he continued. “I was just playing around with a little drum loop, and then the guitar seemed to work and then it started to fall into place. It took a long time. And then the words...I was in this Elizabethan house, [a] hotel in England. The sun was going down, and I was sitting in the chair and doing nothing, staring off in the middle distance. I just saw this speck of dust coming down in front of my eyes. It mesmerized me; I was hypnotized like a cat. [Those were] the first words...the 'speck of dust' thing. Everything came from that.”

Last fall, the song received extra attention with the release of The Dying Rays Collection, a four-song digital EP including two remixes and the English and German vocal versions. The release is also available on a super-limited, hand-numbered white label vinyl pressing that quickly sold out in Germany. The final available copies are available HERE.

Like the rest of What Happens Next, “The Dying Rays” is a masterstroke of musical exploration from a group unafraid to take left turns nearly 40 years into their career. It was easily the best song of 2015. 

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REVIEW - Voivod: Post Society

For nearly 35 years, Voivod's greatest strength has been their utter inability to fit in anywhere.

At the height of Glam in the 1980s, the Canadian group sounded like they were from another planet. Often lumped in with the underground Thrash scene (because that was the closest anyone could get to pinning an actual genre on them at the time), the band steadily built an underground following by creating experimental music that took more cues from King Crimson and Killing Joke than it ever did from Metallica or Megadeth. Albums like 1987's Killing Technology, 1988's Dimension Hatröss and 1989's Nothingface established them as a thinking person's Metal band willing to take chances. Although they have received temporary flashes of mainstream attention over the years (most notably during former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted's membership in the group in the 2000s), Voivod remains a band on the fringes, consistently delivering songs that sound like nobody else.

The band's new five-song EP, Post Society, is comprised of two brand new tracks (“Post Society” and “Fall”), songs from their 2015 split singles with Napalm Death (“Forever Mountain”) and At The Gates (“We Are Connected”) and a cover of Hawkwind's “Silver Machine.” Moving away from the more streamlined musical approach of the Newsted era, Voivod are back to fully embracing the twisted tempo changes and technical dynamics of the Dimension Hatröss days of old. Kick-started with a distorted intro by new bassist Dominic “Rocky” Laroche, the title track launches the EP with a six-minute blast that alternates between the frenetic and the serene. Sophisticated interplay between Laroche and original drummer Michel “Away” Langevin (the only member to appear on every Voivod release) fuels the epic “Forever Mountain,” providing a strong foundation for guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain to demonstrate with great skill (and the requisite dissonance) why he was the right player to take over for the late Denis “Piggy” D'Amour. This trend continues on “Fall,” which grows in intensity over seven fascinating minutes thanks in large part to long-serving singer Denis "Snake" Bélanger's trademark nasal grunt/whine assault. The very first song written by the current lineup, the multi-layered “We Are Connected,” ranks among Voivod's strongest work and shows that they are still exploring the world of sound 32 years after their debut album.

While the mighty Hawkwind are esoteric enough on their own, the incarnation of “Silver Machine” that appears on Post Society is characteristically Voivod – darker with reinvented rhythms and unexpected turns in the guitar department. The band not only pays homage to innovators from generations past, but they succeed in giving “Silver Machine” a completely new sonic perspective. It's not easy to reevaluate and reconstruct an already perfect song, but Voivod is absolutely the band to do it.

Containing some of Voivod's strongest moments in years, Post Society will undoubtedly be viewed less as a between-album stopgap and appreciated more for what it truly is – an essential addition to one of the most adventurous discographies in music history.

Post Society is out February 26 on Century Media.

Photo courtesy of Century Media

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Funk Forever: A Conversation with Bernie Worrell

photo credit: Brian Diescher (www.bostonphotography.com) 

As anyone who's ever had a conversation with keyboard legend Bernie Worrell (a.k.a. the Wizard of WOO) will surely tell you, the man's polite nature and soft-spoken, humble descriptions of his work belie the truly explosive contributions he has made to the world of music. A child prodigy born with perfect pitch, the classically-trained Worrell performed his first concert at age 4, wrote his first piano concerto at 8 and was performing with symphony orchestras by the time he was 10. (Take a moment to let that sink in.) Of course, astute music fans around the globe know him best from his groundbreaking work with the incomparable Parliament-Funkadelic. Since P-Funk's '70s heyday, he has built a sizable solo discography in addition to working with an astonishing array of artists including Talking Heads, Jack Bruce, Gary Moore, Ginger Baker, Warren Haynes, Les Claypool and the mighty Praxis (with guitar genius Buckethead and producer extraordinaire Bill Laswell). But at 71, he is just now piecing together his greatest musical statement.

Currently underway with help from an Indiegogo campaign, Worrell's upcoming Retrospectives album finds him embracing his glorious P-Funk past by recording brand new instrumental version of songs he co-wrote while a member of the group. In addition to offering longtime fans exciting new takes on beloved classics, Retrospectives will serve as a reminder of just how crucial he was to the band's magic.

So what has been the most thrilling part of the Retrospectives project for Worrell?

“Seeing if I could do it!” he replies with a hearty laugh. “I'm used to playing with different instrumentation, and playing off of that. But with playing everything on keyboards, it was interesting to see how it would come out.”

There are millions of artists out there hoping to have just one song that resonates with people, but Parliament-Funkadelic gifted us with a full catalog of music that means the world to people 40-plus years later. In Worrell's mind, spontaneity was the key ingredient of the band's appeal.

“All we were doing was funkin' around for fun,” he says. “The craziness and everything else going on in any particular moment led to what came out of us, or what came out of me trying to put everything together production-wise and bandleader-wise. We ended up playing what was channeled through us. For myself, my music comes from God; I'm just a channel.”

Not surprisingly, the aural circus that was P-Funk was indicative of Worrell's willingness to explore as many different genres and creative ideas as possible – often within the same piece of music.

“I deal with sound, and I listen,” he explains. “One of the biggest things I tell young musicians nowadays is to listen; you have to listen to hear what's going on. I can play any type of music. My other gift is being able to mix musics – that's what I call it – or different genres. I like to intertwine [them] and mix things up. Having that knack allows me to play with just about anybody.

“I play off of people,” he continues. “A band is a team of musicians; it's not one person. Sometimes you run into an it's all me type of thing. No, it's a team.”

Recorded last November at Laswell's Orange Music Sound Studio in New Jersey, Retrospectives features the talents of drummer Don McKenzie, whose extensive resume includes stints with Elliott Sharp, Marc Ribot, James Blood Ulmer (with Laswell) and Vernon Reid's Masque. For the New York-based timekeeper, working with Worrell in the studio was an opportunity to explore sound with an artist who has fascinated him since childhood. Thanks to his audiophile father, McKenzie was exposed to a variety of music at an early age, including what he calls the “otherworldly” sounds of Parliament-Funkadelic. In the mid '90s, he had an opportunity to briefly sit in with Worrell at the show at The Cooler in NYC when Reid and the Wizard of WOO shared the same bill. To say that McKenzie has studied the man at length over the years would be an understatement.

“Bernie's been in my subconscious for quite a while,” he says. “He's just an iconic player; he has his own sound. Even if he's playing somebody else's keyboard, it's [still] his feel. Even if he doesn't have his signature Moog sound, you just hear the phrasing and you know it's Bernie Worrell.”

Naturally, McKenzie's excitement over working with Worrell came through in his playing.

“When I started grooving and I heard these phrasings that I heard as a kid, I just started to get chills,” he recalls. “It was a profound thing, and Bernie's just extremely diligent, extremely focused and extremely professional. It was just a pleasure to work with him. It fills me with pride to know that I actually was able to be a part of this momentous album with Bernie.”

As word regarding the Retrospectives Indiegogo campaign continues to spread, the project has taken on a greater meaning in recent days with the news that Worrell is suffering from a host of ailments including prostate cancer and Stage IV lung cancer. He and his wife/manager, Judie, recently moved to Washington from New Jersey to be closer to family.

“Medicare would pay for chemotherapy, but Bernie is not a candidate and they don't cover the Naturopathic path he has chosen,” reveals Judie via email. “Goddess forbid the damn drug/insurance/political cartel shouldn't get their blood money. Damn this country's priorities - war instead of healthcare.”

In addition to facing obstacles in the medical world, Worrell has had more than his fair share of struggles in the music business. Like so many other players of his generation, he was deprived of the opportunity to reap the financial rewards of his many talents. (This issue is explored with unflinching rawness in the must-see 2005 documentary Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth.) Not surprisingly, the best advice he'd offer an aspiring musician looking to have security in this profession is to have a secondary means of income.

“It's up and and down; nothing is constant unless you have somebody with a lot of money behind you,” he shares. “Other than that, you have to roll with the punches. (laughs) Then, you've gotta pray and just hope for the best. Don't give up; keep pluggin' at it until something happens – if something happens. If none of that happens, you have to love it so in the end, none of that will matter. Do it for the love of it, and that in itself will be rewarding.”

Despite his health issues, Worrell continues to enjoy a productive life filled with music. Although he has built an amazing sonic history and shared the stage with some of the greatest acts on the planet, this humble music giant is the last person you should ask to discuss career highlights or proudest moments.

“I don't look back,” he says .“Once I've done something, I've done it – I really don't give a hoot! (laughs) I'm off to the next project or whatever is brought to me. It's only been in the last couple of years that I've kind of reflected. Everybody else was always [saying], 'Look at your website.' I don't even look at my own website; I'm just not into Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff. But lately I've been kind of reflecting, and I just say, 'I didn't even realize I made all that! Oh, shoot!' (laughs) I think about it more than I used to, but I don't dwell there either, because I've been there, done that. I like something new.”

Anyone who would like to make a donation to Bernie's care can go HERE or send it (via Paypal) to purplewoo2@gmail.com or send a check made out to Bernie Worrell to:

PurpleWOO Productions

P.O. Box 1031

Bellingham, WA  98227

Go HERE to contribute to the Retrospectives Indiegogo campaign.

BernieWorrell's Official Website

BernieWorrell on Bandcamp

Bernie Worrell on Facebook

Bernie Worrell on Twitter

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Bowie

I never met David Bowie, but he was my friend for decades.

So many of my life's adventures have had him as the soundtrack. Hearing Low for the first time in a hotel room in New Orleans as the rain outside poured down in buckets. Playing Changesbowie on my car stereo over and over during four-hour roundtrips to my then-girlfriend's place in the early 2000s. Playing “Rebel Rebel” on stage with my old band, The Graveyard School, while Bobby Steele filled in on bass. Interviewing Tin Machine's Tony Sales over lunch at the Rainbow Bar & Grill about his many years with the man. Countless nights playing “Heroes” on vinyl; numerous evenings spent marveling at how great the overlooked 'hours...' album truly is. And then there's Raw Power. Bowie's original mix is like an old, smoked-out couch. Yes, it's a bit dirty and should probably be thrown away or at least cleaned up, but it's familiar, comfortable and has been with me forever.

The only time I saw Bowie live was in 2002 on the Area 2 tour with Moby, Busta Rhymes and The Blue Man Group. Standing front row/center, I was blown away from the very second he appeared on stage to sing the first line of “Life On Mars?” The Blue Man Group had body paint theatrics, Moby had an extensive stage setup and Busta Rhymes was, well, Busta Rhymes, but David stole the show with little more than a great band and an unassuming backdrop sign that simply read “Bowie.” No glass spiders, no stardust. Just that incredible music. 

And that music has been with me a lot today.

We can't think about Bowie's impact on history without applauding him for introducing us to some truly exceptional talents. Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Sanborn, Luther Vandross and Reeves Gabrels are just some of the artists who received their first substantial career breaks in Bowie's ever-changing (and always high-quality) backing band.

As Bowie's Tin Machine bandmate Hunt Sales told me back in 2005, “He’s smart enough, whether it be with us or any of the musicians who’ve worked with him, to step back and really utilize the people he has around him, and their talents and their ideas. I respect that of him. Good ideas can come from anywhere and anything, and a smart person is smart enough to sit back and realize that...He’s really smart at utilizing the people he’s had around him, and getting the best out of people and setting up a situation to get the best out of people creatively.”

Of course, his influence can be felt through stereos and iPods around the world. His lyric “the kids was just crass” provided the name for a certain well-known '70s anarchist Punk group, while The Misfits' Jerry Only has stated in countless interviews that he got inspired to be in a band after seeing Bowie on the Diamond Dogs tour. There are millions of others, in bedrooms and stages around the world, who got their first flash of potential Rock glory from a Bowie record. 

Back in the mid '90s, I was recording some songs with engineer Carl Paruolo (RIP), who had done some work on Bowie's Young Americans album. He told me that, at one point, a crowd of fans had camped outside the studio in hopes of meeting David. Carl said that instead of having his bodyguards usher the fans away, David gave them some money and asked them to go to an area shop and buy sandwiches to distribute to the crowd. That speaks volumes.

As we continue to digest Blackstar and accept it as the farewell it was intended to be, we can find solace in the fact that he was still pushing sonic boundaries as he put down his final vocal take. Approaching his own demise, he turned mortality into performance art.

With his final musical statement, David Bowie left our world the same way he greeted it – creating, innovating and showing the rest of us the way forward.

He was a gift.

- Joel Gausten
January 11, 2016

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/davidbowie/

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Remembering Lemmy

Back in 2010 when I was a guest on The Classic Metal Show, host Wendell Neeley asked me the traditional Classic Metal Show question: “How has Lemmy from Motorhead influenced your career?”

Here was my reply:

“Lemmy is not a pinup model. You’ll never see Lemmy as a judge on American Idol; you'll never see him host the Grammys because he doesn't fit in the traditional mold of what you'd expect a public figure to be. So why does he do it? He does it because he HAS to, because it's in his blood, in his nature and in his spirit. That's what I've learned from Lemmy – to do what you want to do, and do what you HAVE to do, and not worry about, 'Is the mainstream going to get this?' You do what you have to do and live the life you want to live, and that's what Lemmy's done.”

More than that, I owe my entire professional career to Lemmy. In 2000, I got hired for my first full-time post-college job - serving as the managing editor for a music magazine - on the strength of a Motorhead live review I wrote for an area paper. A week later, I had Nikki Sixx on the phone for an interview and was paying bills doing something I love. How many other people can credit their life's work to Lemmy? I'm sure the list is endless.

What a discography...Listen to those Motorhead albums. That is the real thing. Listen to Hawkwind. How innovative was that bunch during Lemmy’s time with them? Those are absolutely perfect records.

Philthy. Wurzel. And now Lemmy. Talk about a bunch of scraggly, rough, dirty and completely inspirational motherfuckers.

Goddamn. Lemmy's dead. That guy meant something. I hope he died happy.

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LIVE REVIEW - The Security Project/Casey Desmond, Tupelo Music Hall (Londonderry, NH) 12/13/15

Left to right: Trey Gunn, Jerry Marotta, Brian Cummins, David Jameson and Michael Cozzi of The Security Project (photo by Joel Gausten)

As previously discussed on this site, The Security Project is a collection of musical heavyweights exploring the early years of Peter Gabriel's illustrious solo career. Heavily focused on the singer's four eponymous albums from 1977 to 1982 (known among fans as Car, Scratch, Melt and Security), The Security Project has none other than the singer's '77-'86 drummer, Jerry Marotta, keeping the beat. And when this intriguing supergroup hit the stage at the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, NH on December 13, the results were extraordinary.

Considering that Marotta's Security Project bandmates have also carved impressive individual niches performing left-field music (Trey Gunn with King Crimson, Michael Cozzi with Shriekback and Sky Cries Mary, Brian Cummins with Marillion's Mick Pointer, David Jameson with Beyond The Wall), it came as little surprise that the group succeeded in honoring the esoteric spirit of some of the most challenging material in Gabriel's 40-year post-Genesis adventure. 

The Londonderry show's many highlights included the Car numbers “Moribund the Burgermeister” and “Humdrum,” Melt's “I Don't Remember” and “Intruder” and Security's “Lay Your Hands on Me” and “The Family And The Fishing Net.” The Security Project also had plenty to offer visually, as the mere sight of Gunn's Warr guitar and Jameson's Eigenharp proved that the evening would not be a typical Rock show.

Photo by Joel Gausten

In addition to beautifully echoing Gabriel's trademark voice, Cummins displayed the emotional depth necessary to capture the heart of this music. From being visibly moved during “Biko” to inspiring pin-drop quiet awe with his surprising acoustic rendition of show closer “Mercy Street” (from 1986's So), the man flawlessly demonstrated the difference between a mere tribute act and a group that truly feels the music they perform.

For a band devoted to exploring such high-brow music, The Security Project's performance at the Tupelo Music Hall was a lighthearted affair. The crowd joined the band in wishing Gunn a happy 55th birthday, while Marotta took center stage towards the end of the set to share some often amusing thoughts on his work with Gabriel. (“What kind of a guy writes things like I've tasted all of the strongest meats and laid them down in coloured sheets?” he quipped, referencing Genesis' “Back To N.Y.C.” off 1974's The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. “What the fuck does that mean? I've been singing that for years. I don't have a clue...”)

While high-caliber musicianship was expected from The Security Project before any of the group's members even walked on stage, equally captivating opener Casey Desmond was a pleasant surprise. The Boston-based singer and one-time The Voice contestant's all-too-brief set offered intriguing Ray Of Light-meets-Little Earthquakes Dance Pop that accentuated her commanding stage presence. 

Casey Desmond (photo by Joel Gausten) 

Desmond's set was bolstered by accompanying electric violinist Mei Ohara (an experimental New England musician whose “Bystanders” video and 2013 track “If You Keep Me Unkempt” are particularly fascinating) and Cambridge, MA synth master Avoxblue. Later, Desmond joined Cummins for an emotional cover of So's “Don't Give Up” and later brought up Ohara to join her and the rest of The Security Project for a spirited run through Melt's “Games Without Frontiers.” This exciting combination of musicians was easily the highest point in an evening full of unforgettable moments. (Furthering the night's King Crimson connection, Desmond's self-titled 2005 album featured an appearance by long-serving bassist Tony Levin.)

Left to right: Mei Ohara, Casey Desmond and Avoxblue (photo by Joel Gausten)

Either collectively or on their own, Desmond, Ohara and Avoxblue are creating some of the most exhilarating current sounds of this or any other scene. See them as soon as you can.

(On a related note, The Security Project guitarist Michael Cozzi's former Sky Cries Mary bandmate Joe Bass is currently battling cancer and can be helped through a special GoFundMe page set up to raise money for his treatment.)

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FEATURE - Exploring the Eponymous Four: Trey Gunn on Peter Gabriel's Early Years

The Security Project. Photo by Eric de Bruijn (www.ericdebruijn.com)

Any band comprised of members of some of the most revered groups in history would earn plenty of attention regardless of the sounds they made, but what The Security Project offers the world is truly special. Formed in 2012, The Security Project finds master musician Trey Gunn (King Crimson) joining forces with keyboardist David Jameson (Time Machine/Beyond The Wall) and drum legend Jerry Marotta (Hall & Oates/Stevie Nicks/Paul McCartney) to perform the music of Marotta's one-time bandleader, Peter Gabriel. On December 13, music fans in New Hampshire can experience this rare combination of musicians in person when the band brings its show to the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry.

Although Peter Gabriel boasts a massive discography on his own as well as with Genesis, the members of The Security Project focus on the earliest, most experimental period in the singer's long-running solo career. Currently, the band's set utilizes material from Gabriel's first four eponymous solo albums (released from 1977 to 1982) and 1983's Plays Live. (Marotta served as Gabriel's drummer from 1977 to 1986.) Gunn sees working with the group as an opportunity to explore music that has moved him throughout the years.

“I really love that older material a lot,” he says. “In fact, the third record [commonly known among fans as Melt] was just one of those lightning bolt records for me. I was like, 'What the hell is this? What am I listening to? This is so cool. I can't tell what the sounds are; I can't tell how the music's put together, but I just love it.' That record had a big impact on me.”

With The Security Project, Gabriel fans can enjoy a journey through an era that hasn't been explored by the singer for quite some time.

“The idea was, 'What if we really took seriously this older Peter material that [he] doesn't play anymore?'” Gunn explains. “Peter got so huge with the So record and onward; he really focuses on his big hits, so we thought, 'What if we really dig into the older, darker, epic pieces from that period that he doesn't approach anymore for whatever reason? Let's do the things that Peter's not doing [from] this era that we really love.' To me, it was just this great way to explore what I think is just some really awesome material.”

In addition to the three original members, the current lineup of The Security Project includes guitarist Michael Cozzi (a veteran of UK Alternative group Shriekback and the brilliant Seattle-based act Sky Cries Mary) and vocalist Brian Cummins, whose ability to recreate Gabriel's vocal stylings is downright stunning.

“Peter's voice was so specific; it's so particular, and that's one of the beautiful things about him,” offers Gunn. “You either go authentic to his voice, or you go sideways. Brian can do a little bit of both, but he really has Peter's phrasing. It's really fascinating; I can't quite put my finger on the whole thing about why this [group] actually works. By all rights, it shouldn't work, to be honest. (laughs) By all rights, it should be lame, but it's not. It's actually really amazing.”

Since Gunn has been so intimate with Gabriel's music for so long now through The Security Project, what would he say is the man's greatest strength as an artist, particularly during the period that the band is representing?

“One of the fascinating things about going back to any music from that time period – but more specifically Peter – is that this is pre-computer music,” he replies. “It wasn't made on computers; there wasn't digital editing. There was very little editing, because all you could do was punch in and out on 24-track analog giant tape. Music has changed its internal structure so much [since] that time period by computers and putting music onto a grid and being able to edit performances. Music has become a lot more square; it fits onto a grid now. Sections are in symmetrical shapes; that's pretty much how most modern music is made... But [with] these earlier records, the shapes and the phrases and the geometry of the pieces are so unusual and different. I actually was kind of shocked to find this out.”

Gunn cites Melt's “Intruder” as a perfect example of this phenomenon.

As he says, “I thought the song was just Phil Collins playing this drum groove. It just kind of went along and did these different things, but [I thought] that it was basically kind of the same thing all the way through. But it's not; there's a lot of form to it, and the form is very strange. There are little groups of 2/4 bars here, a phrase extends, a phrase gets chopped off and there are funny sections and this beautiful structure inside the whole piece that I had no idea [about].

“Even when you take Peter's music then and put it next to music that was going on at the time, there was just a freedom and a creative flow to it,” he adds. “It was all very musical; it wasn't abstractly constructed. It's frickin' brilliant; it sounds crazily fresh even now – even post-Nine Inch Nails, Tool and all this music that's happened since then.”

Not surprisingly, Gunn's fascination with Gabriel has greatly informed his own work. His latest solo release, The Waters, They Are Rising, features a combination of live performances based on Gabriel's “Here Comes The Flood” in addition to music from his score for the film Every Beautiful Thing. 

Fueled by some of the most adventurous minds in music, The Security Project delivers a truly unique spin on an artist already known to stretch the boundaries of convention.

“It actually is its own thing,” says Gunn of the experience. “It actually is working at a deep, artistic level, and it kind of surprises me. To be honest, the idea of doing a tribute [and] cover material is not inherently interesting to me, but this works.”

The Security Project performs this Sunday, December 13 at the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, MA. Go here for tickets. Go here for The Security Project's official website.  

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