Name: Richard Carr
Occupation: Violinist, composer, music educator
Nationality: American
Current release: Richard Carr teams up with Caleb Burhans, and Clarice Jensen for their full-length album August Dreams, to be released April 21st 2023 via Bluebridge. The first single off August Dreams, "Sun Ritual" is out now.

If you enjoyed this interview with Richard Carr and would like to keep up to date with his music, visit his official website.

Over the course of his career, Richard Carr has worked with a wide range of artists, including Bill Laswell.

[Read our Clarice Jensen interview]
[Read our feature about the cello with Clarice Jensen]
[Read our Bill Laswell interview]



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc. play?

For me the impulse comes from the act.

Imagine making a drawing by starting with a simple line. Then, if you look long enough, you’ll see something in that line that suggests another line. Then you look at the two lines together until a third line suggests itself. Continue adding more shapes and lines until either a concrete image emerges, or perhaps something more abstract and evocative unfolds.

I do the same thing with sound. If you listen to “Processional”, a notated string quartet, and the first track on my album Over the Ridge, you’ll hear it begins with a long, lonely A440 harmonic in the second violin. As with the drawing, one simple note begins a whole intuitive process. I named the piece only after hearing the finished product.



In the case of “Processional”, I imagined a slow processional of chanting monks in an ancient cathedral.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualization' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I’m a believer in emergent structure. Even if it doesn’t always seem that way; human inclination leans toward order and structure. It’s in our DNA and can’t be avoided without a strong conscious effort.

“Sun Ritual”, the first track on the album August Dreams was created by inviting the cellist (Clarice Jensen) to provide a simple sequence of repeated chords. From that harmonic ostinato a whole elaborate structure of improvised ideas emerges the way a flower blossoms from a seed.



Once again, the impulse comes from the action.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I can work any place where there are instruments, electronics, computers, and musicians who possess curiosity, imagination, and talent.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I need to be free from distractions in order to focus on sound, expression, and emergent forms.

In the optimum scenario, my mind and soul are free to search out a place where the world makes sense.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

If I’m writing music on a page, I’ll just start notating stuff that comes from … well I don’t really know … some mysterious place within.

From all that noodling there is a possibility that there will be a worthwhile cell of an idea that comes foeward. It might be only a measure or two that I use from the first hundred bars of messing around.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

I’ll give the example of “Underwater Photography” from the album Landscapes and Lamentations.



This is a written piece that evolves from a sequence of notes. (D Eb G A Bb D). The notes are organized into melodies that fracture into what I like to call “hyperstretti”. The sequence is further embellished by contrapuntal, and harmonic variation.

Listening to the finished product I’m reminded of fish underwater swimming alone or moving in unison like dancers.  

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

There are many perfectly good creators of music who are lost without a preexisting form.

If I have enough luck to stumble upon a cool idea during the course of the process, I will not hesitate to change everything. (I don’t like to make too many plans when I travel either.)

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

When I recorded August Dreams with Caleb Burhans and Clarice Jensen, we performed improvised pieces as a string trio augmented by the use of live effects. We entered the process with a simple springboard idea, a harmony, articulation, or some other musical parameter. From there we went with the currents.

This is risky, like jumping out of an airplane together. To succeed you must adapt to sudden changes in the wind, trust your training and your impulses. Keep your mind wide open like a parachute.
 
There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

The creation of music is a daily practice for me. It is both spiritual and ritualistic. I tried to stay focused and in the moment, but the mind wanders out the window so easily.

On a good day I am so tuned in that nothing else exits. That’s pretty spiritual.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

Some people already have the ending planned before they start. This feels like putting on a pair of handcuffs.

I am deprived of the freedom of allowing the structure to emerge from the process. Engagement in an open-ended process allows the creator more leeway in deciding to accept or reject what ever comes around the corner.

The decision when to end is also something I’ll recognize when it come around the corner, like knowing when to end a conversation.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?

I think it is vitally important let it lie. I tend to dislike just about everything I produce when I first listen to it. Initially, I can only hear the imperfections.

A piece of original music is like a haircut: it takes at least two weeks to get used to it.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Postproduction is critical. I love to get my geek on. Especially with August Dreams.

After two days of recording live improvisation with everyone in the same room I was able to take all the digital audio files home and mine the musical moments that worked the best, leaving everything else on the cutting room floor. I used Logic to loop, cut and paste sections in a manner that enhanced existing forms. I used the same program to mix and master.

My son Ben, who’s more famous than I am, does product endorsements and lays some fantastic plugins on me. He plays the bass on a couple of the August Dreams tracks. By doing all the postproduction in my home studio, I can take a lot more time and care than I would if I was paying for studio time.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

The physical act of practicing and developing technical skills can be a mundane and prosaic task. Likewise, learning to use complex creation and production software is often linear and tedious. But the tools will give you more choices when it’s time to create.

Setting up a strong foundation will make it easier to reach far into the soul, where music can locate those emotions that can’t be expressed in another way.