FourPlay- Fusion of a lifetime
» FourPlay- Fusion of a lifetime - August 31, 2006
FourPlay string quartet’s album Now To The Future is a crash course in contemporary music: inclusive, intelligent, interesting, textured and complex while remaining accessible and damn enjoyable. FourPlay have recorded three studio albums, and have also released a remix album and a series of three 3" CD singles: released independently (on their own label Smart Pussy Records).
FourPlay is an electric string quartet.
“Technically speaking we’re classically trained, the four of us played together (in the Australian Youth Orchestra) but Fourplay was a separate project,” explains Peter Hollo (cello & vocals).
The band is Lara Goodridge (violin & vocals), Tim Hollo (viola & vocals), Shenton Gregory aka Shenzo Gregorio (viola and vocals) and Peter Hollo (cello & vocals). Inspired by the Kronos, Balanescu and Brodsky Quartets’ blurring of the boundaries between classical and rock music, they began playing rock covers for friends. A bit of fun or was something more serious afoot?
“No, I guess not really taking it seriously but a NSW Uni band competition did. I enjoy playing, have an absolute ball. As soon as we plugged in the pick-ups, just loved the audience connection. It’s exciting and challenging.”
Hollo hosts a show on Sydney's FBi Radio, which explores “postfolkrocktronica” (a term he's created to cover music from post-rock to experimental electronica, especially music on the cusp between digital and acoustic).
“I guess we cover a fair bit of ground. A lot of people who are into electronic music are also into indie-rock and new folk.
“At the moment I’m listening to, a Tortoise box set – uncollected and older re-mixes and there’s a DVD I haven’t even gotten to yet. The forthcoming Saddleback album, I play cello on and the forthcoming Grizzly Bear out on Warp Records, post rock. Lovely indie pop song writing.”
Grizzly Bear are an interesting example of today's new music industry, starting out by gaining a loyal following via Myspace and their own website, becoming darlings of the indie blogging world.
Hollo has also joined the online world, you can find his blog via FourPlay’s website.
“There are a range of artists who do that, you ask, do I want anonymous people to read that?”
As the blog includes a few book reviews I wondered what Hollo might be reading at the moment.
“I just finished a book by Vernor Vinge called ‘Rainbows End’ set in the near future. It’s sci-fi futurest, the social aspects of Information/ Biological technology. Fascinating reading.”
Their website: www.fourplay.com.au has a great function that allows the viewer to change the aesthetic/visual style. There is a great sense of freedom in being asked to change something to suit yourself and that seems indicative of FourPlay's relationship with music.
“Richard had the initial design ideas and I ended up doing it. It’s been possible for a while to tailor web pages, for accessibility, or for print. Content is separate from design. A naturally meaningful choice can be made about how you view it, the content remains the same and the user can determine how it appears.”
FourPlay approach songs written by other people in a refreshingly original way: they make them their own. The original songs on the album are the ones that stand out for me. They are innovative, demonstrating a wonderful love of music of all kinds. One of the tracks is ‘Now To The Future’ which appears on ‘Trust’ written by Lara Goodridge .
“We’ve been playing that for a while now, yeah I’m pleased with that.“
On ‘Downtown Nudik’ by himself, Hollo explains the unusual title,
“It’s a Yiddish word, that’s difficult to describe the meaning of, a sort of annoying, bothersome person. And ‘Downtown’ for New York. There’s an incredible Jewish music scene, mixing tango with jazz. Especially John Zorn, Tzadik Records: big influence. Plus when Shenzo joined the band, he plays swing, flamenco. So there’s a jazzy, world music aspect.”
And the inclusion of Sabotage – who is The Beastie Boys fan?
“I guess me and Tim. And I’m a Metallica Fan. It was probably the first thing we did along with The Beastie Boys. Stuff we really liked and that seemed unlikely for a String Quartet to play.”
'Now To The Future’ was produced and mixed by Magoo (Regurgitator, Midnight Oil, TISM) and engineered by Justin Tresidder (george, Resin Dogs, Josh Abrahams), a viola player himself.
“Working with Magoo was fantastic. All of us had been thinking of working with him, throwing his name around since Regurgitator. When we were doing the new album we realised we would need a producer – he’s the best. He’s really easy going and knowledgeable. Not too much control and a lot of sympathetic imput. We had a lot of conversations about how we wanted it to sound and Magoo made it happen. The electric aspects are how we wanted them with the effects and the acoustic aspects are vibrant.”
Like FourPlay’s music the recording is a lethal combination of the innovative and new and a chamber musicians love of intimate strings and string texture in sound.
“Something we certainly inherited from Chamber music, wanting to hear all the instruments and parts. It’s a credit to Magoo and Justin Tresidder that it is so clear sounding: it’s four instruments and that’s not easy.”
