William
'Bill' Saunders is one of the co-founders of the Ideat Village festival, a
free, independent Art & Music Festival that is held in New Haven, CT, every
year.
Bill also
paints (for which he uses the pseudonym Volonte Morceaux) and he is the frontman
of Doctor Dark, the Captain Beefheart coverband.
As Doctor
Dark is coming to Bad Doberan to perform at Zappanale, I thought I'd pop him
some questions...
UniMuta: Hi
Bill, last time you mentioned that you are one of the people behind the Ideat
Village festival in New Haven. I took a look at the program, and it looks like
fun. Can you tell us what the festival is about?
Bill
Saunders: In order to answer that, I
need to give you a little local background....
Here in New
Haven, (the supposed 'Arts Capital' of Connecticut), we have this very costly
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS AND IDEAS, which started in 1996. Like many creative 'non-profits', this
festival enjoyed early successes, but after the 'visionaries' left the
organization, there was a steady decline in quality of performance, attendance,
and opportunities for local performers.
In 2002, a new Executive Director was hired from Scotland, who had the
bright idea that she was going to 'jump start' a fringe festival, just like the
one in Edinborough, where the disenfranchised artists 'rose up' against the
establishment. Upon hearing this
preposterous proposal, our reaction was "The Establishment can't DO
this. Isn't that the whole
point?" Once the schedule was
released for their ordained fringe festival, (called "The Edge"),
their failure was apparent. There were
virtually no local performers that i knew, and I know tons of artists and
performers....
so.....
on June
21st, 2002 the first Ideat Village premiered to the rave reviews of local artists
and musicians, and to the consternation of the recognized 'Art Establishment'.
Ideat
Village is produced each year entirely on small independent donations and
community goodwill; the festival is run by artists, for artists and the
community. Over the past ten years, Ideat Village has grown from a three-day
'fringe' event, to a free-wheeling extravaganza that features fifteen days of
ORBIT ( the Ideat Village Open Art Gallery), participatory public art and pop
culture spoofs like Project Walkway, American Ideat and Iron Painter, as well
as tons Live Local Music, Film, Poetry, Parades, Skateboarding, Vendors, Street
Art, and Pie Fights. Our entire budget
for Ideat Village is around $3000. The
budget for the well-funded Arts and Ideas Festival is $3 Million. Just goes to show that glossy brochures,
misleading marketing strategies, and over-paid administrators cannot make up
for passion and community. OH NO! The anarchists are at it again.......
UniMuta: If
my info is correct, you performed with the Old Farts At Play at the festival in
2002, performing the music of Captain Beefheart. And this was the band that
turned into Doctor Dark?
Bill
Saunders: The first act at the first
Ideat Village was the last performance of my 'cross-dressing' alter-ego, Little
Miss Mess-Up. Two days later, I
re-emerged on stage with a Beefheart tribute, what was then called "The
Old Farts at Play".
Like Ideat
Village, we never expected it to last beyond that one show. Well.......
An
interesting sidenote, when I first picked up a guitar, and started writing
music in 1997, I recorded version of "The Dust Blows Forward and The Dust
Blows Back", along with my 'theme song' "Little Miss Mess-up",
while figuring out how to sing after JUST picking up a guitar. It is one of the
reasons I had an inkling I could do 'the voice' It is on an old cassette tape somewhere maybe.
For
whatever ever, these twins have been conjoined for a long time..... It seems like I am always walking through
one door and out another....
UniMuta:
Doctor Dark has done quite a number of shows in the New Haven area. , but you
also played at The Knitting Factory in New York City, and you have performed at
Zappanale twice. The first time in 2003, and the second time in 2005. Can you
share some of your recollections?
Bill
Saunders: My biggest memory in 2003,
was the fifteen minute roaring ovation we received after leaving stage, with no
time for an encore. Sitting backstage,
hanging out with Prawns with Horns, the crowd's hysteria was like nothing I
have ever heard. I had a very difficult
time understanding that that roar was for US!
Napoleon Murphy Brock came up to me and shook my hand, and expressed is
amazement that I pulled it off. So many
musicians have been supportive of this project -- Jimmy Carl Black, Ike Willis,
Eugene Chadbourne, Mike Kenneally..... and the list continues to grow fins.
UniMuta:
The band took a break from 2006 to 2011. I've seen a picture of a painting of
Don Van Vliet that you did in that period (it's up at your entry in the United
Mutations Archives). It looks pretty impressive. I know that you have done more
paintings (using Volonte Morceaux as an alias), and I'd love to see them. Have
you done an expo already? Or is there a website?
Bill
Saunders: The portrait of Don was
started a few days after he had passed, and completed in late January 2011.
("Captain Beefheart" by Bill Saunders)
I would
consider that painting as one created by Bill Saunders, not some alter-ego. After I had completed the 'Volonte Morceaux'
series "Forces de Nature", (which consist of a complicated enmeshed
narrative through 11 large paintings), I needed a break from the narrative
work, as it is extremely consuming for the subconscious. So, lately I have been doing some
portraits.....
But as for
the Morceaux series, the characters in the paintings are all based on
characters from the 1931 Todd Browning movie "Freaks", (who also
directed the original Dracula). Browning's
career was ruined by this film, because he cast real sideshow freaks for the
movie. People felt he was exploiting
the handicapped. But in reality, when
you look at the biographies of these 'Freaks', you will find they led
productive and profitable careers, despite their disabilities..
So, in this
series, the characters are re-imagined in post-apocalyptic world, where their
adaptability is a strength, and not a weakness. Each painting is in French, like those old posters, with bad
french titles, and worse english translations.
Each painting also features a well-rendered animal that is adapted to
his immediate environment, and some strange emerging mutation. The series brings into question our origins
as the most destructive species on the planet, and there is plenty of folklore,
mythology, cosmology, genealogy, and pseudo-science to keep the mind
buzzing.....
The website
is down right now, and honestly, I do not know if I will have the time to get
it up and running before I leave for Zappanale, but here is the link:
www.galleryfreak.us.
("Extremitie Demain" (The End of Man) by Volonte Morceaux, Acrylic on Canvas, 2009, 36" x 48")
UniMuta: I
was very glad when I heard that Doctor Dark had reformed. Who's in the band? Have
you done gigs already, and how did it go?
Bill
Saunders: We have been working really
hard, despite some pretty major setbacks.
We lost our replacement guitar player for Travis in February due to time
commitments. Joe Nolan got into a car
accident around the same time and hurt his hand pretty badly. However, things have worked out, and we have
a very strong set of material, featuring predominantly music from the first
Magic Band incarnations (1965-1972).
Original
members Steve Chillemi and Joe Nolan are back on drums and guitar.
The new
members have played with me before, back when Eric Slick was my drummer. They are Will Ianuzzi on Bass, and Chris
Cretella on Guitar. Chris is a recent
graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, and has been instrumental in
deciphering alot of the difficult Trout Mask and Lick My Decals material. Will is an awesome player, who I have worked
with on several projects.
We played
out for the first time earlier in the month, two days after my arrest. It was a great set, but with spotty sound
(the vocals were too buried in the mix).
We have
been recording over the last couple of days, and I am very impressed with the
results. Hope you and the fans are
too.......
UniMuta:
Yes, I heard that you got arrested for organising a punk rock concert... I'm
glad that you're OK.
The Zappa
Family Trust released the original "Bat Chain Puller" last month. It
sounds great, and it, again, shows the genius of Don Van Vliet. The Zappanale
festival has a fine dose of Beefheart music scheduled as well with Doctor Dark,
with Gary Lucas, and with Fast 'n Bulbous.
Have you seen the line-up for the next Zappanale? Are there concerts
that you want to see? Things that you look forward to?
Bill
Saunders: I first heard that version of the record from a bootleg Nancy got at
the first Zappanale. It is interesting
that some of those songs didn't see the light of day until 1982's "Ice
Cream for Crow".
1001 and
Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole and Brick Bats are still two of my
favorites....
What am I
looking forward to the most??? Sharing
the stage with Gary Lucas, and blowing some minds......
UniMuta:
I'm really looking forward to another Doctor Dark concert, and you can be sure
that I'm not the only one. Thanks for the interview and I'll be seeing you very
soon.
Bill
Saunders: Not if I see you first!!!!!
Doctor Dark will be performing at the Zappanale
festival on Saturday, August 4, 2012.
www.zappanale.de
