interview : Windy & Carl

Windy & Carl are playing drone guitars since 1993, run their music store Stormy Records, and like two names linked by a '&', they answered with two voices to our questions.

1. Your first musical memories?
W : My very first memory in life is of being 6 months old and being in my crib in the living room, hearing Bob Dylan. My parents had a reel to reel of his greatest hits vol 1 and they listened to him all the time. After that, being 3 and 4 years old and listening to Neil Young with my sister dawn, and hearin glots of what is now called "classic rock" - artists like ELO, ELP, Hendrix, Blue Oyster Cult, Queen, and Peter Gabriel, Genesis...

C : Paying my older sisters 45's...Beach Boys, Beatles, Archies, Cowsills, Monkees, Yellow Balloon. Lots of 60's pop rock hits


2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
W : The best record i ever received as a present was the Durutti Column / Vini Reilly album. Carl gave it to me in the fall of 1989, and it has been one of my very favorite records ever to listen to. That record made me want to sing opera. I've had some amazing hallucinations listening to that record - visions of trees and birds in fields. But that is the answer to the last question......
the worst record? as a present? i can't think of one.

C : When i was 11 my sister gave me a Rolling Stones album "Some Girls" for Christmas. I loved the faces on the cover and i loved the song 'Shattered'. I do not recall a record given to me i did not like


3. The first record that you lost?
W : I remember the first album i melted in the car : it was the Pet Shop Boys actually (or maybe it was please) and i bought it, put it in the back of my car on the back dash, and forgot about it. The next day, the sun beat down on it for hours, and the poor album warped to absolutley unplayable condition.

C : The 45rpm record 'Shaving Cream', funny novelty record i used to listen to with my friend Dirk when we were kids. 


4. The name of your imaginary band?
C : My and my friends wanted to be The Monkees, we had an imaginary band and called ourselves 'Jr. Monkees' we had no idea how to play our instruments. one of us had a drum set, i had a cheap sunburst guitar. We also had marraccas and used an older brothers electric guitar with no amplifier.


5. In which environment do you like to record music?
W : At home, in the living room, with the sun coming in the windows and shining on the hard wood floors. i'll have a few drinks, and then play my Les Paul through a space echo and a little vox pacemaker. Absolutely perfect.

C : I like to record with bright sunlight, in a comfortable setting but when it is too hot i have to record in the basement where it is cool in the summer. 


6. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
W : In 50 years i hope music goes back to a more organic process, an analog based, richly recorded and produced style. Where the sounds are more acoustic and more natural, and have better clarity and warmth. Music the body can process easily - music more akin to what we have been hearing in nature for millions of years.
and in 5000 years - i'm not sure what it will sound like, but i hope it still has the ability to bring people together, to be a force in their lives, to have the incredible meaning and emotion it does today.

C : I hope it will sound better than ever. for me, i will always love the music i grew up on as a kid more than anything.


7. Which underrated album will start a new musical genre?
C : Maybe some drone, or minimal artists. maybe some kind of electronic music that has not been made yet...


8. Which album should never have been made?
W : Nirvana's Nevermind. it was not true to the form the band was using, and it started an entire generation of crap copy bands who all use too much compression, whiney vocals, and shitty production. Nirvana should have stayed a low key, lo-fi band and the world would be a better place. Nevermind ruined rock music as a whole.

C : I recently listened to Neil Young's 'Reactor' and hated it so much!
there are so many that should have not been made. The albums that are just copying a current trend should never be made


9. Your favourite album to have a drink?
W : Probably anything that Astrid and Joa Gilberto did together - her voice and his guitar make for wonderful summer evenings with a martini or gin and tonic.

C : Lately Creedence Clearwater Revival or Almann Brothers for me. 


10. Your dream collaboration?
W : Making a record with Vini Reilly and Bruce Mitchell - the Durutti Column. i have loved them since i was 14 years old, and it has been my dream since then to find a way to work with them. We've met them, and i even bought a guitar from Vini, but i've never found a way to make music with them. And i sure would love to!

C : Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane. Pharoah Sanders too. they all play such beautiful spiritual music 


11. The record that freaks you out?
W : I don't know. I can't really think of one. I can think of an album i love to get messed up and play super loud - teenage filmstars Star album. i can remember the very first time i heard it, a firday night, after ingesting multiple things, and listenig over and over. It was Ed Ball's reaction to my bloody valentine's loveless, and it is still amazing. Really sexy, really tripped out in all sorts of ways. Loveless meets krautrock? With backward passages and whispered vocals and super psychedelic guitars. It's a fantastic record.

C : Captain Beefheart 'Trout Mask Replica' a lot of people love that record. i have a hard time with it. I know it is a groundbreaking album but it is so hard for me to understand and accept.


12 . The record you would like to listen to right now?
W : Neil young 'Harvest' - but only because Carl is playing Neil songs on an acoustic guitar right now. I love to hear Carl play - i would like to hear the new pieces he is working on again, but i'll happily listen to him play Neil Young. It works for me on multiple levels.

C : ELO 'A New World Record' or some early 1970's Scorpions 


13. The film that tickles your creativity?
W : The Muppet movie. Jim Henson's puppets have been my imaginary friends my whole life, and his story telling was so brilliant! His muppets were real beings to me, real people, so to say. They had a dream, they planned how to make it come true, and they worked hard until they made it. The story is simple and strong, the colors are beautiful, the songs all flow - it is a happy story that makes me feel like i can make the things i want happen in this world. I still watch it every few years.

C : Hard to say as i listen to music all of the time and i don't watch many films right now...


14. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
W : A song by Moose called 'Je Rev'. It has great swirling chiming guitars and propulsive bass and drums. It is a song that fills my chest to the point of bursting and makes me want to create music. It's just incredible.


15. An album or an artist you wouldn’t want to be?
W : Marvin Gaye. For as much incredible music as he gave this world, his life was so troubled and heavy. Every day of his life he was chased by demons - his father, his wife, his addictions. His fame only raised him up for a harder fall, and his paranoia got the best of him. The people around him treated him like dirt, and in the end he was killed by his own family. He never had anyone to trust, not even himself. a life with no trust - can you imagine?


C : Brian Wilson. He has lived a very tortured life, he has made so much incredible music that he does not want anyone to hear. So many people around him telling him NO during his most creative times. 


16. The cover version you would love to do?
W : The Stranglers 'Golden Brown'. The harpsichord in that song gives me such a high, as does the watery guitar notes near the end.


C : I don't think about this very much, i am finishing one right now but i never think about covering other peoples songs.


17. The mashup you would love to do?
C : Mixing modern day ambient music with 80's power metal! That would be interesting, maybe really bad though...


18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
W : Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen. The book is full of auditory words, and situations i am familar with. I believe i could do it justice musically. hums and emotion - yup, i can do that.


19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
W : I have had hallucinations listening to music, and i have imagined sound where there was no sound. I have heard voices of the dead, i have seen what music looks like. I often see color when i hear music, or i see what shape it is.

C : It depends on the music, but yes i have.


20. How would you like to die?
W : I would like to die peacefully, at an old age, after a healthy and full life. I am sure most people woudl answer this question in a crazy way, with an outlandish answer, like leapign off a skyscraper and bursting into flames, or having an accident while racing the indy 500, or falling off Mt Kilimandjaro, but i want to live a good life, and do all the things i want, and age gracefully. I want to be healthy, and old, and just go to sleep one day and have my current life be done. Then i will be ready to begin a new.

C : Listening to my favorite music and feeling like i have accomplished want i want to in life.


Windy & Carl - My love (2008)


They have a new song in australian's magazine Lifted Brow, vol. 6. (It comes with 2 cds, including Windy & Carl, Tuneyards, and Little Wing.)

An another song is available on a Pyramids 5 cassette box set, (which also included Bass Communion and a bunch of other amazing bands) - on Small Doses label.

A 45' is coming out later this year on Geographic North. A-side is a cover song (very poppy and unusual) and the B-side is a new work from Carl.

And They are working on a new full length record from Kranky to be released next spring...


Go to Stormy records, their music store ; their official website, myspace and wiki page.