Last time I saw Rob Thorne would have been way back in 1996 when he would have been playing as Man Alone as a singer songwriter on guitar. Many years later I have discovered that his life journey has been a very interesting one leading him to reconnect with his Maori heritage. He has been sharing this through his music in workshops. He makes instruments (taonga puoro) with school children out of wood, a short wood flute called a koauau, and a spinning disc/button on a string/whizzer called a porotiti.
Rob plays and composes taonga puoro solo using a Boss202 loop pedal. These compositions can take up to 45 mins and are really trance-like in their effect.
Rob tells me that a great deal of research he is doing is about bridging knowledge gaps as information has been lost, and so the practical aspect takes over here, with an action archaeology approach, doing, making and experimenting. His noise philosophy has helped greatly with uncovering and much of what has happened has come from a found sound methodology. The research and work has had a huge impact on his identity and understanding as a Maori, and as a musician.
Meanwhile he continues to play and sing in the alt. rock field as Man Alone, and with Neckstretchers and Black Pudding.
You can listen to Rob Thorne's Toi Puoro here: http://robthorne.bandcamp.com/
He also has a collaborative taonga puoro project called 'Waka Atea' (Space Ship) with Al Fraser which you can listen to here: http://wakaatea.bandcamp.com/
Can you tell me what you have been recording lately?
I've been recording what I call 'epic' compositions: very long, set-length journey style pieces that are planned, (or considered) and scripted to be played live using a Boss 20XL looper. The planning follows an idea, concept or philosophy that can be anything from sonically experimental, to metaphysical, to emotive, to culturally historical. Even though there is a script, timeframes within the pieces can easily shift resulting in different outcomes according to performance context. The script is more a scheme than a score.
What are the instruments you are working with?
Traditional New Zealand Maori instruments that as a cultural set are being termed 'Taonga Puoro' (taonga=special object, puoro=sound). These instruments have been undergoing a revival as part of a wider cultural renaissance in Aotearoa New Zealand that has been building for over 30 years now.
Within the taonga puoro 'kete' (bag) are several styles of cross-blown flute, several kinds of horn, struck percussion, buzzers and bullroarers, and percussion mouth harps, all of which are made from natural materials including wood, stone, bone and shell.
Putorino - can be played as both a flute and a horn
Did you make them yourself and if so, how did that come about?
I have made a lot of my own instruments, as this is often the only way to obtain them. I have had many instruments gifted to me also. In regard to indigenous music, one of the ways to obtain knowledge of an instrument is to make it. Sometimes this can be as simple as seeking two stones on a beach that resonate well when struck together. Other times can be more complicated, and may involve acquiring skill sets that seem to have nothing to do with music, such as operating a traditional cord drill, woodworking or bone carving. There is a demystification process that occurs with all learning, and as an understanding of indigenous knowledge and skill grows so does the realization of the simplicity that is inherent within ancient technologies. This is the probably biggest lesson of all for me: that I can make it, and play it.
Rehu toroa - a long flute made from an albatross (toroa) wing bone
You have always played alternative rock music too. Can you tell me a bit about that?
I'm a singer first, and learned to play guitar so I had something to sing to. This is why solo voice-guitar is very natural for me. Bands are a natural progression to take the energy to the next level. Alternative rock for me is about performance. In other words it is all about doing. Creating. Transforming. Living it and being it. Mind/body integration/negation. By performance I mean 'doing': the doing, whether on stage and in front of people or not, brings about a transformative journey of consciousness that I am now recently beginning to truly comprehend (because of my work with taonga puoro) as supra-conscious, maybe even mystical. Shamanic. Loud loose rock, especially when I sing, is about dancing barefoot across hot-coals while shouting at the full moon.
What have been your proudest moments?
Making music for me is very much about doing what I can with what I have, and about intention. My outcomes are reliant on my intentions when I make sound. Achievement and expectation are intrinsic to each other. I am at my happiest musically when what I intend brings outcomes that surpass my expectations.
I get excited when audiences start journeying with me, and especially when they weren't expecting to.
Nguru
Do you have a most memorable moment?
Musically? I have an appalling memory musically (and in life) that I believe is caused by a desire to be immersed in the now. If I have memories regarding musicality or execution it usually involves either something negative where I didn't achieve what I intended, or something positive that has come from an incident of profound audience participation or feedback.
.... and most ridiculous rock moment?
One outstandingly ridiculous, and very rock'n'roll (and therefore very memorable) moment was during a Kingshag & the Electric Teleband gig at the Cross in Wellington that involved me blacking out on my feet from sustaining a very long vocal line without a breath. As I leaned back in epic rock style and howled the final note a wave of bright beautiful colours, tingling numbness and then total darkness flooded over me. Unconscious, I continued downward landing on my back. It must have been only momentary, but when I came to and opened my eyes there was a woman from the audience straddling me and making motions as if riding a horse. This would have been a great story without the woman in it, just the blacking out from holding a long note is ridiculous enough.
What does the future hold?
I have a 2-fold plan regarding this work for 2012. The first is to record, release and perform more of the solo work that I am doing. I have enough now to throw out at least 4 albums worth already. I hope that these recordings will convey the energy that the live performances of the works emit, so am really seeking to work with studios and engineers that I believe can take this stuff to the next level and beyond.
The second fold is collaborative. I have a long list of artists that inspire me that have already agreed to collaborate including Alastair Galbraith, Bill Direen, Kieran Monoghan - Mr. Sterile Assembly, Campbell Kneale and Leila Adu. Of course each of these will depend on our combined agreed intentions, but in regard to my own 'kaupapa' I basically am hoping to openly and obviously integrate my process as a rock and noise musician with my personal processes of taonga puoro, resulting in the blending and breaking down of barriers. The extremely amplified and noisy with the acoustic and gentle is a challenge I am particularly looking forward to. Also, something unrelated to these projects but brewing in the back there somewhere is that I really want to build myself a daxophone soon.
What is a daxophone Rob?
A daxophone is a modern instrument that is basically a bowed or plucked school-ruler affixed to a hollow block of wood with a contact mic in it. Designed by Hans Reichel, a type setter and modern experimental musical genius, the daxophone has an interchangeable wooden blade that is bowed at the free end, and 'stopped' by another block of wood (that has frets on one side) called the 'dax'. It produces the most amazing sounds and is truly challenging in its noisyness. I was sad to find out the other day that Reichel just died in November 2011. The daxophone is intriguing for me because it is basically just a bowed piece of wood, the changes of tone created by the action of wood on wood, with maybe a metal fret or two. There is a strong indigenous sentiment within the frictional, and wooden nature of it all. Also that if you want one, you will probably need to make it yourself.
