"I Am Damo Suzuki", by Damo Suzuki

Who is Damo Suzuki?

Mark E is Damo Suzuki, he is singing this song since 1985.

Damo's spirit says:

It might be somewhere the guy called Damo Suzuki in this world. But, he is everywhere, maybe behind you....turn to see back.

"I Am Mark E. Smith"

I don't know as generally I don't use texture....if I do then I use word like Manchester, Bottles, Whisky, Anti London, United, Shelter, etc...

TOY & Listing Ships sound carrying Damo Suzuki

performance at the social

Idle Fret: I went to a TOY in-store at Rough Trade East last year and asked them if they’d like to back Damo Suzuki, along side Listing Ships, at a show I was putting together and they said they’d love to. I was looking forward to this show for ages and June 25th 2013 came around slowly, but when it did, it was really exciting! Luke Insect who designed the show poster came down to play some records and Andrew Weatherall played an hour of Krautrock before Damo and his network of sound carriers played. Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream wanted to perform with Damo too and was set to come down, but because it was an improvised performance with no Can songs, this sadly didn’t happen. Weatherall played the final song of his incredible DJ set and as the last few bars of The Fall’s I Am Damo Suzuki rang out across the venue, TOY and Listing Ships took to the stage, but there was no sign of Damo. The band started playing as I went to look for him and there he was tucked away in the corner sitting at the merch stall, not having realized that the band had started to play. I led him to the stage and then the crowd witnessed an almighty improvised set of heavy Krautrock for over an hour. It was one long song that could have happily gone on for another hour, as everyone on and offstage was having such a great time. It was definitely one of my favourite Idle Fret shows so far and we raised an amazing £1000 for Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support from the proceeds of the show. It was a very special line up and an amazing night! (Darren Brooker)

all photography
by jim donnelly

TOY: It was one of the best times we've ever played music together! I don't think we have actually ever done an improvised thing where we just made it all up, and I totally lost track of time. We played for more than an hour but it felt like only one moment. To have the kind of Godfather Of Improvisation ask us to play with him: The greatest day in my entire life. (Panda The Barron) Damo's network is a really cool method of making music where he just kind of goes around the world and picks up people to play music with. He even sent us an e-mail before just to make sure that we definitely wouldn't arrange any kind of music or practice at all; we literally just played whatever came out. (Dominic O'Dair)

Listing Ships: I've had the pleasure of performing alongside Damo twice before and I've promoted shows for him four or five times in our hometown of Oxford too, so he and I go back quite a long time - the joy of Damo's shows really is that no two are ever the same. The band is unique, but more than that, the music they create only exists for that time and in that place, and I think there's something very precious about that in a time when every experience, musical or otherwise, is recorded and set down for posterity. I love the idea of a groove, a moment that only exists for a few seconds at that one time and never comes alive again. For tonight's show, it was unusual for me in that instead of a band entirely composed of different musicians who've never played together before, tonight it was two very tight, well-rehearsed bands who've been playing together for years, but thrown together at the same time as a backing band for Damo. This meant not only improvising with my own bandmates, but also working with Damo on where he wanted to take the music, and also reacting to and playing with another entire band at the same time. I felt it would have worked better had the two bands been physically mixed together rather than facing off opposite each other as two complete units, but the challenge was exhilarating. Not only that, but a combination of the size of the venue (tiny!), the size of the crowd (big!) and the amount of equipment we had (masses!) meant the audience was tight around us at all times, creating a wonderfully intense atmosphere. I'm usually Listing Ships' bass player, but have played synths and samplers in other bands, so tonight was also a chance for me to cut loose and focus more on keyboards and samples, and so push myself beyond my usual instrument as well. I find what Damo does incredibly inspiring, he's brought together so many musicians, and so much incredible music all over the world, and all with such humility and devotion not to the people involved, but to the music and what it can achieve, frozen in time, for everyone sharing that moment. (Stuart Fowkes)

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Northod: There is no better way to feel secret interaction between musicians than while they are running in live, improvising. Indeed Toy (last bb from UK), Damo Suzuki from the master mystical Can and Listing Ships played a show together in front of my eyes, in an intimate and warm atmosphere at The Social, London. Lots of musicians then, trying to do their best to create a huge massive sound amount of néo-psychedelia and kraut way of thinking during more than 40 minutes with no cessation. Sometimes close to nothing, nevertheless intoxicating by sound intensity and repetitive gimmick from super testosterone-powered bass to weird overloaded guitar delay and misty synthesizer. Definitely a friendly and relaxing climate between such reachable artists and lovely audience. I am happy to see this kind of things (underground comings) still happen in London. (Thom Layan)

Damo: This is what I’m doing every performance, create time and space of the moment with ever changing local sound carriers. This London show together with Toy and Listing Ships from Oxford: The venue was really hot. Already there wasn’t enough space for every sound carrier. (Stage was so tiny) So, some of them performed on floor in middle of audience. As usual I was at merchandising table, almost I missed to join them on the stage if the promoter didn’t pick me up. Member of Toy were very smart young guys and some of them told me they never done live improve. As far as situation after the performance, it must be an amazing time for everybody involved that I’m sure of. Wish many good things happened upon Toy and Listing Ships. (Suzuki)

Questionnaire with Ocelote Rojo

what is your motivation for making music?

I'm pretty curious on how people interpret the songs. I think my main motivation is driven by that curiosity. Are people listening music just because they want, or they do that because they want to evade the reality we live? In some kind of way, I like making music that lets you disconnect from the world and makes you breathe a little cleaner air. That's a reason why I like traditional worl-music. I'm into a lot of music genres and always try to listen everything I can, but if I have to choose a specific kind of sound, I would choose world-music, why? Because it varies in every corner of the world; you will always find different rhythms, melodies, instruments and content in general. Listening traditional music helps you to learn about their history... it's not all about music, it's about cultures. Indirectly, that is one reason why I love hitchhiking and traveling to different places, doing that you can know the people and their histories, their traditions, which helps you to be a little bit more conscious of the world you are living in.

what drives you in / off music?

I love folk music, the "la nueva canción latinoamericana", trova, flamenco; also, classical music, tango, rumba, african music, jazz, among others. In general, my main inspiration is the nature, I always try to escape from this city and go to nice natural places. Here in Chile we have beautiful landscapes: a large and arid desert, big mountains, a long coastline, huge forests, volcanoes, glaciers, etc... I think that's the main inspiration for human beings! We all have to watch our main source of inspiration!  

please introduce your baby ocelote rojo!

My name is Francisco Javier Aravena Riveros and I'm a 26 year old law school graduate from Santiago, Chile. The little red ocelot was born in January 2010 when I was playing guitar in my room... It was a painless birth. The ocelot is a small and mysterious animal whose habitat is in America. In pre-hispanic cultures, It was associated with warriors, It was a symbol of courage. I associate it with my music project because I want my music to express a subconscious desire of fight against those who do not respect the pristine roots of their culture, against those who deny their inception and against those who do not respect the traditions and rights of native communities. Also, the ocelot is a symbol of unity, since, as an native animal, it is a common denominator in many latin american cultures.

would you care to explain the concept of pacarina?

I have a great respect and interest in native cultures. About the EP, you can find some of that interest in some songs, for example, “Kaykay Filu” refers to a mapuche myth explaining the origin of this community; it is a snake fight between good and evil. “H'ain”, was an ancient rite of male initiation of the peoples of Tierra del Fuego (Selk'nam or Onas). The name of the EP, “Pacarina”, comes from an ancient belief of peruvian pre-columbian people; pacarinas were caves and underground springs regarded as inception of this civilization.  

is this a bukowski reading you're using in tenochtitlan sunbeam gun?

Yeah! It's a Bukowski poem called “Dinosauria, We”. I used that poem because I love how he expressed his dissatisfaction with modern society and human attitude and because I wanted to spread that idea of unconformity. I really like reading, all kinds of literature, but my favorites are novels. Maybe my favorite writer is Dostoyevsky... I love the way he works the psychology of his characters.

any chilean love you would like to spread?

Music: Los Jaivas, Violeta Parra, Inti Illimani, Roberto Bravo, Claudio Arrau, Manuel García, Los Tres.
Literature: Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, Nicanor Parra, Gonzalo Rojas, Pablo de Rokha, María Luisa Bombal.
Movies: Machuca (Andrés Wood), El Chacal de Nahueltoro (Miguel Littín), La Batalla de Chile (Patricio Guzmán), Coronación (Silvio Caiozzi), La ciudad de los fotógrafos (Sebastián Moreno).
Art: Roberto Matta, Claudio Bravo. 

what do you associate with;

innocence? Childhood. As we grow, we lose it... it's sad, you know, we should keep at least some of it. We live in a world where everyone is thinking that the other has bad intentions... that's not possible!

spirit? What gives us individuality. Sometimes our brain makes us aware of that individuality.

sacrifice? The correlative of success.
the written word? Analysis, interpretation, synthesis
thunder? A natural music instrument. I love noises; noises and silence! Both are good for making music.