Making a smart musical stew
BY ERIC ANDERSEN | AUGUST 27, 2009 7:05 AM
Andreas Kapsalis knows no boundaries on his guitar. Slapping and hitting the wood of the acoustic, he treats it like a percussive instrument. He uses his “10-finger-tapping” technique to hit every note with precision, whether he is playing flamenco music or scoring the theme song to a horror movie.Just like a great film director, his only limitation is the extent of his imagination.
“The music is very cinematic,” he said. “It’s very aggressive at times and very dynamic at times. It circles around world music, but it fuses elements of rock and tribal gypsy energy. It shifts gears like a David Lynch film switches gears sometimes.”
The Andreas Kapsalis Trio will bring its instrumental sounds to the Picador, 330 E. Washington St., at 9 p.m. today. The group — which originates from Chicago — consists of guitarist Kapsalis, drummer Jamie Gallagher, and multi-instrumentalist Darren Garvey.
Kapsalis plays acoustic guitar on stage while sitting on a stool — yet he never is completely still. He often has his head bowed over the neck of the guitar, his long black hair draping down over his face, while he moves to the beat of the music.
“You have to kind of fight with the acoustic guitar to get anything to sound good,” he said. “It’s a struggle, and that struggle is what I really like. It’s very natural. Instead of putting some reverb on, I like to create my own effects with the two-handed tapping stuff. You can simulate different instruments. You can do harp-like effects and percussive effects that sound almost timpanic.”
The only electronic device the guitarist uses is a microphone, which he places in the body of the guitar. Gallagher and Garvey also prefer to keep things more natural.
“It is an intense experiment in acoustic sound,” Gallagher said.
The trio acts more like an orchestra than a three-piece when playing live, using a variety of instruments to create a wall of sound.
From afar, Gallagher appears to have a standard drum kit, but he actually uses the djembe, an African skin-covered hand drum in place of his bass drum. Garvey is a versatile musician who plays instruments ranging from congas and cowbells to toy piano and bird calls.
“It’s kind of like a little circus, so to speak,” Gallagher said. “A lot of eye candy. We all have our own style, and people are never bored even though we are an instrumental band.”
The group tries to avoid overindulging in its playing. Instead of taking traditional solo breaks, the members improvise as they go.
“We almost collaborate and improvise as an ensemble where you put pieces together and compose on the spot basically,” Gallagher said. “That’s way more satisfying than kind of going through the motions in a blues-based funk jam.”
Kapsalis was recently in Los Angeles meeting with executives to propose ideas for film-scoring jobs. To date, the guitar player has provided soundtracks for more than seven movies, including Black Gold — a documentary screened at the Sundance Film Festival about the coffee trade — and Mulberry Street, which was selected as winner of the After Dark Horrorfest competition.
“I do a lot of independent activist films, about animal rights and human rights,” Kapsalis said. “They’re all things I believe in.”
He sees many similarities between his film work and the music he plays live with the trio.
“The thing about instrumental music that I’ve always liked a lot is that you’re not giving any lyrics to tell a person what it’s about, or what to feel, or how to relate it to themselves,” he said. “You kind of choose your own adventure as an audience member.”
The band will perform a show that is out of the ordinary for the Picador, or any other Iowa City club.
“I can confidently say that there are no other groups that do what we do,” Kapsalis said. “It’s just a good time. Outside of being somewhat intellectual music, it’s equally just as energetic and simple. It’s just a weird kind of stew.”
COPYRIGHT: THE DAILY IOWAN 2010
