Three Stars: Hume

Part of the reason I ask is that I see you took a trip to India recently. What do you think you brought back musically and personally from that experience?

Britton: I brought back a lot of energy. A lot of unfiltered energy. Just absolute energy, a motivation, especially from watching the silk weavers work and their everyday lives just below their home. Just this monotonous process that they have been doing with their parents and their parents and their parents before they even knew time existed. It’s just that sort of processing of that monotonous flow of energy and flow of rhythm and full of heart. They’re not doing anything half-heartedly and that was an eye-opener because I see people doing their everyday job and just being disgusted by what they have to do all day and trying to ignore it by either plugging in an ipod or plugging into a television show or drinking alcohol or whatever trying to ignore the monotonous and very rhythmic process of what they have to do all day. And going to a country where people live, they thrive on it, it was a huge quality that I brought back.

What prompted the trip over there?

Britton: I’m from Arlington originally and I’ve lived in DC for the last three years and I was feeling really stale. My work was becoming a bit, I don’t know, it was becoming a little nearsighted, I’d say and I really wanted to get a breath of fresh air and see how the other half lives and do some traveling do some walking do some talking get lost. I think it’s a very important process that a lot of people really don’t do enough, just putting yourself out there.

How long were you there?

Britton: Four and a half months. It was really really incredible; a special time for me. I’m very much looking forward to going back. I’ve never left a place with such reassurance that I’ll be returning.

I guess it’s safe to say that you’ve moved very far from throwing a Red & Black staffer through a window.

Britton: That was a funny and very horrible and very very absentminded bummer. The story was kind of skewed in the City Paper because I wasn’t able to support evidence for the claims it was making so it was sort of a one-sided viewpoint, which is unfortunate. But, I’m completely regretful.

How did you get the idea for the Mirroring project?

Britton: I had this unfiltered energy and I had to a big project. So I came to thinking about what instrumentation would bring about a lot of energy and immediately I went to the rhythmic aspect of music and set up a piece for two drums. Then I wanted a very melodious aspect to it and I immediately thought saxophone. Then I went to my instrument which is the bass and I decided to double up on that.

And I had this graphic image of two rivers colliding into each other and at the base of those two rivers, two trees with the foundation of the roots and at the moment when those two rivers collide there are two birds in those two trees whose bodies run into each other and collide.

So I had that graphic image in my head and essentially that graphic image was a journal of the last six months of my life, traveling and reading. The music reflects my use of this thing called retrograde which is taking a musical theme and inverting it somehow either rhythmically or melodically or harmonically. So I used this technique for the second half of the piece when it reaches its pinnacle, when the two birds collide and then it completely retrogrades to the first fifteen minutes which are exactly identical to the last fifteen minutes of the piece.

That’s basically what we did on tour and it was quite an experience. It’s something that I’ve never done before and I’ve learned so so much. The past three weeks have been the longest three weeks of my entire life.

Where did you find the musicians to play this piece?

Britton: In art schools and conservatories. I went to a performing arts school in California and I made some friends out there, one of whom I called up. I think two of them were from Boston studying at Berklee, the third was a guy from London who was studying at Berklee. Another was a guy from New Hampshire studying at Berklee and another was a drummer at a different conservatory and then there was a friend of mine from New York City.

So most of these people you had not met before.

Britton: No. I’d met and toured with two of these people and the other five I met for the first time three weeks ago.

Something that I wanted to ask you about. If I read correctly, you used to live in the house in Petworth called The Lighthouse.

Britton: Yes, I was there for about a year and a half.

Were you guys also putting on house shows while you were living there?

Britton: Layne Garrett and I threw shows from the first month we were living there and they’re still throwing them now.

Right, I’ve been to a show at The Lighthouse and I’ve been to a show at the house where you’re living now and I was just curious whether you have been instrumental in setting up these shows?

Britton: Yeah, I think it’s important to bring artists and musicians into your home and to break down the barrier of the performer and the audience member. I think it’s a really nice quality that I usually like to serve dinner beforehand. That way, anyone who’s hungry can come a bit early and speak with whoever’s playing that night and be on the same level with them. It’s more of a sharing, communal event than a, “I’ve got the tickets, you’ll let me in, you’ll stamp my hand, I will buy a beer, I’ll watch the band five feet taller than me on the stage and then I will go home.” It’s kind of a tighter knit community because people aren’t so shy. People can laugh a bit harder. People know that they’re in someone’s home so there’s just a different aura surrounding that whole experience.

And it’s a good way to help people out who are on the road who don’t want to have to deal with club bookers and promoters and agents and all those distant distant lines that just connects you right with the performer. It’s nice to cut that sort of fat sometimes.

Have you become a contact now for touring bands or do you seek them out?

Britton: I usually get the emails and it’s usually friends of past shows or other friends. I’d say I get an email once every three months or once every two months from a completely random person or a stranger that I’ve never met before. Sometimes I’ll seek them out. If I’m really really impressed by someone from out of town I’ll send them an email that says “Please, please come to my home!” or “I want to share some of this experience with you.” But usually, it’s just friends talking to friends talking to friends talking to friends.

This almost reminds me of a musical version of Couch Surfers. (laughter) That’s a strange way of putting it but have you also gotten a chance to go to these peoples’ homes in different cities and kind of experience the culture in other places?

Britton: Oh yes, definitely. I’ve been treated like a king. There’s unbelievably kind kind kind people out there who will go to any lengths just to make you comfortable in fun towns and fun cities. And a lot of people who I’ve set up four or five times, I’ve become very good friends with, and I’ll be seeing them on this tour.

You mentioned earlier that you want to make sure you’re listening to enough contemporary music. Is that as opposed to classical and jazz...?

Britton: Yeah, yeah. I’m a record collector and I usually view my digital listening experience and my analog listening experience as completely different. My digital, usually when I have an ipod, I’m usually on the move, so it’s usually more fast-paced energetic music. Not always, but it’s just a different collection that I have than my record collection. And my record collection mostly consists of LPs released between the ‘60s and ‘80s. And I think one reason is because there’s a lot of great music from that period of time but another reason is new vinyl is really really expensive. The majority of contemporary releases are $18 or over.

What would you like to see for the future of music in DC?

Britton: I’d like to see some more youth at some of the shows. I remember growing up and how important it was for me to be seeing all this music that was just unlike any other sound I’d ever heard and how special it was for me to be bumping shoulders with all these older folks. And I feel like the last couple years now that I’m growing older, I’m not seeing as many younger people out. So, connecting with the youth.

Also, I think there’s a few groups in DC that do it but I don’t think there’s enough challenging music. I feel like it’s a pretty complacent community right now and I feel like if we were challenging each other in a friendly, energetic, truthful and honest honest way, we could create something really special and really really unique. Because we’ve got we’ve got such an amazing music history from the beginning of the 20th century on. From Jelly Roll Morton to Duke Ellington and then all the soul music that came out of DC: Marvin Gaye and the punk music and all the weirdo music that came in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. We have a very very lush library of sound that we can collect from but I feel that we’re not really challenging each other in the live setting.

I feel that people are concerned a lot with the way music works on the internet and it’s just not going to get us anywhere. It’s not going to connect on a very basic and honest human level and I think that’s what people need to start concentrating on. I’d like to see more DIY spaces that people live in. I’d like to see just, more bands. I’d like to see some bands getting together from different bands and creating their own project, taking someone’s style then pushing it in other directions as well. I think there’s a lot of possibility and I think since Bush is gone there’s a lot of new and ripe energy and a big fertile ground for something really great.

Who are some of the bands that you feel are doing a good job of challenging us?

Britton: I feel like anybody on Sockets records is doing a great job. Sean really has a great taste for the up and coming. He’s definitely a person that’s first and foremost concerned with the present and he’s helping out a lot of people. Buildings is really great. There are a bunch of projects on the rise. Laughing Man is doing a really really great job. I like the direction that they’re going in. They’re young and they have a lot of new ideas. There’s tons of other groups. S PRCSS is really amazing as well.

Sockets did a showcase of sorts at the Red Lounge recently, right?

Britton: It was a good time. It was free too. Sean and I put that show on together and it was really important for us to be able to open up the doors and not worry about paying any of the bands or the money going anywhere. We were concerned about people being able to hear the music and we’re in talks about starting a monthly or bi-monthly all-DC all-ages show free of charge. Just so new bands will have a place to play where the audience isn’t polished in any way and there’s no responsibility to take care of touring bands. It’ll help the community grow.