David Wright Erik

Wollo

Continuum 

AV:  Before we get down to questions about Continuum, could you tell our readers a little bit about yourself and how you got started creating the style of music that you do now? 

DW:  I’m 31 year old with 20 years experience and music has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. I live in Suffolk with my wife Elaine (who runs AD Music) and my 23 year old son Steven. 

I’ve been creating music since the early 1980’s but didn’t release my first commercial CD, Marilynmba, until 1991. My first full album was the 1989 cassette “Reflections”; the release that KD Mueller was so enthusiastic about. That early release, and 2 other cassette releases, was released on CD in 2000. 

I’ve always enjoyed long, impressionistic style music. My influences can be traced back to Pink Floyds ‘Meddle’ and Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’. From there I got into Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Kitaro and Vangelis, to name but a few.  

I have always tried to make music that is different to other peoples music – my music is emotive and that is a key element for me when composing. I don’t see myself specifically as an EM musician, but a composer of atmospheric, melodic and thematic music. 

AV:  Your latest CD, Continuum, was released not too long ago. What was the inspiration for this project and when did you actually start work on it?  

DW:  Continuum was a fun album for me. I help produce other artists outside the EM genre and was working on one such project in my studio when all my keyboards were packed away to make room for the project. During periods of inactivity I found myself playing old LPs that I hadn’t listened to for years – old EM albums from the 70’s in particular. It gave me a huge inspirational buzz to record a retro album, but with a modern 21sst century take. 

I sketched out most of the ideas without touching a keyboard. When my studio was again my own I recorded the basics for the album in a week during September 2003. 

AV:  Once you get an idea for a music project like Continuum do you set aside the time to work on the music and dedicate your full attention to the project or is it a little less structured than that?  

DW:  There is no other way but to set the time aside and dedicate one’s full attention to the project. That’s particularly true during the early and critical stages of composition and feel; getting the album going. It’s the blank canvas scenario – you need the time and concentrated effort to get the first ideas down and then to build on them. 

AV:  Did beginning Continuum bring to mind echoes of your previous works and how do you let your new work be its own creation without becoming too derivative of what you have created before?  

DW:  If there is one thing of which I am certain, my works are not derivative! I deliberately avoid covering ground previously covered unless it is a specific reworking of an old track, which I have done on occasion. I deliberately set out to make each new album very different from the last. The ‘constant’ is my style of musical and atmospheric structure, the melody and the “feel” that people associate with David Wright. 

AV:  On a Continuum did you isolate yourself during the creation process or do you sometimes seek outside opinions as to how things are going?  

DW:  I’ve never taken outside opinion on musical/compositional matters. However, I do have a close circle of people to whom I sometimes, but not always, play pieces. Usually I do that because I’m not sure about some aspect or other and I want to hear their opinion. I do ask several people for technical opinions. I do that because any composer can get too close to the music and overlook obvious technical problems or deficencies. 

AV:   Tell me about what you found satisfying within Continuum and is this feeling the same for all the music that you create?  

DW:  I think it works as a retro album but with its feet firmly in the 21st century. It was ‘fun’ to compose and record………Beyond that I really can’t say what’s satisfying about it. Composing music is a strange experience – you can spend ages with that blank canvas then suddenly you do something. Maybe an hour later you have something good and you ask yourself; “Where did THAT come from?” You can spend months working on an album that becomes a labor of love………in the end, you release it and hope that other people will enjoy the emotive experience that has gone into its creation. 

I suppose the one overriding satisfaction is that people out there enjoy the music! 

AV:  If someone were to pick up Continuum what would they find there? Give me an idea of the feel of your latest release as compared to some of your other work. Would your regular listeners recognize it as your “style” or might they be surprised? 

DW:  They would find a recognizable David Wright album, but with longer pieces than were evident on previous releases. The music is thematic (“strongly”, according to reviews) with a definite nod to the old school Tangerine Dream & Vangelis. It has definite light and shade, and is very much a rhythmic space music excursion – a voyage into space and time.

I can’t say if people will be “surprised”, but feedback has been positive from fans old and new, so…………… 

AV:  When did you know that Continuum was done and that tweaking the mix would not make it any better?  

DW:  Oh wow, now there’s a question!! One can ALWAYS continue to play around with the mix! The thing of it is, is to know when it’s “right”, and only the artist and/or the engineer can know that, and even then its subjective. Once everything is “in the right place”, the mix becomes a matter of personal preference.. 

AV:  Do you ever feel apprehensive when it comes time to take a project like this to the next stage and release it to the public?  

DW:  18 years ago with my first album, yes, but not any more. I do what I do and am comfortable with it. I have an expanding following who like it to, so……….

AV:  What kind of feedback have you been getting since releasing Continuum? How closely do you follow reviews or the comments you receive from your listeners?  

DW:  Feedback has been very favorable, from both fans and the media. It’s nice to get good reviews but I don’t particularly follow them. They’re subjective. I tend to listen to fan comments more because they buy the CD. 

AV:  When you finish a project like this and it has had a little time to settle down after the official release do you ever go back and take a critical look at the project and think about things that might have been done differently or have you already moved on in your mind to your next creation?  

DW:  EVERY artist looks back on old albums and thinks something could have been done differently, that’s the nature of music. But ask most artists their favorite album and it’ll generally be the one they’re currently working on! So, yes, you move on to the next project. What’s done is done – the last album “Is what it is” – nothing will change that and people will hear it for what it is – not for what the artist wanted it to be “with hindsight”.  That said, one is always learning about technical matters; new and better ways to approach music composition and recording. 

AV:  Being intimately familiar with Continuum what will listeners take away from this CD after they have listened to it a few times? What are you own hopes for this music when it leaves your hands and is given over to the listeners?  

DW:  That the listener enjoys the emotional content of the music. That they connect the art and design, the words in the booklet, the track titles and the music and see the overall concept, and that they then enjoy the voyage………….that the music becomes the listeners own personal soundtrack. 

AV:  Is there anything else about Continuum that stood out in your mind that we haven’t already covered that you would like to pass along the readers of Ambient Visions as we close out this spotlight?  

DW:  Only that is was fun. Sometimes albums can be a struggle for a whole variety of reasons, but Continuum was a fun album to do – I sort of felt like I was rediscovering my EM roots………………..and where I go next is any ones guess!

AV:  Thanks for talking to us David and I hope that music always stays fun for you so that we can sit back and listen to your sessions of having a good time.