AL SLAVIK: Press

INTERVIEW FOR AUSTRALIAN GUITAR MAGAZINE SEPT 2008

Questions by Craig White
-------------------------------------


Hi Al. You have relocated to Australia from Austria in the last few years, and I have been perusing your website, reading some of your impressions of Melbourne, the heat and some of the differences (and similarities) between the old world and the new. How is it going? How does it differ career-wise being based in the southern hemisphere, particularly considering that a lot of your work is still in Europe?

Hi Craig,
Yes,I decided to move to Australia 4 years ago,but before that i´ve been touring here on a regular basis ..
Actually i was based in London before that but had to move back to Vienna because my father got very ill.After his passing i decided to move to Melbourne where i already had some close friends..start from scratch i thought...
Iam always looking for new impressions and inspirations and so far Australia has given me plenty of that.I dont think that it was a typical „career“choice in the normal sense but iam traveling to Europe on a regular basis...(Iam writing this from Italy...)
There is a lot of work in Europe but work or money isnt everything...Iam more of a creative spirit and new adventures,new horizons are much more valuable to me...they turn into new music..new songs.



It seems you have connected with a number of fine Australian musicians since arriving in this country. Who do you respect and really enjoy playing with? Do you have any thoughts on the calibre of musicianship you have encountered playing with local musicians?

Coming over to Oz with Slava wasnt a bad start i guess;-)

I dont want to state the obvious but I remember one gig on our first Australian tour back in 98 where Tommy Emanuel joined us for a few songs...what a player!
But there are so many worldclass musicians: pianist Luke Howard is definately from another planet,I just call him Luke Skywalker cause the force is definately with him...he actually freaks me out,Oudplayer Joe Tawadros is another madman,Bobby Singh on tablas the same...such an honour to play with those guys...And when it comes to drummers Australia is trully blessed..a couple of years back i had the pleasure of touring with Darryn Faruggia...apart from his impeccable drumming skills i still get stomach cramps thinking bout his sense of humour...and his laugh..(in combination with Luke Howard it was simply unbearable but thats another thing;-)
Davey Porter is my favourite drummer in Australia,we´ve been working together for a couple of years now and the first time we jammed something magical happened.We simply couldnt stop smiling cause it was so thight from the first bar..as if we´ve known each other for years...
Great energy,such a musical drummer....and he hits them hard...i like that ..... a lot !!! ;-)

Lenny Grigoryan is another outstanding musician..Everytime i hear him play with Slava its a musical feast..they´re so thight...and he´s so incredibly flexible,...what a talent ..he scares me!!
Other guitarists i worked with and simply have to mention are Ben Edgar and Steve McKay..fantastic players ....i could go on ...

There´s such an incredible pool of fantastic musicians in Australia and i feel very fortunate to have worked with some of them.




Obviously, Slava Grigoryan is one of our favourites here at the magazine and he played on your recent album, The Secret One. You have also performed as a duo with him. How did you meet and begin playing with Slava?

We met in a wine bar in South Kensington..
At that time we both lived in London and when we met we hit it off straight away.
He asked me to play bass on one of his earlier albums,then he invited me to tour Australia with him...This was the start of a great friendship...
He is one of a kind ..a true Legend as you say in Oz!!




You have a veritable who’s who of European session guys play on your latest album, and of course you have had an illustrious career as a session player yourself. Is there camaraderie among sidemen that looks to express itself on a project like this one, in the sense of the guys who make so many albums sound great for pop stars coming together to do it for one of their own?

Absolutely!
There´s definately a camaradarie amongst artists and musicians.
Friendship and respect are most important to me....We like to help each other out...





5.You have said that The Secret One is “a very personal snapshot of my time in London. The twelve songs on this album capture the emotion, groove and many friendships that were forged during my time there”. While few would argue with groove, do you find that the bass guitar is a good medium for conveying emotion? Or rather, do you rely more on the vocals to carry the emotional weight of these compositions?


Any instrument can convey emotion if you play from the heart!

„The Secret One“ is a songalbum...hard to say wether iam a singing bassplayer or a singer who also plays bass...its a mixture..one side couldnt do without the other on this album
People might know me as a bassplayer but playing bass or Stick is only a little part of what iam about...
i love to write songs...so the vocals are very important .


Christian Eigner plays drums on your recent album, and some of our readers may be familiar with his work in Depeche Mode. You also play in a band with Christian called Sel Gapu Mex – would you tell us a little about that band?

Sel Gapu Mex is a little sideproject ..an experimental band...
Christian Eigner and I have known Karl Ritter,the guitarist and „noise generator“ of the band, for a long time...
He´s always looking for boundaries..a true artist....
It all started with a jam...it sounded so different when we played....never heard anything like it...
So we decided to record the first album.“Sturm“.(Storm)no rehearsals,no sheets.no overdubs..pure improvisiation and no limits...
The next album „Verliebt“(In Love) is a live recording of our last gig of an European tour...

pretty full on...not for the faint hearted ;-)




In the 90s, you played with Alphaville, who had a hit with “Forever Young”, a song our readers may be more familiar with thanks to the recent version by Youth Group. Were you surprised when you first heard that an Australian band had covered the song, much less when it became such a huge hit for them?


Not at all !!!
..its a great song and has been covered by many artists already..a true classic...wish i´d written it ;-)


You played with Adrian Belew when he was last out here, and he had some very laudatory things to say about your playing, comparing you to Tony Levin. Were you a big fan of Levin? Did you have to learn those King Crimson numbers, or did you already know them as a fan?

Tony Levin has definately had an influence on my playing !

The first time i heard him play was on Peter Gabriel`s „Plays Live „ album...(to this day I love Peter Gabriels work)
It was the first time i heard a very strange bass sound that couldnt possibly been played on a regular bass...so i read the notes where a „Stick“ was mentioned...
Of course ,at that time,i didnt know what a „Stick“ was ...but i immidiately fell in love with the sound and a couple of years later i managed to get hold of one.

Around that time a friend introduced me to „Discipline“..,still one of my favourite Crimson albums...Adrians Voice and guitar playing,Tony´s Stick along with Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford ..electrifying stuff....great songs with great musicianship !

For the tour with Adrian i had to learn all the material...listening to music and playing it is very different ..but it was easy ...
and playing with Adrian felt incredibly natural to me..what a guy...love him to bits







Of course, what you share with Levin is virtuosity on the Chapman Stick, which even thirty or more years after its invention is still a very under-utilised instrument. Is it difficult to master? Do you think it will remain a niche instrument, or do you imagine that one day it will figure on a hit pop record, and suddenly all the kids will want to be Stick players?

You have to spend some time with the Stick in order to get a good sound...its not your average instrument...but it definately has the potential to become more popular !
Tony Levin did a lot for this beautiful instrument.His work with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson is outstanding...There´s Don Schiff ,a true master of the NS Stick...go and check him out...
As for the future:The Stick needs to be seen and heard..TV,big stages etc..then it will get more popular cause the new kids on the block will want to have one too...



So, what can audiences at the Adelaide International Guitar Festival expect from your shows this year? Will you be sitting in with Adrian Belew again?


Just wait and see...i always like surprises...hope the audiences too ;-)

I will give it my best ,thats for sure !

and sitting in with Adrian?

Well...hmm..we might have to drink a nice cold Coopers and talk about it....

Thanks Al

Craig White

BASSOLOGY

Listen to an interview i gave back in September 2007 in a cosy Melbourne Cafe.
I don´t know if i made much sense...it was early and i had a gig the night before...long night...not much sleep ..enough said;-)
(scroll down to minute 35
this is when the interview starts )

BELEW BELOW
(interview with Adrian Belew)


...Al Slavik, the bassist is from Vienna Austria but lives now in Melbourne. Big Al is a virtuoso and came with a surprise. He plays Chapman Stick like Tony Levin and could sing Tony's parts perfectly! That made the Krimson material sound even more authentic...

CALL ME AL

Article (Australian Guitar Magazine ,Feb 06)


Melbourne-based Austrian, Al Slavik, has mastered not only the bass guitar, but also the curious 10-string two-hand-tapping device known as the Chapman Stick. Here he riffs with J.Adam Ovis about his latest CD, The Secret One.
It takes an exceptional musician to hold his own against classical maestro Slava Grigoryan,but bassist and Chapman Stick player Al Slavik has no trouble. Having thumped alongside everyone from modern jazz master Alegre Correa, to synth-pop band Alphaville the Austrian-born Slavik can dispatch anything the nylon-string wunderkind sends his way.
So far, their partnership has produced two critically acclaimed albums, Another Night in London and Continental Shift, both showcases of virtuosity, fusion and progressive songwriting.
Slaviks solo release,The Secret One, takes a different path. The musical chameleon, who also
sings, has written 12 songs highlighting influences from The Police to Peter Gabriel and guest starring some of pop guitars biggest names.
Now based in Australia as the third partner in record label Which Way Music, with Grigoryan
and Reuben Zylberszpic, Slavik found some time to chat with Australian Guitar.
A.G:
This album is very different to previous work with Slava and features a line-up of ace pop guitarists.
Al:
Yeah,it´s a songbased album and this is my main thing-I just love to write music. All the songs were mainly written in England, in London, when I had some time off touring. It was just a very fortunate thing that all those amazing guitar players had the time (to play on it) and that I had met them.
It was a really close circle. For example, Bobby Tench, who played with Jeff Beck and Van Morisson, he played around the corner in a blues club, and we hung out and partied together. Same with Gus Isidore (Seal,Peter Gabriel).
So I made lots of friends over there and was fortunate enough to have them on this album. It`s still a dream come true,with Dominic Miller (Sting,Phil Collins) too.
A.G:
Do you write all your songs on the guitar?
Al:
No,I also play the Chapman Stick (two handed fretboard instrument).The Stick is an incredible instrument that puts you out of your comfort zone. The tuning is pretty funny, the bass strings are the other way round and tuned in fifths, and the guitar strings are in fourths. When I start playing it, its really nice to surprise yourself by playing…or maybe detuning something, and all of a sudden you create those voicings that you never had before.This could be the start of a new idea that would later become a song.
With the writing, I think I´m pretty intuitive. Mainly its about setting a mood for the song, and then I´m thinking of melodies,hook lines for vocals.
A.G:
How did you meet Slava?
Al:
In 95, I moved to London, because I felt that in Austria I had hit the ceiling, and still wanted to develop.
Basically, I decided from one day to the other to move,without any contacts.I hung around in music clubs in London, in live venues, and this is where I also met Slava, in a wine bar in South Kensington. It was a live jam night. Slava played classical stuff in this bar, where people were loud and you had to shut them up by playing incredibly loud. I was incredibly impressed by his determination to play his thing. And bit by bit, people stopped talking and listened, which was quite unusual for that sort of place. Later we hung out together and we just clicked instantly.
A.G:
Though you have different backrounds, your partnership has produced two great albums, Another Night in London and Continental Shift.
Al:
Slav has this incredible classical backround, and I come from anything but classical- eventhough I was born in Vienna. I was stuffed with that (classical music).
In school you´re force-fed that stuff, and somehow I didn’t take it on because it was forced upon me:
You come from Vienna, you have to have this heritage;you have to know all those things. I was really pissed off when teachers asked you :
When was this composer born?
When was this piece written?
It wasn’t really about music,it was more about the knowledge and numbers.One keyfactor why Slava and I really hit it off was this two worlds colliding. He introduced classical music to me, and I listened because he was a friend, and I brought him closer to rock and pop music. We would play each other CD´s , like DJ´s , for hours.
A.G:
Your playing with Slava is certainly tight.
Al:
That came over time, over the nine years we´ve been working together.At the beginning, we actually didn’t know what we were doing. We just sort of started playing and experimenting.
And now,with Continental Shift, it all makes sense because it really sounds like something worth listening to.
Coming from that pop-rock thing and playing with loudness and having a drummer behind who kicks arse, and then starting to play those duo gigs with Slava…I was a bit scared because the loudness level was set by the classical guitar, and i´ve never played a concert with my amp volume on not even `1`.
A.G:
You´ve been playing a Peavey bass for some years now.
Al:
Yes,my main bass is a five-string Peavey Cirrus that I got when I played some shows for Peavey at the Frankfurt Music Fair (Musikmesse) quite a few years ago. I just picked up this bass and fell in love with it, and the guys said: `hey,you really like the instrument, so we got to give it to you`.
It’s a prototype, but I really believe that when you play an instrument over years and years it sounds better and better and the wood somehow takes on all that playing. It really sounds incredibly warm.
As for bass amplification, I have this Markbass,this little rig,which is powerful and very light,easy to travel with.But often in the studio I just go into the desk and it sounds great too.
For the Chapman Stick , I have a different set-up-a transistor preamp and the guitar strings.
That’s the great thing about the Stick: the guitar strings can be amplified through a different source. So the bass strings are dry and compressed ,maybe some chorus or phaser, but the guitar strings have a separate pick up ,which in my case goes into a multieffects unit and another preamp,it really gives the impression that two instruments are playing…

"His sets alone with bass backed by vocals are astounding.Will leave you speechless"

Line-up boggles the mind (The Age ,Friday ,February 11,2005)

Yet again I find my mind boggling over the absolutely phenomenal line-up of gigs in Melbourne over the next couple of weeks.
I know,I say it every week?but rest assured,it is true (trust me he says).
Something you should indeed look forward to next Friday at the Cornish Arms is
Bassvirtuoso Al Slavik.
Vienna-born and now Australia based, Slavik teams up with Luke Howard,Dave Beck
and Leonard Grigoryan for their first ever gig.
Unfamiliar with Al Slavik? Shame,shame,shame.
A maestro of bass and particulary the highly unusual and highly strung (bad pun)Chapman Stick,Slavik is self-taught and cant read a note of music----some mean feat given that very few people are even familiar with the Chapman Stick,let alone able to play it.
For some musicians and punters,this fact is cringe-worthy but rest assured,the man is no slouch.
The Chapman Stick boasts 10 strings,five of which are bass,five of which are guitar.
Groove will indeed be in abundance at the Cornish as will be some absolutely exquisite,heart-felt music.Head to www.alslavik.com for a frightening resume and dossier any musician would sell their kidney for (and yes,you can survive with one).Details at hand in Gig Guide.
Heads up to for an album to be released this year featuring Al and Leonard Grigoryan?s brother and classical guitar freak (and I say this non-offensively),Slava Grigoryan.

SLAVA GRIGORYAN AND AL SLAVIK
Interview by Jesse Shrock

The best music in the world – the kind that touches places in us we didn’t even know we had – is genreless. Ask anyone.
The only problem is, most of this timeless and truly unique music usually comes from artists that have already honed their skills in a very specific genre, and thus is often only appreciated by established fans of the artist. That’s why I want to use this space to stress that Continental Shift, the latest work of Slava Grigoryan with collaborator Al Slavik, is a triumph of unrestricted musical inspiration, potentially a lot wider in appeal than Slava’s distinguished classical back catalogue.
And that’s a catalogue that has been expanding very rapidly of late –within a few short months prior to Continental Shift’s release, Slava was a part of Saffire’s album Nostalgica and the subsequent tour, and released his own rendition of Shaun Rigney’s music in Afterimage. “In the last couple of years, there’s been a lot happening, as far as recording.” he says. “I was with Sony for a long time, and the philosophy was very different back then. I was recording an album about every 2 years. When I went to ABC, things were a bit more flexible. I knew I had so many projects that I wanted to get on with… the collaborative things were very important to me. There’s actually a few other albums in the can at the moment that will come out later this year some time… after that I think I’ll take a break for a while.” A well-deserved one I’m sure.
While Slava’s reputation in Australia (and in some parts of Europe) as a classical virtuoso is well-established, Vienna-born Al Slavik has earned some amount of notoriety around Europe (mainly in Britain) as a hired gun bassist. “My background is very different to Slava’s,” Al says. “I’m coming from the band and rock pop scene… Back in England I was working with many different musicians… also touring with a couple of guys, like this sync-pop band called Alphaville, a German band that had some hits in the 80’s.”
Slava’s first vision of Al was in a club in London, where “he was predominately playing the Chapman stick. (An instrument comprising five bass strings and five guitar strings) There was this Austrian drummer that is really big now called Thomas Lang there as well… And the two of them would have this duel, with these full-on drums and the Chapman stick, at a huge volume. They would just fight out this issue they had that they didn’t talk about. And to be quite honest,” Slava admits, “I was a little bit intimidated at the time.”
Judging by these first impressions, it might seem hard to see how these two established common musical ground… But when Al starts talking about his biggest inspirations (Peter Gabriel is mentioned several times in our conversation) and his other collaborations (working with one of Seal’s co-writers Gus Isidore) the pieces start falling into place… as they did for Slava and Al when they became housemates for awhile in London.
“With the two of us meeting – it’s just like day and night.” Al says. “Back nine years ago when we lived together and worked together, it was just incredible… I remember spending (up to) seventeen hours playing each other CDs that we grew up with. When I came over to Australia, and we started playing as a duo, I think we both weren’t really sure… Somehow we knew we had to do it, it just felt quite strange… With the success of Another Night in London, the picture is much more clear. Now it makes absolute sense to do this.”
To ensure the full realisation their vision, Slava and Al have chosen to release Continental Shift independently. Al explains why this was a necessary move: “Music has to be divided, which is a shame – you have classical music, rock music, world music, whatever… But we’re actually not thinking in those terms.” Indeed, something like Continental Shift can only be conceived in a state of mind that is uninhibited, unassuming… genreless.

Songs in the key of mateship`...
It seems fitting that Slava Grigoryan and Al Slavik met in a London live-musicvenue at a Jam run by a guitarist called Sagat Guirey.
That was about 10 years ago.Guirey had worked with violinist Nigel Kennedy-the Menuhinprotege whose street cred helped poularise the classics-as well as with rock´nroll bands.
Grigoryan,the Australian guitar virtuoso who has made classical recordings and Slavik,an Austrian-born bassguitarist/singer/songwriter whose backround is in pop,became close friends.
Their subsequent musical collaborations have culminated in a new CD,Continental Shift.
the album is released in april 05 and follows the phenomenal success of their 1999 CD collaboration,Another Night in London.
Their music is neither pop nor classical.Slavik calls it songbased instrumental music with a pop sensibility`.
Grigoryan baulks at the label`crossover-music`.
`Where are we crossing from and where are we going?`he asks.
`This is just music we write and play,in a way that`s influenced by so many different things`.

LIVE-REVIEW of the Concert @Chapel off Chapel (9th of April,Melbourne)

The third partner in Slava and Al’s new label Which Way Music, Ruben Zlyberszpic, introduced Slava as the ‘Rudolph Nureyev’ (he’s a famous ballet dancer, in case that isn’t your thing) of guitar and Al Slavik as the ‘Arnie Schwarzenegger’ (he’s the muscle-bound governor of California, in case you’ve been living under a rock) of bass guitar. If by this he meant that they are, respectively, graceful and robust in their playing, he was damn right. (Then again, he may have also been referring to Al’s Austrian origins and intimidating build) Slava and Al had solo pieces at the start of each set, and while Slava’s was a dazzling piece of classical fingerstyle that gratified the (largely conservative) audience’s expectations, Al’s funk-flavoured piece, with it’s aggressive string slaps and crossover double-handed tapping, promptly smashed them, providing an arresting introduction to the other half of this musical equation.
But together, Al’s firm but delicate touch on the bass provided a gently rocking background to Slava’s lyrical and at times whimsical guitar lines, weaving the magic of Cruising before going more up-tempo for 2am. Next were vocal ballad selections (sung by Al) Another Night in London and Time of my Life. (No, not the song from Dirty Dancing!!!) I was a bit baffled when someone behind me described Al’s voice as being a bit like Phil Collins… perhaps he was getting confused with the more progressive Genesis alumni, Peter Gabriel.
For the second set, the duo was made a trio by the inclusion of Bobby Singh, who played tabla drums, and brought a more global flavour to the otherwise staunchly European Goodbye Vienna. They then showcased some jazz improvisation for Freefall, followed by the blues riffs in a classical guise that is Gusovitsch.
The obvious encore choice was Farewell – appropriate not only by name, but also by the way it cannot fail to enshroud the listener in it’s mysterious and strangely hypnotic melody, leaving them floating on air for long after they have walked out the exit.
This evening was the musical equivalent of sipping a fine liqueur – Consumed in a small quantity, (around 80 minutes) rich in flavour, smooth going down, and savoured to the last drop. My only complaint is that the title track of the album being launched was conspicuously absent from the setlist.

Jesse Shrock

...From such brilliant musicians ,there is always an expectation of brilliant music-making.Grigoryan and Slavik revel in their friendship and have a convincing rapport and easy bonhomie on stage...
Slavik and Grigoryan are extremely skilled guitarists and have a formidable technical command with which to express their improvisatory imagination...
The second set began with a storming ,turbocharged solo by Slavik that segued into powerful gritty singing accompanied by staggeringly acrobatic bass playing...Ànother Night In London `was delivered well and the playing in the second set picked up with freer soloing and more musical adventure.