Back in from way out

Plugging into electropop
pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey

KEYS TO PLEASE: Perrey (R) and Countryman

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

When French-born Jean-Jacques Perrey quit med school in the 1950s to demo and sell the Ondioline, a precursor to the synth, electronic music was a relatively new phenomenon, and entirely the realm of a cloistered avant-garde, often obscure or intentionally difficult. While Perrey appreciated the craft and theory involved, he had a very different idea of what to do with instruments like Robert Moog’s new synthesizer keyboards—and who to do it for (answer: everybody).

Notably on 1966’s The In Sound From Way Out, with Gershon Kingsley, the savvy yet silliness-prone Perrey made the weird, sci-fi sounds of tape loops and synthesizers fun and accessible for all, effectively ushering in the era of electronic pop music.

With his recent collaborator, Seattle’s Dana Countryman (the guy behind Cool and Strange Music Magazine), 78-year-old Perrey’s making a special visit to Pop Montreal. The Mirror reach Perrey—by computer!—with some questions.

Mirror: Your career has found you with one foot in the avant-garde, the other in the world of commercial pop, and you’ve enriched both in the process. What’s your secret for reconciling these often-conflicting environments?

Jean-Jacques Perrey: It is not a secret, it is simply work and patience. Since my early youth, I’ve always been attracted to science fiction. It nourished my imagination. It still does. Imagination and humour take the largest place in my mind. So, when I compose, they are my main tools. This is how I came to create funny loops in the ’60s. Loops were not new, but funny loops were. I think that because they created such a surprise both among the “serious” electronic musicians and the general public, both “worlds” were drawn to them. But, gosh, making funny loops by splicing tiny bits of magnetic tape does require hard work and unending patience!

Constructive emotions

M: As the title of your album with Countryman, The Happy Electropop Music Machine, reminds us, cheerfulness seems to be the primary emotional tone in your work. Do you ever feel the urge to create a particularly sad or angry piece of music?

JJP: No, neither sad nor angry. Sometimes romantic or sentimental, possibly dynamic or energetic, yes. But I avoid sadness and anger at all costs. They are destructive emotions. I need to give and be surrounded by kindness, understanding, humour and laughter. It’s just the way I am.

M: You’ve collaborated with, for instance, Luke Vibert. Hearing what modern young electronic musicians—your offspring, in a way—are creating today, is it what you might have expected, 40-odd years ago? Are you pleased, annoyed, confused, bored, inspired—or all of the above?

JJP: Yes, I sensed at the time that music was following a path that was bringing it to what it is today. Of course, I didn’t know exactly what it was going to be like in terms of melody, but I perceived that the nature of the sounds that were going to be used was changing gradually. I made this discovery when I started to use the Moog synthesizer. The Ondioline, which I had exclusively been using until then, can only produce soft sounds. The Moog could produce sharper sounds, and I was of course also aware of the fact that the young generation in the ’60s was making more rhythmic music. So, no, I’m not annoyed nor confused. Nor bored for that matter! I am inspired by today’s music as I suppose that we, composers, all naturally are inspired by what we hear.

Balancing cells

M: Today’s technology allows an artist to assemble their music at an exponentially faster speed than the work involved in say, creating The In Sound From Way Out. This makes life easier for the artist, but is it detrimental to the art itself?

JJP: Well, no, I don’t think it is detrimental to music, but I think it is detrimental to people because of the effect of music on the brain. Many of today’s songs are overloaded with sounds at unreasonable speed. It seems to me that the human brain cannot accommodate so many things so rapidly. And so loud! Besides, many songs are rather brutal, even violent, and I think this can affect our brain in a destructive way, particularly as, sometimes, sounds are used that do not caress our brain in a harmonious way. I think this disrupts the balance in our cells.

M: You’ve also worked with music not for entertainment but for medical purposes, specifically for insomniacs. I think that music is underused as a tool for mental and neurological medicine—what do you think?

JJP: Oh, absolutely! In the same way that certain kinds of music can damage our brains, as I just said before, it can very effectively restore balance in our nervous cells by spreading positive emotions such as calmness, joy, playfulness etc. I am completely convinced of the therapeutic value of music. When I see how people smile at my concerts, it is my utmost reward!

WITH THE UNIREVERSE AND DJ OTIS
FODDER AT CABARET JUSTE POUR
RIRE ON FRIDAY, OCT. 3, 9 P.M., $27