This video is also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4b9edzSSSdI
When I saw that one of my favorite local bands, The Hominoids, were booked to be an opening band for mssv (Main Steam Stop Valve with Mike Baggetta, Mike Watt and Stephen Hodges) at my local tavern, I thought it would be an interesting interview to get the guitar players in each band to have a conversation about improvisation. Both bands lean heavily on improv. Each guitarist comes from a very different background on paper. Mike Baggetta of mssv was raised on the east coast. Jake Firmin of The Hominoids on the west coast. There’s almost a generation separating the two. What I discovered during the interview is that for some, improvisation just comes naturally.
The experiences these two had growing up with music was remarkably similar. It was also remarkably different from my own. Like them, I came from a musical household. Like them, my Dad played an instrument. And like them, I was exposed to lots of jazz and rock before I even knew what those things were.
Unlike them, when I wanted to play guitar at about the age of 7, I was told to take lessons. There would be no screwing around with the instrument outside of those lessons. This went on for about two years. All I wanted to do was play Beatles songs. All I remember playing was “Moon River”.
The lessons thankfully ended when my family moved across the country. I still had the guitar. I started writing my own songs. I recruited my little brother to play bongos and we became The Termites. We wrote AND recorded one song …. “We Are The Termites!”. My guitar playing days soon came to an end and I found myself back in the lessons trap playing my Dad’s saxophone in junior high.
There was still no hint of improvisation in my life. My last memory of playing the sax was at a summer band camp. We trudged through the notes on the page for a couple of hours a day. I was so sick of this near the end of that camp that I guess I lost my mind. As the large band played through the piece yet again, I just gave up on the notes on the page and started playing whatever I wanted. It was more of a protest, or a tantrum than a moment of freedom. I remember the kid next to me looking at me like I was insane.
My desire to play an instrument was not completely snuffed out yet. At the age of 21 I moved to a new town, had my own place and decided to try again — WITH MORE LESSONS???!! Was I brainwashed? Fortunately, I snapped out of that soon enough and once again started writing songs. Now it was becoming fun. Now I started to have some of the experiences that Mike and Jake talk about in the interview. I would soon be having a great time playing noisy improv with others. But for me, improvisation did not come naturally.
Why is that?
I mentioned that Mike and Jake are about a generation apart, Jake being the younger. Well, I’m about a generation older than Mike. This means that both Mike and Jake had exposure to punk rock in their youth that I did not. I was raised on Beach Boys and Beatles and eventually prog. My notion of improvisation was mainly from guitar solos performed by some of the greatest guitarists of all time. No chance I could do that in my youth, or ever!
I think the post-punk generations were given a gift of freedom in how they could approach playing music. NYC had its No Wave explosion. Similar scenes were growing elsewhere. I would eventually get involved in the San Francisco scene, AFTER I got exposed to punk rock.
Long live punk.
During the interview I was a bit surprised how similar Mike and Jake’s experience with improvisation was while they were growing up. For them it was as natural as picking up the guitar; something I haven’t done in a long time.
Enjoy the interview. I learned a lot, and I’m super excited to see these guys play at my tavern in the coming days.
MATINEE MADNESS *** The 4th Kind/The Hominoids
Date: September 8, 2023 4:00 pm
Venue: Winters Tavern
mssv/The Hominoids/Operation C
Date: September 13, 2023 7:00 pm
Venue: Winters Tavern
Related Stories
Thanks to Mike Baggetta and Jake Firmin.
mssv
The Hominoids
Winters Tavern
Video Intro Music
I Am Not A Data Point by mssv (Baggetta, Hodges, Watt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt1FVByjZjY
Video Outro Music
Untitled Song by The Hominoids
Mike Baggetta (mssv) and Jake Firmin (The Hominoids) talk improvisation.