Interview: Proximity Butterfly

Proximity Butterfly is a collective of artists whose primary members are Chen Du Xi (陈督兮) as drummer, Heather Judson playing bass and Joshua Love singing and playing guitar. Often the expanse of the band entails four, five, or even six people playing instruments from clarinet to pipa to viola, keyboards, sound effects and now even an extra drum kit. We are looking to find a way to expand the band more permanently and try to get a large group of six to play regularly with and be able to do shows and tours. I really like The Mars Volta and like how they have put together a crew of people that can really get into a set list quite naturally. I'd like it to be an experience, the room turns into a place of soul celebration. (So if anyone is interested in playing with us, we have a space on our floor and we're completely down with seeing what can happen.)
People experience so much in their lives and take so much for granted that the music tends to be a natural releasing point for that energy that gets pent up. And it isn't just anger or any typical feeling, but the strength of being human and the aches and grunts of being an animal surrounded by ways we should be and trying to gauge how far you make yourself and how far you are yourself. So, to describe the music as a style is stifling because it is like saying, "what kind of stories do you tell your friends?" You don't really think of it that way. You merely express your thoughts and ideas... sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's powerful, and sometimes it's quiet or funny.
Heather: Our music style is based around people, like in a family kind of way. It's based around the relationship with the people playing. We have sections of the song which are laid out and sections which are improvisational, and our songs can go from 4 minutes to a half an hour. We try not to be controlled by a certain style of music and focus more on telling a story with the songs.

On your MySpace page, you describe Proximity Butterfly as "philosophically-charged" project originating from dissatisfaction with life in North America. Is what ways is the band a representative of a personal philosophy or world view?

It is a personal philosophy in that it is about reviewing ourselves and aiming to bring what seems impossible into reality by finding the right tools to motivate ourselves and be inspired by the problems in the world, the problems in ourselves. We take what we do rather intensely serious or less serious, but our views resort to the energy that unfolds from questions like, "we are here with this environment and these opportunities to do what?" So, we move on those opportunities and aim to bring our own kind of Justice into the picture. I really like history and philosophy and seeing the impact that they have had on the world as well as the impact they didn't have on the world, like when a group of people knows nothing about a specific history, yet wages war on a matter that will bring many innocent people to their deaths. Would history or philosophy have changed this action? It'd be naive to presume that it necessarily would, but I know that the causality of such an interaction between knowing and not knowing re-creates the energy and mysticism in the world, which fuels a plenum of creativity. Our world view is to see the world, and not neglect any part of it in any way. So in a sense we are a band of mystics and seek to shake souls back into the earth not only by playing music, but by living in the raw and embracing those that have the courage to confront the monstrous forces we would otherwise just call life. And philosophy is a kind of magic in that it guides our natural selves by unnatural means, like training and repetition, reading things that are difficult to read, approaching odd difficulties and overcoming them... rekindling the observations of our collective pasts and recreating the mystery that rests in a seed, for example.

From looking at the unique, conceptual band photography, it seems that Proximity Butterfly also has an eye to the visual aspect of performance and audience reception. Could you describe your thinking when putting together photography? How does this compliment the music?

The visual aspect of what we do is just as important as the sound of the music in expressing concepts that are not always so easily expressed with words. The visual is another language in which a whole realm of dimension may be explored through relationships between lines and colors. Our artwork (photography, paintings on fliers and CDs, WebPages, blog layouts, and video) opens another window into the soul of the band and naturally compliments the music as it is just an extension of our artistic ideas. All three of us have our own strong sense of the visual and enjoy collaborating on projects that take our focuses and disperse them into different facets of creation, painting a fuller picture of the ideas that drive us.

When we arrange a photo session, we are always working with friends, people who share aspects of our lives and have both an understanding of the music as well as each of us, bringing a strong element of intimacy into the sessions. We begin the sessions (in our home or in the studio or outside) with a few rough sketches or ideas about what we are going to do, and a pile of clothing, material and semi-random objects that can be incorporated at any point. We then choose an idea and begin moving around, while the photographer shoots as much as he/she likes. In our most recent session, we put on one of Bjork's albums to set the mood. There is no one person conducting or directing and there are no specific "poses", it is more of constant interpretation of an idea of feeling. It feels very natural and we always have a good time. In the end we have hundreds of photos that all seem to be pretty interesting.

Can you describe the audience reaction to a Proximity Butterfly show? What would be the ideal reaction be (if there is one)?

Audience reaction varies depending on many different factors such as venue, time of day, city, size of crowd, weather..... We tend to draw a lot of energy from crowds, so the mood of the show and the mood of the audience create an intense atmosphere, charged with energy. At every show there will usually be at least one or two people who seem to draw deeply into themselves, and really get into it. We always meet good people before and after we play and they are relationships that last. Now, when we revisit different cities around china we have lots of friends to stay with, and there are more and more familiar faces in the crowds, allowing the connection to reach another level. Sometimes it's hard to tell what people are thinking. There are a lot of layers in the music, so people tend to stand there and listen intently, outwardly showing no prominent signs of excitement. But many approach us later talking about how excited they were about the show. Sometimes there are huge crowds of people (300-1000) moshing and dancing and even crying. Each show has its own mood and couldn't be any other way than it is. I like that each show is a unique experience.

It seems that a key focus for the band is communication with the audience on various levels — perhaps metaphysical or spiritual — apart from entertainment. What barriers do you feel exist that would deter this communication? Any smashing successes or crushing failures?

Life is an obstacle illusion. Deterrents are there because they would either be there already or we wouldn't mind them anyway. Often things like "guanxi" influence the managerial aspect of the band, people feeling that schmoozing and big formal meetings about nothing are important, but musically the only major deterrents are making sure everyone is stretching their wings wide enough to feel the freedom that comes from the labor. Sometimes it's hard. We're living month by month and trying to keep things above a certain level, and we are not formally signed to any label so our incomes are affected by the amount of work we have to do inside and outside of the music. I'd like to see this as something that makes us stronger, but there are certain things that would improve the conditions for us collectively if we could spend more time with people and not inside the dark rooms of our house preparing every minute detail of what we feel needs to be done. Maybe this affects how we can interact with people spiritually.

What projects are you currently working on? How can people get a hold of your new album?

We are currently working on the layout for our next album, The Antikythera Mechanism, getting the artwork in order and composing it in a way that is natural to us. All of the recording is finished and mastering is being done. We've listened to it quite a few times and looked for changes that it perhaps needed, adding a saxophone or viola or a subway sound.

How can people get it?... Well, this we don't know yet. We thought of how to release the album ourselves or how to get it out to as many people as possible and as of now, we haven't made a final decision. We will most likely send several copies to places we've played, Mao Live, 2 Kolegas (两个好朋友), D-22 in Beijing, YuyinTang and Live Bar in Shanghai, Vox Bar in Wuhan, Nanjing, Nanning, Guangzhou, Chongqing and places in Chengdu like the Hemp House and the Little Bar. I'd like to get it outside of China as well, Europe, Russia, South America, Africa. If anyone has any distribution ideas we haven't thought of, let us know... we're still brainstorming. Obviously we will find a way to send the album to you personally if you let us know how we can.

How is this album different from your previous recordings?

This album is quite particular because we recorded it together completely live in our house studio without any metronome. And we kept either the first or second take all throughout the album to maintain the energy of a show. Even the singing is all done straight through without any retakes. It's important for the energy to pervade and penetrate rather than simply not making a mistake, so we opted for the pervasive route. Our last albums though done at home either have a rough quality to them or are slightly too much in time... haha. We like tempo changes, and in arcana, our album from last year, everything but the last song had a metronome. It was good for us at the time, but it affected the consciousness of the songs. This time, we wanted to get on the wagon and ride it until the rivets almost busted... and there are very magical moments in this next album.

What is living and playing in Chengdu like? What separates it from other cities in China in terms of playing live rock music?

Chen Du Xi is from Chengdu, and Joshua and I have been living here now for five years, and playing together for almost four years, so we have a lot of history here. When we first arrived in Chengdu we had no idea about the underground music scene that existed here. There was a backpackers bar in town, where "passer-throughers" gathered to exchange travel stories, and there was also a scuzzy meat-market-"foreign-bar" that played trashy music and a lot of random Chinese bars that specialize in karaoke or playing dice or landlord and other drinking games... you walk in and its LOUD Karaoke Superstar Night and not-so-appealing music. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time at home, making our own music and doing other things like reading, going camping on weekends, cooking and having students and friends over for dinners. It wasn't until a year and a half later that we started to discover that there was a small music scene that had been thriving, around a place called The Little Bar, for several years. We got to know the members of the band Ashura, whose singer, Tai Ran, really encouraged us in our endeavors to create a band. We met the right people and started practicing. After a while, when we were ready to perform, it became evident that there just weren't enough places to play. There weren't many people involved in the scene working for places to play. Most people seemed happy with The Little Bar as the place to play... and that was it. So, a lot of the work that we have been involved in over the past years has been trying to support as many people as possible to evolve the already small community into a larger one that helps each other put on great shows and create places for developing artistic potential. This brings us really close to the scene in Chengdu and makes playing here very personal for us. It has come a long way and there are some great people who are always working for a more conscientious impetus to move the air of the city or guide where it can grow. There are more venues, people are putting up there own equipment and skills to put on collective shows, and are working to raise the standards of quality here. What separates it from other cities for us is the fact that our roots are here and there are a lot of people that support us, and whom we support as well. There is potential for more development and the conditions for doing so are becoming better as time goes on.

What is your favorite place to play outside Chengdu? Why?

I personally like Wuhan and the Vox Bar, the people so friendly and giving you a place to crash on the floor; this is an important part of playing anywhere, how the people there accept you. But the most organized place we've played is certainly Mao Live in Beijing; an excellent place to have a show. The sound technicians, staff and advertising crew were just about the best we've experienced hands down in China. Sound check took about 20 minutes and they had projectors and really beautiful lighting. The sound was so clear and there were no bumping of heads. Sometimes setting up in a bar is like being in a Charlie Chaplin movie, everybody's knocking into each other and things fall and break everywhere while everyone's pretending that only THEY know what's going on... funny.

I also liked D-22 a lot. The crew there is pretty stellar. Good conversation and extremely helpful.

What are you expecting from the Rock It festival in Shanghai?

To be honest with you, I don't really know. I looked on the website and didn't learn so much about the festival and only know it's in a water park and we get to play for an hour. This is a key point because normally at a festival in China you can only play for 20 minutes; in the case of Nanjing-8 minutes. We have no idea how many people are planning on going, what the motivation of the festival is or what kind of equipment will be there, but we're mostly excited about just playing and having a good time... It's pleasing to be able to play some shows like this and be exposed to all different kinds of people; and of course seeing more and more festivals popping up is a sign that people are becoming more interested in the art form, the life form.

What's next for Proximity Butterfly?

We are, after the Rock it festival, going to Guiyang for a music festival and planning on spending the summer getting used to new musicians and writing some newer material. We have a slight trick up our sleeves for November, but I'll just leave it as a sleeve-thing. I'm also putting together some more AV for the new album, like the Angelicus D video I recently finished and some other video projects I'd rather you see yourself than hear I'm about to do... haha. You can see the trailer-trailer we put together for "...come to the land of dreams..." a review of our tour and dreams we've had all throughout. We've taken video from the Mao Live show and hashed out what went on during the tour... it's a colorful piece that I'm excited about having ready when its all finished. We're also helping out some bands put together tours and looking for a way to release The Antikythera Mechanism. So, if anyone is in Chengdu and you need a place to play and crash... just ask us... we like that kind of hospitality, a sign of the tribalism of a great tribe.

"Come to the Land of Dreams" Trailer

"Angelicus D" video

Proximity Butterfly's MySpace page

Proximity Butterflly's webpage

Proximity Butterfly are appearing at the Rock It! Festival on the first day of the three day event. They are playing at 8 pm. For the address and the full Rock It! lineup, click here.