Your press notes say that you think the new Peeping Tom album is more accessible.Basically I make the damn records and to a certain extent I talk about them after theyre out if people are twisting my arm to. Then whatever goes into the bios is really where I draw the line and give up because, boy, I dont know what to call this shit or whats going to look good in print. So I pretty much leave it up to them and I end up having to talk myself out of it sometimes. But who knows? Accessible? Id agree that its easier on the ear. It is more linear music than a lot of other current projects of mine and its more song form oriented. What all that adds up to is a huge question mark to me, but Ill let you guys decide.When you first started Peeping Tom it seemed like a project that wasnt as big in scope as other things you were doing.Possibly. It laid around on my desktop for a while. I was working on it in my spare time. But thats how all my projects get started, theres no real hierarchy for me. It just depends on if it feels like the season to work on Tomahawk or Fantomas then thats my main focus and other stuff goes to the back burner. You can only focus on so many things at once. This one unfortunately kept getting brushed aside even though in my mind it was something I felt very compelled to do. But it gathered a little bit of dust.Was the fact that Peeping Tom ended up being easier on the ears very organic?Yeah, basically the way I write sometimes is that I just sit down at the desk and start writing. Its the process that Im in love with and then all of a sudden a lightbulb goes off and its done. I knew immediately this stuff wasnt going to fit with any of the other projects I was doing. Once I had ten or 15 pieces that I thought were really strong, I was like, Ok, I guess I better do something with this. Which in my case means start another band, start another project. Theres still some song style adventures left in me and Ive got to explore them. Thats when I started taking it more seriously and started seeing it on the same level as many of my other projects. After that I was able to make time and focus on it.How do you know when one of your songs is finished?Thats a tough thing and the best answer is, you just know. [laughs] The older I get the more conscious Ive gotten of that. Ive realized that one of my weaknesses as a writer is that whether Im writing a strange operatic piece or a groove piece or some long form avante garde collage is knowing when to stop. The trick is knowing when to pull the plug. One of my weaknesses is to really over orchestrate and to overdo it. With this project the challenge was to reel in all of this stuff that Ive learned and experienced over the last few years and cram it into a three minute song that does not stray too far from the path. To make it melodically driven and something that holds your interest and at the same time is not too boring or too linear. For me it was a real delicate balance and quite a challenge to do that.Why is a Peeping Tom song a Peeping Tom song and a Tomahawk song a Tomahawk song?Each one to me is its own little universe. Each one has its own little set of rules and regulations and parameters. The only way I can make sense of my music is to compartmentalize it as opposed to having one band that I have to throw everything into. For me its just more fun and more challenging to create little worlds where a song or a piece can make sense. With Fantomas, for instance, the language that weve developed and that I started out with in mind was, Ok, Im going to use these things that I grew up with like heavy metal, hardcore riffs, things that weve heard before. But Im going to organize them in a really unfamiliar jarring way. Im not going to make songs out of them. Im not going to have lyrics. Im not going to be a traditional singer. My voice is like a second guitar, so there are the basic rules. You can do a lot within that little box and now weve made three, four records; well probably make three or four more.Once I got on the path with Peeping Tom, I realized, ok this is what this project is and this is what its going to be. A lot of times you figure it out as you go along just like life. The longer we live the clearer some things become. With Peeping Tom, like I said before, I realized I wanted to keep everything in a fairly linear song format and that automatically eliminates a lot of extracurricular activities. With Tomahawk thats a whole other beast, thats a whole other universe. Thats more of a traditional rock band but it all starts with Duane Denison, the guitar player. Its his baby, he writes the tunes. My role is much different in there. Im the facilitator so I help him flesh out the tunes and arrange things. Whether I set out to do this or not, each project ends up being its own little world where certain things can happen and other things are impossible.The original movie Peeping Tom is one of my favorite films. Its got this great line, All this filming. It's not healthy.Yeah, they told me you were a film buff and that youd know some lines in that movie.I love that movie so much [laughs].Good man.Did you ever think that what you were doing, maybe unhealthy isnt the right word, but some people would consider the music unhealthy.Well, whatever. Theres a danger in anything that is unfamiliar. Thats the world we live in. People want to be reminded and patted on the back; they want to be told things they already know. Were constantly being fed images and being told what to like and what is good and for the most part, I think people enjoy living that way. It takes a lot of the thinking out of it. Everywhere you look theres someone doing your thinking for you and telling you what to think and when to think of it. So even though this Peeping Tom record, to me, sounds fairly linear, in my universe this is pop music, this is groove music, whatever you want to call it. This is my romantic soul music for crying out loud. What that means in the real world is quite beyond me. I realize this is not Kylie Minogue or The Strokes and I realize that everything that I do is always going to be a little bit of a bastard and its going to fall through the cracks. But I think that good things have a way of finding the cracks and I believe that its our responsibility or at least mine, to find that shit. Thats part of the reason I started a label, to provide a home for some musical misfits and put a roof over our heads.Was there much improvisation with this album?No, not really. The process of the record was strange. It was actually pretty personal and lonely. It was mostly me. Like I do with a lot of projects, I initially thought I would play the instruments so I can communicate what I want to musicians I play with. I do crude homemade versions and they learn it from there since I dont write in the traditional sense with notes on paper. Thats how I do it. So I did that like I do with Fantomas and with a lot of other things. I got used to the sloppy, simple nature of the stuff and I realized I wasnt going to have to hire a band. But one of the main weaknesses was really the programming, which Im just fucking terrible at it. Thats when I realized ok, rather than putting a band in a room and trying to recreate this, Im going to keep these tracks and work with producers, beat makers. Thats something Ive never really done. Also maybe an occasional guest, so thats when I found the path. Since that was what this project was going to be I was going to stick with it no matter how long it takes because the nature of working with 15 different people long distance is one of patience.I read that the idea of having Norah Jones on the album came up when you guys were drinking.Yeah, that was quite the long shot but I threw a line out and she responded immediately. So I would say I got incredibly lucky. A couple of others like Dan the Automator and Rahzel were security blankets. Anytime Im starting something new Ive got to have a couple of known quantities. I knew Id get results out of them and it might spearhead some other people to become interested in it. Beyond that there were a few acquaintances and a few total strangers. What I do is on a song by song basis is think ok, this beat or this approach would be best suited for Amon Tobin or Massive Attack, or whoever. In a lot of cases I was totally wrong.Oh really?Id send a track to Massive Attack and they were like, huh. It was a song that doesnt really even resemble the one that came back to me, which is a good thing. With each tune I sent out a list of instructions basically like, ok dont touch this part. This parts really weak. Maybe try this. I wanted to give them enough direction but also enough space to do what they want and feel like they were involved in the music. In the case of Massive Attack, I sent them something that I thought they would like and they were like hmm. So they remixed it and redid it their way and I was excited by what came back.Will there be a music video for Peeping Tom?Were going to do one. In fact, I already did my part. I should be seeing a rough cut any day now.Who is the director?The director is Matt McDermott and hes an understudy of this friend of mine, Joseph Kahn. He has a lot of good ideas and is really enthusiastic. The video is very low budget. I did my part in few hours but I think itll be nice. It should be pretty funny.You used to do all these shows at The Knitting Factory and Tonic.I still play those places. I think I played Tonic on New Years.Oh really? Maybe theyre not publicizing this stuff enough.Well, you know.What do those small little shows do for you?It depends. Most of those shows youre talking about are either improv based or Im guesting with someone else. If Im going to go up there and make a big racket, Id sure love to do it with somebody else. Theres still a lot to learn and I think thats why I keep playing and working with different people.Do you understand what youre trying to do at this point or do you do the improv to see what it does for you?Well, for instance on this Peeping Tom record, my goals are that I want to work with all these guys but also I want to learn how to program. I want to get something from this and I did get some pointers. I realized how little I do know about this and how skewed my approach really was. When you improvise with anyone, its an exchange of ideas that is instantaneous and you got to really think on your toes. It teaches you about composing instantly for the moment. I did a few shows at the Japanese Society a few days back with a bunch of Japanese improvisers, mostly vocalists.That must have been fun.Oh it was really a blast. Eye from The Boredoms was there and a few other people. Again youre in a church, youre up there just trying to fit in and I believe the closer you are to this stuff, even spending an hour with some of these cats, by osmosis you learn things. The way I learned music was by listening to records, watching movies, listening to the soundtracks and then also by doing. I think that the more input you have, the more output you have by default.The great fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta, had a stroke a few years ago and is now unable to use his right hand, which hes been drawing with for decades. He has had to learn how to draw using his left hand for the first time. Some of the pictures Ive seen him do with his left hand are amazing. I know that you have a similar problem after destroying the nerves in your right hand, how are you doing with it?Oh man, I didnt know anybody knew about that. But its not that big of a deal. There was a period where it was a very big deal, where I had to learn how to do everything with my left hand. Play basketball, brush your teeth, masturbate, all that good stuff. In terms of writing, thats changed a little bit, I still have the movement but the feeling is not there. Im just so damn used to it now. But lets just say Ill be writing on guitar. Ill be playing and playing and everything will be fine and then maybe Im recording or something and all of a sudden it wont be sounding quite right. Ill look down and the pick will have fallen out of my hand and Im playing with my fingers but it feels the same. So thats a little example of how different that can be. You go, oh shit. Whoops and I put the pick back in my hand. But I wouldnt say that its affected my writing in any other sense but physically. Its hilarious because the doctors told me that I wouldnt get the movement back but Id get the feeling back. They were 100 percent wrong and Im glad they were wrong because Id rather be able to move the fucking thing.I read that you just collaborated with a choir in Italy.Yeah, I did. It wasnt my piece, it was a piece by this composer Eyvind Kang from Seattle. We put one of his last records out on Ipecac, which was another classical piece. This one we did in Italy is a real ambitious piece. It has a 30 piece choir, brass quartet, couple guitars and then two soloists. I was one of the soloists. Again that was a learning experience because I never sang without a microphone before. We were in an opera house in Italy and I had to really project. I had to step up to the plate because these guys were all professional singers that had little tuning forks and were reading music and there I was flopping around on stage like a dead fish. [laughs] It was fun and I think it came out good. We did a recording that I cant wait to hear.Do you have any desire to write a choir piece now?Not yet, but theres a few little orchestral things on the horizon for me. A couple of things with Fantomas possibly and then also Im arranging old Italian pop tunes. I think will be a good way to get my feet wet.Is the movie you scored, Pinion, set to come out?I havent even started composing yet because it got held up in production and it hasnt started filming yet. Its way on the backburner and Im just waiting for them to call and say hey, weve got a movie, start writing.How did you get involved with that?The director [Melanie Lee] was a friend of a friend so they sent me a script which I liked so I met with her and that was it. But I think even if I hadnt liked the script I would have probably tried it because Im really curious about composing for film. Its something Ive always wanted to try and really never had many opportunities so Im psyched to get going on it.Do you know in advance what instruments you would use to score?It depends on the script and what sounds I need. I started scoring a short film that Im halfway done with. Im behind of course and the instrumentation for that is all over the map. At times it sounds like I wrote a little fake aria for an opera. I wrote a 30s swing piece and theres another piece thats maybe 30 seconds long that is perfectly timed to a scene where guys are in a car and flipping the dial on the radio. Thats like 30 genres in 30 seconds. The way I would approach it is the same way I do with any project. What do I want it to sound like? Then you write down a list of instruments and then youve got to find people to play them or play them yourself.Do you have any desire to direct anything yourself?Doubtful. I got enough problems.I watched the trailer for Firecracker a couple days ago.I dont know if Ive seen that trailer. How is it?It looks really wild.Its pretty wild looking. The script is all over the place and the acting, present company included, is a little spotty. But man it looks great. Ive only seen it in its entirety once and its quite a rollercoaster ride. It is half black and white, half color. It jumps off the screen, its really beautiful.Do you want to do more acting?Well see. The reason I did that is because the situation was so incredibly perfect. It was a combination of coincidences that it made it impossible for me to say no. I knew the director, the script was good, a few people in the movie were really working me about it and I had free time. It was just like, Damn, should I really try this? Yeah, why not? What have I got to lose? It wont be the first time I look like an idiot in front of a lot of people.What do you know about SuicideGirls?Its funny because Ive never been to the site. All I really know about SuicideGirls is that every time we play Portland or Seattle, there are a few really obnoxious punk rock girls that come backstage yelling that they are SuicideGirls and they want to drink all our beer. Thats pretty much my experience right there.