CIRCULAR REFERENCE ICT

CR: For someone who has never been to Knob Fest, how would you describe it?

John: I see Knob as this place for ultimate musical freedom. That's the vibe to me. It doesn't quite get into "noise" territory, although there are elements of noise. It's more like experimental music.

CR: I think most people's first impression, or at least mine was of Knob Fest and stuff I've seen at Fisch Haus is "jazz", but to paraphrase Miles Davis "Jazz is just some made up word."

Yeah, I wouldn't say it's a jazz fest. There are elements of jazz and the performers are predominantly jazz musicians, but there's not anyone up there playing a set of standards.

CR: It's not a festival that seems really rooted in genre

J: Oh yeah, definitely. My approach to this, has been experimental- How do I approach my songs and do it from an experimental angle. It is definitely "genre-less", but then again, it's not a "free jazz" fest. There are elements of "free jazz" for sure.

CR: I listened to your record "Sinking Towards the Shore" on Bandcamp and the tags on it were "ambient, drone, folk" which I had no idea what that was going to sound like. When I listened to it, I was like "Oh, that makes sense" *laughs* I really liked it! It feels like something that was the product of a lot of experimentation.

J: I try to have a sound bed in my music. It's never just straight up folk tunes. I want to put a song and a piece of music encapsulated in an environment- a tangible environment for each song. I kind of got that from Syd barret of Pink Floyd. His solo record, The Madcap Laughs- there's a lot of different genres on there, but each song has this defining element that can be different from the one before or next, yet is still cohesive. That's where the ambient and drone come from in my music. I want each sound to take you to the place in my lyrics or how the music is supposed to affect you.