From Zenith, issue unknown, circa 1991-92, pp. 18-19:
Interviews: Nightcrawlers
by Carl Jenkinson
Relatively unknown in the UK, the Nightcrawlers have developed quite
a following in the US. Carl Jenkinson catches up with founder member
Peter D. Gulch to find out more.
CJ: How did you become interested in music and especially EM?
PDG: All the members of the band (i.e. myself, my brother Tom Gulch, and
Dave Lunt) had been exposed to various music forms from fairly early in
childhood. However, it wasn't until the early 70's that we first started
hearing such works as 'Cyborg' by Klaus Schulze or 'Phaedra' by Tangerine
Dream, and we were all impressed significantly by these works. Not too
sure how we came to listen to these, we all listened to quite a variety,
so maybe it happened by accident. What is certain is the profound
influence the music had on us all. It awakened some strong yearning to
hear more of it, and for many years, we went to great lengths to collect
and listen to works by all the newly emerging synth luminaries.
CJ: Did you have any musical training?
PDG: Up until the time we started the band, none of us had any musical
training at all. After we started messing around with the first early
synths, we decided to get some formal training. Tom and Dave both took
piano lessons, and I studied music theory and composition for two years.
I personally don't have any technical training and basically taught
myself how to play.
CJ: How did the Nightcrawlers get started?
PDG: Well, with all this special music around, which we couldn't seem to
get enough of, we decided to try for ourselves. We went out and bought
one of the first synths on the market, and ARP Axxe. We started messing
about on it and getting to understand basic synthesis. This is what
prompted us to get some form of training -- we wanted to move beyond
sound effects. Around 1980, we decided to form the band with its present
name, the reason being that we had been invited to a local music festival
and we needed to call ourselves something!
CJ: Tell us about your early cassette releases.
PDG: In the early days, we focused primarily on playing live and jamming
to come up with ideas. We were also learning a great deal about
synthesis and music, so we didn't concentrate on the recording end until
much later. Basically, what we did was to put a 'Boom Box' with simple
build-in condenser mics on a ledge in an old garage, and recorded
everything live as it happened. These recordings were not the best, but
they were generally acceptable to my ears. Some of them have been
criticised for poor sound quality but on a moderate stereo system, they
were not too bad.
I began to save all of these and then edit and compile them to make
tapes up. Originally, they were just intended to be idea tapes and I
didn't realise at the time that I would be selling them to the public!
CJ: And then you released an LP?
PDG: Yes, in 1983 we recorded our first LP 'Nightcrawlers.' We had been
encouraged by friends to do this because they thought we were sounding
pretty good. It was a new venture and we all thought we could learn a
lot by doing it. The LP was well received and we did two more albums
after it, 'Spacewalk' and 'Shadows of Light.'
CJ: Did you play live?
PDG: Yes, we played many, many concerts. During the peak of interest in
this type of music, we played 7 or 8 concerts a year. We don't play live
as the 'Nightcrawlers' anymore, though. My brother had many medical
problems with his back and he can't get around too well. I personally
have been doing more concerts with Xisle.
CJ: How did you become involved with Xisle?
PDG: Xisle was the brainchild of Chuck Van Zyl and my brother. We had
met Chuck during a live radio broadcast from WXPN-FM at the University of
Pennsylvania and he became friends with us. Chuck was a DJ on the
program called 'Star's End.' He was very keen on synth music and wanted
to learn more, so my brother started to work with him and they formed the
band. Xisle went through several transformations and eventually wound up
in its present form of Chuck Van Zyl, Dana Rath and myself.
CJ: And you've also worked with Canadian synthesist Steve Brenner?
PDG: Yes, I met Steve at an EM performance in New Jersey. We struck up a
friendship and decided to work together through the mail, i.e. exchange
tapes and such. We've released two works together, so far, 'Stellar
Tunnel' and 'A Dark Hour for History.' Steve's a really good guy. I
haven't heard from him in awhile . . .
CJ: Is synth music popular in the USA?
PDG: I think that synth music has never been popular in the styles that
we are talking about, i.e. Klaus Schulze or TD. There are small clusters
of EM fans here and there, but I dare say that this style isn't very
popular with them. The only time you ever hear EM of this type is via
the college radion stations.
No mainstream station has ever played any Schulze that I know of.
It always amazes me that Klaus can release so many albums and yet nobody
over here seems to have ever heard of him. How can he sustain the
finances?
CJ: Tell us about the other acts on the Synkronos label.
PDG: Originally, I started the label for publishing rights to my own
works. Chuck Van Zyl came up with the idea for adding other artists.
Currently, we have Xisle, the Nightcrawlers and Art Cohen, plus, each
band's members have released several solo efforts.
Art Cohen works primarily with guitar loops and effects. The rest I
think you could lump into the 'space music' genre. There was also a
compilation out that included a few other artists.
CJ: Whose music do you rate nowadays?
PDG: Two of my favourites are John Serrie and Michael Stearns. Both of
these guys are doing wonderful 'space music' which is the type I like
best. I would highly recommend any works by these artists for fans of
ethereal floating music.
CJ: Have any members of the band released solo works?
PDG: Yes, all of them have. Tom has released a work entitled 'Somnility'
and Dave released "The Formation of Dreams.' I have released two works,
'Floating Premonitions' and 'Cybernetic Dancing.' If any of your readers
are interested, we put out a sampler tape of all these works, plus an
excerpt from one of our live shows, called 'Alone After Dark.'
CJ: Some of your albums are recorded live. Do you prefer to record this
way?
PDG: I personally like live recording as opposed to multitracking. I
like to play live and jam with other musicians. I am not a studio
person; I can't stand going over tracks many times. But that's just me.
I like the spontaneity.
Dave and Tom, on the other hand, like multitracking, so nowadays we
do most of the track work on a computer. After listening to the track a
few times, making minor corrections here and there, we play the whole
thing live directly to tape. This is the way we did 'Barriers.'
CJ: Tell us more about 'Barriers.'
PDG: We released it just this past year. It's a double cassette album.
We decided to go with cassette because of the cost. We couldn't afford
to do a CD at the time (some hard times have encroached on us all). The
music on 'Barriers' is quite different from our earlier work. I suppose
all musicians go through some type of evolutionary process and their
works are always changing.
A lot of the material on the album was played by hand, although with
some of it you may think a sequencer is in control. This happened
because of the new way we are working directly to tape.
CJ: And [in] the future -- would you release a CD?
PDG: The future is pretty much open. I don't think we will be doing any
more live concerts, owing to my brother's back problem. However, I would
not strictly rule this out. We all still continue to record and compose
music but we have not played together for awhile. We would like to do a
CD, but only when we can afford it.
On the other hand, I will be releasing a CD with Chuck Van Zyl that
is going to be pure 'space music,' although I hope it will appeal to all
fans of Electronic Music. Recording work has commenced already. It is a
very conceptual album with one main theme. Should be out sometime in
1993. [This album is Regeneration Mode, and is based on the cybernetic
baddies known as "the Borg" -- from the Star Trek: the Next Generation TV
series and the Star Trek: First Contact film. In fact, the cover of the
CD looks like a Borg "cube," and the track titles are named after story
elements of Borg-related episodes of the TV series --Steven Feldman]
This page first constructed by Steven Feldman
<scfeldman@juno.com>
4/23/00. Last update: 10/17/01.
