If these are American-made genres of music, local musician Evan Fricke likely played in a band that specialized in those genres. He handled the low end in bluegrass and jazz, rockabilly and blues bands, and even played hip-hop entertainers on bass.
These bands have included The Big’ns, Salt-Lick Scramblers, One Roof Blues, Diabolical Sound Platoon, and the McCurry Organ Trio, among others. Currently, Fricke plays in the groove-jazz group Lizard Head Quartet. But when recording his own original material, he veered away from all American roots-inspired music, instead writing, producing and recording a mix of stumbled loungey funk with psychedelic and electronic leanings. The next release from The Evan Fricke Experiment is “Fract-Orbit-Al-Groove”, a 10-song release that features Fricke in the company of experimental groove musicians Tommy Guerrero, Ray Barbee or The Mattson 2, a laid-back release ripe for the Sunday morning hangover, listening to or closing the club, going cross-country or even recording a skateboarding, surfing or snowboarding video.
A first listen and you would spin under the jazz. However, Fricke does not consider himself a jazz musician, admitting that he is “not on that level”.
It’s up to you to define his music.
‘You’ll have to tell me,’ said Fricke. “It’s interesting to be on this side of music, especially what I’ve been trying to do for 18 years recording stuff on my own. It’s hard for me to define it or know what it is. As a music listener I can say ‘this is reggae, this is country’ but I like the person listening to what I’m creating wondering ‘what is this? ?’ Everyone hears different things, just as we see the world differently.
One thing you can categorize him as a do-it-yourself/DIY guy. A self-taught sound engineer, all of Fricke’s past releases were recorded in-house, on found or borrowed equipment, with artwork stitched together without the aid of digital technology, but with the help of friends.
“I’m usually about 10, 20, 30 years behind in technology, because I usually find things. I found recording devices, and I make them work, then I make them work for me. And historically, I used to cut album covers with a razor blade on a template. Do the covers, ask friends to do the layouts, ask friends to do the illustrations. Cut with an X-Acto knife, fold in the right places, glue, burn the disc. We are not talking about mass production. It’s more about creating it, making a piece of art, closing the chapter and distributing it to my friends,” he said. “And it’s more of a diary, it’s always been a diary from day one. A sketchbook of how I feel, thinking in the moment based on what’s going on around me, and trying to put it in writing, then one day maybe say, “Hey, I’ve got this whole catalog of songs” and here comes this group of people who want to play stuff with no expectations.
Having no expectations, Fricke creates his own definition of the music industry, where he releases a limited number of releases for those interested in his sounds that exist in his version of the company – and his release has perhaps was created as an antithesis to the “business side” version of the “music business”.
“I used to be in four bands at a time sometimes, five bands at a time, trying to make $20, $50, $100 and that’s a good way to put pressure on yourself to get better. , to learn 50 songs in a week and understand your learning process, and learn to take notes on songs, that kind of thing,” Fricke said. money and I tried to make it work, while having other jobs and that kind of stuff, and now there’s this relief.”
“Fract-Orbit-Al-Groove” is slated for release the first week of October.
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and station manager KDUR. Contact him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.