Daevid Allen

by a.d. amorosi

Daevid Allen left his native Australia in 1960 to seek out Beat adventures and twisted guitar signatures. By the end of the decade, Allen had worked with William S. Burroughs, loop guru Terry Riley, helped form prog-rock progenitors Soft Machine (and therefore practically all other "Canterbury" acts like Pink Floyd after that) and developed a unique "glissando" guitar technique with stainless steel gynecological instruments. But it was the free-feeling, free floating space hippie-ness of Gong that was his renown, a shifting band of post-psychedeliacs — Gilli Smyth (space whispers), Didier Malherbe (reeds), Steve Hillage (guitar) — making merry magic filled with ancient and imagined mythology. The cult of Gong is like that of the Grateful Dead, only smaller, cleaner and funnier. Allen reinvented himself as a space-punk pioneer through the ’70s and ’80s with New York Gong starring young’ins Bill Laswell and Kramer, Gong guy Pip Pyle and Soft Machine’s Hugh Hopper. He has also been acknowledged by the likes of The Orb and 808 State, on remix projects like Gongyouremixed, as one of ambient-techno’s innovators. Now 62, Allen (who tours the U.S. regularly with Gong offshoots or solo storytelling jaunts) has found a leaner, harsher sound. With members of San Fran’s marvelously psychedelic Mushroom (whose Analog Hi-Fi Surprise was one of last year’s best) and drummers from Stomp, Allen’s University Of Errors has made two distinct albums of avant-rock bliss, Money Doesn’t Make It and the soon-out e2X10=tenure (innerSPACE).

How did you hook up with Mushroom in the first place?

Through Michael Clare [UoE’s bassist/producer/manager]. He had been Magick Brothers’ [Allen’s digeridoo trio] and Gong’s road manager for the longest time. Actually, he’s my beer guru. He’s introduced me to the most amazing new beers. Even though I’m from Australia, I’ve come to believe American beer is the best beer in the world. In these bars where we would discuss the plight of the world over these wonderful new beers we one day came to the conclusion that I should jam with this band he was involved with but that I had never met or heard. So one night, after visiting with Terry Riley I drove like lighting to play with them. The next day we wound up in a crumbling squat studio, jamming for 12 hours straight. That next morning, as I was leaving for Australia, I stopped by the studio, dropped vocals and that was that.

How do the guys in Mushroom, the drummers from Stomp or any of your young players compare to the original Gong?

We have a guy in his late 20s, a guy in his late 30s, a guy in his late 40s and a guy in his early 60s; that’s four generations of people playing together. So unlike the Gong of the ’70s, where we were each other’s age, here you’ve got cross-generational flavors and experiences. This experience is more like New York Gong where you had an American band with a distinct American attitude and humor. Everyone wants to imagine this moment as akin to the good old days. That’s the problem with having a band for thirty years. People want to relate it back to the beginning. That’s completely irrelevant. I strip my memory every Tuesday. So I remember nothing beyond last week.

e2X10=tenure has a far more linear feel than anything you did beyond last Wednesday. Why so bare?

The older I get the more minimalist I get, the more appreciative of space I become. Like Thelonious Monk I play the silences…. Some of my bands, like this one, are aspects of shadow where the original Gong was a temple of light. You’ve got to have both shadow and light.

What do you think is the one constant that runs through everything you’ve done since you left Australia?

It’d have to be a spiritual constant. That’s essential. If I wasn’t doing this as a spiritual quest I wouldn’t bother.… Of course I don’t mean religion. I don’t give a damn about religion. I’m talking about the life force, the sexuality of the planet, the vitality. It’s an invisible teaching, really. If it doesn’t have that learned vitality, a conscious working of that energy, why would you bother? So people can admire you?

Daevid Allen’s University of Errors will perform Thu., Aug. 17, with Need New Body at The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888, visit www.universityoferrors.com.