Eugene Chadbourne Interview

Chadbourne submits to an interview.

Most fields of work require a form of safety code, rules to be followed for protection, fire drills to practice, and so forth. Music is not one of these fields. Or at least, it shouldn’t be, according to the philosophy of Dr. Eugene Chadbourne.

“I have always desired moving beyond this feeling of safety in music where the person listening can always predict what is going to happen,” the guitarist/ banjo player and singer wrote to the DI by e-mail. “Where the music is going in terms of harmony and rhythm, no note is out of place and everything is perfect … It makes my hair stand on end. Have you seen my hair? It is not a pretty sight.”

Chadbourne has been an active musician and, thus, an active participant in his philosophy of pushing boundaries since the 1970s, when he began playing in New York City with avant-garde saxophonist and fellow composer John Zorn.