David Torn is a tough man to pin down — literally and figuratively. One day he's in his upstate New York project studio as a solo artist/avant- guitarist working on the follow-up to his latest batch of cut-n-paste/jammin'-in-space brilliance known to the world as SPLaTTerCeLL. The next he's headed to a UK scoring stage to record a London Orchestra doing Bollywood-style string parts for a film score he's composed for a big budget Hollywood film [The Order]. Soon after I get a call from him as he steps into the role of producer/remixer of Jeff Beck's most recent album, Jeff, transforming tracks into post-modern, pan-cultural extravaganzas — resulting in a 2004 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the song "Plan B". Of course, this is the same David Torn whose serene, ambient, and finely textured soundscapes have gone on to become über-successful mainstays of the sample CD and film music world.
Weeks pass and the next time I hear from him, he's been summoned to a New York City studio to record guitar for Tony Visconti [Tape Op #29] and David Bowie, who goes on to call David "the Yo-Yo Ma of guitar." By the time I finally catch up with him, he's back at home, preparing to produce a new album for guitar tapping phenom Kaki King, to be followed by another film-score composition assignment [Friday Night Lights]. Of course, he's also trying to squeeze in a favor for a friend by mixing an album for another well-known musician, one of the many who call upon David's talents as guitarist, texturalist, producer, remixer, composer or mastering engineer to grace their projects.
When we finally sat down to catch-up and chat, I did what I always do when I find myself in the presence of this grinning, wise-cracking, forever- excited musical genius: I sit back, smile from ear to ear from the laughter that always follows, scratch my head a few times as I try to figure out what David's come up with next, and most of all, prepare to listen with both ears and both sides of my brain.
On producing/remixing Jeff Beck
So how did your involvement with Jeff Beck come about?
