Fred Weaver talks about himself:
I tell you what... I don't know anything about how to really do
this promo shit right and I refuse to talk about myself in the third
person. But, hey... I guess it's the fucking business. Enjoy...
I am a 25-year-old musician who lives in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. As a teenager in Pennsylvania I played guitar with a
post-hardcore band called Blowout Kit. In 1994, I moved to New
York City to join the noisy "mathrock" band Vineland. After
Vineland's dissolution in 1996, I formed Reddy Kilowatt, a more
aggressive and complex band that might be said to exist to this
day (though, I will admit, currently in two relatively distant states
of the union). I also played bass in the more pop-oriented combo
Cotillion for awhile in New York. Along with records by
Blowout Kit, Cotillion and Vineland, I have played guitar on two
records with my brother James' Ohio-based Ceramic Torment
and have played drums and a little guitar on two records and
several compilation spots with my childhood friends in Clearfield,
Pennsylvania's WORF.
In the fall of 1997 I moved to New Orleans, where the bulk of
Present Dusk was written, and at the beginning of 1999 I moved
back to my birthplace of Baton Rouge to spend more time on
writing (my other hobby) and recording music. In April of 1999,
I joined my friends in the Chapel Hill based band Cole as a
touring second guitarist. We played a few shows at the end of
April and I will be playing on a more extensive tour in July with
them.
Present Dusk is my first solo record. Iím hoping to tour the East
Coast and Midwest in the fall, but have yet to determine a real
strategy of how to do so. Play coffeehouses with my racket?
Play clubs and not be loud enough to cover the talking? I guess
Iíll sort it out. Iíve even thought for awhile that Iíll just play
VFW shows to all the DIY kids. Oh my, oh my... where to find
an audience? Early next year, I will release a record that will be
comprised of some of the unreleased Reddy Kilowatt material as
well as some new acoustic and electric songs. Iím hoping to have
the record feature guest appearances by my many important
friends (OK, OK, important to me), but so far the only people
signed up are the drummers... Jerry Fuchs (who I know from our
stints in Vineland and Reddy Kilowatt and who currently plays in
the Turing Machine) and Darren Zentec (One-time Ceramic
Torment, Donora and Kerosene 454 drummer).
I have also worked as an engineer on many records. Iíd guess
that, between various studios (mostly my own) in Brooklyn,
Pennsylvania and Baton Rouge, I have recorded more than 200
different projects with over 100 different bands. A lot of those
were relatively generic hardcore/punk bands, but I've done some
"serious" records, too. You might have come across some of
them or seen my name around... I don't know.
I am also working on a 10-year (1988-1998) semi-fictionalized
narrative history of Clearfield, Pennsylvania tentatively called
Further Downstream the River. It will focus on the incredibly
high number of murders, suicides, drunk driving accidents and
sexual escapades I know about in that beautiful Appalachian
town. I also write short stories and have thought about writing a
series of stories about my résumé... Aside from recording bands,
Iíve held a wide variety of jobs. Iíve been elected a Pennsylvania
State Constable, drawn organizational charts during the Bell
Atlantic/NYNEX merger, built tape silo robots for NASA and
have worked as an audiovisual technician at the New Orleans
Convention Center (the latter of which, oddly, has given me the
strangest stories).
Other than that... I read a lot, drink far too much Coke and try to
experience as much as I can... none of which seem to cure
loneliness or problems, but they really do make life much more
enjoyable. Some might think that is a sappy thing to say, but ah
whatever... I don't care... I'm completely comfortable with who I
am.
Fred Weaver talks about his record, Present Dusk:
Ah shit... I don't know where this record came from. I mean, I
canít even think of a way to describe some of the songs. Is it
aggressive acoustic rock music with no rhythm section? Thatís
the one Iím going to use today. Anyway... I guess the record is
just a product of my circumstances in that I moved to New
Orleans from New York City in September of 1997 and couldn't
really find anyone with the right mind to play my brand of
melodically dissonant and rhythmically sophisticated punk rock.
So... I ended up playing more acoustic guitar and started writing
more songs meant to be performed as acoustic songs. I've always
written songs on the 12-string, but a lot of them were then taken
to the electric and given a whole new life. This time, I stayed with
the 12-string and decided to explore a ìsimplerî side of the
music I write. I've always written busy songs, trying to fit as
many parts into a song as possible. A conscious decision was
made to temper those tendencies. I don't know... I guess that I
like the result, or I wouldn't have had it released. Sometimes I
think it is really strange for everything to be pushed so hard in the
context of an acoustic guitar and vocals recording, and Iíd
imagine that a lot of people will think that when they hear this.
Hopefully someone will get something out of these songs... I put
a lot into them.
The best I can say is that making this record was a learning
experience and I feel that perhaps I have in some way stretched
the realm of "folk" music or something... pushed it into more
aggressive territory. Maybe that isn't such a good idea... but, hell,
you don't know until you've tried. I guess I've given it my own
spin and to me that is the highest praise I can think to give the
musicians I look up to... At the same time, however, I guess Iíd
also have to point out that Present Dusk is in large part an
anomaly. I donít think Iíll make another record that sounds like
this. The next one is mostly electric and more melodic and far
more representative of what I consider my musical style to be.
Fans of Present Dusk, I'm sorry if that disappoints any of you...
Otherwise... Enjoy.
Fred Weaver
6.24.99
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