Glider are Gavin Baker (Billy Mahonie) on Bass and Guitar, and Pascal Asselin
(Kazumi FX and Below The Sea) on Drums. Arne Kittler from German band Jullander
introduced the Brit and Canadian to each other via email. After some conversing
and tape sending they got onto the topic of recording together, Gavin told
Pascal that sometimes Howard from Billy Mahonie recorded himself drumming and
gave Gavin the tape of the drumming to which Gavin would add guitars and basses
and construct a coherent piece of music. Pascal loved the idea and in May 1999
he sent a tape of him drumming, which Gavin then went to work with it on an
8track recorder belonging to The Clientele.
As you’d expect the music’s kept fairly simple although Gavin sometimes
drifts off into his own little world, despite their minimalistic approach the songs have great
emotion and feeling in them. There aren’t any noticeable highlights as each
song is incredibly unique which is probably because of the duo’s diverse taste
in music. ‘The Old Moke’ is almost Mogwai-esque with it’s start/stop
dynamics and thunderous guitars, ‘The Time For Order’ features intricate
guitar noddling like Papa M, while ‘You Wish You Never Came Out Of The
Ocean’ is a Post Rock/Electronica crossover and reminds me of Tortoise’s
finer moment(s).
After a year or so of emails Gavin and Pascal finally met each other this
year "in July when Pascal visited UK for a week or so. We played
together for the first time. It is a lot easy working with someone who is not
there after you have met them. Before meeting it was like 'I am working with
someone whom I know nothing about'. It is strange when you think about it"
he then goes on to say, "It was very nice, I made sandwiches… cheese
and tomato with celery. They arrived very late from Belgium and were tired. I
then made a very poor stir fry the next day, which I still feel very apologetic
about. However we saw At The Drive in at The Underworld in Camden and that
seemed to make up for it".
When asking Gavin if he'd recommend this concept to others he replied, "Yes,
I enjoy it. It gives me a lot of scope to be creative and free with how I play
in my own space. I love making the music because I don't have to think about it.
Sometimes that shows, sometimes it comes out perfect" and who would he
recommended to team up “Mark Beazley from Rothko and my friend Darren
Porter in Melbourne” Darren Porter? “In 1994 Howard Monk (current
Mahonie drummer) and I played with Crawford Blair from Rothko/Geiger Counter and
spent some time looking for a singer. Darren was one of the singers we worked
with and although nothing survived and Darren went back to Melbourne we became
firm friends. He was in a band called Pollen for a while and then Toy Otter
but now is designing T-Shirts!!”.
The duo have mixed views on whether this project will affect their
future music "I don't know, I don't really have a long term
view of anything, too busy with today" says Gavin while Pascal thinks
"Glider will affect the rest of my music for sure as it changed my way of
writing drum parts and I'm sure that if we have time to continue the duo it will
be better as I will get some new fresh ideas".
As for future releases "Gavin is working on our first album now as I
sent him the beats which will come out around March here in Canada on Where Are
My Records, and hopefully in England on another label. I like to dream we will
play live one day, just a couple of gigs and hopefully put out other stuff in
the Fall 2001". If you can't wait till then buy these:
Title: Constante Degredations
Label: Johnny Kane Records (KANE 005)
Songs: Constante Degredations
Release Date: Out Now
Title: First Push of The Rolling Pram
Label: Roll Push Move Records (RPM01)
Songs: The Old Moke
Release Date: December 2000
Also includes: The Oedipus, Stanton, Jet Johnson, Riccane and others
Title: They Call Themselves Glider
Label: Bearos Records (Bearos 017)
Songs: Look What's Ahead, Koh!
Release Date: December 2000/Early 2001
