INTERVIEW WEEK ENDS with Brett Hansen, Lead Guitarist of The Swallows

Brett Hansen is a musician, member of many bands, including The Swallows, and a creative partner to my friends Aaron Kerr, Tyson Allison, Jeff Crandall and Mike Norby  I am grateful to have insight to his musical and creative outlook, and thank him for his time and answers.

What instruments do you play? How did you discover your interest in music?

I mostly play guitar (electric, acoustic, and lap slide). I dabble in vocals, keys, drums and percussion. Started on guitar at around 12. Before that I always loved to sing and study pop songs.  But after starting guitar I quickly realized nothing else really made me happy. I’ve been in a dozen or so bands over the past 30 years, mostly rock, blues, punk, folk, jam band.

Where do you believe musical talents are from? If Mozart and myself, for example, are born equal, what made him a genius in music by age 7 or so, and I can't play any instrument after years in band, and years of piano lessons?  If it is innate, what causes that to rise in some, and crash below the waves in others?

In my own experience, there’s always been a sound or melody in my head and through practice I’ve gotten good at getting it out into the world. I suppose a person like Mozart is/was gifted with a sharp musical mind but I’ve never met a great player who didn’t have to practice a LOT to get really great at their instrument. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something and I believe it. It sounds like Mozart was born into a well to do family and his father was a performing musician so those two factors helped shape his genius as much as any “born” abilities.

What are the skills one needs to develop, if they have the innate talent? If music is a democrat and anyone can learn to be great, what skills would be different to develop?

I’m not sure that “anyone” can learn to be great. I think you have to have the music inside of you AND the determination to put in the practice to get it out and those are two things that don’t necessarily lie within every person. Any person can learn to play an instrument but being “great” or even really good is a different thing entirely.

Vibrato and phrasing are the two most important things to develop on any melodic instrument and no matter how great your ear or your musical acumen you need to put in the time on an instrument to express every nuance and turn your ideas into reality.  

What cultural influences led you to create, what music do you believe had a formative impact upon your art? What art do you love that doesn't add fire to your creative desire to produce?

Tons of artist from western music have informed and shaped my journey so far. Probably too numerous times list but popular music and the more obscure have had equal influence.

Some of my favorite music is stuff from different  cultures and in different languages. Often I don’t know what the lyrics mean in the native language, and at that point the voice just becomes another instrument. You can appreciate the voice purely as sound and not in relation to the lyrics or cultural meaning. My favorites include Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Pakistan) and Ali Farkeh Toure (Mali, Africa) and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (India).

What can society do to enhance the creative arts, and in the field of music particularly? Or, is it in society's best interest to cultivate the arts?

It really has been hard to deal with music basically being demonetized, at least as recordings. It’s made it more difficult especially for the independent artist to recoup recording and mixing costs.  However, the internet has also made it possible for people all over the world to hear your music at the click of a button.

You still can’t get past the thrill of being in a room and hearing someone who can really play/sing do it live in front of you.  So I hope that society just keeps appreciating that. There is so much music out there but there will still be world or cultural events that evoke something new and I hope there will always be musicians reacting to that and giving the world new ways to think about things.  

I've heard numerous creative artists say that their art reflects the locale where they live. Does it work that way for you? If so, how, and why would you say that is so?

For sure, what you see everyday is reflected in what you produce. But with technology you kind of have access to anything you want, so there’s probably kids in inner cities writing incredible reggae or people in the desert writing rap songs. Borders and boundaries mean a little less in the world today, I feel.  

Is being a musician and playing for the public a particularly rewarding experience?  Or is it a struggle? Why do you suggest your answer is so?  

I have always loved performing live, and, I have never really felt pressure or stage fright or anything. Started in jazz band in high school and I think that allowed me to forget the audience and be in the moment with my band mates. So playing live is incredibly rewarding although I often get lost onstage and focus more on the band than the audience. Perhaps “stage presence” is something I need to work on still, 30 years later. There is still a thrill when you play a song or a solo well and at the end everyone applauds and you know you’ve all been witness to something cool and unique. You can always tell when an audience reaction is real versus just “this is where we clap”. There’s that little pause right after the last note and the first clap and you can maybe hear someone say “Yeah!” and that’s what you live for as a performer, to me. That stunned silence for a second is the highest compliment.  

If an artist creates, is that artist's creations akin to a child/offspring, or are you able to create, share it with others and no longer feel a proprietary sense about it?

Songs are a little bit like kids I guess, in that you foster them along and watch them grow from an idea to reality. Maybe they make it big and end up on an album. This idea makes me feel pretty bad though, because it means I’ve had hundreds of kids that I didn’t pay attention to for very long. Some were just a few bars of a melody or idea and maybe another kid came along and made me forget all about Kid 1. Sorry Kid 1, it’s nothing personal. I still have a little memory of you on a cassette from 20 years ago.

What creative medium speaks to you outside of your talent realms? Why would you say so?

I’ve always loved paintings and sculpture, for one because I have never had any talent in that regard and so I’m amazed when someone can do so much and evoke feelings using paint and paper or rock or wood. I wonder if I stuck a guitar front of them if they do do more with it than I could with a paint brush. Probably!  

And sculpture is incredible. Especially when you start with a giant object and work it down into something beautiful. I love the idea that the shape was always there and you’re just carving away the excess bits. It’s kind of like how some songwriters say they occasionally have a song come out of nowhere and it kind of writes itself. Maybe as musicians we are only antennas and we just have to tune it once in a while and highjack the songs out of the atmosphere.

In a perfect world where you are the king of the world, you can create a dream project, utilizing the finest musicians, the finest of studios and producers. What giant project would you attempt? Tell me who would be must haves to be part of the project?

Space opera with strings by John Williams, Hendrix and Shawn Lane on guitars, Jonas Hellborg on bass, Danny Carey on drums, Zakir Hussein on tablas, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on vocals along with PJ Harvey

In a different world, you were born deaf, how would the creative fire in you find a way out?  Or do you think talents can't just move organically?
 
Two words: Sub Bass

With music changing, and money and revenue streams being absolutely different from just 20 years ago, where do you see the ability to make money from music being, in 20 years from now?

Strictly in live performance. Your cd is already just a business card and will continue to be so I’m afraid

The Star Trek franchise show Voyager presented a new world, with an extremely bright race of alien people, who had never imagined music. Just by our own human daily existence, do you think music came after great efforts, or did it bubble forward and happen? Would you suggest that the arts are native in humans and will find a way to express themselves, am I being too presumptive that this human spirit or form has already considered all the arts we might create?

The first drum circle was most likely people banging on rocks and stumps with sticks. I believe humans will/would have always found a way to express their emotions through music.  

How much longer do you hope to play music, and, if you see it going on until you are no longer able or no longer living to play it, do you see attempting new aspects of music, as you fill your musical destiny?

I hope to play until I die or until I’m no longer inspired. I hope death comes first because living without inspiration sounds awful.

Thanks Brett.