INTERVIEW WITH TRAVIS DICKERSON

By Veruca Salt

Besides being one of the coolest guys in the industry, Travis has worked as a producer for a long time and has his own studio –working with many artists like Buckethead, The Plimsouls, L7, Viggo Mortensen , Vince DiCola, Linda Rondstadt and Jethro Tull, among others- and even finds the time to release his own work.

He’s gained more popularity in the past few years (among the general public, anyway) thanks to his project with Buckethead and Ramy Antoun called “Thanatopsis”, which is an eclectic mix of their influences and work styles that gives as a result a work that’s sometimes peaceful and sometimes intense, but always brilliant.

He grew up surrounded by art (His father was a professor of fine arts at Central Michigan University, and is an incredible painter) and you can tell that the guy is in it more for the pleasure than the money; fans know this because they have been witnesses of how he goes out of his way to listen to their opinions, requests and how he’s always putting up slices of new work and brand new albums at his website ( http://www.tdrsmusic.com where you can support the artists and buy great music at great prices).



VS: Travis, I know that you are a very busy man, so first of all I would like to thank you for your time and willingness to do this interview; and I'll also do my best not to cover things that have already been covered in previous interviews.

Since you have been in this business for quite a long time now, what do you think of the current scene? and what do you think it will become of the music industry in the future?

TD: Really, I don't pay attention to the current trends, I never did really but the older I get the less I care. I'm interested in what perks my ear.

VS: You have worked with a wide range of musicians. Is there any "genre" in which you feel more comfortable?

TD: Not really. I'm interested in good ideas or artistic integrity in what ever genre that manifests itself.

VS: Your work with Buckethead in the Thanatopsis project is amazing and so unlike most things that the industry usually pays attention to. Why do you think you got so many new -and in a lot of cases, extremely young- fans because of it? And I don't mean just Buckethead fans that listen to the Thanatopsis albums, I mean people that after listening to that work have become YOUR fans, even if they got to you through Buckethead.

TD: Well that's nice to hear. I'm sure all these new fans are Buckethead fans first. I'm just grateful that some of them like what I do and can hang with some of the different directions I go rather them some of Buckethead’s other works.

VS: Among all of the Thanatopsis songs that you have released so far, which one bears more meaning to you and why?

TD: Final Reparation, Counter Clockwise and particularly Axiology are some of my favorites. Axiology is something I wrote before there was a Thanatopsis and I like the way it turned out with the band. I really enjoyed working with Mozart on Final Reparation, so much so that we are doing it again on the solo CD I'm currently working on.

VS: Are you aware that your work has a fan base in such diverse places like South America?

TD: No, so it's nice to hear.

VS: Will you ever play your work live? Or are you at least thinking about it?

TD: We are always talking about it so I'm sure it will happen some time.We are always talking about doing something live. We all have a lot of other things going so it's hard but I really hope we can do this in the not too distant future.

VS: Is there any artist out there that you would really like to work with?

TD: No, I've been disappointed when working with artists I thought would be great and thrilled while working with some I had no expectations about so I just let it happen.

VS: And I don't want to take any more of your time, so the last would be what do you think of what you've heard of Astor Piazzolla's work*; since you are a great piano player and composer, and Piazzolla is such an Argentinean thing -though sometimes it seems like the rest of the world appreciates him more than we do-.

TD: I really like it. Good music is good music no matter who does it or in what form. It's always just a matter of being exposed to it.

VS:Thank you for your time and if there's anything you would like to say to your spanish speaking fans, please do.

TD: Just Thank you for listening.






* I sent Travis some Piazzolla’s CDs some time ago, since he’s a great piano player and he had told me he wasn’t familiar with Astor’s work.