My Education, the San Angelo, Texas, mystics, have been spreading their cosmic vibrations from Canada to South by Southwest since 1999, and they land at Hal & Mal's on Thursday, July 27. Their sound is a beautiful and dark journey through a psychedelic sunset, with pretty melodies and swirling sounds. You'll hear many influences in these lush soundscapes: '80s ambient, krautrock, jazz fusion and psychedelic rock. My Education consists of Scott Telles on bass, Chris Haxstie on guitar, Sean Seagler on drums, James Alexander on viola, Kirk Laktas on piano, Brian Purington on guitar and Sarah Norris on vibraphone.
I asked viola player James Alexander a few questions to get to the center of My Education's constantly evolving sound.
How soon after forming the band did you decide to not have any vocals?
It was maybe just a little over a year. Although the name stuck, the instrumental incarnation of My Education was and is a completely different beast.
Your sound jumps rather quickly from dark and chaotic to calm and melodic. Are your arrangements based on improvisation, or are they more structured?
A bit of both. Songs usually start out with a guitar or piano based chord progression, or with a bass line. We listen to the idea, improvise through it together, and everyone makes suggestions as to how to bring structure to the piece. It's a very organic process for us, and it's always surprising how well we work together. There is usually a lot of discussion, but no arguments. The only time we tend to argue is when it comes to naming a piece.
Is your sound still evolving?
We are definitely still evolving. We've begun working with a new bass player, the legendary Scott Telles of ST37 fame. We've also been fortunate to have the involvement of a hugely talented vibraphone player, Sarah Norris. She appears on the new tracks on Moody Dipper, and has been working with us recording tracks for our next full-length record. We always have our ears open for ways to incorporate new sounds into the mix. Guitarist Chris Hackstie has been adding some really sweet steel guitar of late.
How did the new remix album, "Moody Dipper," come about?
Chris Stiner of Thirty Ghosts Records (they've put out our last two records and re-issued our first) got the ball rolling on this. He thought it might be a really nice idea, and after our shows with Pelican and Red Sparrows last year he started e-mailing around to see if they would be interested. They were, and so was Kinski. In Chris Stiner's own words, "Alap from Dalek just ended up being the coolest man on the planet, so that made four." We had three new songs that seemed like a nice complement to the remix tracks so we threw those in as well.
Learn more about My Education on their Myspace page .
More like this story
More stories by this author
Support our reporting -- Follow the MFP.
