Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

by Zoe Banks, BAVC Training Advisor

Since 2001, Christopher Willits has taught audio classes including Pro Tools, Ableton Live and Max/MSP/Jitter, at BAVC. He has toured internationally with his ground-breaking, genre-defying solo releases and critically-acclaimed collaborations . His most recent collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, titled “Ocean Fire”, releases this week on 12K. In the first installment of the new BAVC Interview Series FOCUS, training advisor Zoe Banks sits down with Mr. Willits on a rainy Friday to discuss BAVC, Barack, Bernal, and the moons of Jupiter.

Tell me about BAVC…

BAVC’s amazing. If you look at the way the audio department’s evolved in the last 7 years it’s amazing. When I first started working at BAVC in the beginning of 2001 I was a grad student at Mills and Sharon Cheslow (former member of Chalk Circle, first DC all girls punk band) was teaching and invited me to come help out at an experimental sound class, a pilot class, or demonstration. I don’t really remember the specifics. But after that the education coordinator, Chris Gee invited me to come in and do an Intro to Digital Audio class and I was like “hell yeah”.

Did you have experience teaching before that?

I was teaching in grad school they were paying me to do TA stuff, that’s how I went to school. And in undergrad at KCAI I was teaching people how to record and use the audio stuff and the Pro Tools v.3 system we had in there. So Chris Gee and I just started to build new classes. We made the voiceover class, the post production, Max/MSP. It was really cool. There was this huge need for new audio classes, and I was passionate about diving in and making it all happen. Both Chris Gee and then Wendy Levy were really receptive to trying to build the audio program into something unique. Now, no other non-profit in America has the diversity of audio classes that we have at BAVC thanks to our collaboration in all of this. It is really awesome. There’s definitely no non-profit where you can get this kind of audio training, let alone state subsidized training.

If BAVC was an animal what kind of animal would it be?

If BAVC was an animal…I think….that’s a really hard question. Ha ha. I keep thinking a chameleon, but i dont’ mean that in a negative way at all. In the 7 years I’ve been at BAVC, the whole overall vibe has changed a few times just based on who’s in charge of stuff, and who is working there. There’s been a lot of different colors, that’s the chameleon thing. It’s a good thing. It’s still the same body, animal, but it just shifts a bit… but it has to, it’s absolutely necessary. I think BAVC has adapted over the years to remain progressive with what it’s doing not just with video but now with audio and the web.

How has teaching at BAVC filtered into your own work ?

One of the reasons I love BAVC is how it works into my own process and creativity. BAVC is so supportive of what I’m doing as a musician and multimedia artist outside of teaching, it’s so creative. Working at BAVC has really allowed me to dig into my own work. Right out of grad school and before my work was very known, the income I made from BAVC allowed me the space and freedom to not make commercial decisions in my art. What I make, my art, is just straight from my heart and its what I want to do, not “I need to sell this because I need to make money”. BAVC has really helped that out. It has also been so conducive and adaptable to my touring schedule.. it’s a really symbiotic relationship.

What are some of your projects that you’re working on right now? You just got back from New York right?

Yeah. I was doing an audio/video performance with my friend Scott Pagano who I actually met at BAVC. He was a technician at BAVC back in 2002 and we just hit it off together so we’ve been making stuff ever since. We make abstract narrative audio/video work. I create a live soundtracks, he performs live motion graphics and we sync up our audio video processing systems so that rhythms in my music control jump cuts in the video and other stuff like that. It’s really like live abstract cinema. We performed in Canton NY at this cool liberal arts college called St. Lawrence, this place is like in the North Pole it was -7 degrees then we went to New York. Then we had 2 sold out shows at this place called Monkey Town in Williamsburg. They have a quad video projection system, so 4 projections and we sit in the middle of this projection systen. It only seats 50 people and they serve food and drinks right before we play . . . great spot.

I just finished a record that’s coming out Feb 12th with this amazing artist Ryuichi Sakamoto, amazing Japanese artist, a living legend to me and pretty much the rest of Japan. He’s probably most well-known for his work with YMO, the Yellow Magic Orchestra and then his soundtrack for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, the movie he was in with David Bowie, and then also the Last Emperor he did the soundtrack with David Byrne and won a bunch of awards etc.

What’s your record called?

“Ocean Fire”. It actually came out in Japan in October and it’s coming out in American next week and I’m really excited about it. It’s just such an honor. I’d never met Sakamoto before and he just reached out. He heard about my stuff online and asked me to do a remix of his stuff, this anti-Iraq war project of his called “Chain Music”, it’s where somebody makes a piece and we keep sending it to each other and adding to it. So he invited me into this project this remix thing and it went great and when I was in New York a little while ago he was like “hey do you want to come through and record some stuff?”, and I did, and we made this record from that session.

Who is putting it out ?

This label called 12K I’ve worked with before. they release some really amazing, contemporary electronic, really beautiful stuff. Sakamoto loves the label, that’s how he found my work. So it’s really exciting. I mean, I’ve known about this guy for years and to be in touch with him and to be asked to collaborate is just really cool. I look back over the last ten years or so, I just feel so blessed really. I’m living the life of my dreams, really.

Do you have a studio?

Yeah it’s in Bernal. It’s where I live. Home studio, everything I need is there. But if I need to do any loud instrument recording, like drums or whatever, I use Sound Arts Studio. BAVC is collaborating with Sound Arts on some classes now. I was happy to introduce Brian and Adam at Sound Arts to Carl [Weichert, Training and Curriculum Strategist] and BAVC and now we’re doing some great stuff together. Very cool!

Do you like Bernal?

I love it, absolutely love it. It’s a little more chill than the Mission, yet I’m close to everything, close to the park. I love being so close to the hill, I can walk up there, take a break from working. It’s gorgeous. It’s like you’re in the middle of a tiny national park in a matter of blocks, minus the little microwave tower on top . . . don’t go too close to that deal.

I went to the worst bar in Bernal. It smelled like a hamster cage.

Ha.

Super Bowl is this weekend. Whose your team?

I don’t really care.

That’s refreshing.

I’m from Kansas City so if the Chiefs aren’t winning I don’t really care. They haven’t been doing so good for a while so I’ve really lost touch. I just don’t really care. Are people taking sides in the office now?

No. We do more of the Barack/Hillary thing.

Really?

We talk about that all day long.

[lots of political talk]

Go BARACK !

Ok, back to my list. What would you like to see change in digital audio technology?

I feel like there are a lot of walls set up in terms of software design that are just there to enforce the purchase of new products. Artists know when they are being twisted around for a buck, and I think it all leads to product distrust. I would like to see Digidesign refresh their marketing approach of their software so it’s not always hardware-dependent. And i would like to see Digi make the importing of AAF and OMF files free, not a $500 add-on. I would like to see Apple and Digidesign revamp their certification process.. they are not high quality and it feels more like a marketing branch of the software than anything truly in the pursuit of education. I would like to see Ableton Live support the importing of AAF and OMF files.. if they do that they have Apple and Digi in a headlock. Ableton Live is pretty much the most integrated audio tool around. I love Pro Tools, but they need to update a lot of things to really compete with the creativity of Ableton. I make VST plug-ins using Max/MSP/Jitter to work with Ableton Live.. unfortunately I cant do that with Pro Tools yet.

How would you like to see BAVC improve on what it’s doing ?

I want to see BAVC become a household name for all multimedia artist in the Bay Area. I would like to see BAVC doing more community outreach and have more BAVC sponsored events with cool music and video work.

And you can dj! More tamales!

Yeah! Have more BAVC events. I think every time we do something like that we clue people into BAVC and what we’re doing. BAVC rocks.

I’m getting my first Mac on Monday. I’m really excited. Saw it today. Gave it a hug, gave it a name. I named it Earl.

I always name mine after planets.

So which planet are you on now?

Actually I’m running out. I had to go on to the moons of Jupiter. And Saturn.

Really?!?

My new MacBook is Io. I think it’s a moon of Jupiter.

Aaahhh! That’s definitely going in the blog.

More information about Mr. Willits’ projects can be found at christopherwillits.com and overlap.org.