Thomas Millroth Discaholic interview nov 2012

Nov.24, 2012

Thomas Millroth Discaholic interview nov 2012

 

 

 

 

Are you an official discaholic?

Do you need help with your sickness? Or are you happy as is?

 

– Oh no, officially I am totally normal, but what is being normal? We men do hardly ever ask for help, this is maybe what you need help for? Happy or not, a matter of words? I think I am very happy. But when feeling happy I think you really need help!

 

 

 

I know that you also have in your house an amazing book and art collection.

Does collecting vinyl differs anything from collecting art and books?

 

– This is really a problem, books do not tolerate records and vice versa. My ideal would be being a wealthy heir of a billionair. Which I am not. Alas, I´d say. Of course I consider myself being worthy of being an heir like this, considering all those id—ts who are heirs but do not share my interests. So how can they motivate being heirs?? I consider this an important social problem!

 

 

 

 

How do you collect?

 

– Collecting is knowing and finding. Has nothing to do with money. It is totally a mental occupation.

 

 

Methodical ? Or by chance/ inspiration ?

Are you a completist for any artist or labels? And why so?

 

– Chance is also a method. I am a completist of a. Amiga Records b. Sven-Åke Johansson and c. Mats Gustafsson. Why? Maybe room? Maybe quality? Ok, I´d love to be a completist of everything, but what would then remain when you have succeeded? Completist of everything = being god??

 

 

Do people need to collect? Can collecting  be seen as a way of therapy?  Or what is it really about?

 

– People need to not to collect, of course.

And.

Oh no, I´d never tell anyone about my private behaviours. ONly once in a while when I have found something very private and very special. Collecting is not therapy, quite the opposite. What is it really about – an artistic project going on an and on. A way of creating an archive which is original, personal and important, that you are all the time willing to give up. Collecting has something to do with your mind.

 

 

 

Why are there no female vinyl collectors?

– Yes, this is a reason to throw all your vinyls away. And a reason to question this interest, because if you are a part of a colletors´ hierarchy you are also a part of a male problem. Mind you! But – there are and have been a lot of important women collectors – like Gertrude Stein… Read her and consider the question..

 

 

 

When did you start collecting?

 

– When I was 12 years old and started going to Rönnell´s Antiquarian Booksshop and when I  bought my
first Armstrong record in Rikards Skivbar, Vällingby.

 

 

 

Was vinyl the first thing you collected?

– No, books!

 

 

 

What was the first vinyl you bought for your own money?

– Louis Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven, Parlophone.

 

 

Did you ever play music yourself, or have you always been a listener?

How did listening to creative music, such as Jazz began? What kicked you in the start ?

 

–       My gift to humanity was stopping playing the violin. Starting with Little Richard the step into jazz and other black music was not that big. Armstrong and even more Joe Oliver showed me a place to be. A place of my own. It went very well together with my other idol Bela Bartok – King Oliver´s Creole Jazz Band and Jelly Roll Morton was only the other face of the string quartets of Bartok. Thus my interest in avantgarde and experimental music was there from the start.

 

 

 

 

What is the biggest and most joyful experience you had listening to a vinyl?

Do you prefer to listen to vinyl on your own , or in company of other people?

 

  1. Peter Brötzmann, Machine Gun throwing you into the wall.
  2. Sven-Åke Johansson, Schlingerland, showing you not being thrown into the wall but showing music as a matter of intelligence, wit and creaivity outside well known boundaries.
  3. Then it went on… but a forerunner was really Bengt Ernryd, Musik – creative free jazz in an unfree world of music and culture. Or for that matter the string quartets of Bela Bartok by I think The Budapest Quartet.

Free music and jazz and other creative matters are all for me a very personal thing and I prefer it on my own. Like when I was a small boy and closed the door behind me to be able to enter all my fantasies and games.

If I listen to my vinyls together with people there are but few people with whom I´d share it. Mats Gustafsson would be one, my wife another one, and maybe a few others…

 

 

How do you find your records? Shops ? Internet ? Friends ?

 

– I pray. I hope, I read.

 

Is trading records the most fun you can have with your clothes on?

Is trading records the ultimate intimacy?

 

–       Trading records means nothing, even without my clothes on.

 

 

 

 

What is your favorite format?

– Music and art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alphabetical or by Genre?

 

– The alphabet is older and thus as a conservative radical I prefer that.

 

 

Rank the following discaholic parameters: smell, feel , music, liner notes, cover art, design, sound, rarity, obscurity, thickness of vinyl:

1. Music

2. Cover Art

3. Cover Art

4. Cover Art

5. Obscurity

6. Rarity

7. Design

8. Sound

9. Cover Art

 

 

What record has it all? Great music, great cover, great feel, great rarity?

 

– Sven-Åke Johansson, Schlingerland, SAJ

 

 

How much do you listen to music (on vinyl…) per day ?

 

– All the time. Even without the record player running the music runs in my head.

 

 

 

What records do I wanna steal from your collection?

What records do you wanna steal from the DC archives ?

 

– Maja Ratkje/Monica Bonvicini – glass + record= great danger. I hope you´d want to steal anything dangerous….

I hope you want to steal this record!

 

I am a romantic soul so I´d like to steal any Buddy Bolden record… there are none? Ok, then I´d like to steal all the records with the Czech trumpet genius Dunca Broz from the late 40´s! And of course all early tapes and records by Vlasta Pruchova.

 

 

Is listening blindfolded to music  a useful technique for learning new things and developing yourself as a listener and human being?

 

– No I hate that. This just develops the worst side of me. Listening is peace and not competition. Being right or wrong?? Shit!!

 

 

 

 

Is making lists of fav vinyls a useful hobby?

 

– No, I loathe lists just as much as I love them, thus you have to fight this destructive lust in you, there are other lusts that are of greater importance. (Like poetry, what did you think??)

 

 

Limited or unlimited?

Colored or black?

 

– Give no damn. The design and artistic form and genious is more important than if a vinyl is coloured, blank or black.

 

What record is closest to sex?

What record is no sex at all?

 

– Silence.

 

Sex has nothing to do with records.

Bad sex = music that is no mind but all muscles

 

Lester Young from the 40´s and early 50´s – if this is not sexy you have never had sex.

 

 

 

What is the first section you hit, while arriving to a vinyl shop, where you have never been before?

 

–       Free form

 

Secondly?

 

–       Free form

 

Thirdly?

 

–      Czech jazz

 

 

The section where you would never look in?

 

–       Pop

 

 

 

 

 

Are you familiar with the expression ”Hit the Wall” , from a discaholics perspective?

– ?? I do not like hits.

 

 

 

What is your current favorite record shop in the world?

 

– Metamkine

http://www.metamkine.com/

 

What is the best historical record shop ever ?

 

– Andra Böcker och Skivor, Stockholm!

Old Jazz Shop, Gröndal.

 

What is your dream release on vinyl on your Olof Bright label? If you could wish freely, what 5 existing musical meetings/ events would you like to  see on vinyl?

What 5 non- existing musical meetings/ events would you like to see on vinyl?

 

– Dunca Broz and the Rhythm Groups in Prague, Late 40´s.

 

– The Clarinet of Patti Smith.

 

– The trumpet of Peter Brötzmann.

 

– Is there anything more but this??

 

– Mats Gustafsson – Patti Smith.

 

– Hermann Keller – Mats Gustafsson.

 

– Miles Davis – Jimmie Hendrix

 

– Elisabet Hermodsson – Kurt Lindgren

– Feminist Improvising Group

 

– Manfred Schulze – everything

 

– More?? Is this not really IT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give us a list of your 5 favorite:

 

Amiga vinyls?

 

Berliner Improvisations Quartett, 1979

Manfred Ludwig Sextett, 1964

Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky/ Conrad Bauer/ Ulrich Gumpert / Günter Sommer, Synpsis, 1974

Rolf Kühn Quintet, Solarius, 1965

Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky, 1978

 

 

Best designed record covers?

 

Han Bennink, ICP

Peter Brötzmann, FMP

Sven-Åke Johansson, SÅJ

 

 

Best logo?

 

Amiga

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favourite jazz writers / critics ?

 

Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka)

Ingemar Glanzelius

Ulf Linde

John Corbett

Olle Helander

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this interview too long?

 

– Life is too short.

 

 

Can a dog have an affection for vinyl?

 

– Not for the plastic but for sound and music. Why would Peter Brötzmann have greeted my dog Asta with Hallo Rat Dog – if this was not the case?!

 

 

 

Can you recognize a fellow discaholic in an ordinary group of people? Are there any specifics that give the discaholic away?

 

– No, it is the same as with a member of the patafysic collegue. You cannot really reveal a person of a secret association, the mere ordinary touch tells you there is something – or nothing.

 

 

What film  captures the best,  the ”essence of jazz” ?

What book captures the best, the ”essence of jazz” ?

What piece of Art captures the best, the ”essence of jazz” ?

 

– Film Round Midnight with Dexter Gordon

 

– Book Skvorecky, The Saxophone (Saxofonen)

 

– Art Anything by Lage Lindell

Is there an essence of ”jazz”?

– The word ”maybe but not really”. Or just the phrase ”how are you?”

 

 

When will we see the release of the complete solo sax recordings of Bengt ” Frippe” Nordström on Olof Bright  Editions?

 

– As soon as we get the money!!

 

Who would you like to see get interviewed in this discaholic interview series?

 

– Patti Smith

– Pj Harvey

– Christine Abdelnour

– Andra Neumann

 

 

 

Which record can save the world?

– The record with the greatest secret you can imagine. But alas, records are not universal.

 

 

Which record will not save the world?

 

– This is not the task of records.

Not saving the world would be the lack of all music on records in favour of downloading music.

 

But there will always be music.

 

 

 

 

Thomas Millroth, Malmö , nov 2012

 

http://olofbright.com/nybutik/