The Glass Pear Interview

"Apparently the ancient Chinese believed that the pear was a symbol of immortality (pear trees live for a long time). Its also a symbol of affection in other cultures. In Chinese the word li means both “pear” and “separation,” and for this reason, tradition says that to avoid a separation, friends and lovers should not divide pears between themselves.

EXCLUSIVE! - BY SHAKTI PHERWANI

The Glass Pear Interview

Flickering like a candle on a windy night, ‘My Ghost’ rings true the many things that come and go with melancholy, solitude and self-doubt. Pure as crystal, sharp like the bits of it's shattering honesty - Glass Pear's songs have a truth that many artists strive to pursue. The melodies are warm and beautiful and the songs addict. Yestyn Griffiths sits down with Downright Fiction to reveal some of the Glass Pear mystique and shares with us an exclusive preview of his upcoming second album.

Where did the idea for calling yourself 'Glass Pear' come from?
 I stumbled upon a glass bottle art piece that you called 'The Original Glass Pear', is it responsible for the name?

The name Glass Pear originated from Adi Da Samraj (www.daplastique.com), whose spiritual and philosophical teachings I practice. The "Glass Pear" was a room in his house. I asked him if I could use the name for my music and he said "Yes, as long as I get a credit!".

Poignantly, he sent me a note about this on the last day of his life in late 2008. It was a fitting and mysterious coincidence: the first Glass Pear song that really connected with people emotionally was "Last day of your life". The song is about allowing love to shine through the inevitable mortality of our lives.

The first suggestion to use the name Glass Pear actually came from my eldest sister. I liked the sound of it immediately. Then, when I researched the symbolism of the "Pear" in more depth, I made interesting discoveries.

Apparently the ancient Chinese believed that the pear was a symbol of immortality (pear trees live for a long time). Its also a symbol of affection in other cultures. In Chinese the word li means both “pear” and “separation,” and for this reason, tradition says that to avoid a separation, friends and lovers should not divide pears between themselves. So I feel that a "Glass Pear" is a pear that is fragile and breakable, needing protection - just like love and affection - or else separation results.

 
It's a song that's struck an instant chord with your listeners - as with me - and your youtube and facebook pages have had greater following after the song was featured on Fox's Bones - where did 'My Ghost' come from?

The truthful answer is : I have no idea where "My Ghost" came from!

I sat down one day and spontaneously started singing "Lovers come and lovers go" over a C chord. Then I didn't do anything with it for a while. If my memory serves me right, in early November 2008 I started developing the verse which turned into the themes of "ghosts" and "shadows". It is the feeling that the people closest to us in our lives never really leave. We associate places, streets, cities, and music with particular memories of loved ones. In this sense, whether they are still alive or have passed on, they remain part of our emotional world.

Then when Adi Da passed away later that month I revisited the song. I sat on my bed and started singing "Who can you trust in this place?". Within about an hour I had written the whole song. I wept singing it for the first time, it was very heart-felt and beautiful. It expresses a longing in my heart for the divine, as well as a sadness about the fact of death. I was certainly pondering loved ones in my life, both present and past, when I was writing the song.

How did you start out as a musician? What was your process? Did something draw you to the music?

I thought I should learn the bass at about age fourteen. I got my dad to buy me a nice shiny white one. I had some lessons but got bored. So I moved to the guitar. My dad used to strum loads of tunes from Dylan, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Donovan. Music was being played constantly in our family. I have three older sisters and they were always introducing me to new bands. Then I hit sixteen and started collecting records. It wasn't long before I was delving into history and getting into Bowie, the Smiths, Pixies and classical music. At the same time I started writing songs - lots of awful ones that hopefully will never be found!

It did take a long time - through many twists and turns - to come to the Glass Pear sound. I couldn't have done this without the collaborative efforts of Tom (of the band Thirteen Senses) and Tash, with whom I made "Streets of love" and "Sweet America". But Glass Pear will never stand still, I am working on the second album right now and it has hip-hop beats!

Wow! Glass Pear Music with Hip-Hop beats! But I have to ask, what drives you to sit down and make a tune and allow it to become a physical manifestation of your thoughts and feelings? Does it come very easily? Do the tunes always befriend the words?

I love writing music, that's it.

I can't explain why, I guess a bit like you can't explain why you fall in love with a person. Its an emotional process. Great music moves me. Nowadays its the musical side that usually comes first. I have notebooks of lyrical ideas around that I sometimes delve into, but on the whole lyrics come later. For me, melody is already communicating a specific emotion - melancholy, happiness, energy or love - so I naturally gravitate towards words that express what the music is saying.

Musical ideas come very easily, but producing them and making them into something I love can be grueling. I throw hundreds of ideas away because I don't feel they have the potential to become a good song. I can drag Tom and Tash through hell looking for my vision!

I haven't released a song yet that I don't like. There are songs I have done that I feel are weaker than others, but I still enjoy them. Usually I don't produce a song unless I feel it merits it. So virtually all songs that get produced I will release. Its at the idea stage that I throw away many partially written songs.

The Glass Pear 'Artwork'

The stage of throwing away must be painful, but it did bring us the beautiful tunes on 'Streets of Love.' Did that record bring you what you hoped it would? I understand that WOL records was created for the purpose of bringing out your music at that stage.

WOL Records stands for Wicked Old Lady Records. The Wicked Old Lady is my very own mother. She gave me the name and I guess I should give her rights in the label but I've refused. NYS - Naughty Young Son!

Yes I am very happy that "Streets of love" has got lots of exposure in America through TV programs such as Grey's Anatomy and Bones. Its brilliant for an artist like me who releases all the music myself. All that I hope for is to be able to keep creating music for a living - I don't need to be rich or famous. Writing songs that (hopefully) touch people and that add a little bit of beauty and grace to this world is enough for me.


For our musician readers, what do you think an aspiring musician should focus on in order to make it to a bigger platform, whilst still staying true to their original sound and belief? Do you wish you’d gone the record label way?

No I have no regrets about releasing the music myself. Of course, I can't promote the music in the way a major or even an established independent could, but on balance the creative freedom I have is the real jewel.

Aspiring musicians should funnel all their passion and energy into to making their music brilliant. If its brilliant and captivating (whatever the genre), it will find its way out there! Enough self-belief to headbutt down all the doors that will close in your face also helps a lot! The music industry is a people industry. So forming relationships is really key. That's the liability of just using the internet; nothing beats knowing someone personally and being friends.

I'd like to thank Nic Harcourt (KCRW DJ and music critic) who has always supported Glass Pear. Zync Music have also been incredible in placing my songs in the shows.

How do you think being an Independent artist sets you free from what we hear of as the Record Label Machinery?

Well, I'm not really in the camp of "major-label-bashing". I have worked closely with people in major labels in the past and they were brilliant people, very dedicated. There's little doubt that because there is more money at stake in signing to a big label they are more controlling of the artist and what the artist needs to do. There's a lot of pressure currently to do tie-ups with corporates, both for money and exposure. As music generates less money in CD sales, there's a realization that the money is in making strategic alliances with companies and their products. Sometimes this works good, if there's a good synergy between the artist's music and the company's goals. But in other cases I believe it degrades the music.

We definitely don't want to see music creation turned into a slave to advertising.

So being independent gives you some breathing room from these kinds of pressures. But the most important aspect of being independent is having creative control over not just your music, but the design of your album, your videos, your whole communication to people. That's very gratifying if you are a creative type. I like to get involved in everything, that's why it suits me to self-release the music.

What’s the one song you think is your best work - and place that no song will reach for a while?

My Ghost is a very special song, very dear to me.

But I would never select one song. At different times in my life I listen to my songs and each one means something to me. I hope the same goes for other people :)

Free Download : Glass Pear - My Ghost (Exclusive Piano version) Click the Downward Arrow in the widget to start your download.

You've recently released a new EP - tell our readers what ‘Sweet America’ is all about!

Well it may interest your readers to know (as they are writers!) that the song "Sweet America" is lyrically an adaptation of a prose piece a wrote. Here's the prose:

The house sits alone on the sun-baked hill. Far off we spy the slanted groves of wine and grape, ranches of horse and old America. The smell and haunt of family, green with age and promise, worms the white wooded porch. Roses on beams, like snow splashed with fresh blood, breathe in the harsh, hot light. Tranquil and warm, the ocean is the only sight ahead, deep in its liquid blue coat. I gaze through it and beyond, purring like a cat on my ancient swing, back and forth, back and forth, comprehending nothing in the thought-free air. Behind me struts the twanging clang of uncorked guitar, a master and apprentice, bearing another troubadour into being. His swollen head and Asian eyes, burnt by the sun and sorrow, look on the boy with fondness. And there, swinging as the day grows dark, I remember my own master, handing me the secret stone to bury in my heart on the village green, to keep preserved for those to come. There it waits, like a locked door, closed to the world. But, like a spring bulb cracking the soil, searching for light, something is stirring underneath my skin. And this time, after so long a time waiting, I can do nothing to prevent it becoming.

I called the EP Sweet America because it marks the six month period last year that I lived in the USA, mostly in Los Angeles. It also marks the birth of my niece, to whom the record is dedicated.

You made a pilgrimage to India not too long ago and also traveled to Europe last month. How do different places and spaces influence your work?

I've been fortunate to travel a lot.

I'm fascinated by human history and culture. Its so rich, diverse and eye-opening. I've seen some of the happiest faces amongst the poorest of peoples. And the most depressed faces amongst the richest too. There's no doubt that the more I travel the more I feel that humanity is coming out of a tribal age - of separate nations and peoples - into a new age of realizing that we're one human family on one planet. This is the good part of the process of globalization. These kinds of thoughts definitely influence me and the music I make. Its not that I want to make political statements through songwriting. But I do believe the arts and music can serve this transition to an integrated humanity, by drawing us out of hard-headed separatism, prejudices and conflict, into a feeling-disposition of cooperation and tolerance.

The second aspect of traveling that is important to me is musical discovery. In India, for example, there has historically been a very different approach to musical creation than in Europe. Generally speaking there is the use of the drone note, rather than chord changes, as the underlying basis of the music. This gives it a very different quality to the classical and pop traditions we are familiar with in "Western" music. Its more contemplative, less emotive.

So as I absorb these different ways of making music I'm sure they'll find their way into new songs in the future.

The day I stop experimenting will be the day I stop writing music.

You're in the process of recording your second album - Does it have a title yet? A sound ?

Well, making an album is a bit like meandering down an Amazonian river, you never quite know where its leading and what lurks underneath the water! I can't reveal album title yet as I don't know it!

At the moment, I feel like I'm giving birth to the exotic lovechild of Radiohead and The Beach Boys. Its psychedelic in a 21st Century non-drugs kind of way. That probably makes no sense! But, don't worry, there's plenty of bright rainbow melodies rising over a jungle of beats. Tracks so far are "Epiphany", "Eternal", "Summer", "Touch the stars", "Grace" and "Closer."

"Touch the stars" is a good example in that it breaks up the traditional song structure and ends in a completely different place to where it started. Its a pop journey.Your readers are the first ones to get a sneak peek at this track. Its about the mystical nature of love and feeling so close to someone, that you have become one!



Preview 'Touch the Stars'


Thank you for believing in Downright Fiction and for sharing some of the intimate details of Glass Pear's making! I wish you the best of luck with your upcoming Album!

It's been a pleasure.

You can catch more of the Glass Pear magic by joining the  mailing list over at www.glasspearmusic.com !

You can also connect with Yestyn at
www.facebook.com/glasspear
www.twitter.com/glasspear