"I'm interested in humanity's inability to trust the natural world. That drives me to comfort myself with songs, while informing someone else of my concerns."

AN INTERVIEW WITH RICK ALVERSON
October 2001

Q: What were your first steps as a musician? At what age did you start? What motivated you?

Rick: I began playing music at about age 23, as an alternative means of comfort to long, exhausting baths.

Q: Tell us a few things about the beginning of Spokane. Is it a solo project? How came and you don't record just under your name?

Rick: Spokane began as an effort to mark a definitive distinction between my work with friends under the name Drunk and what I believed at the time was "new" work. That was late 1999. In essence, to seperate myself from aspects of Drunk that I felt embarrassed of. I wanted something that I could only blame myself for. As for recording under my name... I guess I prefer a little cover.

Q: You seem to love collaborating with other musicians, can you recall some collaborations that you've really enjoyed? Who's next? Who's on your wish-list?

Rick: All those I've "collaborated with" have been friends. The joy has been strictly in spending time in a mutual interest. They happen out of circumstance usually, a brief comment in a bar, a shed of interest that is able to develop into something more.

Q: How did you pick the title of Spokane's latest album?

Rick "The Proud Graduates" brings to mind an image of smiling alumni, their awkward expressions caught ridgedly in time, all unaware of the speed and inacuracy of their destinations, but with the zealous belief that such a fixed place actually exists. There is loss everywhere. Every moment, in every sense. If we could embrace that, things might become a little more precious.

Q: How would you describe the new album to someone who hasn't had the chance to listen to it yet?

Rick: Melencholic, but hopeful. Music for children and old people in autumn.

Q: Your music is full of poetry, what's your source of inspiration?

Rick: I have great admiration for the lives of many poets. observation that is persistent, but does not imply a seperation from what is observed. The quietness of the consideration of Things as being as important as people, of places and Occurances and animals as being worthy of our respect and equality. I am interested in our concepts of Time, in their flawed natures. I'm interested in humanity's inability to trust the natural world. That drives me to comfort myself with songs, while informing someone else of my concerns. That conflicts could be as conclusive as Sound.

Q: What else do you do besides music?

Rick: I once considered myself a writer of sorts, but have since beleived that to be a joke. Maybe if I could write again it wouldn`t be quite as funny.

Q: How did the EP on Acuarela Records occur?

Rick: Jesus Llorente, the owner of the label, asked us.

Q: Patrick Phelan has written a song called "Saint Alverson". What's your comment?!

Rick: Pat and I are very close. I was threatening to move away, up north at the time, and I suppose he was so stricken with grief he got a little carried away. I'm flattered. He has a good sense of humour.

Q. Does music pay the bills? How hard is it to? Is there anything you regret in your life as a musician?

Rick: No, currently, music does not pay the bills. At all. I am a cook in a restaraunt.

Q: Do you have any message for your friends in Greece?

Rick: Thanks so much for your interest in Spokane. I wish that music could be more of an actual, effective comfort sometimes. I share the concern of many in the European community for America's current military action. Acts of terrorism are appaling, as are any agendas of political, religious, or stategic violence that spills over into a civilian community. We have suffered devestation already. I am not one who believes that power is a preferable state. It is a difficult time. We can only look around us and pay close attention to the details of our own lives, and remedy things in that definitive, local sense. We must be aware and vocal, but not violent. there needs to be the realisation that the world is, ultimately, full of individuals. Powers are not often a true representation of "their" peoples.

Rick Alverson's 5 favourite records, in no particular order:

The Velvet Underground - self-titled
Townes van Zandt - Delta Momma Blues
Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage...
The Cure - Faith
The Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow

Rick Alverson's 5 favourite books, in no particular order:

Samuel Beckett - Complete Short Prose
Robert Creeley - Collected Poems
Charles Baudelaire - Flowers Of Evil
Thomas Bernhard - Correction
Franz Kafka - Diaries

Spokane have a new album called "Able Bodies", released on May 6, 2002 via Jagjaguwar Records.