VOICE OVER PERSON: Two people will be people.

AUDIENCE: [LAUGHING]

VOICE OVER PERSON: One of which will never return to a world that has any sort of meaning.

GRETCHEN HASSE: How long have you had this particular guitar.

MARY HALVORSON: Um, probably about 14 years.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Wow. Have you found that it changes sound over time?

MARY HALVORSON: I don't know. I don't actually play it that often so it's I don't feel like worn it it in or something. I don't think so. I haven't noticed it really changing actually. I don't think so.

GRETCHEN HASSE: What about your Guild?

MARY HALVORSON: My Guild changes seasonally, so you know in the winter the wood gets all warped and it might start buzzing and then I have to get it adjusted and then it changes back in the summer, and yeah I noticed that changing more. It's more sensitive especially to climate.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Yeah. Yeah.

MARY HALVORSON: But I kind of like it when it has a little buzz and stuff so I don't actually get it tuned up that much. I kind of just go with whatever is happening.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Is there a chance that it can damage the guitar or not really?

MARY HALVORSON: I don't think so. I mean usually it warps one way in the winter and then it kind of warps back and then there's you can hear like the differences.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Mmm hmm.

MARY HALVORSON: On occasion I'll have to go get it adjusted or get it set up and I've only done that a few times in the past, you know, four or five years. I probably gotten it fixed like twice, three time. I've never gotten it set up. I've never gotten the frets cleaned up, but again I kind of like that if it sounds imperfect like I have my knob on my Guild is sort of the connection is kind of shotty so it makes this kind of crackling sound. But I've kind of like it so I've never gotten it fixed. But I took my guitar, the Guild, to get it tuned up last year, and they fixed it, and then I was upset because I then I was just using that sound actually like as an effect, the crackling sound from the knob, and they fixed it so that was, you know, I didn't even think to tell them not to fix it. I didn't even know that they were going to fix it, but that then anyway was fine because a couple of weeks later it was crackling again, so.

GRETCHEN HASSE: That's actually kind of [SOUNDS LIKE] goofier [LAUGHING]

MARY HALVORSON: [LAUGHING]

GRETCHEN HASSE: Something like that, "Here you see, that's an effect. Please don't fix that!" Without going into too much detail like this is like you don't have your other stuff here, your other -- the way that you generally work, is it a lot of like a specific effects chain and that kind of stuff?

MARY HALVORSON: Yeah, and it's pretty minimal. I kind of like, I don't like to get so wrapped up in effects that it becomes only about effects like I would like to think that if my effects were suddenly taken away I could still, you know, stand on my own with just the instrument like I don't like to use them as a crutch. I like to use them as kind of more of like an ornamentation that I have. I have a Line 6 delay pedal that I don't really use it that much for delay. I kind of use it to make weird noises like I have like this setting that kind of like makes it sound warped. So, I have that and then I have distortion and then I have a volume pedal and that's pretty much it, and then I'll use those things sort of just as ornamentations or sounds.

GRETCHEN HASSE: What kind of musicians did you look toward in maybe when you were first starting out and now, you know, as you go along say, "Ooh, I really want to figure out how to make this particular sound."?

MARY HALVORSON: You know what's interesting? Because I feel like a lot of my role models weren't necessarily guitarists, which is maybe why I don't have that many effects or I'm not as into that. But I think for that reason, a lot of the people I liked were saxophone players or I kind of I listen to a lot of jazz pianists, bassists, and, you know, sort of taking influences from a ll those things, and, you know, guitarists too. But --

GRETCHEN HASSE: Like what in particular, say, about a saxophone might influence you?

MARY HALVORSON: Probably more just like their melodic sense or structures or, you know, for instance like Eric Dolphy or his like intervallic approach. Things like that interested me more than the actual sound, you know.

[MARY HALVORSON PERFORMING WITH PEOPLE]

The guitar is interesting because it's a really versatile instrument. I mean obviously it's in rock, in jazz, and classical. There's so many different contexts you can use it in, which is kind of cool.

GRETCHEN HASSE: You were talking about -- Okay. What you were explaining was doing some weird -- You have the drummer and then you play some -- I forget how you described it -- so off-kilter kind of chord.

MARY HALVORSON: Yes. Some sort of dissonant chords.

GRETCHEN HASSE: So could you just of demonstrate what you mean by that or?

MARY HALVORSON: Yeah. I mean the chord. Basically, he writes these weird lyrics and I put them to music so the songs are kind of based around his lyrics, which are very jagged I guess so that maybe the chords are trying to match that.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Mmm hmm.

MARY HALVORSON: I mean, you know, like chords like --

[MARY HALVORSON PLAYS A DISSONANT CHORD PROGRESSION].

I mean chords like that, you know, and then sort of melodies over them or, you know, a chord.

[MARY HALVORSON PLAYS SOME DISSONANT ARPEGGIOS].

GRETCHEN HASSE: It sounds like a troubled relationship.

MARY HALVORSON: Sort of, you know, things like that. More chords like that.

[MARY HALVORSON PLAYS A DISSONANT CHORD PROGRESSION].

You know.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Okay. Cool.

MARY HALVORSON: And occasionally throw in a normal chord.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Do you see people still get a little idle minded...,

MARY HALVORSON: [LAUGHING]

GRETCHEN HASSE: ...and they get complacent and then they're like "Oh my!" You know.[LAUGHING]

MARY HALVORSON: Yeah. But it's all composed, everything. I mean there's not much improvisation...

GRETCHEN HASSE: Oh really?

MARY HALVORSON: ...in this band, for me. The drummer is improvising a lot that it's sort of a contrast like I play these sort of tight written parts and he is with me and then is kind of not with me. It's sort of like a push and pull thin.

GRETCHEN HASSE: So, there's a composed guitar part and the drummer improvises it? [OVERLAPPING]

MARY HALVORSON: He's following me but he's sort of improvising over it and then hitting hits with me, so it's again, like I keep saying, stripped down but for me, you know, I usually do a lot of improvisation and have a lot of like more complicated guitar stuff. But for this project it's sort of the song structure was the most important thing, so I have these song structures and I'm pretty much, you know, just straight into the amp, playing the chords.

GRETCHEN HASSE: Mmm hmm. And is there anything where you're like, "Oh God, what is he doing?" or is it? You just play what you [OVERLAPPING]

MARY HALVORSON: He's like the craziest drummer ever.

GRETCHEN HASSE: [LAUGHING]

MARY HALVORSON: Sot it's actually really hard for me to keep a steady pulse while he's playing because he'll like he'll be doing this crazy stuff like gradually speeding up and then slowing down while I'm staying at the same tempo, so it's actually like a real challenge just to play the simple parts with his drumming. I'm sort of keeping the time, and he's sort of pushing and pulling away from it. It's sort of like a role reversal in that like I'm sort of more of the timekeeper I guess.