Some guitarists treat the instrument with deference: each note they coax out is seamless, glossy and well-rounded like their pristine Stratocaster or SE Custom. Others are more combative: they wrench noises from their beaten and battered machines like it owes them money. Think Bill Orcutt or Viv Albertine. Nina Garcia – once known under her alias Mariachi – falls into that category.
The French musician’s playing occupies the outer musical territories. Part of her unique sound comes from an electromagnetic pickup she uses in her right hand to interact with the guitar, moving it around the body and strings to produce squeaks, growls and moans.
She might flip the guitar onto its back, her left hand scurrying around the fretboard while her right makes minute adjustments to the volume and tone pots, using the physicality – the twang, the resistance, the snap – of the strings themselves as well as the notes they play.
To see her do battle with her battered G&L T-style is to see someone really thinking about the guitar as an instrument to be improved upon. The strings aren’t the only thing that makes noise – what about the neck, the body, the nut?
Each noise is affected by her technique, amp and her handful of battered stompboxes. It’s easy to see why Thurston Moore, who dubbed her “a secret weapon,” is such a fan.
Despite being an avid improviser who hops onstage with no idea what she’ll play next, Garcia has written and recorded a new set of solo guitar pieces.
Bye Bye Bird is the first album you’ve released under your own name.
“Bye Bye Bird sounds very different from the previous record and from the live shows I’d done up to that point. My alias, Mariachi, no longer made sense to me following these changes. I put a lot of myself, emotions and thoughts into it.
“This album took a long time, and it’s quite dear to me because it’s linked to a personal experience. That’s why I wanted to sign it with my name – for the sake of sincerity.”
How much of your music is improvised?
“Until now my sets have been totally improvised. But for this record, I felt the need to fix a form – even though I always leave room for interpretation and improvisation. I don’t have a process for fixing these pieces. For some it’s very quick, in one very clear direction. For others there’s a lot of back and forth.
“I don’t conceive the pieces in advance, and I don’t count on academic rules of harmony or rhythm to build them. Everything is done guitar in hand: trying, building then undoing, finding alternatives, fleshing out then stripping away.”
How did you come up with your unorthodox playing style?
“I started playing as a child, and from the age of 13 I had several bands, mostly rock, and I played regular concerts in the south-west of France. When I moved to Paris I discovered new kinds of music; at the time I wasn't doing concerts, but I was attending several a week, in all styles from jazz to punk to techno.
“It had an impact on the way I played alone at home. I started trying out more things on my guitar, developing a whole vocabulary of noise and improvisation. So it wasn’t a rupture, but rather a slow, sure twist.”
Your setup looks minimal.
“It used to be super-minimal, but since I wrote this LP I made it a tiny bit more complex. It features my beloved G&L Tribute ASAT Special that I’ve had since I was 15, an MXR distortion pedal, which is the same age as my guitar, a volume pedal, a Fender Twin tube amp, a mobile pickup I keep in my right hand, and a preamp for that pickup. I have two sources of sound: the guitar pickups and the one in my hand.”
What’s the ethos behind the minimal setup?
“It’s not a statement, but I’m not very keen on equipment. Every time I have to equip myself with a new item, it takes up a lot of my time, and above all, my head. I’m not interested in looking into brands, learning how to use machines and carrying an even heavier suitcase.
“I never try out new pedals, but I do spend a lot of time using my guitar and small objects to find out how to make new sounds by hand. I really enjoy this manual link – building sound by hand rather than with effects. I like the feeling that there's no filter between my ears and the sound; the less effects there are, the better I feel.”
What are some of your favorite new sounds and effects?
“Probably the rhythmic possibilities I have with the new pickup. It sounds like a distorted harmonica or weird rhythmic synth; sometimes it sounds like I have a strange looper.”
Why did you start using the electromagnetic pickup?
“Andy Guhl from Voice Crack gave me an electromagnetic sensor of his own about 10 years ago. It took a while to gel, but I tried it again three years ago and the possibilities exploded.
“It’s enabled me to develop new ways of playing, from the movement of the sound – like infinite fades – to the rhythm created by picking up notes. The pickup can only pick up one or two strings at a time; the fragility can disappear at any moment.
“I used to play standing up, moving around a lot, twisting the guitar and bending the neck. Now I have to pay attention to the micro-movement of my right hand because a difference of a millimeter generates big sound changes.
“It’s allowed me to make room for notes and melodies, even if they’re quite distant. It’s a balancing act on the sound waves.”
Would you say you’re a noise/experimental artist who plays guitar, or a guitarist who plays noise/experimental music?
“I’m a guitarist, a musician; not a conceptual artist. It’s playing my instrument that leads me to the creative terrain. I’d even say that it's the feelings and sensations linked to the sound that guide me.
“During long guitar sessions I find things in the middle of a mess – a sound, a sparkle, a gesture – that speaks to me and I decide to work on. But there’s something almost involuntary about this first finding, something that surprises me.
“It’s a feeling that many artists must experience and it's quite exhilarating. After that, I spend a lot of time trying to master a way of producing it, and then it’s about perfecting it.”
That idea of the ‘sparkle’ reminds me of David Lynch, who said ideas are like fish you have to catch. Do you remember any particular ‘sparkles’ in the making of Bye Bye Bird?
The pickup thing allows me to escape from my usual way of building improvisations and live sets. I’d started feeling it wasn’t fresh, free or sincere enough. I guess that’s the driving force behind creativity!
“It’s a total mystery to me! If I had a method it would be a lot easier. The image of fish is pretty good – you only need to have been fishing once to know how many ideas you're missing, and how they can be slippery and run through your hands. The practice of free improvisation has nourished me enormously; I think it's still the basis of my playing today.”
There must be times when you feel bored or frustrated with the guitar. How do you keep things interesting?
“At the moment I’m never bored of the guitar. I’m always happy to play it, and I’d go further and say I need it. Sometimes I get tired of certain ways of playing – they lose their meaning and flavor for me – but that forces me to go elsewhere.
“At the moment I’m really focusing on that pickup thing. It allows me to escape from my usual way of building improvisations and live sets. I’d started feeling it wasn’t fresh, free or sincere enough. I guess that’s the driving force behind creativity!”
Thurston Moore is a vocal supporter of yours. Have you played together?
“Yes – I opened for the Thurston Moore’s Group at Café de la Danse in Paris in 2017. We met there, and later on several occasions as he came to play at Instants Chavirés, where I used to work.
“Sonic Youth are one of those bands that bridge the gap between rock and experimentation, between a widely broadcast world and the alternative venues in which their members still play. They’re very important figures for our music and I’m very touched by Thurston’s support.”
Moore said that you have “been actively moving the art of noise guitar into surprising and intriguing new spaces.” Do you agree?
“That’s impossible for me to answer! But I’m honored by his words about the record and my work.”
Why do you think he called you “a secret weapon all the while hiding in plain sight”?
“I don’t know – but it sounds good!”
- Bye Bye Bird is released on February 21 via Ideologic Organ.
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