This interview conducted by Matthew Clark of Monkeyclaus was sent off  to Tanakh founder Jesse Poe and guitarist Umberto Trivella who co wrote their recent Ardent Fevers album, and the entire band collaborated on the responses.  What follows is a true document of global thought bridging the gap between Italy, America and the psychedelic void.  Enjoy.

Tanakh began as a collaboration of Jesse Poe with Phil Murphy in Richmond, Viriginia quite some time ago...From there it has grown into a project carried on by Poe and aided by the esteemed musical talents of a revolving cast of musicians.  The current line up is Jesse Poe, Umberto Trivella, Viola Mattioli, Oretta Giunti, Matteo Bennici, Cathy Lucas, Michele Poulos, Curtis Fye, Darius Jones, Clarke Hedgepath. (below is taken from the Tanakh biography.)

"Besides Poe, the present core members of Tanakh include Michele Poulos, electric bass and backing vocals (Poulos, Songs Of Patrick Phelan), Curtis Fye, upright bass (Devil's Workshop, Boots of Leather), Dan Calhoune, violin, Ben Scott, sound manipulation (Ting Ting Jahe, Crevlyn), Brian Jones, percusion (Brian Jones Wurlitzer Trio, Boots of Leather, Them against Them), Darius Jones, saxophone ( CUD, Birds in the Meadow, and Daniel Carter), Clarke Hedgepath, electric guitar (Richmond Latin Ballet), and Ayman Fanous, flamenco guitar and bazookee (Ayman has participated in a series of duets including Burn Nix, Elliot Sharp, Tomas Ulrich, etc.).  Others that have participated in the Tanakh collective include Pat Best (Pelt), Phil Murphy (Them Against Them, Broken Hips), Jeff Krones, Via Nuon (Bevel, Spence, Manishevitz), Tom Brickman (Broken Hips), Peter Neff (Tulsa Drone), Jim Thompson (Tulsa Drone, GWAR), Carter Thornton (Enos Slaughter, IZITITIZ), E-yage, Paul Watson (Them Against Them, Sparklehorse), Coby Batty (Bongwater, John Zorn, F.U.G.S.), Miguel Urbiztondo (Maki, Crooked Fingers), T.C. Deane, T.N. Roane, Brian Freeman, Nirmal Bajekal, Pam Edwards, Adam Meuse, David Lowery (Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven), Johnny Hickman (Cracker), Mic Turner (Dirty 3), Ned Oldham (Anomoanon, palace), Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire), and Jessica Billey (Smog, Boxhead Ensemble)."

The fantastic alien8 label out of Montreal, Canada has been releasing Tanakh's records and currently Jesse resides in Florence , Italy.   Tanakh will be playing at the Terrastock 6 Psychedelic Music festival in Providence RI beginning this April 20th, sharing stages and audiences with varied psychedelic acts from around the world, such as Lightning Bolt, Bardo Pond, Windy and Carl, and the Japanese luminaries Ghost.

Jesse and Umberto thanks for the interview.  As some very in depth interview's already exist on the web i'd like to focus specifically on a few questions I have that are more timely and specific and less general and biographical.  We will link to some of the these other interviews at the end of this one.  Both of you can answer the same question if you want or trade off.  Some questions would be great with two answers really....

MC:  Firstly I'd like to ask about Terrastock and your involvement in it.  How were you invited? Was your trip here to the states based around this festival or was it a happy coincidence that you'd be in the country?

Jesse: Well I have to say in part we are because of Phil McMullen and Terrastock. My friend Ben Chasny encouraged me to send a copy of the cdr of Villa Claustrophobia to Phil personally, claiming he would love it, and thankfully he did, and wrote a heart-felt stellar review in which he admonished a label out there to bottle this record while they still could. I will always be indebted to Phil for his enthusiasm and furthermore the budding friendship that ensued, which for me although a result of music, far outweighs music. This time around Phil asked us to play and not only was it a dream come true but seemed like a full-circle for us. Amazing it coincided with the release of our new record Ardent Fevers which comes out today! April 19th. We decided that it would be criminal to come to the US and not also try and support our new record just as it hits the shelves even if coming now meant a truly DIY tour.

MC: Will you be bringing the whole ensemble that you currently work with from Italy?

Umberto: Yep we are all here, relaxing in the country practicing and getting used to doughnuts instead of Brioche.

MC: Terrastock seems to be showcasing many different acts that operate under the very amorphous category of psychedelia.  How do you see yourself and Tanakh fitting into that world?  What does psychedelia means to you personally?

Jesse: Well I have been to a few Terrastocks and each was a mind-blowing experience of music and a true since of family/community, and one of the things that has always impressed me not only about the festival but also about the magazine, is that there is no exclusion of genre or mode of operation, only a focus on beauty and a true flight of the mind and spirit to a better place. In this way you might see a guy with just a voice and an old acoustic, which is hard to classify as psychedelia, but the spirit is there and buttressed with other acts who are playing a full-on psychedelic sound, it all makes since. Which I guess is how Tanakh fits in. I wouldn't say that we are representative of that full-on psychedelic sound but maybe a bridge between the guy on the acoustic and the full-on psychedelic sound. All together it seems to make up a holistic view of psyche, because well you know, nobody listens to only one kind of music these days, it is impossible and simple-minded if you could even manage to do so, or maybe obsessive is a better way of saying it. But I think that people do listen to a single feeling or mode of communicating, and the world of psych is definitely one of those voices/hearts. It seems to be one, as I feel it and try to communicate it in my own music and my own record purchases, of a true love of life, but not just this one, a life beyond what is tangible and dreaming for something transcendent, a possession of sorts, where you are the rider and the ridden, a loss of body and a capture of mind, but a mind that is more collective and beauty driven, I don't find any nostalgia in it in the English sense of the word, leave that to tribute bands, but I do find nostalgia in it in the Italian sense of the word, a longing for something you knew perhaps the bliss of a love or when you were a child and it was enough to linger in the sunbathed warmth of your mothers arms with knowledge of your re-incarnation or passage from heaven, but without the vocal skills to communicate it or the knowledge of needing to communicate it, remembering this forgetting in a way that is only felt in eyes-rolled-back lay on the floor loose yourself in the music psychedelica.

MC: I have a theory that the reason psychedelic music is making resurgence or at least having a more widespread appeal is because the world is getting so surreal, warped and technological and it makes a nice respite, escape or catharsis.  Also maybe war has something to do with it, as psychedelia was born in the Vietnam War era?  What do you think?

Matteo: Piu’il mondo diventa surreale, piu’la gente ha bisogno di essere ipnotizzata! Credo che la psichedelia sia un’attitudine, ancor prima che un movimento musicale, che nasce da un desiderio di approfondire il rapporto con la propria coscienza, di essere piu’ profondamente “psicoattivi” ed in questo senso si tratta di ricerca, scoperta e anche catarsi. Non condivido una  visione passiva del viaggio psichedelico, affidato unicamente a droghe, credo che sia dannoso e che inevitabilmente si concluda in una delusione nei confronti della realta’. Riguardo alla guerra penso che quando I nostri governi agiscono in modo criminale contro la nostra volonta’, ci sentiamo frustrati, traditi e coinvolti; dobbiamo affrontare tale coinvolgimento in maniera cosciente e non fuggire, ma portare un chiaro messaggio di dissenso. E’chiaro che le generazioni reagiscano in maniera differente ai periodi di Guerra e spesso in maniera creativa, come nel caso della psichedelia e del pacifismo nato tra I ’60 e I’ 70. Purtroppo l’esperienza del Vietnam si ripropone continuamente (l’era del Vietnam non e’mai finita!) ma le generazioni attuali faticano a reagire in modo efficace a tale situazione e alla fine si cade nell’indifferenza.
PiuÂ’che di fuga o catarsi in questo momento cÂ’eÂ’ un gran bisogno di spazio di azione politica, che ci viene negato sempre di piuÂ’.

[translation of above] The more the world becomes surreal, the more people need to be hypnotized! I believe that psychedelia is even more than a musical movement, it is an attitude, which is born from desire to go deeper to the roots of our relationship to our own conscience, to be more deeply psychoactive, and in this way it is about research, discovery and catharsis. I donÂ’t share the passive vision of the psychedelic trip leaning only on drugs as a means of achieving this state. I think it is damaging and sooner or later it ends in delusion when you are confronted with reality. About the war I think that when our government acts in a criminal way against our will, we feel frustrated, betrayed and involved. We have to face such involvement in a very conscious way and not escape, but give a clear message of not standing for their shit. It is clear that different generations have different reactions during times of war and often in a creative way, like psychedelia and pacifism which was born in the 60Â’s and 70Â’s, unfortunately the Vietnam experience repeats itself on and on, or maybe the Vietnam era has never ended, but todayÂ’s generation is a bit too tired to react in an efficient way to this situation, and in the end they fall into complacency more than true escape or catharsis. At this moment, there is a great need for space of political activism which is denied to us more and more ever day.

MC: What acts at Terrastock are you most excited to see?

Jesse: Ghost, Ghost, Ghost, Ghost, Ghost! and Tom Rapp, you'll find both on my god shelf.

Umberto: Maybe Ghost and Avarus.. but they are all very interesting!

Viola: I don't know many of the bands that are going to play in Terrastock, except for ghost and Tom Rapp, and sonic youth of course. Anyway I' m very excited the idea of listening to many bands from all over the world

Oretta:..and playing with Tanakh on the same stage! It's great for us. It's the second time for me in the US and when I was in S.Francisco last time in 2000 I would have never thought to come again to play drums!

Viola: Yes, I agree with Oretta. I have a classical education for music but I have always listened to many kinds of music (rock, jazz,   trip-hop, electronic, pop,...) so I'm very happy to play in a rock band now.

MC: Your list of current and past band members and all their associated projects makes an impressive list in my eyes for two reasons.  Firstly a lot of these folks are world famous and amazing and the roots of their various projects are quite varied from Zorn to Ravi Shankar to the Dirty 3, Palace and GWAR.  This says a lot about your music, it's caliber and influences.  Secondly because I know quite a few of these folks from living in Virginia and they are very special and dear to me.  For instance Phil Murphy and Paul Watson will be playing in our studio for the Monkeyclaus Studio Grand Opening Gala as Them Against Them.  Jesse, do you feel as if you are constantly guiding this project or more participating as it morphs and grows?

Jesse: Oh, your gonna have a hell of a show then, Phil and Watty are amazing, is Brian Jones playing with them? He is a beast on the drums, I love that guy, he is so in the pocket, but it is a pocket on some sort of run-way fashion show for another planet, and Phil and Watty, god don't get me started, those guys are genius. I am convinced that Phil Murphy can play every instrument in the world better than I can tie my shoes, and Paul, well it is Paul Watson, need I say more, that guy is an unsung legend.

As far as do I feel as if I am constantly guiding this project or more participating as it morphs and grows, is a tough question, but it goes back to the rider and the ridden idea for me. For some reason I have always been the guy who says ok we are gonna do this, and the others go with it, I have no idea why, they are all so much better than me, but maybe just cause I am dreamer and a believer, and it is nice to be ridden at the start, but after eh music starts it changes, I turn from the rider to the ridden, and what a lovely feeling that is. I think I guide the band in the practical side, just getting the ball in motion every time, creating context and background and then I am just a participator, until the music forms to a certain point and then I can control myself I just jump on top of that huge wave and ride it where it takes me singing my heart out or beating on a table, or just rolling a round on the ground out of control. I don't know if that makes any sense at all, but I am sure you know that experience where you lose yourself into a community and in that you find your true voice as an individual, in that way I think it is truly like the real heart of all religions.

MC: Jesse...Tell us some about living in Italy?  Was it easy to start a life there?  Was it difficult to connect with the right musicians to continue your project? (As far as time goes.... obviously you were able to, but how long did that take?)

Jesse: Italy is amazing and frustrating. For me I can sum up my view of Italy in that it is ridiculously beautiful and beautifully ridiculous. It wasn't easy to start my life there, I knew NO ONE, but I have to thank god, that doors just seemed to open up one after another, however slowly they opened, they did open. I was so lucky to have meet Umberto, it was truly fate. I was about to be thrown out on the street at my first flat and I found this apartment at the last minute with this guy, who turned out to be not only one of my best friends but a truly awesome musician who played in such a way that jumped me to that out of body feeling within a few notes of his dirty guitar. After that we started writing songs together, but in a really relaxed way, one of us would be in the kitchen riffing on something and the other would stumble in sleepy-eyed for a midnight snack or something hear the song that was trying to get out, and invariably the mid-night-snacker would grab another guitar and we would wrestle the songs out in a matter of minutes. We wrote so many songs in that way that never made it Ardent Fevers just cause we never thought to record them before falling back to sleep, but a good number of the songs on Ardent Fevers were born in just that manner. After Ardent Fevers we just bumped into Oretta, Viola, and Matteo in this just happen to meet kind of way, and it worked beautifully. It is really hard to make your way in Italy, but that is said with the go-get-'em American attitude in mind, if you just relax have a coffee and a chat, things just work themselves out. If you try to make things happen you will drown, just trying to post a package can take you all day, but if you go with the flow it is a beautiful ride.

MC: Umberto did you see a decidedly different approach to music from Jesse as having an American background or is music simply a universal language?

Umberto: Music as universal language.. I think it was Hegel who sad that the highest form of art is music.. Indicating the fact of its abstractness. According to this, Wagner started to compose more symphonies! Anyway. getting to the point, I saw a sea of differences, not only practical, but even more, cultural. Jesse is wonderfully forged with a strong sense of doing, believing, and resolving problems. I come from the country called “maybe tomorrow”. The real big difference is, that in Italy you have a lack of infrastructures and lack of interest in music like ours, or anything that is not part of the mainstream monster. It's not promoted by local music industries. Ergo sum, it is difficult to sell and make even a meager living with music like ours, and this and other Italian obstacles endangers maintaining that wonderful kind of energy which Jesse has, and so why not go with that the US can so freely give, a true drive for new sound and fresh music! In this context there is no such thing as an energy crisis for US thank god, we could learn something from that in or all too stringent conservation of all types of energy.

MC: How do you two compare American politics to Italian?  Both nations seem to be run by heavy-handed leaders who are largely unpopular with a huge cross section of their public?

Umberto: Watch the documentary “Citizen Berlusconi”; I think it's made by CBS. It’s kind of enlightening to what we have in front of us. A world led by slogans and symbols, glued to what so ever cause, and forced to swallow it throw media. Of course so very controlled. Don't criticize, it's unpatriotic, it smells of communism!! A crucial thing for tomorrow; people must learn how to use media, learn to read between the lines, and try to help evoke some form of ethics for media. In Italy, we must hope for a much more severe laws on conflicts of interest. Which is the real Italian anomaly, incarnated by Berlusconi. The great ideologies are gone; we are orphans of them transformed into an audience. Maybe that's one of the reasons why we see that cross sections of public.

Oretta: fortunately in Italy we just had to vote for new government and the left coalition won. It was not a great victory (only for some thousands of votes!) but it's for sure a signal that people want a change.

I hope Berlusconi's political influence and most of his entire cultural model so individualistic is definitely fading out. It's important people will get again involved and interesting in participating to social and political life!

As a musician I hope much more resource will be invested in musical events.

Jesse: for me they are quite the same except with a better sense of community in Italy, I mean it is ridiculously beautiful and beautifully ridiculous, in that they have in their parliament a transsexual, a porn star, the daughter of a dictator, a recently made ex-president who owns almost every TV station, newspaper, and the biggest soccer team, and uses them blatantly to propel his position and personality and nationally claims that anyone who doesnÂ’t vote for him is an idiot, but then again the beauty of it is that their government is set up in such a way....well for example it is set up like this, say you had voted for Nader in the Gore Vs. Bush election, in the US a vote for Nader was a vote for Bush, ergo the reason Bush financed him and did debates with him etc. well in Italy a vote for Nader is a vote for the Democratic side and the majority of the democratic side is put into power, so in Italy you could have voted for Nader and given voice to you desire for change, for green-stuff and they would have combined that percentage together with Gore's percentage, the guy with the most is the skipper and the other the first mate, instead of our American black and white, in Italy it is all about the grey.

MC: Final question....If you were to curate a day at a festival like All Tomorrow's Parties who would you invite?  Let's say you have 8 choices.......

Jesse: tough one there can I have 800 instead, there are so many people that deserve the exposure a festival like that brings, but they can't even get a review, I would put all of them on, but let's see how about what I would put on this morning and only people who still are cause my biggest loves are often no more, and cause it will definitely change by lunch time:

Citizen Cope
Baxter Dury
Hefner
Chris Lee
M.Ward
Micheal Miller
Mark Hollis
Mojave 3

MC: Thanks so much everyone.  Check out Tanakh live if you get the chance....And their albums too.

04/21-23/2006  TERRASTOCK 6  Providence, RI w/GHOST & others
04/24/2006  CAKE SHOP  NYC, NY w/CHRIS LEO & the Vague Angels, & Bulgaria
04/25/2006  In Studio
04/26/2006  PA's Lounge, Sommerville, MA w/Saint Joan (UK)
04/27/2006 Mezzanotte Lounge Syracuse, NY
w/Ashley Cox & Receptive Records + Belly Dancing
04/27/2006  Live on CHRY105.5 FM  radio interview at 8pm
04/28/2006  Mohawk Place Buffalo, NY
04/29/2006  Drake Hotel  Toronto Canada w/Easily Amused
04/30/2006  Big Car Indianapolis, IN
w/ Good Stuff House, Kamikaze Hearts, Sea Krowns, Kelli Shay Hicks
05/01/2006  Day off to hang with the Fam.
05/02/2006  Lager House   Detroit, MI
05/02/2006  WNUR Live Radio Show in Chicago at 4pm
05/03/2006  THE EMPTY BOTTLE  Chicago, IL w/The Good Stuff House, Number None
05/04/2006  Land Lock Bloomington, IN w/Rooster
05/04/2006  Live Radio show WMUL 88.1 FM in Huntington
05/05/2006  Huntington Youth Art & Music Huntington, WV
05/06/2006  The Velvet Lounge    Washington, DC
Live Radio Show in NYC
05/07/2006   KNITTING FACTORY NYC, NY
w/White Hassle's Marcellus Hall, The Vague Angels, & Clay McLeod Chapman

http://www.whoneedsradio.com/" http://www.whoneedsradio.com/    link to this site for a free download from Tanakh

http://www.myspace.com/jessepoetanakh for mp3's and links to other reviews and interviews etc...

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