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Rob on Consistent Variation
I’ve told the story about how this record came to pass many times in interviews and articles in the past. So for those of you who’ve heard it enough to be completely sick of it, I apologize for telling it one last time. Basically, before the birth of this record I had been composing and performing exclusively with electric guitar, usually in the form of rather heavy but commercial band settings. While living in Boston in 1993, I had been hired to fill in for this band called Troy after one of their guitarists had quit. An old friend of mine from Berklee (Tony Savarino, the other guitarist in the band) had called me and basically begged me to join the band. They were really doing quite well, commercially speaking, and had major labels lined up to sign them, and at the time, a number one tune on the big rock radio station in town, WAAF. Sound-wise, the band was like a cross between old Van Halen, Bad Company, and Ozzy. I must say that the main reason I joined the band was to hang out with Tony. We had known each other for years and we had a blast performing together and goofing on everyone. We would each try to write mind boggling solos just to get the other to try and top it. It was really fun. Anyway, one Friday night in the summer of ’93, we were playing a sold out show to about 600 people at this club called Venus in town. Funny thing is, even though I really enjoyed playing with Tony, I remember being on stage feeling totally unfulfilled as a musician. For the first time in my "electric" career, I was absolutely bored. The next day, my brother had come to town for a visit and we went to Harvard Square in Cambridge for lunch. While walking around the square, we stopped to check out a street musician named Ned Landin. He was a folk singer who played acoustic guitar in the most amazing way. His sound and technique were all his own and he had his guitar running through a Bose PA running off a car battery. The sound of that guitar and his playing just leveled me. As it turned out, that show at Venus was to be my last performance as an electric guitar player. I went home that afternoon, called Tony, and quit the band. My first acoustic guitar album, Consistent Variation, was written in about two weeks. I would lay on my back on the floor in my apartment with the lights off, tune the guitar funny, and just improvise. It was the most amazing feeling of freedom. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t composing by using knowledge. I had absolutely no idea what chords I was playing or why…I just played what "felt" good. In the winter of ’93, I set up my Tascam 4-track cassette machine with a pair of Shure SM-94 condenser mics and recorded the first nine songs/improvisations that I came up with for solo acoustic guitar. Shortly after that I moved back to Maine to be near my family. After hearing the pieces I had recorded, many friends had urged me to release them as an album, so I mixed them down to 2-track digital and did so in April of ’94. Much to my surprise, the local press was really freaking on the record and I started getting a lot of calls for performances and local radio and press interviews. All this attention prompted me to shop the record to the top three instrumental/new age labels just to see what they might think. To be honest, I didn’t expect to hear from any of them. I got offers from all three. In the interim of trying to figure out who to sign with, I saw an ad in a local music magazine for a recording studio called Imaginary Road. The studio was owned by ex-CEO and Windham Hill Records founder, Will Ackerman. On a whim, I sent him a copy. I had heard he had sold the label a few years back, and to be honest, I was just trying to get a press kit quote out of him. Again, much to my surprise, he called me while on vacation in Hawaii and was just freaking out over the record. As it turned out, He had plans to start a new label called Imaginary Road Records as a joint venture with PolyGram and asked me if I would like to be the first instrumental artist on the label. I said yes. Will and I ended up working (and playing) together for the next five years. To coincide with the launch of this website we have decided to re-release Consistent Variation. Actually, you can thank (or curse, depending on whether or not you like it) your fearless webmaster, Matt Guthrie, for this. Matt and I met after I recorded Sticks & Stones, at which time he was Michael Hedges’ webmaster (Michael appears on one track from Sticks & Stones). He asked me to send him a copy of Consistent to check out, but I was really guarded about it. It’s funny, but for some reason, musicians tend to really hate their last record the most after they’ve just finished the new one. I butched-up and sent it to him anyway, expecting him not to be into it for whatever reason. I guess at the time I thought it was so unrefined and non-professional since it is very improvisational and recorded on cassette, etc. I called him a few days after sending it and when I asked him what he thought he said, “I’m still on the first tune…” It turned out that he really loved it, maybe even more than Sticks & Stones…I don’t know. Basically, he told me that if I didn’t re-release it some day, there was a pretty good chance he’d murder me with a serving spoon! These days, Matt is not only my webmaster, but is pretty much the only person I listen too when it comes to my professional decisions. [So stay tuned as Rob’s career completely tanks!—M@]. So after a little prodding, he’s convinced me to re-release it. In the last year, we’ve received over 1,000 e-mails asking about that album and how to get it (it’s been out of print since ’96). The re-issue mixes are completely untouched. The only thing I’ve done is re-master it in 24-bit digital with a little de-noising to get rid of the evil analog hiss. Listen, this is a true grass roots recording. Don’t look for refined composition and creative production values. But if you’re interested in hearing me at the height if my initial exploration of the acoustic guitar, raw, unrestrained, and extremely improvisational, you just might love it… — Rob
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