Something’s Burning · Fig Man and the Flummoxed Wasp [Exclusive Interview]

About the album ‘Something’s Burning’: I asked a good friend who loves music, how would he define this album? I loved his answer: “…l believe, because of the attributes and qualities of the chords you use, I would put it as Experimental Jazz or Experimental Funk, tho I think funk is more accurate due to the fact that it sounds more up beat and electronic than the conventional jazz but l think you could write it as “Phunk” with “P” for its punk side.”

Exposed Vocals Review Score 8.8/10

As I was looking for the main theme of the album, my sister gave me a good hint: The writer of the best science fiction novel ever written. We had been reading Douglas Adams for some time, so I figured the way to express my very own tribute from a musician’s perspective. This album is the humble result. I really hope you like it.

“Absurdo Sónico” and “Fig Man and the Flummoxed Wasp” are both Daniel Figueroa’s concepts, a multifaceted and experimental artist whose art revolves around literature and music.

Exclusive Interview:

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

I was born in Mexico City in 1981 among bad politics (those haven’t ended yet), a growing sense of progress, development, the first concert of Queen in Mexico and the opening of the first contemporary art museum in the city: Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo. Every bit of this reality shaped my curiosity and personal beliefs. It’s funny how art and technology have a common etymological origin, from the Latin word ars and the Greek τέχνη, it’s the technique and the creative skills that build up this manifestation of the human being. In my case, this was part of the dilemma, as I could stay all night long welding electric circuits and all day playing the piano or reading books. My teachers encouraged me to write short stories and my parents tried thoroughly to stimulate my inventor’s soul. Along came computers and coding was so mind-boggling, that I changed my welding for algorithms. However, I learned to read and write music at the time as well, but when the time came to make a decision, I went for Literature… obviously, I dropped out and went to live to the beach and then to the magic mountains of Oaxaca, where I found a brujo (or shaman, though the concept is not precise) and ended up learning all sorts of fascinating things. One day I called my father, who by then was living in Tijuana and was in charge of the Baja California Orchestra and the Tijuana Conservatory, so I decided to continue my music lessons. I came back to the city in 2006 to study Music Theory, Composition and Music Production. I tried to live comfortably, but found out that Music is not a career you can live comfortably with (monetarily speaking, at least not in Mexico), I was learning all sorts of popular music to get along and have some money in my pocket, until I asked a friend for a job. I never really left coding, so he updated me and I got a good job, and started from the bottom with Geographical Information Systems. Soon enough I had a good wage, and I never left music, so one day this thought caught me by surprise: why make music for other people when I earn enough money to compose anything I want? So I started experimenting with music, left all the composition rules aside and started a whole new music career, not expecting anything from anybody, not running everywhere to get musicians read and play my music. It was one of the greatest moments when I found out I could do anything by myself. Music Technologies were on the rise also, so I learned to produce in many Digital Audio Workstations. By 2013, I found my hard drive bursting in hours of music scores and audio files. It was time to play again in front of people, so I called old friends, musicians that went also experimental and started to play noise anywhere we could (or where anybody would let us play). That’s when I found out I was going to make music forever.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Do whatever makes you happy and comfortable. Find people you’re at ease with, cause they will help you whenever you go out of tune, or off beat and remember everything is better with a little help from your friends.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Perfectionism is not my forte, I’ve always spoken in favor of randomness, chaos and I’m a huge fan of the research concerning stochastic processes. These facts are not an excuse, but the result of an extremely clumsy brain (even though I’ve tried to train it), so mistakes are always present in my life. Musicians I’ve played with are aware of this flaw, so we had to find a way to use this disadvantage. Fortunately we like jazz so much, so we’re trained to improvise, and that’s what we do. We even found a way to make mistakes happen, entanglement was the answer, to which I later found a group of people that made noise, so I embraced this genre with my arms wide open, and they hugged me back. That’s when I wrote my first album known as Peculiaridades (peculiarities), with the pseudonym of Absurdo Sonico, a set of soundscapes with a short story written for each music piece.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

I’ve never toured as Fig Man and the Flummoxed Wasp, it’s the beginning of a whole new concept for me, so I’m trying to handle all of the sounds I’ve written and recorded for Something’s Burning. I’ve played noise in music festivals and art museums, or wherever they allow us to play this genre. And I’ve travelled through the country making not only music, but any kind of mixed arts and artists, from poetry and literature to juggling and theatre. These events have led us to extremely odd situations concerning specially with the contemporary art movements, as for example the day a new artist opened our noise festival in the beautiful and conservative city of Queretaro with an eccentric performance, consisting of this dude (Lechedevirgentrimegisto) expelling a squid from his anus and 4 meters away falling to the awkward amusement of the audience (with us expecting everything but that, of course).

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

I’m working on a mobile studio. I’ve been recording all kinds of outdoor noises with the best quality I can, so in the experimental scope, I’m writing a project to record all kinds of rural bird sounds to mix it live in an 8 channel outdoor city auditorium in the city.
Within the mainstream field, I’m working with many beats for mexican hip hoppers and rappers (I like how the spanish language comes along its intricate syllabication with these genres), you’ll be hearing these as well soon enough.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

I’ve played for non mainstream listeners since I remember, so I’ve always been an alien to music promotion. Right now I’m trying social network solutions and the benefits of internet.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

Definitely Luigi Russolo, John Cage and Frank Zappa all three in the Sinfonía del Mar outdoor theatre in Acapulco or the Jones Beach Marine Theater. I would’ve loved to watch them work with the new technologies and the infiniteness of this new soundmaking experience with the sea as a witness.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

New technologies, I’m a huge fan of Sonic Pi and these new live coding music synths, maybe arrange them with an accelerometer, a GPS, or even mixing a camera as an effect pedal.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

I’m sure I’d be analyzing data with Geographical Information Systems.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in the next year or so?

Live acts, noise and lots of new and crazy music.

Exposed Vocals: Any Shout-outs?

Let’s make some music! I’ll be producing a new rap album and experimental hip hop soon. Wait for it.