Derek Furlong

This is part three of a three part interview I did with Derek Furlong of "The Red Earth". Derek's been playing didj for a long time and as you are about to discover, his style and power come from a rich set of experiences both in Australia and his native UK.

[Ed] How did you come to meet and work with Simeon?

[Derek] Simeon came to a workshop I was leading for Aboriginalana in the Cotswolds in Worcestershire England about 5 years back now; he had been to Australia and came back with a didge. He was really inspired with the sound of the instrument and wanted to play it and use it in his music.

At the end of the workshop I talked about wanting to record an album and work with a good musician to achieve an album that would be a little different.

Little did I know just how good a musician I had right there! We met up a few months earlier and discussed some basic ideas. I knew then that we would make an excellent duo.

I had so many bad experiences playing with other musicians in the past; I had almost given up into accepting that I would be a solo player all my life!

[Ed] Can you discuss how you work together?

[Derek] What generally happens is that Simeon will send me a bunch of melodies and ideas on a CD. I listen and start to come up with ideas for the didge, not all the pieces are suitable and some we add extra bits to or re-compose to fit bits of didge ideas we have.

We then meet up in the studio and put these ideas down. As soon as I hear a track that we both like it surprisingly takes me very little time to come up with a didge rhythm and ideas. It takes longer, however to perfect the finished idea.

We base the whole track around the didge, leaving spaces where the didge can be 'pulled out'. Sometimes we will base a whole track around a single didge piece like 'The wedding' I think the trick is to give the didge the center stage a basic rhythm or theme, then work around that. Then Simeon can add the ideas he has, I will then have some of my ideas and we practice them in different combos to come up with the sound we like for that particular track. I will then really focus on the didge rhyme and clarify it and really learn it, mould it, push it etc. We then record it in one take. If we do not like it we restart all over again.

Even when we have the finished didge piece recorded, we single it out and listen to it, if we are both happy we carry on the process.

It is a give and take process, we get on very well and are able to be honest with each other, there is no competition, just two determined people wanting to work as a team to produce a track we feel people will enjoy and which we enjoy playing.

Simeon, however has a real talent and ear for knowing how to compose the final idea and bring out the didge, I am certainly glad we work together.

[Ed] Your sound on "Red Earth" is remarkably clear and strong. How did you get your didge sound so "thick" on these recordings? It seems a tricky thing to bring that kind of presence to a recording of the didge. Any tips about equipment, levels, mixing and equalization will be, I'm sure very useful to all of us. I'm particularly jealous of the perfect intonation, full tone, and very clean articulation.

[Derek] Thanks for the kind comments Ed, to answer about the sound I am going to have to break silence and offer an opinion, I know a few didge enthusiasts will read this and I think I will come off the fence for this one.

I came across a web site recently in which the white UK player stated that "western players use too much of the lips and use too much air and have mouthpieces that are far too big" He was striving to play like one of the aboriginal elders who has recently come on the scene teaching. Here in the UK some players are now beginning to say that they want to do this and are playing with mouthpieces that are ridiculously small.

I disagree completely with this philosophy, sorry people.

This is how I make the sound I do on the album.

I strive to make the loudest sound possible, using the least air possible.

I use the biggest size mouthpiece I can possibly manage

I strive to push as much of my lips as is practical into that mouthpiece, obviously all of the lips inside the tube is not the way to go, I work on a good two thirds.

I push the sound really hard at certain times in using tongue, cheek and diaphragm combos

I use a specially shaped mouthpiece using beeswax - being a didge teacher I always give away the secrets, this one NO!

Over to Simeon for the technicalities of the

equipment...............................................

[Simeon]

Equipment used

Rode NT2 Microphone

Computer software Steinberg Cubase VST Audio

Reverb - Steinberg's own Reverb 32 set on the Long and Warm preset.

EQ 10 Khz boosted slightly to give crisp top end

These are the basic settings for Derek's playing style and the studio environment he was in. The mic was set at about 15 cm away from end of Didge and set on unidirectional.

One or two other effects were added on some of the more quirky pieces:

Circus Didge and Rock that Stick had a little delay in order to add drive and extra rhythm.

Even though melodic line and harmony play an important part in the make up of "The Never, Never" album the Didge is the most integral part. And so once we were happy with the Didge sound then the rest of the instrumentation was made to wrap around it and support it.

But at the end of the day the raw material of having a world class player and a set of great instruments was the key.

[Ed] "The Never Never" is the title of Simeon and Derek's CD. Collectively the duo is known as "Red Earth". The CD showcases Derek's rich and lively didjeridu sound in the context of Simeon's considerable composition skills. With a number of didjeridu oriented recordings now on the market, Red Earth's distinction is perhaps that it more ambitiously seeks to incorporate the instrument into modern contemporary styles than in the more common direction of "post-modern" genres with such catch names as "Tribal" or "Trance". The tracks are composed and arraigned in a way as one expect from Simeon's professional experience and formal training (Trinity College of Music, London).

The tone of the album is mostly up beat tempos with breezy melodies performed on all manor of flutes and pipes. The clean mixes add to the cheerfulness of the music. You won't find dark, blusey, dramatic mood music here. Also absent are the more cliche aspects of "New Age." Instead, you'll find music you can be cheerful listening to. This doesn't always float my metaphorical boat. A little minor mode and some rough, pulsing, screaming, raw rock and roll is fine with me. If there would be one thing I'd ask of Simeon and Derek on their next CD, it would be to get down and loud a little. Still, "The Never Never" doesn't let or bring me down. It's a CD that stands out a bit for being different in several ways. For me, it's in the quality of sound, melodic content and arrangements which really distinguish it from many CDs.

Visit Derek's band at http://www.the-red-earth.com. There you will be able to listen to samples from their new CD!

Derek Furlong (Part III)