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Interview with Musical Artistic Musician William B. Duvall and Snapping Turtle Interview by Luvli Lotus PURCHASE DIVINE REVOLUTION AFFIRMATION PRINTS    
Printed on TREE-FREE card-stock click here  "I had completely run out of money and my ambition for music was gone. All of my instruments were sold. I had been instinctively using the Law of Attraction for some time, but perhaps because my music had been pessimistic nothing would ever happen with it. Like many American musicians, I also was trying too hard to cling to genres or radio expectaitons. In meditation one night, I realilzed that I couldn't just give up on thinking positive about it and vowed I would find a way to make a path out of nothing. I realized then that I DID have a tape deck, a television and a computer. I ran out and spent my last $6 on old-school tapes and started recording things around the house and then plugged it all into my computer. Next I knew, this album just emerged out of a place where most people wouldn't even think to find music." - William B. Duvall Snapping Turtle was formed in late '07. The project brings the 'concept album' to a different dimension in the space music genre. As opposed to reflecting on a single idea or thought, 'April Throw' presents a live animal to follow, with charactaristics, habits and a distinct environment. Listen closely, and follow the Snapping Turtle as it awakens from hibernation, shakes off the winter and goes on the hunt for mating and food. 'April Throw' is the first release from Savage Yank Records, a label dedicated to the evolution of American culture. Snapping Turtle is currently based on the Big Island of Hawai'i Divine Revolution Magazine- How do you describe your music?
William B. Duvall- Looking at the future, I really want to call it “Art Music” because I can see the expanse of different music I am capable of. But for this album, the taglines are “sonic disturbance” and “distorted ambient.” I’ve been using those because it best describes what exactly is going on.
DRM- What do you hope to offer to the world with your music?
WBD- My big issues are regionalism and the creation of entirely new styles. I feel re-inventing the wheel is the only true path to real cultural contribution. I want nothing short of an American Renaissance period, the American enlightenment if you will. You can already see this happening, with the right pair of eyes. I’m not saying the music will achieve this by any means, (laughs) but I hope the music just offers an insight into the possibilities.
DRM- How did it feel to spend your last dollars on a new musical vision?
WBD- This actually goes back a long ways for me. I’d been struggling for so long for Art’s sake that I couldn’t remember NOT spending my last dollars on a new vision. But everything was becoming like gambling, where I’d have an extra 20 bucks, so I’d run to the store, buy a new canvas and set up on the street corner in hopes of selling it for 40. Then nobody would buy it, and I’d end up losing the money and have to compensate in lifestyle, living with less and less. Even the closest people to me were beginning to nudge me away from Art. So by this point, I had become pretty nervous. 
DRM- Was there an inner process that went along with your outer process of creating your album April Throw?
WBD- Absolutely. This was the huge difference for me and why things changed. I felt I had a fuller grasp on the Law of Attraction. It was a long and slow process, but I came to see that you actually create yourself through the Art you make. Instead of painting myself into desperate corners, I started painting myself successful. The titles of my works began to change from things like ‘Inevitable Destruction’ or something to ‘$5000 in My Pocket Immediately.’ (laughs) Just hearing the difference in the “feeling” of those words says it all. It’s about nuance, and this is something you can only develop with time. And it seemed to start working. Suddenly there was this audience I had never imagined before, like from the business community, who resonated with this. This fed into the music and with ‘April Throw’ I just went all out with it, sexual desires and all.
DRM- Why did you choose to represent the movements of a snapping turtle with your album?
WBD- This really ties back into the regionalism. I’m a bit of an animist myself. I’ve always had a bit of connection with this animal. All of its characteristics match my personal characteristics and metaphorically it’s amazing: its found only in America, yet is considered exotic to the rest of the world. It is tied to what would become the United States even before the Native Nations, so has a powerful symbolism I have only begun to explore. And its hard to explain, but the way the album came together, with the turtle emerging from hibernation in April, and my personal feeling of awakening and the album released in April, and the album title ‘April Throw,’ just all came together in a way that may have little explanation. Except for something out there in the universe, literally awakening from hibernation.
DRM- How long did it take to complete April Throw?
WBD- I had most of the music recorded, mixed and produced by the end of January. By February I had completed the album Art. But then began a sort of miraculous story involving the mastering. First of all, I couldn’t find anybody to master this recording because nobody really understood what it was. And second of all, I couldn’t afford it. In my research, I finally found one person over the internet, in Belgium, claiming to master “noise music” and asked if they’d just give it a listen, to just tell me if it was possible to actually improve this type of recording and how much it would cost. By late March I had given up on it. I slipped back to my old habits- once again, I had overreached my circumstances. In mid April, after having pretty much walked away from the project, I got a shocking package in the mail from Belgium- a fully mastered CD, ready for factory production with a note that said, “Pay me when you can.” This was of course from Syrphe, and it turns out she is a well respected producer of the Eastern and European “noise music” scenes. I was like “There’s a scene?” All of the sudden, there was a flood of new and awesome music coming through my computer speakers. It turns out there are people making similar music in Europe and Asia and even a strong local scene in Toronto. But more than anything, Syrphe had really taken my audio files to another dimension. It’s amazing to listen now, cuz it sounds like a million dollars. Its so linear and tiny, yet expansive at the same time. When I hear the millions of tiny, sparkling crackles of distortion and the patterns they make as they pass by, my eyes just light up.
DRM- Why had you sold all of your instruments before conceptualizing Snapping Turtle?
WBD- My guitar started to become a lot like a photograph of your ex-lover. It starts to take on this negative energy and contaminate everything around it. Plus it pisses off your new lover, right? And honestly, it makes me depressed. Can I say that in a positive thinking magazine? It makes most people happy but has quite the opposite effect on me. There are all these old songs in there somewhere that just couldn’t find their way out into the world, and they are like the old drinking buddies you can’t hang out with anymore in sobriety.
DRM- How is your current music different from you former musical style?
WBD- When you're younger you just try to imitate everything. You try to be your music idols. Everything is based on slightly changing something that already happened, or worse yet, trying to “collage” with music. Combining styles and pretending its something new, but its not. It’s fine if you want to be accepted, but I want to create style or sound or pattern that has never existed. ‘April Throw’ is definitely a gut record. I just had to throw everything out the window and do exactly what sounded right to me.
DRM- Would you like to work with other musicians and artists? If so, how?
WBD- There’s a certain freedom that comes with working alone that I would be hard pressed to give up now. I could certainly see myself in a production capacity for other artists or just an idea person. Of course, I will be involved with new Artists on the record label and am always working with visual artists. But as far as Snapping Turtle goes, no. (smiles)
DRM- Do you present live performances of your music?
WBD- With the live show, I want it to be memorable if not mind blowing. Even in the smallest coffee shop or Art gallery. There are a lot of things to be worked out with screens and video, so its not something I’m rushing. But as long as everything stays on a positive course and each one of your readers buys a CD or a couple of Mp3 Downloads, (smiles) I think the live show could be in full effect in ‘09. And its gonna’ be SWEET.
DRM- Snapping Turtle is the first release on your record label Savage Yank Records. What are your future plans?
WBD- Well, we are certainly beefing up the Snapping Turtle site. Fans can listen to the whole album there anytime they want now for free and get lots of cool visual stimulation to go with it. So enhancing the visual part of the Snapping Turtle web experience is key. I’m also busy with my absolutely darling new business, Abstract Aquarium Backgrounds.com. AAB sells colorful and in-style backgrounds for fish tanks and it’s really taking off. It’s so cute and cheery! I love it. But as far as music releases, I’d like to go into the Appalachians to find some really authentic Bluegrass musicians, then run their instruments through extraordinary layers of effects and distortion, just to see how it sounds.
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