| October 2004
Keneally’s versatility and broad range of musical interests are apparent in the long list of recordings he’s played on. He’s accompanied Solomon Burke, the Ed Palermo Big Band, and Frank Zappa, among others. It was his stint with Zappa in the late '80s (he appeared on six Zappa recordings) that gave him his break in the music business. Playing with Zappa helped Keneally develop his chops, but it also seems to have given him a taste for writing music that challenges and invigorates. The idea to commission the work that led to The Universe Will Provide came from Co de Kloet, a producer for Holland’s public radio network, NPS (NPS Output is co-releasing the disc). "Co de Kloet is a master conceptualist. We had met a long time ago. He had done some interviews with Frank and he kept an interest in the careers of Zappa's musicians." As Keneally thought about how he wanted to approach the piece, he was, as he describes on his website, "…being open to the first feelings which would lead to the finished work. The first thing that came to my mind during the conceptualization phase was ‘the year 1969.’" Keneally, who was born in 1961, began to think of the piece as "my birthday gift to my eight-year-old self." With that idea in mind, Keneally was able to tap into the things that influenced and formed him at that impressionable age -- everything from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001:A Space Odyssey and the music of Wendy Carlos to Allen Sherman and Warner Bros. cartoons. He told me the title came to him as the composition began to evoke his childhood experiences. "Since the piece involves me in childhood, in part, and I had a very happy childhood and felt provided for, I wanted something to paint that picture, something that would capture that feeling." As both Dog and The Universe Will Provide demonstrate, Keneally skillfully blends very impressive guitar flash with a strong sense of melody. His achievement in The Universe Will Provide is to place that ability in an orchestral context, and he does it, for the most part, very successfully. In order to write the score, he called on his friend Chris Opperman, himself a composer. "The real composition phase was pretty quick," Keneally noted. "I would write it on paper without going into too much detail. I would hear combinations in my head, but not find the final orchestrations until Chris put the music on his computer, then I would make decisions." Using Finale software, Keneally and Opperman were able to experiment with instrumental combinations until Keneally arrived at the sound he was after. When Keneally and Opperman traveled to Amsterdam in early June 2003 for three days of rehearsal prior to the premier of the piece on June 8 at the Holland Festival, they had only heard it as MIDI sound files on the computer. "It was mind-blowing to hear your music being played by that many people the first time. It started off pretty ragged, but as it came together it became more powerful than I’d even imagined. It helped that we had a very confident conductor [Jurjen Hempel]." When Keneally and Opperman returned in September to record the piece, Keneally had made some changes to its structure. "It was originally written in eight movements, but we recorded it with 13 and changed the order somewhat. Even after we recorded it, I shuffled some things around. Music is a force to obey. The composer’s not in charge; the music is." I asked Keneally about the recording of The Universe Will Provide. "I was shocked to find it was going to be recorded on Protools. I still like recording on analogue. I like tape. I was freaked out. But these guys are extremely capable. They know how to mike an orchestra in order to make it sound right." Engineer Gert de Bruijn, balance engineer Gert Jan van den Dolder, and mastering engineer Peter Vincent have given the disc a clean, detailed sound. One advantage to digital became apparent during the final mix. "We did a lot of small but crucial fixes. Being able to digitally pare the recording down to sections and repair things -- you can’t really do that with analogue." Keneally records his own bands on tape and his new disc with his quartet has lots of analogue warmth. Dog also has impressive, complicated songs played with exceptional skill. Keneally has a great sense of humor, both lyrically and musically, and his band negotiates his difficult songs with ease. The obvious enjoyment they take in playing Keneally’s music makes the disc a blast to listen to. Keneally writes songs that are filled with unexpected time changes and unusual chord progressions, yet he lets you stay close to the melody. Even the most intricate tracks flow together naturally. He continues Zappa’s tradition of highly intelligent rock, but he isn’t a clone. Keneally maintains an extensive, very informative website, www.keneally.com, that should serve as an example to other musicians of how a musician can present himself and his music to the public. The site includes a link to Radio Keneally, www.radiokeneally.com, which plays "All Mike Keneally, All the Time." Many of his discs are available through the main site, although you can also find them on retail sites, such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I recommend both The Universe Will Provide and Dog to anyone who enjoys music that is intellectually challenging, emotional, and extremely well played. ...Joseph Taylor
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Mike Keneally