When artists like Arcade Fire, Tom Waits, TV on the Radio, Fiest, Bon Iver, LCD Soundsystem, David Byrne, and Sinead O’Connor all seek out the same brass and woodwind musician to play on their records and with their bands, it’s pretty safe to assume that musician’s on to something. Such is the case with Colin Stetson, a Michigan-born, New York City transplant who writes and performs transfixing music with clarinet, saxophone, french horn, cornet, and other instruments.

In addition to his activity with the artists mentioned above, among many others, Stetson’s work as a solo act has been hailed for its harrowing physicality and electrifying sonic intensity. Though he’s touring heavily with Sway Machinery and Bell Orchestre throughout the spring, he’ll be appearing as a solo act in Cincinnati this week, opening for Justin Vernon of Bon Iver on Thursday, April 1st, as part of the MusicNOW festival. He recently agreed to speak with Each Note Secure about his music, his collaborations, and how his live shows can leave him exhausted.

[Each Note Secure] How did you become interested in playing saxophone and so many other woodwind and brass instruments? Was it something you started at an early age? Who were your influences?

[Colin Stetson] I first started playing saxophone at age 10, when the band program started at my elementary school. They asked us what we’d like to play, I said saxophone (for several years I had been listening to Men at Work’s Who Can It Be Now? and was convinced that the saxophone was the sound and shape of instrument that I needed to play). Unfortunately, there was only one sax at the school and I lost the raffle. But my parents, seeing my obvious attachment and being pissed at the whole raffle thing, went out of their way and budget and got me a student sax.

I of course found more influential players: Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, John Zorn and Ellery Eskelin, my professor in University, Donald Sinta. I would say, though, more than sax players, Jimi Hendrix was the bigger influence musically from an early age.

[ENS] Your instrument inventory includes bass saxophone, cornet, clarinet, and french horn, among others. Do you use these various instruments simply to attain different tones and ranges, or do you have a separate creative experience with each instrument?

[CS] A big BOTH to that question. I started with alto sax, gradually adding tenor, baritone, soprano and then bass saxes, clarinet and bass clarinet, and finally french horn and cornet. The process has been ongoing for the 25 years I’ve been playing and I’ll continue to expand that, I’m sure. While saxophones will always be my first and the instrument that I’m most proficient in, I just love all the sounds and characters specific to different instruments and how they alter your musical personality and
expectation when playing them.

[ENS] Do you have any plans to record a follow up to your 2009 album New History Warfare, Vol. 1?

[CS] Just did! We recorded Vol.2 in Montreal at the Hotel 2 Tango in February of this year. It’s awaiting mixing and mastering but should be here by summer or fall at the latest. I’m terribly excited about it! It pretty much picks up the narrative where Vol.1 left off, although the writing, playing, and recording techniques are all on such a higher plane!

It’s my Empire Strikes Back, my chance to work in the same universe as before but more fully realized with new characters and bigger sets! But it still adheres to the rules, which are that all the tracks be recorded live, no overdubs or loops or pitch effecting, just solo saxophone. Shahzad Ismaily is producing, and Shara Worden is singing on a track! Other guests my pop up before the due date as well…

[ENS] What differences in the creative process do you experience playing with an established artist, like Tom Waits or Arcade Fire, versus doing your own act?

[CS] When I’m supporting someone like Tom [Waits] or [Arcade Fire], it’s just that, supporting. My job in those instances is to use my voice to enhance and aid in the realization of their vision, and I really love to do this. I’ve been and continue to be very lucky with the company I keep and am very proud of and inspired by their/our music. I’m working with Laurie Anderson a lot this year and it’s fantastic! Such a wonderful person and artist! Wonderful people make wonderful artists, I’ve learned.

On the other hand, my own act is a study in extremes. It’s physically and spiritually cathartic and satisfying on a level all its own, and at the same time can be absolutely debilitating, lonely, and leave me a bit crazed. All of this is pretty obvious to anyone who’s ever seen my set, I think!

[ENS] When you perform or record with an artist or band, do you find that they are tapping you for your own characteristic method of playing, or do find yourself working to adjust your sound to their needs?

[CS] I’ve been incredibly fortunate to not have to resort to a lot of “session work” over my career, although certainly not none! Especially now, I’m pretty much hired to be me whenever someone brings me in. That’s not so say that I come to every situation and lay down something that screams “Colin Stetson played this. Instead, I approach every song as its own story, its own set of characters and hopefully then play what it needs to come to life. [I'm] being me, but the me that the moment requires, no more or less. That’s the goal, at least!

[ENS] You’ve had a history playing in churches and other “sacred” places, such as the National Shrine of St. Francis Assissi. Do you feel performing in these types of venues adds something to your music and performance?

[CS] I love old buildings. Old spaces (even those that weren’t built with performance or oratory in mind) were built with stone and wood and hands and backs and they resonate with a natural intensity and lend that history and years to the music, I think. In these grand old churches there’s no reason to mic the instrument because the hall was built to do that naturally. So when I play my music, which at its core is the intention to create a multiplicity of voices from just the one source, these rooms acoustically enhance that experience. Then the performance is really about the combination of the three of us; the audience, me, and the room; all coming together to make the experience. And although I’m not a religious man, I appreciate and feel a deep intensity in old places of worship. All that human experience, the good and the bad and the profound, it leaves a stain.

[ENS] After collaborating with so many different artists, are there any other acts that you would still like to have an opportunity to play with?

[CS] Shit, that list is as long as there are amazing artists whose music I love, but just off the top of my head: Radiohead, Bjork, Willie Nelson, and Sade.

Interview by John Crowell

Colin is the opening act on Thursday night of the MusicNOW festival at Memorial Hall in Cincinnati.