By Nazz Lane On Sunday, August 9th at 3 pm PDT/SLT, the band “Fierce Tibetan Gods” will hit the stage for its sixth appearance in second life.
Founded by Perry Geyer and Andrew Woolf in 1996, Fierce Tibetan Gods (FTG) recorded its first CD, “Dreams of Earth and Sky” a year later with the help of ex Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes and recording artist Rie Imai. The group recorded a second CD, “Forbidden Frequencies” in 2001 and they are working on a third, “Monks, Tanks and The Saffron Revolution” which is planned for release later this year. This sixth performance of the Virtual 09 tour will be held at Devils Moon SIM, which is themed after the Sci-Fi Movie 'Bladerunner.' Band members are planning to perform dressed as the principle cast members and are encouraging audience members to wear ‘future noir’ outfits “reminiscent of the denizens of Los Angeles, 2016,” as depicted in the movie.
I’d been introduced to band member Gaius Luminos (aka Andrew Woolf) though a publicist and we made arrangements to meet and chat about the band and the tour. I arrived at the appointed time with a TP request from Gaius and landed on the stage where Gaius was busily preparing for Sunday’s performance. We exchanged pleasantries and then began the interview.
Nazz: This is the stage for Sunday’s show?
Gaius: This is the set for Sunday … Bladerunner show. Our staging is always different; it’s better to have a new set each time that matches the theme of the SIM, even though that's a much bigger challenge.
Nazz: A new stage every time would be a challenge. How long does it take to set up for a performance?
Gaius: It depends on the particular SIM. This one is a more complex example ... it took maybe ten or twelve hours. I’m getting better at it ... this is the 6th show of our virtual worlds tour 09 in SL.
Nazz: The band is named, Fierce Tibetan Gods ... what inspired the name?
Gaius: I'm a Tibetan Buddhist … 25 years. The music partially draws influences from that.
Nazz: Influences from the teachings and practice?
Gaius: Yes, definitely, also from the spirit of the Tibetan people. I think it’s something we can all learn from.
Nazz: Besides the Tibetan influence, how would you characterize the band’s sound?
Gaius: it’s a mixed bag; with some … I suppose more core elements ... which are just things we like. Greg is a big Beatles fan, as are Perry and I ... the rest stems I guess from our mutual interest in world music, especially Indian, Middle Eastern and African...we're not genre specific, but somehow it ends up having a readily identifiable sound. As to how that happens, I have no idea it just does.
Nazz: How was it that you four found each other to form the band?
Gaius: Well, we'd known each other from various studio recording work in the past, here in Boston. It’s a smaller and tighter circle here, so people tend to know each other anyway. Perry and I had been working on and off together for several years. Perry knew Greg because he worked as a producer at the Cars old studio in Boston, Synchro Sound. Greg tended to pop in and out as you’d expect to listen to various sessions, and one night he popped in and heard FTG, which at the time was just Perry and I, and the rest was history. We're very lucky to have Mr. Hawkes, he’s a consummate writer and performer.
Nazz: The band’s performances so far have only been in SL, are there plans for other virtual worlds?
Gaius: In the past we've done a few sporadic live shows in RL ... then personal commitments truncated that. Now we have more time to do RL coming up, so the idea of being in SL is to ramp up exposure faster and more expeditiously here than we could in RL, preparatory to doing RL shows.
Nazz: How many more SL shows are planned?
Gaius: It’s a good question ... we're kind of feeling our way thru to an extent, and that’s good because it allows us to be intuitive ... definitely another twenty I'd say at least.
Nazz: So using the series as tuning and for increasing awareness for the RL performances?
Gaius: Yes exactly ... there are many parallels and congruencies between playing in SL and RL ... and none of the hotel, crew and gas bills at the end of the day!
Nazz: How receptive have the SL audiences been to the band and the sound?
Gaius: We've been fortunate, we've been very well received and I’m making a lot of new friends here ... it’s a great place for us to be it seems.
Nazz: Have you experienced any technical problems?
Gaius: Yes, but only the predictable ones in-world lag and so forth. We had over a hundred people at Dance Island ... things got a bit sticky.
Nazz: That’s a lot for an SL event.
Gaius: It was a surprise ... it was the third show of the tour… a nice surprise
Nazz: Live music is a big part of the SL experience. Most of us can clearly recall our first concert.
Gaius: It is indeed, and the more we explore that landscape, the more richness and diversity we are finding. There are many world class innovators and talents here.
Nazz: How has the reception by the SL musical community been for you and the band?
Gaius: Again, it’s been very warm, very friendly and very encouraging.
Nazz: That’s good to hear and I’m not surprised, you all are accomplished and professional performers.
Gaius: Thank you that’s very kind. We're newbies, but we're focused somewhat from RL, so that helps and yes … we all have industry track records … notably Mr. Hawkes.
Nazz: Since the first performance have you had to make any changes in the technical or musical side of things?
Gaius: Yes definitely, it’s something we do in RL to … the project itself is structured or de-structured such that things like intuitive thinking and free styling so called are encouraged ... we're open ended as it were, in both a creative and technical sense. It’s a work in progress!
Nazz: Do you have any closing thoughts or comments for my readers you'd like to share?
Gaius: Sure, we'd like to thank the SL community for embracing us as they have, and we'd like to embrace them in return … Tashi Delek.
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