We had the good fortune of connecting with David Fiuczynski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?

I enrolled in a liberal arts college because i thought that a career in the arts was too risky, but ended up taking mostly music classes so it seemed this was the right path for me since musical intuition came naturally to me. So I went to New England Conservatory and then enrolled in the New York school of hard knocks and learned creative survival skills.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m best known as a unique guitar player. My fans and foes agree that you can identify my sound after only hearing a few notes. I always admired unique artists like Nina Hagen (German opera punk singer), the Bad Brains (hardcore punk and reggae), Don Pullen (unique backhanded cluster melodies on piano) and more and I wanted to have my own sound like Jimi Hendrix for example. I’m most proud of what I’ve achieved with Screaming Headless Torsos, the band I started over 35 years ago with different line ups mixing rock, punk, house, electronica, operatic vocals, reggae, ska, jazz influences and now world music and microtonal influences. I’m also very proud of imparting this knowledge to amazing players at Berklee College of Music and helping them start their own unique microtonal journeys like with MonoNeon (Southern Soul Micro), Utar Artun from Turkey (Mid-East MicroJamz), Giorgi Mikadze (Georgian MicroJamz), Yazhi Guo (Chinese MicroJamz), Hidemi Akaiwa (Japanese MicroJamz) and Sam Keri from Hungary (Folk Tech). Microtonality means using tuning systems other than the western 12 note per octave system. In popular music this is still a very new medium and exciting way to access new musical ideas!

Overall it’s been very difficult to get this music out there due to the fact that the music industry is very hostile to new ideas and I’ve been lucky to get grants for support. Also, I cannot overstate the support I received from Berklee to teach these new ideas to the next generation. It’s been a privilege to watch young players absorb these new ideas, even more gratifying to see my methods being used to PRESERVE cultures with new types of notation, oral cultures that have been handed down by ear and tradition and are in danger of being lost. For example Giorgi Mikadze returned to his native Republic of Georgia, came up with his own manner of microtonal transcription based on my ideas for improvisation and performance, notated a number of Georgian folk melodies, wrote an entire suite of new music based on the tradition and in the process offered a method of preservation for said tradition for an entire nation!! This goes far beyond of what i ever imagined!!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

sorry i dont have a favorite city, as a musician i’m kind of a nomad, but i do seek out are the museums and the old town of any given place i find myself and at the same time i’m always asking about new ideas and avant garde players who are implementing these ideas

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

Billy Hart (drummer who has played with Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and more…), Ben Perowsky (also a great drummer who showed me the ropes in NYC), Bob Moses (another great drummer and beautiful human being), George Russell (one of the first to encourage me to develop my own sound. He also invented his own music theory and wrote the “Chromatic Concept for western Tonal organization), Wesley Wirth who’s a true renaissance man and my parents Ruth and Hans Fiuczynski

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidfiuczynski/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidFiuczynski

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.f.fiuczynski

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ScreamingHeadlessTorsos

Other: other instagram https://www.instagram.com/screamingheadlesstorsos/

Image Credits
in the order uploaded: oscarinn 561 Ouriel Morgensztern Jaime Fernández (jaimefphoto) Giorgi Mikadze Roy Edwards

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