Catching Up With Scott Shaw

Catching Up With Scott Shaw
Here is the translation for the 2015 interview with Scott Shaw for the Romanian magazine, Crystal Spirit.

What are you currently working on?
Scott Shaw: Everything.

I know you are involved in a lot of things can you give me any specifics?
SS: For the last couple of years I’ve been focusing a lot of my time on creating music and capturing photographic images.

What kind of music and what kind of photographs?
SS: In terms of music I have been doing a lot of very ethereal guitar based stuff and working with vintage synthesizers. As far as photography, I’ve continued on my path of capturing, what I consider, interesting and abstract urban images.

Can we expect a new album in the near future?
SS: Several.

What type of guitar equipment are you using to create music?
SS: Well, I have a lot of guitars so I work with several of them but recently I am predominately recording with a Fender Stratocaster with a scalloped fingerboard and using tons of pedals to create the textural sound I’m looking for.

Which pedals?
SS: Wow, there's a lot. Off the top of my head I’ve been using The Electro-Harmonix Ring Thing, Holy Grail, Electric Mistress, and Ravish Sitar, The Digitech The Weapon, The Whammy, and The Hardwire DL8, The Behringer Ultra Shifter/Harmonist, The Boss DD20 and The Boss Fender 68 Deluxe Reverb Amp Pedal, a Morley Classic Wah, a Fender Blender, The DanElectro Dan Echo and Fab Tone, a vintage Echoplex, a vintage Roland Space Echo, and a bunch boutique pedals I'm sure no one has ever heard of.

Amps?
SS: Mostly, with today’s technology, I record direct into the system but for recording live sound I use a Mesa Boogie and some modeling amps like the Line 6. I also have an early Behringer modeling amp that really produces a great live sound and, of course, I use my ’57 Fender Deluxe when I want to record that gritty old school sound.

In terms of photography what type of equipment do you use?
SS: Everything from my iPhone to a small Nikon I carry around with me all the time onto my high-end Nikon DSLRs.

Do you have a preference?
SS: They all do what they do with the advantages and disadvantages they each individually possess. So, they each serve their purpose.

What about painting?
SS: Yeah, I’m still doing that.

Poetry?
SS: Of Course.

How about Zen Filmmaking. What have you been up to lately?
SS: I capture moving images all the time. Whenever I see something interesting I film it. When I get enough footage, I put it together.

What type of equipment are you using?
SS: Well, just like with still photography I use everything from my iPhone, my small carry-around Nikon, onto my Nikon DSLRs. In terms of actual video cameras I am currently using the new Sony HDR CX900. It’s portable, full broadcast quality, and really captures a great image.

Are you working on any specific films we can look forward to?
SS: Like I said, I’m always filming but I have really moved away from making, for lack of a better term, traditional story-driven films.

Why?
SS: I just have not felt like dealing with the desires, expectations, and egos of the actors and the crew and being the only one who is putting the whole production together and dealing with the all and the everything.

What does that mean for your filmmaking style?
SS: Like I’ve talked about for a few years now, I’ve been focused on making non-narrative Zen Films. Meaning, I just get an inspiration and tie a bunch of relevant moving images together, forming them into a piece of cohesive cinema.

It that a cinematic revolution?
SS: Revolution is a big word. I’m just doing what I do.

How about the martial arts?
SS: As always, the martial arts are one of the key elements of my life. I, of course, workout all the time and I train very-advanced practitioners.

For 2015 what do you have in mind?
SS: Live and create.