Due to space limitations inherent in The Stranger’s print version, some interesting exchanges didn’t make it into this week’s story on chameleonic guitar superhero Sir Richard Bishop. I’d like to include some of them here on the infinite planes of the internet. I hope you find them edifying.

You’re a voracious stylistic chameleon (I mean that in the nicest way possible); what triggered this sort of musical wanderlust? That being said, are there any genres/ethnic musics that you will never attempt? What styles do you plan to assay for the future, or do you not operate in that way?

I’ve just been exposed to a lot of cool sounds over the years (as well as many not-so-cool sounds), so it’s a matter of filtering out what I like and cursing what I don’t. It’s easy for me to grab hold of certain things if they affect me in a positive way, and re-interpret them into something a little bit different. There are plenty of genres or styles that I will never attempt simply because I don’t feel anything when I hear them, for example, anything with steel drums! There’s a lot of bad ‘world’ music out there, always has been. Seems like there is now a ‘one-world’ type of ethnic music that is being manufactured, world-fusion crap that is all watered down and safe for the masses and the idiotic populace will eat it up because it is non-threatening. People will buy this shit on CD when they buy their coffee. As for me, I don’t know what I will attempt next, but I’ll know it when I hear it.

Will this tour be mostly you and the band playing songs from The Freak of Araby or will be extemporizing and digging deeper into your catalog?

With the possible exception of one or two Middle Eastern songs from the Sun City Girls repertoire, this tour will feature all new material. We are doing most of the new record, plus several other Arabic classics that were never recorded; songs we learned during rehearsals for the tour.

Which song(s) is/are your favorite to cover, and why?

It used to be several Django Reinhardt pieces but right now I am enjoying all the traditional Middle Eastern songs that I’m doing for this tour. I plan on learning a lot more of these if for no other reason than that many are difficult to learn on guitar (kind of like the Django songs). So, each time I learn one of these pieces, and get the band to learn it, it’s quite a feeling of accomplishment. But I have to keep playing them or I will forget them all. That’s what happened with those Django songs. I can’t remember how to play them now because it’s been over a year since I tried to.

Do you plan to explore drone-based and noise music, as you did on While My Guitar Violently Bleeds and “Saraswati” from Polytheistic Fragments?

I think the drone side of things will always be present one way or another and that’s mainly because of my appreciation of Indian music. As for noise music, that’s a different beast altogether. I have some ideas that I am working on in relation to the whole noise thing but those aren’t ready for public consumption just yet, or rather the noise crowd isn’t ready for it yet because it will challenge their whole concept of it. I’ve seen and heard hundreds of noise bands over the years and to be honest, most of them are boring and entirely one-dimensional. That’s what I am trying to avoid.

How deeply are you involved with Sublime Frequencies these days? Are there any projects in the works?

Not so much these days. I’ve been too busy with other things over the last couple of years and since then the label has really taken off into the stratosphere. However, besides being probably the label’s biggest emotional supporter, I still hunt and gather as much music or film that I can muster during my travels and eventually some of this stuff may be released. The label is solely run by my brother [Alan] and Hisham Mayet, with a fair amount of help from Mark Gergis and Rob Millis. It’s in good hands and always has been.

Photo by Mark Sullo.