It´s a cold January afternoon, I was invited up to Gwamba mountain to do an article for a small publication, about Gwamba of course, hear some music, see some art, and I really didn´t know what else.

I had heard story´s about Gwamba, I´ll admit I was a little bit anxious. Driving 4 hours from Portland to the middle of nowhere, religious cult, satanic rituals, crazy imbred hillbillys? what I got, was a tour through the mind of a manically devoted, ambassador of his own world of music, and at the same time, a walk in the wonderfully cluttered, shockingly open, confines of a manic, bi-polar recluse, who lives on a mountain named aft himself.

Gwamba lives in a house turned studio, filled with guitars, instruments of all types, albums, half finished paintings, amps, a never ending line of cords twisting throughout, like a black licorice trail, walls full of pictures with Gwamba, and just about everyone who is anyone, and his prize position, a wind up Victrola, complete with a wall full of old 78´S."my favorite type of media" says Gwamba.

There is a studio control room, instrument repair shop, film editing/dark room, art room, library, and in every room, even the bathrooms, xlr in and out jacks mounted, and wired through the walls.

We sit at the top of the mountain, underneath a flagpole with what else, a Gwamba flag at the top, and underneath a headstone, his grandfathers, "the greatest man whoever lived" as Gwamba put it.

Gwamba sits on the ground, with his legs crossed, covered from head to toe in a white shroud like suit, except for dark glasses, and his waist long hair blowing in the wind, like a king size sheet on a laundry line, he is covered, almost Michel Jackson-esh.

"I hate the sun" says Gwamba "I used to like it, but now it makes me sick… maybe it´s the drugs"… "well what do you want to know" Gwamba barks, "how bout start at the beginning" I say," are you gonna be here for a few days or hours" he says.

Gwamba

I have been playing for as long as I can remember, all instruments, I don´t know if its more of me than I am of it or the other way around. I miss the worship stage, when I didn´t have a bag full of licks. I would dress up like Mozart, and pretend I was a conductor… I could her every instrument, and thought I was the only one… I´m not… reality is a bitch."

(Interviewer)-"

you liked Mozart as a kid? who got you into that"

Gwamba

no one, my grandparents had some albums, operas, requiems… stuff like that, and I just heard magic."

Jeff

we sat and Gwamba talked in detail of how color applies to notes, and painting applies to song writing, almost like he was reading from a text book, one I had never heard of…

Then out of nowhere, Gwamba brought up what he calls his "hobby"

Gwamba

I´m a manic bi-polar, it´s a trip, I actually like it. when I was growing up, I wasn´t diagnosed, so I was just this weird kid… then I got the verdict, and now I´m just some weird guy…(he laughs)

So I´m on these mood stabilizers, but I don´t take them all the time, on purpose, when they work, I feel (pauses) just to normal… And that´s like a horrible feeling. I don´t like it!

When I don´t take them, I see myself as someone else, I have these long incredible conversations with myself. I´m really not cognizant of it, I´m just doing it, and sometimes ill realize I´m doing it, but it doesn´t stop me, or slow down the conversation.

I feel like 10 people sometimes, the manic part isn´t like depression or something, its more like, I have to be doing something. ill work myself to illness. I cant sit and watch a movie, unless I´m playing or drawing or something, I´m crazy, but this drives people around me nuts(laughing)

Jeff

how many hours do you play a day?"

Gwamba

well, it depends on what I have to do and where I am, but on an average day, 5 - 6 hrs. really, its not out of the norm for me to start at like 6 at night, and all of a sudden the sun is up and its 7 in the morning. its like a mantra for me. I just go to a happy place, I figure stuff out while I´m playing. I can be playing a song, and write another at the same time!

I’m always creating man, always. I don´t like to sleep, it´s a waste of time. I get maybe 3-4 hrs a night, I can stay awake for a week, but its not good on my body!

I wish I could just stay awake forever! people think I´m like a meth head or something, but there dead wrong, yea I do drugs, but there all from my doctor, but there still drugs man!

Jeff

I noticed a picture in your studio, kind of a half man half woman Frankenstein thing, is there something to that. it gave me the willies!"

Gwamba

yea that´s like the perfect me… protect the brain, the helmet has warning lights and blood infusers to keep color in my face, night vision of course, for stage and, well night, heart on the outside so you can tune it up, extra long arms, with a super pure mix of o2 and blood pumping thru them, and a tube into my belly button for nourishment, don´t have to stop and eat, and the breast…its like the nurturing side of me .like that part in "THE GRAPES OF WRATH" at the end, if you haven´t read it… do. its just a conceptional thing… I´m glad it gave you the willies… maybe your close minded to the unknown?"

Jeff

no I didn´t mean to say it like that, its just very over the top"

Gwamba

that´s everyday shit to me:"

We made our way down the mountain, and Gwamba stopped to pick up some rocks (Gwamba)-"this is all like rose quarts, agate… shit like that. power crystals, I put them around the house."

Then Gwamba took me thru the motor home he calls the "sub Q" (Gwamba) - "this is where I spend a lot of time… its all wired up to record and shit. "I´m kind of a recluse even on the road, if I can´t create I die!"

We then went back into the house, and Gwamba played some crazy instruments he invented, and showed me some 8mm films he has made. pretty intense stuff.

Jeff

Gwamba, where do you see yourself in the next year?"

Gwamba

I don´t know, sometimes in music a year is like a week, and sometimes its like a long year, I hope to have released 2 more albums (he has released over 25) hopefully more money, I´m barley squeaking by, I don´t mind. its just bills man, I work so hard just to barley stay on the music radar, its crazy, but people think I´m like lucky, or like a bum. like this isn´t a job… fuck, it´s the hardest job in the world, but I love it. I don´t mind working till my beard grows in to my soup because its what I am. if you have money, then people say, "oh he is an eccentric guy" but if you don´t you´re a bum. I have never meant anyone that can work at my pace. I take that back, one person. MUSHAGA, he is on the same trip as me. He lives it man"

Jeff

your bass player?"

Gwamba

man he is way more than that. he is the embodiment of music/recording… everything, I don´t think he is as crazy as I am, but he can keep up, and he gets it. he can finish my sentences, I hope we always work together. the band is always changing, every tour… from a 3 piece to a 6 piece…"

But Mushaga is always a part of the equation, always!

Jeff

Meeting Gwamba was definitely something ill remember. he is a very giving person. I left the ranch with 20 CD´s food, art, inventions, rocks, all kind of cool stuff, but the thing I left with that ill treasure most, is a feeling, a feeling, like I was part of something. Gwamba´s world. I don´t know whether or not I could live in it 24/7, but I feel a kindred spirit, a light in the dark, and an understanding of someone who actually lives it the way he talks it!