"Get out of the way!" Dave Fridmann, the master of invention, talks on a part of his musical chronicle
		Tarbox Road Studio, located in a small town called Cassadaga, NY State, is a sacred place for all fans of Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips. It is run by Mr. Dave Fridmann, the leading producer of experimental neo-psychedelia beat. As good luck would have it, I could step into the magical wonderland early this spring. There was an unforked road, very long and very straight, led me to the studio. The air was very fresh with a chill in it. This desolate but beautiful nature, surrounded by the deep woods, was not artificial at all and somehow I felt that this rather isolated environment make our minds pure-white. On the way to the studio
		Tarbox Road Studio was set up in March 1997. Its first project was The Flaming Lips' cosmic explosion 4CD "Zaireeka". Needless to say, Mr. Fridmann is vital importance to create fantastic tripping albums for The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. Nowadays, because of his international reputation, so many wonderful bands from all over the world flock to the studio to work with him. Japanese art rockers, like Number Girl or Penguin Noise achieved by far their best with him. Let's step into the studio! Mary Fridmann, a project partner and his wife guided me inside the studio. My first impression? Astonishing... It is a world in itself... "His studio is like a cave of equipment...He has so much stuff!", Mr. Captain, Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips said before,and here it is! With modernized recording facilities, there are so many curious things everywhere! It's like a big toy box! Oh! I can see a poster of Tenacious D with autograph on the wall. It's another treasure here and makes me laugh so much. Anyway, you know, Mercury Rev's " Deserter's Songs" and The Flaming Lips' " The Soft Bulletin", both legendary, beautifully sonic masterpieces were made in the studio and I suddenly feel emotionally thrilled at the truth. I can't move for a while... At Present, Michael Ivans from the Flaming Lips, a very calm man, like Buddha, works at Tarbox road Studio as an executive engineer and spends very busy days with Mr. Fridmann. The producer is a warm, easygoing person and always smiles at the guests. Everyone will like him instantly. He's also a good father of two lovely kids, Michael & Jonathan. I hope that he will come to Japan again (he came to Japan with Mercury Rev for a music festival called "Summersonic" 2001 and played on stage! It became a legendary show among the enthusiastic fans). And yeah, we've got very nice & high quality horseradish, one of his favorites, here in Japan. (We call it Wasabi in Japanese) I'm sure it will make him cry a lot! Dear all, Here is a marvelous & glorious productive magician, check his wonderful brain!

			●Could you tell me about your musical background? When did you start playing the instruments? I think that I started taking piano lessons when I was about 8. I did this for about three years and then stopped when I bought my first keyboard, a fender rhodes 73 key suitcase model. ●Could you tell me about your musical background? When did you start playing the instruments?Who was your first influence? What kind of music did you listen to when you were young? I just listened to the radio a lot. Buffalo is a classic rock town and was even then. There was tons of Van Halen, Rush, Yes, Genesis, Led Zeppelin. ●How did you meet the member of Mercury Rev? Why did you join the band? We had a lot of mutual friends. They had started recording and knew that I was becoming an engineer. They asked me to do some work with them and one thing led to another... I joined the band because that is what I had wanted to do for a long time. I wanted to be in a band and make records.
			●Was Mercury Rev the first band you joined? Or you played in a band before Mercury Rev?If so, what kind of band was it? I played in dozens of bands. The first band that I was in I was 14 years old and we did covers and played High school dances. It was great! I played keyboards in that band. I have been a member of bands of all different styles and liked them all. ●Why did you become a producer besides Mercury rev? After I got what I had always wanted, I realized that I didn't want it any more. I found that I had a lot more fun and was able to be more creative by　working with lots of bands instead of just my own.
			●Who was the first band or musician you have ever produced except Mercury Rev? The Flaming Lips. I started recording with Mercury Rev before I worked with the Lips, But I finished "In A Priest Driven Ambulance" Before "Yerself Is Steam" At that time Jonathan Donahue was in both bands and We all played and worked on both those records at the same time. ●What's your motto as a producer? Get out of the way!
			●What's your pleasure to produce records with bands? My favorite part of producing is helping the bands get what was in their heads to come out of the speakers. ●How do you arrange the bands to work together? Have you got any bands standard? It really depends on the bands and what they are trying to do. With a band like Number Girl, they will all play together, but with The Flaming Lips, we may start with piano and a click track.
			●What purpose did you have your own studio? Any ideas? Any concepts? The reason that we built the studio was so that I could see more of my family. There are not any big studios around here so I had to build one so that I could stop traveling 300 days out of the year like I was before. ●How do you describe the new album of The Flaming Lips? What did you focus on the album most? I don't know how to describe it, but I really like it. We really wanted the songs to be immediate so that the feeling of the songs was conveyed easily for anybody.
			●How & when did you meet The Flaming Lips? Did you meet them through Jonathan? Yes, I met them through Jonathan. He was their road manager and when they could afford a sound man, he suggested me. I used to do a lot of live sound and toured with them for a few years as their sound man before like Jonathan, I started to play with them on stage. I played keyboards and pyrotechnics. ●Could you tell me the most impressive band or musician you have ever worked? Steven Drozd. ●You've been working with Japanese bands like Number Girl and Penguin Noise. What's your interest in working with Japanese bands? They are no different than English or American bands. If people are friendly and hard working and talented, I would like to work with them. Both of these Japanese bands are excellent and I have heard many other great Japanese bands also. Number Girl introduced me to the Bloodthirsty Butchers and my friend Junya Iwata who engineered Penguin Noise introduced me to Condor 44. I like both of these bands.
			●I heard you are a teacher at SUNY too. What's your major? What are you teaching there? I studied Sound Recording at SUNY Fredonia and now I teach a couple of the courses there. It's very hard to teach, but I think it helps me to have to explain it. ●Who do you want to work with the most at the moment? I am having a lot of fun right now working with Steven at my house on a project with my wife Mary. We have just started, but I think that it has a lot of potential.
			●What's your ultimate dream as a producer & a musician? I think that it's really great when you can have a vision of how a song might effect someone and then to find out that it worked! That is great and I hope that I can do it over and over.
			●You came to Japan with Mercury Rev and played together at Summersonic last year. Actually, a lot of people came to see Mercury rev because of you! People really wanted to see your playing! Do you think it will happen again in the future? Maybe?!?!? I am very busy and it takes a lot of time to do live shows, but I really had a great time and hope that I get to do a couple of shows here and there.
			●Actually, what are you doing now? Any studio works with a band? Right now I am in the middle of a few different projects. I am working with the Webb Brothers, Grand Mal, Longwave, The Delgados, and Wheat! Busy Busy Busy!!

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