: TBA

: 74:46 – 10 Tracks

: 13 Tracks

: 110:00

: 73:41 – 18 Tracks

: 72:22 – 16 Tracks

: 27:57 – 9 Tracks

: 55:55 – 24 Tracks

: 62:37 – 10 Tracks

: Over 3 Hours

: TBA

DURATION

: TBA

: TBA

Exclusive Interview

Justin St. Vincent from Xtreme Music received responses to an e-mail interview with Dave Murray on April 8, 2005.

Xtreme Music: Tell us about your high-school band Plow Posture and the music on your first album “Plowing The Virgin Soil”.

Dave Murray: It was a sexually explicit rock and roll band that tried to capture as many high school girls as possible. Before them I was a metal dork, that never changed but at least I had fun. They are some of my best friends still. Paul McKee, who produces my music was the guitarist.. Song titles included “Sex On Drugs”, “Disco Sunburn”, “No Deposit No Return”. We used to play parties, the best show I ever played was at an all girls catholic school that we had to ditch class to pull off. Never has a show come close to that one!

Xtreme Music: How did you first meet the Estradasphere members and start collaborating together?

Dave Murray: I met Tim and Jason and we played jazz at university. They were on the same plain musically as me and it was instant destiny that we should play together. We played jazz, then included glam rock and other things in our performances… then it became Estradasphere.

Xtreme Music: What were your musical contributions to the Banana Slug String Band album “Goin’ Wild!”?

Dave Murray: I was naive back then. I did an all drum session for very little pay and zero royalties. I don’t respect how it was handled. They won an award for “Best Children’s Album”.

Xtreme Music: Please share some further information about the album “Live Aeroplane Food” by Busdriver Meets Daedelus.

Dave Murray: I have a special place in my heart for this recording and the tour that this represented of Europe. Daedelus is a popular DJ, and Busdriver a great MC. It was a mix of them, a trap-set and sax to create a very improvisational soup. We all played off each other and created strange music. Not sure how else to explain it. Daedelus is a mad man who loves to juice.

Xtreme Music: For those who enjoy music from Estradasphere, what other bands can you recommend?

Dave Murray: Well, perhaps the Mimicry Records line up. Otherwise not sure, I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of Estradasphere-type music. It’s great to play though!

Xtreme Music: Who would you say are your main influences that have helped shape your musical direction?

Dave Murray: Sean Rienert, Philip Glass, Morgan Agren, non-particular classical composers, Meshuggah, Taosim, The X-Files, World Music. I’m a fairly ‘general’ liker of ‘good’ music and am not so good at remembering names.

Xtreme Music: What are your reflections from working together in the studio with Trey Spruance?

Dave Murray: In the studio, Trey was very sweet, calm and cool. Supportive but also firm when he needed to direct, but I haven’t worked with him all that much to answer fully.

Xtreme Music: What innovative production techniques do you incorporate into your recorded music?

Dave Murray: Nothing innovative, just the over-use of ProTools plug-ins. I am just learning how to sequence right now and it will help me compose richer music in the future.

Xtreme Music: Please tell us about the writing processes involved in The Deserts Of Träun compositions.

Dave Murray: It started with a band in the 1990’s playing to a storyboard of illustrations. I decided to reproduce the project, selecting scenes from the old tapes we made. I added new parts and added some metal from another friend’s tapes. Believe it or not, I wrote most of the music on a tiny keyboard, and demoed it on a 4 track. I then spent 6 months in a studio part time with my friend and producer Paul McKee, composing more voices and parts and piecing it together properly. It was crazy! Next time I plan to do most of these steps at home on the computer.

Xtreme Music: What was the most challenging part of performing The Deserts Of Träun music live?

Dave Murray: The current manifestation has never been performed live. The older manifestation, featuring the original material, was performed three times. It was hard to organize the slides, play the many parts, and of course getting people there.

Xtreme Music: What were The Deserts Of Träun live performances like and how was the crowd reaction?

Dave Murray: They were cool I thought, the crowd really liked it. There were very small audiences though. The whole show was a score to the slide show of storyboards done by Colby Bluth and Dave Bermann who told the Träun story.

Xtreme Music: Tell us about the music that you’ve written for The Deserts Of Träun Part I and Part II.

Dave Murray: The Deserts Of Träun Part II is darker. More swamp and black metal bits. More intricate symphonic stuff, an opera bit that I am eager to put together, and more telling, progressive music, fusion funk, totally through composition except for some solos. I can’t really say more, it will be much like the others in how it flows like one long song. The Deserts Of Träun Part I is a lot like Part III. There will be a lot of theme and variation, with familiar parts from part III as well.

Xtreme Music: How did the band Tholus form and what can we look forward to from the debut release “Constant”?

Dave Murray: It’s a technical jazzy death metal drumming band. Mike Johnson is the main dude. We are old friends and his metal is top class. Lewis Kijowski is also an old friend who can play amazing lead guitar. The three of us are Tholus. The album and the band are supported by our interest in Mars, and a possible terrestrial connection significant in artifacts on earth and Mars, as well as sacred geometry. Richard Hoagland, expert on the subject, has given us full permission to use his work on our album.

Xtreme Music: What are the future plans for Naked Lotus Productions?

Dave Murray: The Deserts Of Träun and Tholus for now. I am interested in creating symphonic stuff, and creating an interesting polyrhythmic project. A project with Steve DiGiogorgio of Death/Sadus may also be on the cards too… who knows.