Steve Parry (musician)
| Steve Parry | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Stefan Jadd |
| Born | 1958 Pontypool, Wales |
| Origin | Wales |
| Genres | Experimental, industrial, avant-garde, drone |
| Instruments | Guitar, piano |
| Associated acts | Neu Electrikk, Hwyl Nofio, The Oedipus Sisters |
| Website | Hwyl Nofio |
| Notable instruments | |
| prepared guitar | |
Steve Parry, (born Stephen John Parry, 4 September 1958), Pontypool, South Wales Valleys is a Welsh guitarist, musician, composer who was a founder member of the experimental rock band Hwyl nofio.
He founded and played with Neu Electrikk. He has recorded with Colin Potter of Nurse with Wound and played with Matt Johnson of the post punk band The The.
Parry started learning guitar around the age of eight and later studied piano. Parry's mother Anne was a church organist at the local St Mary's Church, Panteg. He often accompanied his Mother to church and sat by her side as she played. The constant drone and mechanism of the church organ fascinated the young boy. Parry is a product of the South Wales Valleys; formative years were spent living in the shadow of The Black Mountains, amid the scars and ruins of a heavily industrial landscape. Both his grandfathers had worked in local industries, coal mines and steel works. Parry previously had recalled the memory of a school trip to a local steelworks, experiencing intense heat, tasting toxic gasses, seeing rivers of molten metal and the sound of industrial hammers. Parry's compositions frequently refer to the catharsis of childhood and influence of environment, expressly hymnal facets of his work in the experimental music ensemble Hwyl Nofio. The Hwyl Nofio, abstract, noise composition 'From Elevated Gangways Rivers of Molten Metal Flow' referred to the above-mentioned childhood experience.
Parry's first guitar was a classical acoustic, nylon stringed model that mistakenly had been strung with steel strings. The steel strings effectively warped the guitar neck, rendering the guitar virtually unplayable and impossible to tune. In his attempts to learn to play the instrument Parry developed a method for making sounds and noises. Abandoning conventional theory and on discovering the music of American avant-garde composer, philosopher John Cage Parry became less interested in the standard use of the guitar. Parry's music is generally described as experimental music whereby he explores and exploits an ongoing collision between harmony and disharmony. The music can be challenging to the listener. Parry has developed a non-standard guitar technique and made use of prepared guitar (e.g. putting a nail file and screws on the strings, playing the guitar with pliers or a dinner fork) the key features being unconventional tunings, timbres, drone, distortion and noise. Parry often treats the guitar purely as a sound source rather than a musical instrument. He has developed a stringed musical instrument essentially based on the violin which is further linked to a series of effects pedals.
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