A Conversation with Percussionist Jordan Walsh

Jacob Schnitzer: Jordan, could you tell us about your project, BATTERY_CRITICAL? 

Jordan Walsh: This started out as my doctoral project; I commissioned 8 pieces of music to be written for percussion and electronics. Originally it was very much a technical showcase, very much about teaching electronic media for performers. The original iteration of this show got cancelled in 2020 because of COVID, so this has become a much more personal narrative than it was originally intended to be. 

Jacob: Why are you attracted to performing percussion with electronics? 

Jordan: I have, like every performer, a lot of anxiety around my own hands, my own interpretations — and electronics have always been a bit of a crutch for me. In a way, I am able to decentralize myself when I perform with electronics. And as the years have gone on, they have become much more of an equal player with me. 

Jacob: What about music with electronics is exciting for the audience? 

Jordan: I think it's relatable. Acoustic music just isn't in 2021. I think electronic sounds are a known quantity to anyone who has listened to the radio in their entire lives. 

Jacob: That's interesting you say that because a lot of people look at music with electronics as “experimental” and not “normal music”. But what you're saying is that the music we're exposed to in radio, film, and television — and everywhere else — is really electronics based. How do you reflect upon that?   

Jordan: Well, it's kind of a rewriting of history. All popular music comes down from some very thorny experimental artists. You know you've got Radiohead way back in the day referencing Paul Lansky. I think that if like you said, if we see this stuff in film, if we see this stuff in a supporting role, it does it's water off our backs, but the second that we center on it it, we start to ask questions. So my whole mission as an artist is to challenge that. Why do we find these sounds “strange” when in reality we’re bombarded by them every single day?

Jacob: There is just so much physical activity that comes from the act of playing percussion music  — percussion is perhaps the most outwardly theatrical of all of the instruments. What is the theater like when you play percussion with electronics? 

Jordan: The word is Acousmatic — a sound that produced by either something that you cannot see or is altered in such a way, what you see does not match what you hear.This is the basis of our practice, so it it does line up very well with percussion because we move a whole lot. There is a lot of expectation that goes with the way in which percussionist moves. 

Jacob: The music sounds like your hands look. 

Jordan: Exactly. It's the case a lot of the time, but within my productions often what I do does not line up with what you hear, which is jarring, but can be cathartic in a way. 

Jacob: How do you connect the idea of “catharsis” to the music that you’re performing this weekend? 

Jordan: The presentation of this music represents a capstone in my career thus far; 6 years of prioritizing my professional life over my personal. To be candid, I’m tired. It’s been worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat, but good god am I tired. That’s what this show has become: a manifestation of the weariness that I’ve brought on myself and the anxiousness that has always come in its wake. This program works through those feelings of exhaustion and stress publicly and honestly in ways that quite frankly make me uncomfortable. By laying it all out there, I’m trying to acknowledge what I’ve done to myself so I can hopefully press forward to the next thing in a healthier way. While this is intensely personal, I think the catharsis that I’m chasing in developing BATTERY_CRITICAL is relatable for all of us.