words//shaun oppedisano
Ajay Saggar is a man who is constantly immersed in music, seemingly from every angle possible. If he’s not recording or playing shows with The Bent Moustache, he’s likely live mixing and sometimes tour managing another equally worthy act. Ajay has probably visited more places than any of us will in a lifetime, and yet it’s all part of a routine love for a craft and passion. He thoroughly answered the questions I had and was kind enough to share a few tracks as well.
The Bent Moustache – Counterinsurgencylifestylejunkies
What was the first instrument that you picked up?
The first instrument I picked up were the drums. I used to bash on my school books at home, which I would neatly layout in the form of a drum kit on my desk, and then bash away at them with rulers and pens. A great start. Thereafter, I played in a school band with mates, doing covers of Joy Division, Killing Joke, and Iggy Pop.
You grew up in the UK but now live in the Netherlands, is that right?
I was born in Kenya and lived there for the first 10 years of my life. A wonderful experience. We then moved to the UK in 1976, and I lived there for 15 and a half years. My musical tastes were formed under the tutelage of John Peel and I started to make music in different bands during my time in England. I moved to The Netherlands on 30 December 1991 and have lived here ever since.
Aside from the “coffee shops” and red light district that are so “accurately” portrayed by Oscar-worthy teen movies, what is your favorite part of Amsterdam?
Amsterdam is such a beautiful city and so easy to get around in. I love the small back streets in the Jordaan area, or the Ten Cate market or Albert Cuyp market, the museum area, Vondel Park, oud west area of town, the fantastic cafes and restaurants we have, and the nightlife is great with so many diverse venues offering all kinds of music, and clubs (which i don’t attend but have been reliably informed are tops!).
How did The Bent Moustache come about?
The Bent Moustache was a followup to my first band in Holland called “Donkey.” Donkey released various 7 inch singles and a couple of albums. We toured through Europe often and also through the USA a couple of times. The band didn’t stop as such, but we had a gap before we started again due to various commitments we all had. When I decided to start with writing / recording new songs again, I decided to give it a new name. I just felt that a new name would be a good way to give fresh impetus to the band and allow the world to hear us with open ears and not pre-judge what to expect, especially if we still had the name Donkey. TBM started recording in 2004 methinks.
Are you able to grow a particularly awesome moustache yourself?
Um, no! The only time I grew a beard / moustache combo was in 1994, when during the world cup in the USA, Holland played against Saudi Arabia, and I grew a beard / tache combo for weeks beforehand, just so I could go dressed as an Arab to our local bar to watch the game. The impetus to do this was based on the fact that whoever turned up dressed as an Arab that night would get free beer all night! I kept that tache / beard for that summer, and shaved it off thereafter.
Well, I usually record everything myself in my own studio. I have enough gear now that I have accumulated over the years to make this happen. And the experience garnered over the years in experimenting with different recording techniques has helped enormously, but I still keep learning a new trick or two to keep the whole process interesting. I then take the recordings to a studio which has analogue gear, and put all the recordings through an analogue desk and processors. That’s where you get the chance to make the sound full, but the real work is done at the recording stage.
Where are your favorite places to tour?
Well, I’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to travel all over the world. Europe, USA, South America (Brazil and Chile), Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Israel, Iceland, etc. Every country is different and diverse, and you can take something different back from each land. I love exploring and getting about cities, towns, and the countryside of each country. Its something I make a point of doing everywhere I go. Get up early, take a packed lunch and guide book, hit local transport, and then visit cultural highlights in each place that day, before returning to soundchecks, etc in the afternoon. Favourite places… Hmmm…. that’s tricky. I like Europe, as each country is so diverse, and people are so different when you step across the border. The USA is vast and whereas the cities begin to look the same after awhile, the wide open spaces in between are amazing. And Japan is so extreme in terms of how people live and survive in a city like Tokyo; it’s amazing to be a part of a metropolis that lives and breathes so close and around and above you.
It seems that you’ve done a fair amount of touring and travel in Iceland and have many friends there. What is the most appealing thing about this surreal country? I ask in part because I have never been but have dreamed of going since middle school.
Yes, I have many friends in Iceland as I have done sound for many of the bands that come out of the Reykjavik pop / indie scene there. What I like about this country is the nature. Mountains, geysers, waterfalls, fjords, vast rugged terrains with no trees but just formed from lava. And I love the energy of the people who live there and make things happen on the music / art front. Dont forget that only 320,000 people live there and the winters are mostly dark… So out of this equation, people manage to create something pretty special.
You’ve been in the music community for some time now. How did you find yourself surrounded by so many talented artists?
Well, I’ve been interested in and immersed myself in music since I was a kid. I attended shows when I was at school and at university, and after leaving college I would travel up and down the UK following my favourite bands. I got to know a lot of bands in the mid to late 80s, just by turning up to so many gigs. After that I started driving The Membranes around for a while, and that’s how I got the touring bug. Since moving to The Netherlands, I got into doing sound, and was fortunate enough to start my mixing career with pretty cool bands. That just snowballed with different bands hearing my work, and since then I’ve only really worked with bands I like and who happen to be pretty talented. Playing in a band myself also helps, as people recognise that I can approach the science of doing live / studio sound work from the angle of an musician as well as that of a engineer.
When you’re not playing as a part of The Bent Moustache, you do your fair share of engineering and live audio mixing. Tell me a bit about how you got started with this and how this experience has been.
I started studio engineering in about 1993 when my former band Donkey got thrown into a studio to record an album and we had no engineer to do it. So it was hands-on right from the start and it was a steep and thoroughly engaging and interesting learning curve. After that i offered my services to touring bands who had no live sound engineer and before I knew it, I was mixing bands who were playing for 5,000 people at festivals! You soon learn how to LISTEN when you are in such a situation.
The writing process is done almost entirely without having the studio / recording technique bouncing around at the back of my head. The songs are written by jamming out ideas at home / in the practice space, and then recorded as demos either at home or in the studio. Only sometimes will I use my studio / equipment knowledge to shape songs / ideas, and that is usually when I am dealing with the electronica genre. This process is really fun as you never know what sounds you can craft out of particular situations until you try it, and experimentation is at the fore. For songs which are written and ready to record, I will sometimes use my studio/gear knowledge to enhance the final recorded track, and hopefully bring a new dimension / lift to the songs that I had originally envisioned.
What current bands have you been listening to lately?
Ohh… so much. The Fall’s new album, everything on Mississippi records, Hannibal Peterson and the Sunrise Orchestra (featuring the legendary drummer Billy Hart, whom I recently engineered a recording session for, along with Tied and Tickled Trio with whom he played), Jailbreak (featuring Heather Leigh and Chris Corsano), Big Star, Cocteau Twins, The Almighty Defenders, La Dusseldorf, Beach House, Skip James, Wooden Shijps, Wendell Harrison, Sic Alps, Magik Markers, Jack Rose, King Tubby and the Aggrovators, Francois and the Atlas Mountains, Moon Duo, Cromagnon, Phosphorescent, RM Hubbert, Veronica Falls, Felt Letters, Papa Levi, great stuff on Analaog Africa, and also on Soundway Records, King Jammy, Niney The Observer, Augustus Pablo, Alice Coltrane, Mulatu Astatke, Hey-O-Hansen, Shrug, etc etc etc. I listen to and collect (vinyl) a lot of music. It’s what keeps me going.
Suggest something local from the Netherlands that I should listen to.
The Ex.
Can you teach me some Dutch slang? Usually when I ask people to say something in a different language, they come back with the typical, “What do you want me to say?” I find it more interesting to get something specific to the culture attached to that language.
“Breng mij het hoofd van Geert Wilders.” (This translates as “Bring me the head of Geert Wilders.” He’s a right-wing demagogue standing on the populist soapbox who is despicable and a danger to mankind.)
What’s up next for you and The Bent Moustache?
Well, we just released our second 7 inch single of the year, a split single with Shrug from England. Our track is called “Mind Your Language Cock”, and is a blast at the new right-wing tendencies and policies of nationalist Europeans and their sad ilk. An examination of pigheadedness from the other side of the non-white fence. The Shrug track is entitled “Hood Street Gyratory”, one man’s personal journey to find himself in this higgledy-piggledy world. You can hear them here:
The Bent Moustache – Mind Your Language Cock
We just did a mini-tour of Holland to promote the single, alongside our friends Shrug and also Hey-O-Hansen. I am now planning to record the next TBM album in the summer, in between watching the World Cup. And hopefully some European touring in late autumn / winter. And I need to find a distributor / booking agent in the USA so that we can come over again and play there.
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To check out more from The Bent Moustache, go to their website or MySpace page!