Christopher Petkus is a guitarist and composer who’s been working with COTFG since 2004. Most COTFG devotees will know them as the conductor of Mongoose, which performs interpretations of John Zorn’s Cobra, but they are also a member of Donny Who Loved Bowling and RIGID, both of whom have also performed under COTFG’s auspices. Other projects include {Re:tkus}, TryNotToMakeSounds, PetCatMan, and Dimmer Twins.
Photo by Alicia Mallory
COTFG: What are some of the influences on your recent work? Musical or otherwise.
Petkus: The most recent Donny Who Loved Bowling single, “Captain Tom,” was heavily influenced by an incident between Frank Zappa, David Bowie, and Adrian Belew. My most recent solo piece, “Dream World”, can point to side 3 of Yoko Ono’s landmark Fly album as a big influence.
On any given day, I could also claim John Cage, Laurie Anderson, the Beats, Radiohead, the Obscure Records series, Pedro Almodovar, Scott Walker, Larry Coryell, Alejandro Jodorowsky, or 1970s Kiss albums as influences.
What have you been listening to lately?
Jeff Buckley, Grace
Love, Forever Changes
Television, Marquee Moon
Patti Smith Group, Radio Ethiopia
The Velvet Underground’s original four studio albums
Lou Reed and Metallica, Lulu (Don’t @ me, I have a whole thing about why it’s a late career masterpiece for Lou and a fairly astounding act of artistic generosity for Metallica)
What does “avant-garde” and/or “experimental” mean to you?
Really, I think anything that challenges existing forms is something that could be called avant-garde or experimental. Those things might have been easier to claim fifty or sixty years ago, so let’s say that if you are working in a way that stretches your work and you don’t necessarily know where or how it’s going to land (See Lulu by Lou Reed and Metallica), then you’re working in an experimental form.