"One can detect in Problemist affinities with punk, European noise, and 'seventies art-rock -credentials such as these are not to be sneered at, especially given their handling by Problemist. The diversity of 9 Times Sanity material is such that no two tracks sound alike. or even use the same musical approach."
- Carl Howard , Artitide
William Davenport 1983
Chris Rankin 1983
Lon C. Diehl of Hunting Lodge & William Davenport 2015
Founded in 1980 Problemist was an assortment of musicians, centered around William Davenport. Problemist released a number of recordings throughout the 80's and appears on many compilations. They performed enigmatic live performances throughout the 80's, chronicled on Problemist Live (Cause and Effect,1987). Other essential band members were Chris Rankin, David Lawrenece, Mario Bajandas and Adrian Gormley. William stopped producing music in 1990. He has returned to reissue & distribute unreleased recordings by Problemist and create new music for an unsuspecting new generation of music aficionados.
PROBLMEIST ON BANDCAMP
Problemist Manifesto (1983) CONFUSION IS IMPORTANT ALSO STERILITY HISTORY IS IMPORTANT THE FUTURE IS IMPOTENT: THEYRE TALKING ABOUT DESTRUCTION ABOUT DOING IT TO THEMSELVES AND THE ESTABLISHMENT YOUR JOB IS NOT TO ESCAPE LIFE BUT TO FACE LIFE THE 60S WAS POLITICAL IN STUPIDITY DWELLING IN PASSIVITY AND SUBMISSION NOW REALITY IS MOVING CLOSER WHILE WE ARE MOVING CLOSER TO REALITY BREAK OUT FROM THE ELITE POSITION AND DO NOT CONFORM AGAINST YOUR BELIEFS COMMERCIALIZATION IS CONFINEMENT AND THERE IS NO SHAME IN THE PAST BECAUSE IT IS TO BE REMEMBERED AND NOT LIVED THE INDIVIDUAL IS BOMBARDED WITH INFORMATION AND IF IT IS A WRITER IT COMPULSIVELY CONSTRUCTS LANGUAGE TO RID ITSELF OF THIS BURDEN JOIN TOGETHER FIGHT THE WRITE WORDS QUESTION POLITICS MAKE MUSIC WORK AND QUESTION MARX, CREATE DOUBT IN EVERYTHING HATE CAPITALISM AND THE MANIPULATORS OF THE PEOPLE HATE THE PEOPLE BECAUSE OF THEIR PASSIVITY JOIN TOGETHER DONT FIGHT EACH OTHER DONT BELIEVE IN ANYTHING NOT EVEN ANARCHY
PROBLEMIST
an interview with William Davenport
by Eric Cope, Wiring Dept. 1985
Q: When did Problemist begin?
A: In 1980 I started using the name as a title for a series of performances. The performances had music as an element, but for the most part they were 'psychotic improvisation', more in a theatrical vein than musical. After the series was completed I decided to continue using the name and to concentrate on music.
During the 70's I played in a few punk bands, and had worked with synthesizers and tape manipulation for making film soundtracks. The bands I played in were pretty traditional, and after a while I would get kicked out for being too strange with the way I wanted to play. So in 1980 I found myself very interested in creating punk music, but not melodic or linear like most punk.
Q: What were your goals and have they changed since?
A: At first I was purely interested in creating an intense sound for live performances. I found it very difficult because the sound I wanted to work with, in fact it took me about 8 months to find the first members of the group version of Problemist. During that period of looking for members I made my first tape, and distributed it to various places and local radio shows.
The first recordings were probably the most aggressive, and I really wanted to create a live sound that was comparable. Throughout the years my goals have become much more refined and focused to where the most important aspect now is the relationship of the materials. Now I'm thinking more in terms of creating varying moods, rather than one stream of intensity.
Q: Do you perform live?
A: I've done about 20 shows in the Bay Area, playing all types of venues, from hardcore to art events. Also I've produced shows for out-of-town groups such as Whitehouse, Culturcide, Hunting Lodge, Debt of Nature, etc... Now I'm interested in playing other cities.
Q: How do you view live shows, do you use visuals?
A: I've used all types of visuals, film/slides, and collaborated with a performance artist who did visuals for some of the shows. My background is that of an audio/visual artist, so obviously I would concentrate on both levels, although lately I've only been interested in the musical parts. It's extremely difficult to create effective multi-media performance and well thought out music.
Q: Do you improvise?
A: Only to create structures.
Q: What are you trying to get across to people?
A: I'm usually pretty obscure and sort of ambiguous when I deal with subject matter. I never make it easy for the audience to understand, and if you don't concentrate you'll never understand, and only continue your life in blind acceptance and confusion. I feel like the music makes statements because it is not typical, and in these days of generic forms, that's a statement.