Steven 'Fly' Pratt talks about 'The First Trip'

Musician, writer and world traveler Steve "Fly Agaric" Pratt, 47, aka Steve Fly, aka Steven James Pratt, is a native of Wordsley, England, who for many years has lived in Amsterdam. He was a competitive swimmer in his youth but soon developed an interest in jazz and other forms of music. See this biography emphasizing his musical interests. 

Steve's newest project is The First Trip,  a music album focusing on Robert Anton Wilson and Illuminatus!, issued in conjunction with Bobby Campbell's ongoing Tales of Illuminatus adaptation of the Illuminatus! trilogy. You can find the album on Bandcamp.  Note that as with most other Bandcamp releases, you can play the tracks before you decide whether to buy the album. When you buy an album on Bandcamp, you can download the tracks to keep them and also stream it from the website or from a smartphone Bandcamp app. Steve's album is priced in pounds; it cost me about $10. 

Over the years, Steve's projects have included the Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve “Fly Agaric” Pratt album, which features Steve's interview with Robert Anton Wilson, with music from Steve Fly, Tim Egmond, Martin "Youth" Glover, Rick Rasa, Hagbard Celine, Garaj Mahal.

His books include World Piss, a collection of early writings; Fly On The Tale Of The Tribe: A Rollercoaster Ride With Robert Anton Wilson  (see this review by Oz Fritz), and Deep Scratch Remix. Browse more titles here. 

Steve has so many interests and so many creative projects that any interview with him is going to be a snapshot in time, although there is continuity in his work. Here is my 2012 interview with Steve, focusing on his interest in Robert Anton Wilson. Here is my joint interview with Steve and Peter Quadrino over Waywords and Meansigns, the project to set Finnegans Wake to music/adapt it to sound. 

I really enjoyed listening to The First Trip and Steve agreed to take my questions for a new interview focusing on the new album. 

Steve with his handmade IRL Pyramid Speaker by Hans Speijer and his piratable-turntable.

RAWILLUMINATION: How did the album The First Trip come about? How does it relate to Tales of Illuminatus? 

STEVE PRATT: Due to Bobby's tireless organizing for Maybelogues 2024, we got chatting in early June about new music I was working on, I sent some examples. I'm not sure who ignited the conversation about music and TOI [Tales of Illuminatus] but it was floating in the air between us. With an equally enthusiastic go-ahead from team TOI, I started producing the music for The First Trip.   

RAWILLUMINATION: You describe The First Trip as a concept album. I think I figured it out: All of the listed bands on the album are bands listed in Illuminatus! as being booked to perform at the rock festival in Leviathan. So the concept is that all of those bands really exist? And that's why the music is so different from track to track, because you are creating different "bands"?

STEVE PRATT: Yes, exactly. I created the lyrics to help fold them into the TOI universe, and in some sense I co-arranged and co-produced the music, but the precise description of what I did, distinguished from what the A.I. did, is tricky to distinguish. A.I. songs are like laws, which are like sausages, in that it's better not to see how they're made.  

RAWILLUMINATION: Are you the only human who worked on the album? There's a pretty wide variety of vocals and instruments on it.

STEVE PRATT: Yes, I'm the only human who worked on the album. Or the only interacting brain body nervous system that feels fully convinced he's human ;-) 

RAWILLUMINATION: I have been trying to think of how to describe the album, maybe "subversive pop"? How do you describe it to people who have not heard it? Some of it seems like Frank Zappa, but without the snarkiness.

STEVE PRATT: It's fitting you reference Zappa. And a very generous comment about less snarkiness. "Snarkiness" works well to describe a lot of current A.I. songs, which to my ear lack nuance and subtlety...lyrically speaking. 

I've been mulling on A.I. generated music, humour in music and so, the music of Zappa (perhaps the most "consistent" example) who has ajacencies with TOI music and with RAW (and Shea's) sense of humour, satire, pacing, style, comedic strategies...I touched on some of this in my essay about SUN RA. Very generally, to my mind, it comes back to the mosaic method of McLuhan, the Hologrammic prose of Joyce, Burroughs and Wilson, the holo-sonic music of Johan Coltrane, the participatory relationship between the parts and the whole. Unity, the Tao, epiphany (with a healthy reminder that these 'impressions' are non-simultaneously apprehended events). The songs from this album ,cover a part of a broader spectrum, which will be revealed as TOI progresses. 

RAWILLUMINATION: It's interesting you mention Burroughs, because Zappa was really into the cut-up technique. And as for the band names: I like the fact that "Nirvana" is in there, somehow Wilson and Shea named the last great rock band!

STEVE PRATT: Great analysis, I concur. Cut-up is also a large component of good turntable routines, "needle drops" are like cut-up in that you kind of throw the dice where the stylus needle will land, which groove...and take it from there.

A recent photo of Steve "Fly" Pratt. 

RAWILLUMINATION: I bought The First Trip on Bandcamp, where I have bought quite a bit of music. I know your music has been available at other places -- I bought the "RAW meets Steve Fly" album on Amazon -- but are  you selling your music only at Bandcamp now? How do you think Bandcamp serves artists and listeners? 

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, I rate Bandcamp, currently, as the best platform for artists to get paid, and without any ads. Bandcamp Fridays, where 100% of sales go to the artist, is a future friendly scheme. I'm not using Spotify, but you'll probably find some of my music there.

RAWILLUMINATION: You have been a prolific recording artist. Is there an album of yours that you think was particularly successful, and/or was a particular hit with listeners?

STEVE PRATT: That's kind of you to say, but, not really, I've had little success or sales, let alone a hit. Most of my work has been collaborations, I've yet to release what I'd call a proper solo album, but I'm ready...after 3 decades of practice. Most tracks released on bandcamp are my home productions, some using an APP and now A.I. Mohawk (with John Sinclair) received some good reviews, and is perhaps my most popular project/album, not many picked up on the fact I played all the music on that album (with overdubbing). 

RAWILLUMINATION: "Jump Into My Submarine" is a standout track, I congratulate you on that track. Do you want to tell me anything about it? Are there other tracks you want to call particular attention to?

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, there's a yellow submarine docked at NDSM, Amsterdam Noord, I was right there today, and this fact, together with the Leif Erikson and that 70s funk submarine vibe, down periscope...all contributed to my audio-vision for 'Jump Into My Submarine'. I've no other emphasis on any track.

RAWILLUMINATION: How many instruments do you play? I know you are a turntable player and a drummer, but I heard guitars and all sorts of instruments on the new album.

STEVE PRATT: I do indeed play drums, turntables and a smidge of guitars. I also make noises with my mouth. I hate to burst the bubble of wonder for you, but I did not play any instruments on First Trip. Everything you hear is by Fuckup, Sol and Udio. I'm simply a producer, arranger, lyricist and co-song writer. A curator (much like a DJ) These distinctions are fuzzy at best. My M.O was to imagine music that might raise at least a smile, or belly laugh, from Bob.

Illustration by Bobby Campbell 

RAWILLUMINATION: What part did you play in the music for the Cosmic Trigger play?

STEVE PRATT: As music director I had a hand in composing some of the music, but there were contributions from other musicians and producers....plus the previous musical director had written songs. During the stage performances I played drums for scene transitions. I have a lot of unused music and sounds from the play that I hope to revisit in the future.

RAWILLUMINATION:  The Internet archive has a collection of live recordings by the jazz fusion band Garaj Mahal. Is there any easy way to find the recordings that feature you on turntable performing with them?

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, put "Fly Agaric 23" in the Archive search window, for a selection of my live turntable jammin' in the U.S. (2000-2005) Keep your ears peeled for the new album by Garaj Mahal with some very special guests ;-) 

Also, this show was a particularly good one imho (with special guest Leo Nocentelli from my fav. funk band of all time....The Meters!)   

https://archive.org/details/garaj2003-10-31.flac16   (Avalon Ballroom Halloween 2003).

RAWILLUMINATION: What do you want people to know about The First Trip that I neglected to ask about? 

STEVE PRATT: There will be more trips, tracks and albums as the TOI project progresses, some will be made using Fuckup/Sol/Udio A.I., others will not. Whatever it is, it's gotta' be funky with an accent on the FUN part.

Steven James Pratt bibliography

Spore of the Words/Shanigums Wave (2011)

Fly: Selected Poetry 2001-2017 (2017)

Cannabis Coffeeshop Journal (2018)

Sounds Fly: Music Writing (2018)

Big Chief: Getting High With John Sinclair and the Fly (2018)

Silent But Dudley: Writings on the Black Country (2018)

Flying: Selected Writing (2018)

Passport to Poetry: Brexit (2018)

Fly on the Tale of the Tribe: A Rollercoaster Ride With Robert Anton Wilson (2019)

Fly Papers: Cannabis Writing 2018-2020 (2020)

2020 Squintin Quartino (2020)

Deep Scratch: Novel (2020)

Flyku: Poetry (2020)

Corona Slayer: Poetry (2021)

Prose Piracy: Selected Writing (2021)

New Growth: Selected Writings (2022)

Deep Scratch Remix (2023)

Steven James Pratt Discography 

Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve “Fly Agaric” Pratt (2016)

They Came to Starburg (2016)

Corona Slayer (2022)

Deep Scratch Remix (2023)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round One (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Two (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Three (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Four (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Five (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Six (2024)

Folkin' Around Elections (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Seven (2024)

The First Trip (2024)

Steve Pratt on his new album, 'The First Trip'

As I have mentioned in other posts, Steve "Fly" Pratt has a rather good new album, The First Trip, with lyrics drawn from Illuminatus! and the works of Robert Anton Wilson. It's a kind of companion to the first issue of Bobby Campbell's Tales of Illuminatus, which will be out soon, and it was produced using AI music tools such as Udio. Note that you can listen to it on Bandcamp before deciding to buy it, and Bobby also has been highlighting various tracks in his Substack newsletter for the project.

As I was interviewing Steve for an upcoming blog post, he sent me this piece to explain/discuss the new album, and with his permission, I am posting it here. -- The Management.

By STEVE "FLY" PRATT
Special guest blogger

I'd refer those who are interested to my introduction to Deep Scratch Remix 23/3/23 concerning A.I. tools, plus the liner notes to my series of Deep Scratch (Data Dust Crew) releases on Bandcamp. There are sure to be some contradictory statements. Thankfully, Tales Of Illuminatus has handed me the perfect opportunity to balance the equation, and explore the challenges facing humans in light of the information explosion, and the recent boom in A.I. tools.  [Deep Scratch Remix is Steve's novel about the effect of AI tools on art; buy it here. -- The Management].

[Here are the liner notes Steve references: Part 1 and then Part Two.]

Inspired by Illuminatus! Trilogy, I’ve been developing a trans-media project that sets the challenge of bringing artwork from the fictional “Deep Scratch” novel universe, into our shared world. As a DJ and drummer, I naturally went heavy on the music side of things, so when this opportunity came up to work within the Illuminatus! Trilogy Universe, via Bobby Campbell’s official, Tales Of Illuminatus comic book project, I felt ready to dive straight in. The opportunity to work with both A.I. and in-the-flesh human musicians, within the context of a Robert Anton Wilson universe is nectar and ambrosia to me.  

Nowhere in this process did I use any prompt referencing a specific artist, studio, or label. Every lyric is mine (although I borrowed the lines "beliefs are the police of the mind" from Saul Williams). I'm not deaf to the masses of artists and creatives, and fans who are critical of A.I. and its place in music, and the potential damage and actual damage it's doing to labels, artists, businesses and the integrity-o-metre of the artform. Not limited to music, images, video, texts are all under attack, in some sense by generative A.I. What is to be done? My response is...soundclash.

The First Trip is an opening salvo in an age-old battle between sound systems, labels, artists and business, with some religion and magickal cults thrown in for good measure. The First Trip is what I deduce to be the most apt songs, to mirror the fictional environment of Tale Of Illuminatus, from the Robert Anton Wilson universe, music is the soul focus.

Much like the curatory nature of what a DJ does, prompt based music production is another secondary process. Another step away from the sources, all around us, for every sound, pattern, harmony and structure. It's right there at your fingertips.

Let me close with a sincere message to anybody reading this to support your local artists in their endeavours, particularly in any analogue format or craft. Any altruistic and benevolent super A.I. (ASI, AGI) must come to understand the sacrifice and suffering that goes with choosing to make art, as a human being. The hidden struggle behind all the creations you enjoy, processing. To speak neutrally. The work copied, or processed is a variety of music, blended together like a DJ who also has all the stems from all the tracks you’ve ever heard, mixing them together just for you, and your party jam.  

A classical music cornucopia

Pianist Angela Hewitt. Publicity photo by James Katz from her official website. Try her Scarlatti recordings. 

One of the reasons I like Robert Anton Wilson's writings is that I share many of his interests; he had a strong interest in classical music, an interest that's also share by some of his other fans, such as Eric Wagner and myself.

So I thought I would mention here that Hoopla Digital, a digital streaming service offered by nearly all public libraries in the U.S., has an excellent selection of classical music albums.  That catalog received a major boost in the last few months when it added record labels such as Hyperion and Naxos. I have lately been listening to albums by Canadian classical pianist Angela Hewitt, who is now available on Hoopla because she's a Hyperion artist.

I wrote about Hoopla's expanded music offerings on my Substack, and also in a newspaper article.

When I was young, I had to spend a fair amount of money and time to assemble a small classical music library of recordings. Now, there's a vast library of recordings available to everyone. 

Although I am dwelling here on Hoopla's music, it also has TV shows, movies, comic books (quite a bit of Alan Moore), audiobooks, ebooks and documentaries. 

The 'Moby Dick' reading group

 

The Lagoda in the New Bedford Whaling Museum. (Creative Commons photo).

The next online reading group for this blog will be Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I've hashed out the details with the two folks who have agreed to help me make posts to the blog, Eric Wagner and Oz Fritz, and here are the details. Eric assures me that Robert Anton Wilson was a big fan of the novel. I don't know whether Robert Shea read it, although I suspect he did.

The format will be the usual for online reading groups here (archived at the right side of this page). One of us will do a blog post, and everyone else will be invited to say something in the comments. The schedule for blog posting will be Tom, Eric, Tom, Oz. We'll have a new post every Monday.

The hardest decision was the pace for reading. We compromised on about 35 pages a week (I like a fairly fast pace, Eric likes to proceed slowly, Oz was flexible.) The 135 chapters are pretty short, so this will be several chapters a week in most weeks. I'll figure out an exact reading schedule later on, but I'll be assigning chapters rather than page numbers, to deal with the fact that everyone likely will have different editions, but will try to add up to about 35 pages each time. 

The other decision was when to start; the first post will be Nov. 4. I'll likely do an introductory post, and so the next one will be the first "reading assignment." This should give everyone time to get their hands on a copy. 

'Tales of Illuminatus' first issue out soon

 

In his latest newsletter, Bobby Campbell announces that the first issue of Tales of Illuminatus goes to press on Monday. So if you supported the recent Kickstarter, you should get your issue soon!

More here, including a link to another song from Steve "Fly" Pratt's The First Trip album, which I'll have more on soon. There's also an update to the online version of the comic. 

A recommendation for Cosmic Trigger 2

I am always happy to pass on recommendations for Cosmic Trigger 2: Down to Earth, which is one of my favorite Robert Anton Wilson books, and perhaps maybe a bit underrated. I am currently slowly re-reading it.

The Nocturnal Reveries blog has a post about all 3 of the Cosmic Trigger books, and here in full is what he writes about the second book (it is his favorite of the series, which of course is not the received wisdom):  

"Part 2 was by far the most enjoyable in the Cosmic Trigger series. Wilson tells more of his life story in this one, and he comes across as the witty, interesting guy I know he was. He had spent much of the time between writing this and the first book in Ireland, and this is apparent in his writing. Much of the book is taken up with discussions on his 'Irish' upbringing, James Joyce and the modern Irish legal system. He also gets into the P2 conspiracy. Honestly, you could read and enjoy this one without picking up the other 2 entries in the series. It actually deals with the earliest parts of his life more thoroughly than the first entry in the series, so it’d be a fine starting point."

Tuesday links

 Video of "The Red Tear" by Mighty Dave. Oz Fritz, who worked on the track, says "This is the best video I've seen in a long time. The trippy visuals guarantee that you can watch it multiple times and see something new and different each time." More information here.

One of my favorite bloggers, Scott Sumner, launches a Substack with a post on the pursuit of happiness.  Here is a recent post from one of his other blog sites defending the legalization of marijuana against recent criticism. 

Video of the Prometheus Awards ceremony, with Victor Koman, Daniel Suarez and others. 

1927 Paramount Studio Map Of California Filming Locations That Look Like Foreign Countries & Regions

Chicago 1968 (from  the Allen Ginsberg Project). 

An unusual theory about 'The Sex Magicians'

There isn't a lot of writing on the Internet about The Sex Magicians,  but there is a post about the original version of the book, on a blog called Nocturnal Reveries, which is devoted to book reviews of horror and occult titles. 

The Nocturnal Reveries post on The Sex Magicians suggests it was published by RAW as an act of sex magick, in an effort to get Iluminatus! finally published (it took a long time for it to come out and it went through editing by more than one editor.) The Nocturnal Reveries author (not easy to identify) writes:

" I believe that the publishing of the Sex Magicians represents an attempt (that was hugely successful) to get Illuminatus! published. Fnord

"Sex Magic as far as I understand it, is the harnessing of sexual energy for using in magical rituals." (More at the link). 

The panelists in the Hilaritas podcast mentioned yesterday  bring up the blog post but argue that it's probably wrong. If I  understood correctly, the kind of sex magick identified in the blog post is identified with chaos magick, which largely developed after the publication of The Sex Magicians. 

Noctural Reveries has an index of the many books it has covered. You can also read a blog post on Masks of the Illuminati, and a discussion of the Cosmic Trigger trilogy. The blog author also writes about Illuminatus! 

The 'Sex Magicians' podcast is quite interesting

 Is The Sex Magicians a porn book written for a quick buck, an Illuminatus outtake, an exploration of sex magick or a combination of all three? 

These issues are explored in the two supplemental essays in The Sex Magicians.  The introduction by Michelle Olley discusses the 1970s book in context with the porn industry at that time and in contrast with modern attitudes about porn and sex. Gregory Arnott's afterword, "Tracking Down the Mama Vibe: Sexual Fantasy and the Nature of Magical Fiction," explores the sex magick aspect of the book.

Those discussions also are explored in the podcast, which is one of my favorite Hilaritas podcasts. Everybody seemed in top form.