Multi-Instrumentalist, Educator, Session Player Knox Chandler Talks About Collaborations, Artists and Success

By: Rick Landers

One word that helps define multi-instrumentalist, session musician, Knox Chandler, and more is “collaborator”. As a working musician and a superb talent, Chandler has worked with milestone artists that helped form the contours of punk, as well as New Wave music.

Yet, many might be surprised to hear about his music education that required discipline, as well as demanded much more than primal three chord songs. Not only did Knox attend the prestigious Hammonassed School in Madison, Connecticut, but later graduated from Bard College. 

Later, he would earn a post-graduate certificate from the University of Sussex, England, at the British Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM), where his talents were recognized and he was selected to be the head of BIMM’s guitar department.

Chandler has an in-depth and broad career history that includes his collaborative work with many top singer-songwriters, and well-known groups, including: Marianne Faithful, the Psychedelic Furs, R.E.M., Siouxsie and the Banshees, Ultra Vivd Scene, the Creatures, Natalie Merchant, the Golden Palominos, and the legendary Cyndi Lauper. He also was the music arranger for the 2012 music-drama film, Greetings From Tim Buckley.

As a touring musician, Knox Chandler’s worked with the likes of Eric Mingus, Bobby Previte, Chris Palmer, Mars Williams, and Maggie Estep, where his contributions included offering compositions’ support and more on guitar, cello, bass guitar and others. 

Guitar International is pleased to present our interview with Knox Chandler, a musician and educator who has successfully explored various music career paths to sustain a career for decades.

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Knox Chandler

Rick Landers: Let’s start out with your current projects, as a session player, as well as your own music, then move to your role as an educator.

Knox Chandler: Thanks Rick. I just spent the past few days in New York City and Woodstock working on some new projects.

One is this project resurrecting Tom Verlaine songs and the other was a session for a talented singer songwriter, David Doobinin, produced by Jeff Lipstein. I’m also in the midst of writing and recording a project with The Bush Tetras singer, Cynthia Sley. Very excited about this one.

But lately, most of my time has been spent on the release of my book/album, The Sound (blue elastic records).

This I refer to as a musical memoir documenting the past three years of my transformation from urban life to rural. The shift of my inspiration from streets to streams, after moving back to the USA after living in Berlin, Germany, for ten years.

The book is the tangible product that you can find on my Bandcamp account as well as my website. The music comes with the book in a Bandcamp redeem code or you can listen to it on all streaming platforms. There have been a series of performances supporting this with my live Soundribbons show, which consists of real time soundscapes manipulating the guitar with no pre-existing audio, combined with real time video manipulations.

There have also been some performances supporting Previte Chandler (sub sound records) an album that I wrote and produced with Bobby Previte that came out last February. Then there is Bursting Blue Bone Bark, an ongoing project with Eric Mingus due to be released within the next year.

While living in Berlin I became the head of the guitar department at BIMM University of West Sussex. Through the university I received my post graduate certificate in education.

My main focus was Threshold Concepts using Problem Based Learning Tasks that I had designed. This was a wonderful seven years of not only developing the students’ autonomy, but my own. Since I’ve moved back here (Connecticut) I haven’t had the time to teach in an institution, but i apply these concepts in my own projects, as well as working with others.

Rick: I’ve found that in order to sustain a career in music you have to have a lot or irons in the fire, not only to make life interesting, but to generate multiple revenue streams. Did you start out with some singular notion and later expand or gather up different skills to build your career?

Knox Chandler: It all just fell into place. I started as a guitar player and in college I took up the upright bass. I studied classical and some jazz but leaned more towards experimental music and writing these 12 tone melodies over funk rock jazz beats. I thought that was the direction I would move in after leaving school, but moving to New York City I was getting more attention as a guitarist.

I took up cello right after recording the Book of Days album with The Psychedelic Furs. Richard Butler talked me into it. From there it led to a bunch of cello work as well as string arrangements. I’ve always dabbled in production and arrangement stemming from early days playing around with a Tandberg reel to reel tape recorder.

Knox Chandler

Rick: How about telling us about how you evolved as a multi-instrumentalist from the early days and are you adding any new instruments to your quiver?

Knox Chandler: Other than what I previously mentioned I enjoy using different instruments as tone generators for my soundribbons. I play around a bit with this pocket trumpet I electrified, as well as banjo, dulcimer and recently a clarinet. Im not good executing any great technique, but the timbre is my focus.

Rick: What’s your go to guitar for sessions, performances and just hanging around the house? I saw a photo of you with a Strat, have you checked out the Fender Strat G5 Roland?

Knox Chandler: My main guitar for most of my career has been this ’59 Strat. It’s really another appendage. Yet, when I was out with Cyndi it was Gretsch (6120 and White Falcon) and Les Paul…sometime some Fenders. Mostly these days i’ve been using a Telecaster with Seymour Duncan antiquities. It all depends on the sound I’m looking for.

It’s Gibson, Fender, Gretsch except a ’70s Herticaster I picked up in Germany. I also play around at home with this wild ’60s/’70s Kent. I’ve gigged twice with it. It’s not very versatile but it has this ONE thing! Probably one of my favourite guitars in my arsenal is my 1930 National Duolian . It’s a clanging tractor of a beast. I drop tune it.

Rick: Do you have any preferences with respect to the “best” construction features for an electric and/or an acoustic?  And what guitars do you noodle around with at home?

Knox Chandler: I really don’t have any preference. Some of the cheaper made guitars sound best for what I might want to hear in the moment. I have guitars out all around the house that I just pick up and play, as well as basses. In bed it’s usually always the Kent.

Rick: I’ve spoken to a few guitarists about strings, and one well-known guitarist told me he only changed strings when one broke, and another said he changed his strings every day….What strings do you prefer  and do you have any technique to prep new strings?

Knox Chandler:  I tend not to like new strings. I usually wait until I can feel the life is sucked out of them, which precedes breaking. I tend to use GHS Boomers 10-46 and I just bend the strings and play.

Rick: You’ve done a lot of session work, so do you have any suggestions for musicians you support as far what they should have ready for session players before stepping into a studio or for virtual work? Any suggestions for what some do that can be frustrating that they should focus on to save time, reduce stress to make a studio session not only productive, but enjoyable?

Knox Chandler: For me, the important thing is that it is always a learning experience. The more you do it, the more you learn. The more you learn the more relaxed you become, which helps with your timing and actually everything. Leave your ego at the door.

Rick: Who have you worked with who surprised you with their creativity or their work ethic/discipline, something that may have also impressed you when you didn’t necessarily expect it?

Knox Chandler: Cyndi Lauper by far was the biggest surprise. In person, her voice is amazing and she works super hard to maintain it. I learned never to take a bunk in the back of the bus because of her 5 am warm down exercises. She works non-stop and is involved with many projects at a time.

I’ve caught her sleeping standing up. She was very creative in the studio making the Shine album. We experimented with all sorts of stuff. Those early days I was with her i was using everything from a Kaoss pad to the Electrix Repeater.

Rick: I found it to be a let down with R.E.M. disbanded, what work did you do with them and what was that project or projects like and are there any particular memories that stand out that made the work uniquely special?

Knox Chandler: I recorded two songs at Bearsville for the Automatic for the People album. They were great to work with. It came from recording “Pink Moon” with Peter Buck and Richard Butler about a year before. Peter called me and said he had come up with a song similar to the cello part I played on “Pink Moon”.

I spent a couple of days at Bearsville then they asked me to go to Atlanta to record with the Orchestra for the John Paul Jones string arrangements.

I had to explain I’m really not a proper cellist. I can’t even read on cello. They put me down as a team leader unbeknownst to me on the contract so when Vanilla Sky had “Sweetness Follows” (R.E.M.) in the film I started getting all this extra money. I actually called up the Secondary Musicians Fund telling them I think they made a mistake . That’s when they told me how generous those guys are.

Rick: Please, tell us about your association with the British Irish Modern Music Institute – I understand you live in Berlin, so are you collaborating with BIMM virtually or do you commute to get the work done? And, tell us about the Institute and how you found your way to that institution.

Knox Chandler: I moved to Berlin mostly because Budgie (Siouxsie & the Banshees) highly suggested it would be a good place for me. He was right. After living there for a couple of years he was approached to teach at BIMM at their new Berlin school. He recommended me for the guitar department. I taught a series of different courses and was the head of the guitar department.

They paid for my extra degree and pretty much gave me a lot of freedom to adjust the curriculum to a more creative aesthetic. I spent all my time at the school until Covid and then it was virtual. Last February, I was back in Berlin for a series of shows and did a workshop at BIMM while there.

Rick: You’ve worked with some top end folks in the music community. What are some of the highlights that you’ve experienced and have you found the genre of music people perform reflects who they are off-stage?

Knox Chandler: Tricky was an amazing experience seeing his creativity working with a sampler. I was already using a sampler at that time but his unorthodox method inspired me. There have been so many, but recording Animus Anima at Siouxsie’s and Budgie’s manor in the south of France stands out as a fantastic way to record. We used all these different rooms and were able to experiment at our freedom.

As far as off stage matching their genre of music scenario, I would say it’s 50/50.

Rick: We’ve all got artists that have inspired us, many who we’d expect to hear about, but are there any obscure artists that have inspired you in some fashion and what about them got your attention?

Knox Chandler: There are so many. Debussy, James Blood Ulmer, Don Cherry, Sun Ra , Mingus, Pete Cosey, Charlie Patton etcetera etcetera. However, when you get to the primal source of a lot musicians you find their inspiration often comes from something other than music.

These days my inspiration comes directly from living in nature, mostly nature connected to bodies of water. The rhythm, timbre, harmony, register have had a profound influence.

Rick: You’ve worked with several artists who’ve made their marks on music, punk, new wave, grunge….What experiences have you looked back on with pride and which ones did you find were just fun to work with and why?

Knox Chandler: I had a lot of fun touring with the Furs and the Banshees and got to experience things I hadn’t before. The Banshees was a challenge that I loved and miss to this day. I put a lot of hard work into the writing and recording of Dave Gahan’s Paper Monsters as well as Maggie Estep’s Love is a Dog from Hell. Both, I am pleased with my work on them. I would say 90 percent of the people I worked with were fun and I learned a lot.

R.E.M. “Sweetness Follows’ with Knox Chandler on Cello.

Rick: I’ve found many creative folks always have far too many ideas for projects and they find it challenging to even get to the start point to get a project, even a dream project out of the starting blocks. What dream projects – that you can divulge – are on your bucket list?

I have another project called Sea of Stars that I will put out on my label in the future as well as a Soundribbon record. These projects all come out of a concept usually consisting of a specific liminal space. A lot of the fun is in the design. A dream project would be some futuristic big band/orchestra.