When I first went to see San Francisco-based band Beulah, it was the fall of 1999 and on the tip of a small monthly print magazine. The venue, Oxford, England pub The Point, was small, sweltering, and packed with students from Wales who had made a day-trip for the show. On tour in support of sophomore album When Your Heartstrings Break, the band won over the crowd with a passionately off-the-rails set. This was the pre-blog/pre-Pitchfork age — technology had advanced far enough to allow people to steal music with alarming ease, yet alternative pathways capable of providing much-needed exposure to counteract this trend were still in their infancy. In this way, Beulah was a band in the wrong place at the wrong time. To see them perform was to see a band fighting for its existence. When Beulah released Yoko in the fall of 2003, it was widely known that it was to be their final outing. It surely wasn’t for lack of inspiration — the album, literally the sound of individual band member’s heartstrings breaking under the strain of break-ups, divorce, and disillusionment, is outstanding from start to finish. The fifth track, “Hovering,” is so simultaneously gut-wrenching and gorgeous it rivals Simon and Garfunkel’s “Old Friends” for the distinction of “least advisable song to listen to when you’re feeling down.”
Four years have passed, hearts have healed, and these days Miles Kurosky, the band’s principal songwriter, is pouring his love into a solo album. It looks to be every bit as gleefully ambitious as a Beulah album, but while exploring entirely new terrain. Miles has been kind of enough to provide all the details.

The Daytrotter interview:
You mentioned that around 20 musicians, mostly bay area jazz improv folks, have made contributions to your solo album. Is some of what you’re doing actually jazz music?
MK: Well, I guess that depends on one’s definition of jazz. Lord knows Wynton Marsalis has an opinion or two on the subject. A lot of the artists on the new record are part of that world, but I don’t think that their contributions make the songs sound all that “jazzy.” However, there are bits and pieces that might remind people of certain jazz artists. When the players came in to the studio I would ask them, “Can you play like Ornette Coleman warming up, or all choppy and syncopated like Thelonious Monk?” I would then mime the part in dance and they’d look at me completely befuddled and horrified. Thank God I had Eli Crews (engineer) to translate for me.

If not, are you engaging the spirit of spontaneity so pronounced in the jazz recording ethic?
MK: The record is definitely littered with moments of spontaneity, but not in the sense of players riffing off each other. I usually go into the studio with a laundry list of instruments and parts that I want to try for each song. But even though I rely heavily on organization there are still plenty of times that we just wing it. For instance, I’ve always loved the oboe in Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” so Eli Crews went out and got someone who could play oboe. The only problem was that I didn’t have a part written for oboe. Actually, I didn’t even have a song picked out. I looked at my notebook and noticed that there was some sonic “emptiness” on an instrumental verse of one song. Instead of handing the player a sheet of music, we just said, “Go for it, play whatever you want.” In the end, we got four distinct individual tracks, but when they’re all mixed together it sounds like some yet undiscovered Middle Eastern instrument.

_I know Beulah’s The Coast Is Never Clear was very much a studio album replete with a painstaking overdub process. In contrast, “Yoko” integrated live takes on at least a foundational level — is the new jazz improv element expanding on this approach?_
MK: It’s true. Heartstrings and Coast are very similar in approach with all the overdubs and artificial muting, whereas Yoko is more like a band playing live in a room. That said, I guess this record would fit somewhere in between those records. For one song Eli brought in three guys (guitar, piano, snare), handed ‘em a sheet of music, and I said “we’re going for a Django Reinhardt meets Tom Waits feel on this one.” They practiced it a few times, and three takes later we were done. While the notes, chords and basic construct were already there, it still had moments of improvisation. So, I guess the not so simple answer is yes, only because it’s not something I did in the past. On the other hand, there’s a song that started with an acoustic guitar and then I overdubbed 16 different instruments.

What are your favorite jazz records, and why? What, if any, other music have you been inspired by of late?
MK: Let it be known, I’m still pretty naïve when it comes to the world of jazz. I’m certainly no aficionado. When I was younger I found “dinner jazz” kind of boring, while the avant garde stuff scared the hell out of me. I think it’s fair to say that overall jazz just intimidated me. When I got older, it wasn’t necessarily the music that had this effect on me, but rather the skills of the players. I guess this kinda makes sense since I was born out of punk rock and power chords. When you’re a mediocre guitarist like me, listening to Wes Montgomery can be an overwhelming experience.
Anyway, here are three records I’ve been digging lately:
Eric Dolphy – Out to Lunch, this is one of the greatest records ever produced. I’m also a fan of Out There, I’m a complete sucker for the cello and flute.
Sun Ra – Heliocentric Worlds, Vol. 1, one of his moodiest records. I believe the percussion is from outer space. I also like the cover art.
Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um is probably my favorite because it appeals to my pop sensibilities much like Brubeck, but The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is probably his densest record…tough to digest but transcendent and rewarding.

Does your solo album have a title?
MK: One working title is Baby Moustache and the Pink Bags and the other is Me and My Bloody Stump. Don’t worry I’m still working on it.

Are any ex-Beulahs involved?
MK: All of them except for Bill Swan, but please don’t read too much into that. It just didn’t work out. We’re still friends, we still chat, and we still respect each other. Actually, in some ways it was really fortunate because it forced me to think about other horns and woodwinds to replace the trumpet. In hindsight Beulah probably became too dependent on trumpet anyway. Bill and I’ve spoken about this in the past and one of our few collective regrets is that we didn’t have a greater variety of horns on our records. Anyway, so far I’ve recorded tuba, alto sax, tenor sax, French horn, English horn, oboe, flute, trombone, and yes, even some trumpet.

Is there a label in the picture at this point?
MK: Nope. I may just put it out myself, I’m not sure yet.

What are your expectations?
MK: Well, considering I might just put it out myself, I’d say they’re very low. At this point, I’d be happy if I just finish it.

_Of the four Beulah albums, my favorite lyrically is When Your Heartstrings Break. You really created your own world on this one, with fantastic song titles, stories, and imagery. Where are the lyrics from your solo album coming from?_
MK: Thanks. It actually makes me wanna go back and listen to that record. Maybe enough time has passed that I can finally become a fan of the early stuff. Pat Noel (former Beulah) used to say that our records could be split into two lyrical camps, the head and the heart. I think both H.W.S. and Heartstrings are little more esoteric and cryptic whereas Coast and Yoko are far more emotional and straightforward. In regards to Heartstrings specifically I think most of the lyrics were just basic stream of consciousness which I then tweaked into a theme. I’d say that the solo record is lyrically closer to Heartstrings mainly because I haven’t been dealing with relationship woes. It’s allowed me to focus on subjects other than a broken heart.

What have you been doing with yourself since the final Beulah show in New York?
MK: I traveled for a bit, mostly through Mexico and Hawaii. Then I moved to Los Angeles because my girlfriend was accepted into UCLA’s graduate school for public health. Now we’re just waiting for the day we get to leave. Truth be told, we have too much granola in our blood for this place. Also, as ridiculous as it sounds, I’ve just been trying to stay healthy. Each time I fix one part of my body, another part breaks down. After the two shoulder surgeries I was diagnosed with a disease of my digestive tract/intestines. Apparently it’s either Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s Disease. However, it seems that even after a doctor performs a sigmoidoscopy, a colonoscopy, and a biopsy he cannot be completely sure which disease is fucking me up. For months I couldn’t hold food down, I lost weight, had severe cramping, and chronic back pain. My physician prescribed a couple different pharmaceuticals which I’m convinced made me even sicker. It really took a toll on my body. I was tired all the time, my hair started falling out, I ran a low grade fever for weeks at a time…it was horrible. The last few months I’ve gone completely holistic, experimenting with enzymes, probiotics, omega 3’s, and vitamins combined with a lot of changes in my diet. I like to believe that I’m feeling better.

How did you injure your shoulder?
MK: It’s hard to say. I’ve had chronic shoulder problems for years, you know, like basic tendonitis. However, I think it got worse right after Beulah’s last European tour. As embarrassing as it sounds, I fell off the stage in Malmo, Sweden during sound check. I remember my shoulder popping out and then popping back in, but when I fell down I also hit my head and that funny bone on my knee. Hence, I didn’t pay much attention to my shoulder. Within a couple months I couldn’t really lift my arm.

Has it been successfully rehabilitated?
MK: Hmm, yes and no. Even though I went to rehab for a year and half, it’s still not 100%. They removed some bone, took out my bursa, cleaned up my rotator cuff and reattached my labrum. As a result I’m still pretty weak and sore a lot of the time. However, given the severity of the injury and complexity of the surgery I can’t really complain. I mean, I couldn’t play guitar for a year but now I can, so that’s not so bad.

Where are you working these days?
MK: You mean like a real job…9 to 5 in an office? I’ve been lucky enough not to have one of those since 1996 when I worked in a corporate law firm…thank you Sweet Baby Jesus. That’s not to say that I haven’t been working. I’ve written some songs for commercials and I’ve also been talking to a couple different directors about composing soundtracks.

Beulah Official Site