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Is It A Bird? A Plane? | Nuh0uh, it's the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Repent! Repent!

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Fiddler's Roost

Brian Gregg
w/ The Greggs, Scott Cook and The Long Weekends. Fiddler’s Roost (8906-99 St). Fri, Jan 30 (7:30pm). Tickets: $12, available through TIX on the Square (420-1757/tixonthesquare.ca), 429-3624, or $15 at the door.
Spaghetti dinner for $7, pirate dress encouraged but not required.

I’m pretty sure that Brian Gregg is some sort of wizard. Not the modern Harry Potter type, mind you, but the olde English spells-and-magic type. When you read about him, you see words like “experimental” or “innovative” or “inventive” crop up a lot. Those words can also be used to describe a magical being with the ability to influence and transform the world around him. You want more proof? Fine. He wears a sparkly silver wizard-like jacket. Not enough? Wow, tough crowd.

While playing with the Angus Park Blues Band, Gregg was lucky enough to come in contact with the most esoteric band on the planet: Led Zeppelin. Everyone knows about Zeppelin’s connection to the occult and the so-called “dark arts,” so one can only surmise that Gregg must have had a clandestine meeting with them, probably to discuss how to manipulate the future for their benefit. It was then that Gregg must have had to make a decision between a life of fame and fortune, or one of influence and artistry. Judging by his curriculum vitae, Gregg chose the path of an artist who uses his magic for the betterment of others.

“I got into music because I loved it and was fascinated by it,” Gregg explains. “Later on, when I got into the business, I realized that other people were there to make money or guys would join a band to get chicks and that sort of thing. I started playing clubs and bars and there was an early stage where I did big concerts for a while, but I settled down doing the six-nighter scene. But then I thought to myself, is this what I want to be doing? Selling beer with my music? So I thought, what do I really want to use my music for? I want to illuminate good ideas that are good for the world in general. I feel good about this because it meets the criteria that I set out for myself a long time ago.”

Another example of Gregg’s magical musical mysticism is his album Electronic Busker, which was released online as a “pay what you can” disc in 1993 ... almost 10 years before Radiohead did the same with In Rainbows. Coincidence? I don’t think so. With song titles like “Strange Loops” and “Hot Plastic Man,” Gregg’s understanding of the future was obvious even back then.

“It’s always nice to see other people coming to the same conclusion as you did,” he says. “It’s a normal part of human culture. Like, for example, how two guys discovered the periodic table at the same time on opposite sides of the planet. As knowledge grows, certain things become apparent, so people put two and two together and everyone comes up with the same answer.”

And now, with his Creative Commons release of music based on The Gospel of The Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson, Gregg takes another step forward in the world of influencing everyone around him for the better. But why use music and Spaghetti Monsters? Why not just cast a “make the world a better place” spell?

“It gives me a childish delight,” Gregg replies. “On one hand, it’s a really harsh criticism that I agree with, but on the other hand it has this beautiful playfulness and childishness about it. It is just the way my mind works, you know. A lot of my songs I write instantaneously. Some of them I’ve spent years writing, but a lot of them are just from a train of thought and I follow it.”

I think he meant “spells” rather than “songs.” But I could be wrong.