The Life of a Chess Playing Musician: A Profile of PAK's Ron Anderson

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Life has been busy as I have been finishing up Brandeis. I am now just waiting for graduation to happen in two weeks.
I now share with my loyal readers, the last paper of my college years, a profile of the avant rock composer, guitarist, bassist and manager of the Marshall Chess Club Ron Anderson:
“It’s funny how this little niche of the music world I’m in …there’s a parallel universe in the chess world,” said RonAnderson, one of the managers of the world famous Marshall Chess Clubon 20 West 10^th Street in New York City. Don’t confuseRon with being a chess professional, however; his main passion andcareer is that of a composer of avant rock . Ronessentially lives in a binary world, dealing with eccentric, diversechess players and the alternative Prog Rock community. In each scenehe interacts with not your average Joe. Over the last three decades,he’s recorded music and performed throughout North America, Europe,and Asia. He’s most famous for his tenures with RAT AT RAT R, TheMolecules and his current band, PAK.
At52, Ron's busier than ever with PAK and other projects. InNovember-December 2011,PAK did a 33-night European run. While PAK might not be able to drawthe sold-out crowds that the Allman Brothers or Furthur attract fortheir infamous Beacon Runs, their international presence iswidespread. In his own words: “This last tour of PAK…Just to beable to do 33 concerts, yeah, small ones, club concerts, but still tohave people see, and appreciate you and [give] you a chance to playevery night even though that's exhausting.” He went on to say, “Bythe time I got home it took almost a month to recover… It took [hisdrummer] Keith a month to recover and he’s just 30. I’m glad I’min good shape.”

Keith Abrams and Ron Anderson of PAK in Zabrze, Poland (November 2011) 

         Don’t listen toany of Ron’s music expecting a smooth feel. As music writer JustinVellucci frankly puts it, “Ron Anderson is the best kind of madman.There’s just no other way to say it.” The paradox “best kind ofmadman” aptly describes his music; believe it or not – there's amethod to his madness. Who knows how he does it, but his use ofmultiple instruments and special recording techniques makes for fun,appealing music.
        As a teenagerdisturbed my interview with Ron to sharpen pencils, Ron exclaimed,“There is a huge movement of people just doing noise. Amplifying 10pencil sharpeners for example, at ear splitting volumes and a lot ofthis kind of stuff was coming from Japan.” While this was ahypothetical example inspired by the youngster’s actions, the ideaof taking a petty object to sharpen the effects of music isinnovation in and of itself.
Ron’sstarted piano lessons at the age of 9 near his home in New Jersey. Asyears went on, Ron started to play electric bass in a high schoolrock band. The ambitious teenager noticed his friends were playing ina band without a bass player. Having never even picked up theinstrument in his life, he “got a bass and amp and learned how toplay in a week.” He's the first to admit that the band was “prettyhorrible, but that’s how it got started.” They “started playingcovers of Cream, Mountain and Black Sabbath and that kind of stuff…”
Whenasked when he started to take music seriously, he said, “I alwaystook it very seriously even in high school but I didn’t knowexactly what I wanted to do.” A typical young musician, he was onthe fence about whether to continue music professionally, attendcollege, or do a combine the two. To keep his options open, he endedup attending Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont.
Thescholarly musician graduated but preferred musical notes totextbooks. In 1980, Ron co-founded his first semi-major band, RAT ATRAT R, with Victor Posion-tete in Philadelphia. The band pushes atriple anagram of art smack in the middle of their eyes as they failto notice it. As if the anagram weren't obvious enough, Ron explainedhow its capital letters “make [the band’s name] stand out.”
RATAT RAT R parted ways when Victor and his wife, the band’s bassplayer, Sonda Andersson, moved to New York. “I think everyone wassort of burnt out; we were young. They wanted to move… I stayed inPhilly another 6 months, ” he said. Living the typical downwardlymobile musician's life, he said, “It was just time to move on…”After all, it “was the early 80s… a really good time for music.There were a lot of venues and a lot of people experimenting. Itseemed wide open with what you can do; it seemed like you couldalmost do anything”, he said.
The split between Victor and Ron didn’t last long. When Ron and hisex-wife moved to New York from Philadelphia, they “ended up in theLower East Side…in the same building as Victor,” he said. Was itKatz’s Delicatessen that brought them to the same place? Was itGuss’ Pickles? Or was it some other magical force that brought themto the same neighborhood... Who knows?
            Victor and Ron wereneighbors but no longer band mates.“I was really in thisexperimental stage. It was a couple years before I really had anykind of serious project; almost all throughout the 80s until I movedto the West Coast, I just had a lot of improvised gigs, a lot ofpickup gigs.”
As a free bird, Ron flew solo for several years, picking up odds andends here and there. The bird flew to utopia in downtown Brooklyn,where he settled to live in a music studio. What kind of work-lifebalance is that?! Imagine an investment banker staying 24-7 in hisWall Street office. Investment bankers may be there 70 hours+ a week,but they do get some time off. On the other hand, Ron was living inheaven, being “able to make noise 24-7.” Especially after hebroke up with his wife and had the territory all to himself, he’dinvite fellow musicians over all the time: “You know, hey, you’recoming into town: yeah, come crash at my place, we’ll recordsomething, crash my place, we’ll do this… we’ll do a gig.”
TheAllman Brothers tune “Ramblin’ Man” may as well have beenwritten about Ron. Ron was “unattached” and “ready forsomething new.” He thought to himself, “I [have] friends in SanFrancisco... new place, new environment: why not.”

The Molecules during their 2007 West Coast Tour 

Ronconsiders his second life, also known as The Molecules, “[anincorporation of] all the things [he] was doing in NY: improvising,performance… art, high energy rock music, punk music… andprogressive rock with roots from the 70s.” He explained how he“grew up in that era of all the prog rock greats, like King Crimsonand Frank Zappa.” He laughed, “The Molecules really made a mark,a small mark, a very small mark.”While he is currently the pack leader of PAK, The Molecules haven’texactly fallen off the face of the earth. It’s true Ron moved toGeneva in August 1998: “It wasn’t like the band broke up oranything… It wasn’t like 'I hate you guys, I don’t want tospeak to you again.' It was like I just want to move,” Ron said. Asa matter of fact, The Molecules are slated to play during Ron’sforthcoming two-week long schedule of shows in November at New YorkCity’s The Stone.
“TheStone (one of his favorite venues) is one of the most importantcenters for innovative music in New York City. You know how somechess players come to wow the Marshall Chess Club? ... When peoplecome from Europe and Japan, one thing they plan is to come seesomething at The Stone.”
CurrentlyPAK performs as a large ensemble, but he has worked with . Ron knewPAK’s original drummer Race Age from the 1980s and Keith Abramsreplaced Age in 2003. Ron found the other two musicians in their 20sthrough a Village Voice ad. Jesse Krakow became the band’sbassist. Will Redman, who’s currently working on a PHD in music atWesleyan University in Middletown, CT under the guidance of AnthonyBraxton, took on guitarist duties.
Ronemphasized NYC's diversity of musical talent: “If you think you’regood and you live in Ohio and you think you’re the shit, at somepoint if you have a brain, you will say to yourself I’m going tomove to New York… You just need to go to some center where there’salways some hotshot musicians… I mean it’s NYC, man.” It’shard to argue with Ron as the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan andthe Ramones all became famous in NY.
Partof what makes Ron unique is his “ufaratzta” a Hebrew word for“spreading out.” While mainly a guitarist, he's versatile. WhenKrakow left PAK, Ron quickly took over bass to maintain thatnecessary fast-paced and complicated rhythm.
What likely distinguishes Ron the most however is an innovativerecording ability. “I like the documentation idea of recording alive event, but if I want to cut out the drums, put in new drums,make the drums go backwards… I am more than willing to have fun.”On PAK’s latest CD, Secret Curve there’sa song “E4 or D4.” “I did about 1000 edits, very quicklyusing the computer. Then I took these edits and rearranged them intoloops and I shuffled them around, first randomly. Then as I startedto hear ideas I liked, I started to refine [them],” he said. “Bythe way I am regressing here but E4 and D4 are the two most commonfirst move choices for the white side in chess. “
“Ireally like the idea when you make an album worth of music where eachsong is important and you might have an experimental piece, achangeup …that surprises the listener to something he wasn’texpecting,” said Ron. Meanwhile, he said “It’s one of thethings that has happened… with people listening to music on theInternet and randomly downloading songs.” By downloading randomsongs, younger generations don’t understand the concept of analbum.
Ron’sufaratzta alternatively exists outside of the musical realm. “I’vewanted to study French; I pick it up, I drop it, I pick it up, I dropit. C'est la Vie, you know. It is what it is… I can’t doeverything,” he said. As “E4 or D4” and another track “CaroKann,” named after one of chess’s more passive-aggressiveopenings, clearly illustrate, Ron has developed a strong passion forchess.
Askedto describe his musical style, he said, “Adventurous,creative rock music that uses odd metered complicated timesignatures, free improvisation, melodic and non-melodic phrases,played at times at very fast tempos to produce a surprising and/orexciting visceral musical experience, like a game of bullet chessafter drinking a double shot of Espresso.” Bullet is the kind ofchess game you see madmen playing in Washington Square Park wherepieces are flying all over the place since each player only has oneminute to make all his moves.
Manychess players have issues devoting enough time to studying the gamebecause of jobs, schoolwork, family commitments, etc. For Ron, theopposite problem exists. “For a while, chess has been interferingwith my music because I became completely obsessed with chess.”
Hecompares studying chess and practicing music: “Just like you putheavy hours studying chess, if you want to become obsessed, you gofor it… You know I could do 3 hours of practicing music, but Idon’t really need to do that as much as I used to. The skills arethere.”
WhenRon accepted a full-time manager position at the Marshall tosupplement his income, he thought it was just too much stress. Now,he says, “It’s great because I have a lot of flexibility. I’vebeen working more lately because I want to and I can… get thehours, but if I get a gig or something, they make adjustments forme.”
Ronmakes it clear that “Musicians live different lifestyles; [their]goal is not necessarily to be rich.” He says,“a lot of peoplemight make a lot of money but… also have car payments and housepayments and mortgages” and how he “[doesn’t] have those thingsto worry about.”
Ron makes ends meet, at the Marshall Chess Club. PAK's drummer KeithAbrams works in a bicycle shop. Due to Keith’s influence, bicyclingis another of Ron’s hobbies; in 2011, he did 3,700 miles, 800 milesin July alone, including two century rides (over 100 rides each).“Because I do music at this ridiculously rough touring level andbeing 52 years old, I am faced with either quitting or getting inshape.”
The Pittsburgh Tribune columnist Michael Machosky aptly sums up RonAnderson and PAK: “[Ron Anderson is a] relentless musical mind….who has a long resume of accomplishment in avant-garde rock, jazz andclassical circles. PAK… puts a premium on challenging,unpredictable compositions and dexterous improvisation, weavingnoisy, brutal blasts of metallic rock into dense, powerful musicalstatements that defy the usual limitations of genre.”