Jonathan Segel may be best known to some as the man who gets to play some of the most memorable violin parts in rock and roll, but he is an accomplished musician and composer in his own right with a catalog that extends far beyond his Camper Van Beethoven projects. Listening to his many and varied pursuits you'd be hard pressed to remember that only one man was responsible for them all.On an unusually warm March afternoon, I sat on my front porch and talked to Camper Van Beethoven's co-founder and violin virtuoso about his many talents and his new musical offering, All Attractions.
Hey Jonathan how are you today?
Great, thank you. How are you?
Doing wonderful. I thought we could start out talking a little about the new album All Attractions. I listened to the songs quite a few times and I really like it.
Oh good, nice. Thank you!
I noticed that it's described as "guitar heavy" which while it's totally true, struck me as funny because you are hard to pin down musically.
Ha! Uh ha, true.
Did you feel like you needed to qualify to differentiate from the improvisational electronic music you've done?
Well also from the violin because in Camper Van Beethoven I played violin most of the time and that's mostly the reason for the differentiation. When people think of me as part of Camper Van Beethoven, they think of me as the violin player.
Weird, I always think of you as co-founder, although you do play a mean fiddle. Are you going to be touring to support the record?
Probably just a few local shows. I can't really afford to get musicians out on the road at this point.
I'm seeing quite a few acts taking it on the road solo these days. Solo acoustic or pared-down versions of the band. You are in California which sounds like us east coasters are going to be awfully sad missing out.
Maybe not, but it probably won't happen until next fall if you do see me!
