0600am: Where were you born and where do you live now?
B.O.: I was born in Miami in 1962 and lived there (mostly) until 1997 when I moved to San Francisco.
0600am: Are you still making music now for the same reasons than when you started?
B.O.: It's possible, though honestly I'm not sure why I started in the first place.
0600am: Is being on the road missed? Could it be one of the reasons you make music again?
B.O.: I enjoy traveling, but touring isn't much like holiday, so probably not. I like playing for an audience though and I'm happy to be doing that again.
0600am: To which point does your family listen to you playing and how do you organize your music in your place?
B.O.: I play downstairs in my "office" – a room with my books & music – mostly whatever I'm doing passes without comment or apparent interest. They're used to it I think.
0600am: Why did you begin releasing your work by yourself in vinyl?
B.O.: I love cover art and vinyl has more space for it. I'd make every release a double gatefold if I could.
0600am: Is your voice singing along with the guitar as if it is another instrument playing another melody, or it comes because you are imagining the music you are playing out loud?
B.O.: It could be either – sometimes I'll be playing and want to hear something on top and make the sound with my voice. Other times it just involuntary vocalizing with what my fingers are doing.
0600am: Do you have time to read? What have you been reading lately?
B.O.: I usually have two or three books going – right now, it's Virgil Thompson's autobiography, Ossie Clark's diaries from the sixties and an anthology of essays about pre-punk London in the 70's called "Goodbye to London".
0600am: Do you use the factor of chance in your improvisation to keep it clean from emotion or to express emotion? In other words, how does chance work with you?
B.O.: I don't use chance in any explicit way – things might happen randomly or by accident, but it's not something I'm consciously working with. In any event, I would never do anything to prevent emotion from being expressed.
0600am: “The only criteria to classify a chord as consonant or dissonant is whether it sounds pleasant or not to our ears.” Do you agree?
B.O.: Usually I'm thinking about chords (or any sound) as right or wrong for a particular moment – either as part of a sequence or in combination with other stuff – so I probably wouldn't be concerned whether a chord in isolation was consonant or dissonant. Traditional harmony has rules for that and I think they're fine.
0600am: Did you ever dream about music while sleeping? Is there a specific dream you can describe?
B.O.: Not that I can remember.
0600am: Did you ever dream about playing the guitar and at the same time do jerky moves in your sleep?
B.O.: Not that I'm aware of, though listening to my music can sometimes cause me to have the same tics I have when I'm playing.
0600am: What part of the meaning of the word “palilalia” were you interested in to adopt it as your record label name?
B.O.: I'm interested in involuntary behaviors as a model for my playing. Before I started the label, I was watching a lot of "tic videos" on youtube where people with Tourette's document their symptoms and thinking about how I could "process" a sound by running it through a certain kind of behavior almost in the same way a guitarist might process their sound by running it through an effect pedal.
0600am: What do you think about this song? It is a Greek “rembetiko” from 1934 by Markos Vamvakaris.
B.O.: I like it. Very nice.
0600am: Is there something missing in your life?
B.O.: Time
0600am: If you could play your music/practice in any spot in the world where would you go?
B.O.: Greece would be nice I think. I've been to Athens and the islands and had a great time.
0600am: Jimmy Hendrix made noise. Barack Obama is very quiet. How do you see America today?