Gonzo and the Velocipede was a commission by Duo Fujin. I needed to find the right subject matter for this composition, as Duo Fujin are dear friends and incredibly fine musicians. The commission was started many times but failed to ignite in me what I thought the piece could be. One evening I was watching a documentary, titled Gonzo, that was about the life of the great Hunter S. Thompson. I have always been a fan of Thompson, and after watching the documentary I reread Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Suddenly, I had a vision of the two characters of the novel, Raul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, riding old French Velocipedes while being influenced by mind altering hallucinogens and other assorted illegal substances. This idea sparked the impetus for the work. The titles of each movement are imagery that I had as I wrote them. The hilarity and shear terror of these two characters riding a bicycle with a huge front tire and a little back tire, having experiences like they did in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, became the inspiration for Gonzo and the Velocipede. The below quote from the book influenced how I wrote the composition.
“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.”
-Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I wanted the performers and the audience to feel as if anything could go awry at any moment, keeping us all on the edge of our seat. Strap in, sit back, and enjoy the ride.
A great animation by Dax Norman can be seen at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=flz7rStDeCE