ALBURGER: I sat down with John this past November, andwe were reveling in the fact that we were actually outdoorsand not freezing to death, given his Oberlin and Alaskaconnections. He, at the time, seemed to feel that Oberlinmight be a continuing off-again/on-again every-other-semestersituation.GANN: Right.ALBURGER: But no go.GANN: No. In fact, I was there for a residency in November,and it happened to be the week everything fell apart. Studentsrebelled. It was an amazing political situation.ALBURGER: Students rebelled against...GANN: ... the composition department, because they weretrying to make everything more conservative again. UnderJohn's and others' influence, things had opened up But theyclosed it up again.ALBURGER: Interesting.GANN: Well, that was how things were when I was there,too. Why Oberlin? It's such a good music school -- a fantasticmusic school! But they never had any famous composers staythere for very long.ALBURGER: Somehow they make it hot for them. Whatabout Northwestern?GANN: I went to Northwestern for my doctorate. Comparedto Oberlin, Northwestern was an extremely unsophisticatedplace.ALBURGER: As conservative?GANN: Yes. Hindemith was a big name. They hadn't quitediscovered Stockhausen yet or any of that. That was all a littleweird. Heady stuff! But Hindemith!ALBURGER: Now we can talk! Well, how did you get theway you are, then, given this background? I'm guessing youset yourself on a path young, and you kept with it. Just as youwere not overly influenced by your peers, you were not so byyour schools either.GANN: Well certainly there was nothing much atNorthwestern to influence anybody. But I went thereexpecting not to be influenced. Peter Diena, who is no longerthere (they denied him tenure) talked to me about uptown anddowntown music. He really knew the politics of that scene.He introduced me to a lot. He took me to New <strong>Music</strong>America, where one of my roommates was Alvin Curran. Itwas through Peter that I met a lot of people.ALBURGER: So he was a positive influence.GANN: Oh, yes, Peter was very positive.3ALBURGER: Did that ultimately become part of yourmotivation to move in the New York direction?GANN: No, the only motivation I ever had for going to NewYork was because the Village Voice called me up and askedme to apply for a job.ALBURGER: How did they get wind of you?GANN: I was pretty good about sending press clips to recordcompanies. I sent them to a distribution service, and the editorof the Village Voice saw my reviews. When Greg Sandowleft, and the next person didn't work out for very long, theVoice was looking for someone.ALBURGER: Was that right after Northwestern?GANN: Several years later. First, Peter Yates gave me a jobworking with New <strong>Music</strong> America.ALBURGER: Which was based where?GANN: In Chicago. And then there was a gaping hole in mylife at that point, because after that job ended I had no idea. Istarted writing music reviews for the Reader. I spent fouryears as a free lance critic in which I probably made about$18,000 total.ALBURGER: That sounds like me now! So when the VillageVoice called, that was something to jump about.GANN: Yes, I had no interest in going to New York, but Ididn't see what else I was going to do.ALBURGER: You were writing music the whole time?GANN: Yes.ALBURGER: But, to this day, you've said that composition isthe most fun. You didn't set out to become a music critic.GANN: Nope.ALBURGER: You set out to become a composer.GANN: Yup.ALBURGER: We have a lot of correspondence! The oldestpiece of yours with which I'm familiar is on a Relache album.Is that a Zuni or Hopi influenced piece?GANN: The rhythms of that piece are made up, but I laterdiscovered they had some correspondence to San Juan Indianpractices.ALBURGER: Perhaps that's like in Bartók, where he becameso familiar with various folk musics that compositions willhave that influence, even when they don't have any directconnections.GANN: Right.