San Francisco experimental guitarist Christopher Willits has collaborated with legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto on Ocean Fire, a beautiful LP of brooding, dappled drone pieces. Compared to Sakamoto's recent collaborations with Alva Noto and Christian Fennesz, there's hardly any piano audible, while Willits' guitar is also laptop-processed into pure haze. I asked the 29-year-old some questions by email.

Dazed Digital: What first inspired you to use computer processing on your guitar?
Christopher Willits: Ever since I started playing guitar, I've wanted to hear different ways of processing the guitar - sounds that still retain the beauty of vibrating strings, but push it into funky rhythmic stuff and colorful noise. I used tons of effects and tools to mess with my sound when I was younger - I got into making my own lo-fi distortion pedals. I was really inspired by Hendrix, Sonic Youth and [Medicine guitarist] Brad Laner. As I kept doing this stuff I began hearing sounds in my head that I could not produce with linear chains of stomp boxes, like rhythmic processing, more dynamic noise, guitar synth gone haywire. So when I found out about building your own audio processing using Max/MSP in about 1998, I was instantly sold.
DD: Is heavy computer programming a big part of the process? Do you enjoy that or is it just a means to an end?
CW: It depends on the mood I'm in. Sometimes I just want to play guitar, sometimes I feel like composing stuff, and other times tweaking the details of a new software tool feels amazing. Heavy programming to me is designing/constructing new tools with Max/MSP/Jitter. That software is like the building blocks that come with a set of Lego. They're at a low enough level that you can do any audio or video processing you want, and build what you want, but at the same time the language is at a high enough level that you don't need to dive into code. I'm not addicted to an inpenetrable corporate tool to make my own guitar sounds!
DD: What was it like working with Ryuichi Sakamoto?
CW: Sakamoto is such a sweet guy. From the moment we met, it felt like reuniting with an old buddy. We both really respect each other's music so I think there was a lot of common ground to start from. The music making was effortless. We just just started playing, and went it on for hours. It was like a lucid dream.
DD: You've collaborated with a lot of people, including Kid606, Taylor Deupree, Matmos, and the aforementioned Brad Laner, - you must get a lot out of that process?
CW: Absolutely. Collaboration forces you to work in new ways and uncover new ideas. It's collective energy at work. I feel like some artists don't give themselves permission to evolve artistically because they'e afraid they will surprise their fans, and erode some brand identity. that seems really artificial for me. It's unnatural to not change. And I think people are not that boring, people want new music, they want something fresh to experience.
DD: What's the experimental music scene like in the Bay Area?
CW: People dont realize that San Francisco is a pretty small city, but especially for the size, there's a ton of creative people doing some great stuff out here - although we just lost some good friends that helped brew this "scene" or whatever you want to call it. Kid606 went to berlin for a while, Matmos is in baltimore now, and Blevin Blectum and J Lesser recently moved to Providence. So that's a little earthquake. But so many people are doing great stuff around here. I recently founded Overlap.org and that's becoming a solid hub for activity. Overlap.org offers pay-what-you-want audio and video releases, we organize live events in San Francisco, and we provide people a way to share their work with others online. People from all over the world are getting involved.
DD: In an interview in 2006 you mentioned trying to make friends with raccoons. How is it going
CW: Man, not so good. These guys around my house are some bold city raccoons. They have no fear and apparently don't need any friends. They are so cute and so creepy at the same time, which is a really confusing mixture of emotions. One tried to come into my house a few months ago, sniffing for food. So yeah, still working that out for sure.