logo

Part 2

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

I have come to accept and embrace some core beliefs that motivate me and to be clear, I say that ‘I’ve come to accept’ them because they’ve all emerged from instinctual searching and wonder and not from any indoctrination.

But I don’t really feel comfortable attempting to paraphrase or enumerate these beliefs. I fear if I did so it would likely come across as some kind of awkard mission statement and spoil the joy of discovery that I hope each listener experiences. Because I really do hope that my music activates whatever latent sense of these feelings already lives within anyone who is receptive to my music and listens to it with an open mind and open heart.  

I will state a couple simple facts.

Re: process: I eventually share maybe 2% of what I make. The other 98% is totally necessary and totally fun, but I have zero interest in ever letting anyone hear or see it.

and Re: motives: I deeply believe in the 100% total and unequivocal equality of every human being and that every individual deserves the same basic dignity as every other individual, regardless of their skin color, gender, sexual preference, or anything else that may be cynically used to divide us. Furthermore, I believe that a core element of this right to dignity is the opportunity for each individual to flourish and maximize their greatest potential in whatever ways they see fit to pursue. And I believe that any system that fails to provide this, or refuses to provide this, is an illegitimate system.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

For me personally the constant re-balancing between tradition and innovation is active. It gets redetermined specifically within each act of creation and is never settled. Now more than ever with the hyper-present tense collage of smart phone-consciousness and environmental collapse, I think a lot about the Native American tradition of making decisions for the tribe according to how the consequences will be felt 7 generations from now. Personally I struggle to imagine one generation from now.

But I am very interested in cultivating and preserving every element of what I make that might be considered primal. and It’s interesting to me to use the most common and basic contemporary technology to achieve those ends. I guess I aspire to express primal realities in contemporary language, whether that language is Ableton or guitar or the small cave of my mouth.

I’ve noticed people picking on electroacoustic music recently and that really irks me. I became comfortable long ago with an expansive definition of what electroacoustic music means and I think that the tension implied in the phrase has been at the core of most everything that I’ve ever made, whether I’m poking around for a new access point or pushing back against it.

One doesn’t really have a choice whether or not to respond to historical developments. If you’re a painter, it doesn’t matter if you “like” Picasso or Warhol. What would it even mean to “like” them? You’re just painting after them. You don’t have a choice.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Man I love shifting gears. I was a much more technically proficient guitarist 20 years ago than I am these days, but I didn’t feel as connected to the music that I made then as I feel connected to the music that I make now. I became so distracted by my hands, I lost track of my ears and heart and brain.

I depend on shifting gears each day—some hours writing, some hours playing guitar, some hours programming and processing. And I depend on shifting gears seasonally or annually—this year I’m writing more, this year I’m making computer music more, etc.

And I love and very much depend on not touching stuff for long periods. There have been a few times I haven’t picked up a guitar for a year and though I then get annoyed with my clumsiness when I eventually feel inspired to do so again, I know that eventually I am better off for the time away. The last five years I’ve been less interested in singing and happy to let Jenny or Melina in Joan of Arc sing. But now I am aware that I’m feeling drawn to it again and I know it’ll be more interesting to me now that I’ve had some time away.

This time away from things especially applies to individual songs. Me and Jen both make piles of songs real quick for a month or two, every day and without much thought, until we have dozens of them. Then we listen back and with distance we can better recognize which ones pop out from the litter. The songs that make the cut then get revised and revised and revised dozens of times over a very long period.

We work very, very slowly, intentionally alternating between stages of intentionality and recklessness. We may superficially appear prolific, but by the time anything is made public it has been worked over for years and set aside for months at a time at least a couple times.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

8am Green Juice and Read
9am Work on whatever has deadline and requires creative energy, either band stuff or day job depending on day
1230 Long walk and Gym
2pm Admin work and errands that require less creative energy, either band stuff or day job depending on day
7pm Fun creative work
930pm dinner

More fun creative work or go out or watch TV  

It’s very, very rare for me to waver from this schedule. It happens only in extreme situations and it never happens without being commented upon and it always comes with some generalized unease. I accept that I’ve come to be a little eccentric in this regard. I am pretty easy-going within my schedule, but definitely flustered and grumpy when forced off my schedule for any reason.

Also, unless something is really going wrong, I get genuinely excited every single day, every single time I shift gears to the next thing. Like every morning I am so psyched to drink my green juice and pick up my books where I left off the day before and most afternoons I really enjoy running errands Because I really do love Chicago and every neighborhood and all the people that my errands lead me to intersect with and I don’t mind my current day job so much.

When I can forget about these psycho authoritarian fucks working to undo all the social progress of the last 100 years and the threat of being shot every time one wanders grocery aisles, it’s a pretty happy simple life.


Previous page:
Part 1  
2 / 3
previous next
Next page:
Part 3