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(A) when we met, the parties were trash glam and rock and roll... the music was about bands then, it's different now since the technology allows the artist to produce complete compositions, as a solo musician. i still appreciate bands and enjoy collaborations like our recent endeavors, but now i'm able to flesh out a lot of ideas, let the music out of my head without having to hum it to someone else. ;)
so now the music i'm creating is more like the music that won't let me sleep... what goes on and on in my synapses on continuous play like winamp from hell...
(Q) Personally I loved doing those heavy "mental" puke parties, I always loved that everyone was dressed in sequins stiff stuff enough to plastic coat a kitchen table and then leave with some bodily fluid smattered on them. The DisKo parties we do now have lost that rawness and anger from youth. Although I think the music now is darker. After hearing you spin so many times I hear a bit of those heavey mental puke parties while gliding over Fischerspooner and the Cure. How would you describe your music, the way it translates live, and where you see your music heading?
(A) well, the glam was why i was there, dressup is fun. :) that's a part of why i found myself so involved in goth culture - that darkness was a part of me anyway, my faves as a little kid were Bowie, Alice Cooper, and Kiss! after the Foxxen days, i ended up in Boston at places like ManRay, when "industrial" music was emerging from the muck. i also started dj'ing, trading drums for decks, and spinning house in Boston and Providence nightclubs.
so that's why the Fischerspooner and the Cure are favorite playlist additions of mine... i love all kinds of music, i'm not into one genre or another - so i try to find the history and the soul of the music i spin. the dancefloor gets off on it, hearing new songs they haven't yet heard, and songs they know the words too... sometimes. it all makes sense when you put it together right, you're a master of that yourself!
as far as my original music goes, it's as ecclectic as my listening tastes. some of it's aggro and pissed off, some of it's very soft and pretty - it's all very melodic though not very pop, but i also think that it translates well to a musical audience. it's very composed, i draw from both classical and modern musics. for the live show, i'm working with a few other musicians to develop a project core - we'll be writing the music again in a lot of ways, with organic instruments as well as electronics... and incorporating the music into a performance art vision.
i can't predict the future, but ultimately my music will be as forgotten as anyone elses, if i'm lucky it'll be some years before it ends up in the cut-out bin at walmart.
by then i'll be onto something else. ;)
(Q) Now that the music industry has been reduced to indie labels and floods of cookie cutter acts all trying to sell CD's that people are file sharing as fast as they are released. How do you see the future as far as a medium? If not packaged CD's or $1.00 downloads for singles by Maddona, how do you see musicians making a living from their recordings again?
(A) unfortunately the "hit it big" rock star idea has gotten carried away... the fact of the matter is that the labels have always survived on exploitation of one sort or another - be that exploiting the artist, the product, or the consumer. so many incredibly talented musicians end up making less than minimum wage anyway, on a label deal.
i'm actually glad to see the big labels choking on file sharing a bit - not because i want to see money taken from the artist, but because i want to see it delivered directly to them... dollars, compared to pennies.
my hope is that creative artists will benefit from the technology - promoting their life's work, and directing traffic to their own download or mail order sites - offerening the product at a lower cost to the consumer, which is the incentive - less hands in the pie means less overhead. i think indie labels are a way for a lot of artists to develop their following /and/ have more choices in their musical career.
merchandising accomodates somewhat, but it's expensive for the indie artists to produce, and touring rarely pays for itself. taking the music out of the hands of big corporations and putting in the hands of listeners means offering access to the listener. if you offer a good product, good music... then your audience will find you, and your website.
i like to think that internet music distribution is potentially the cure for a disease - in that the audience, being exposed to more independent music, will ultimately reject the pop commercial jingles in favor of something more meaningful. i also like to think the musicians, indie labels, distributors, and retailers can keep up with, encourage, and profit from that.
(Q) After seeing three huge scenes come and go in NYC and Providence I have watched lots of artists hit the big time at least for a little while from Trixter to Micheal Alig to LightingBolt. They all were doing the same style promotion just with diferrent styles of music. Like Kiss and Parlement back in the 70's, I see plenty of faces from the Limelight day's still pounding the club scene 7 nights a week and looking for the "NEW THING" while doing all the old things. What sets a party up to be differant while you are producing the night on top of performing?
(A) well, i'm psychic, of course. ;)
it's simple. i don't sleep, and i travel all over the place, and i'm constantly looking for things i, personally, like. when i find them, i support them as best i can... book them, spin them, show their artwork, include them in mine, tell people i know would like them that i do. so when i'm throwing a party, i throw a party the way i like parties - with a lot of cool people doing a lot of cool things, and cool music i like that i think you'll like, and great bands that i like to see performing live... and there's going to be a lot of different facets to it, because there's a lot of different possibilities.
it's different, because i approach it differently - a nightclub owner wants to suck in as many people as he can get to drink his booze, jumps on the latest bandwagon, and books him a name (and thank goodness, those are the paying gigs!) - at my parties, yeah i get some good names... but a lot of them i've known them for years, and i was partying with them before they had names like they do now, or they work with someone of that description. my plan is to throw a good party, where people who love what they do are doing it, and people who love to be a part that /can be/! that's why i encourage people to get dolled up, then you are participating, even if your name is not on the stupid flyer!
people come to the party then because they know what to expect - even if they don't know what to expect!
(Q) You and I have worked together throwing parties and club events at least a thousand times and it's always new and interesting. I love the merge of counter cultures and deviants that all these gathering draw. The evolution of self is so much deeper when you are exposed to all theories of life. Most art and music is a combination of the edgy and dark sexuality in our fine young christian masses. : ) Pornography or Photography?
(A) LOL!
ok, first - we've done some amazing events, and i think the reason people come together so well is because they share so much in common, while still being who they are. we cater to the open minded, by default. a friend of mine once said "once you're on this side of deviant, there's no pointing fingers", and i think that's an unspoken understanding among subcultures. and i agree, that balance of energy is important to self discovery, it's a safe place to be, where you can be yourself... that's another part of why the music and sexual subcultures find so much crossover.
as far as porn goes, i love it - everyone has their particular aesthetics, which is why the DickJohnson groups are such a great resource. i'm more into fish, and my photography is primarily female nudes... but hey, nobody's perfect. ;)
i won't get you started on the 2257, we already know how stupid and fucked up that is. next!
yeah, so i say there's a difference between art and porn, but it's not how much you show or who's doing what... it's how you approach it's creation... and that's just my own dinstinction, i can't claim it for anyone else. it doesn't matter whether it's made to hang in a gallery or show on the 'net or both, we choose our own aesthetics. i have a beautiful portfolio of prints of closeup female genitalia and masturbation, both a judge and my mother have called it "art".
(Q)Even as a Fag I can say there is certian art to the folds of sloppy pussy. Music to me is the same way it should be raw and fun with a forked tounge and a pretty bitchy disposition. I have seen your style really blossom since your rebirth and or awakening in Boston. How is the difference for you spinning your Boston crafted style in NYC night clubs and then in Philly, DC, Munich, Montreal, Chicago, Nashville, or St. Louis? I know the difference when I am hosting - it's not as much as of adjustment as it would be if I were doing music rather then meeting and greeting.
(A) awakening is almost right - more like remembering. i know what i've always known, but learned because i knew people like you who showed me different sides of the world and myself. honestly, i still think of things you said 17 years ago about making music and promoting bands and dealing with record labels. i also think of that time you dove over my drumset to get away from a big hairy spider, and the times you held my hair for me so i wouldn't puke the purple out of it. ;)
i think we're spoiled in boston and nyc. we've got some great dj's up in here, even some still spinning who have set the tone for a lot of other dj's! when i'm in boston, i'm playing to my "home" town, so i'm nervous and twitchy and worried that i'll suck and all my friends will hate me. ;) otherwise, i love hitting the decks with kickass dj's, so i love touring. i definately bring my own style with me, i play a lot of music that i've developed in the MA clubs, so i know it slams, and drop it someplace they've never heard it. i play some independent releases too, some harder to find stuff... just good songs. i'm not real hardcore about it, i mostly play what seems right at the time, judge an audience's groove by what they vibe on... and mix the fuck out of it. ;) my playlists are never the same twice... i have a couple of favorite mixes, but i almost never spin them because i'm afraid to overplay them. same thing with my edits and my originals. even when i'm on tour. i'll go to pull a track at Nation in DC and think "oh, wait - i played this 3 weeks ago at Haven. someone might be here."
my conundrum. *sigh*
my guilty pleasure is mixing "bizarre love triangle" into "what's on your mind". if you hear it, you'll know i was mixing with one hand... that's my porn. yeah baby.