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Monthly Feature. |
         
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Feature Article by Ben Krieger David Andrew Strackany, otherwise known as Paleo, is a unique songwriter in a field where he shouldn't be. He doesn't spend energy on photo shoots, press kits, money-making gimmicks, song licensing, blogging, or any of those other things that are being preached in Musician 101 classes across the country. He just... um... records songs, shares them with the public, and lives off his earnings from the road. His recent Song Diary project was a successful attempt to write and record a song a day for a year. He spent most of that time on the road. He didn't brag about it like Ryan Adams might, and he didn't spread the results across countless EPs, CDs and box sets like Bob Pollard has done. He just uploaded the tunes from his laptop to a plainly designed website and let people enjoy them. And the songs are fantastic, displaying a wide range of styles while maintaining a distinct, sincere voice. There's no right or wrong way to approach the diary... you just have to start downloading (I'm a fan of December 20th's "Blue Minus," myself). Pick a date, any date, and enjoy. Paleo opted not to meet up in person for the interview (he jokingly referred to the coffin he never strays too far away from). So we conducted the interview via Myspace. I threw a bunch of rambling questions his way, and to my delight, he threw some great answers right back. In the end, we both agreed that putting these comments through the journalist meat grinder wouldn't be prudent. So here's the dialogue, all potty mouthing and obsessive comments about post-modern authors included... Ben: Your song diary has left you with a large amount of published material. I'm thinking about the recent NY Times article on Jonathan Coulton and his web-based approach of writing a song a week and blogging frequently with his fans. Then I'm thinking about one of my favorite quotes from William Gaddis, who was almost as reclusive as Thomas Pynchon. This is from one of Gaddis' novels, concerning the public's demand for a backstory from the artist. "What is it they want from the man that they didn't get from the work? What do they expect? What is there left when he's done with his work, what's any artist but the dregs of his work, the human shambles that follows it around?" I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
But the thing is, reading this quote again, it seems like Gaddis gets it. That all that art is just a jar full of hair and fingernail clippings, accumulated across years, cut off !!snip!! over the same toilet in the same way each week. The real art is the human being, Gaddis! Tag! You're it! You can't pitch correct a soul. Nuh-uh. Not with one hundred deep or deeper blue computer gizmo schizmos only the nose knows. Nope. I don't give a shit about music or art, mine or Gaddis' or anybody else's. I clip my fingernails like they do and I leave 'em in shambles somewhere, in an ashtray maybe, and then I try to get on with it, to get back to the backstory where the real art is. Ben: Well, hold on... I understand the perspective real art is the human being, but I think the song/painting/book/poem/etc, if the creator is true to him/herself, is definitely something worth giving a shit about! It's a window into a unique perspective. Think of the old saying, "a penny for you thoughts" and how difficult it is for many people to articulate this. One could argue that the beauty of the artist is the ability to take that penny and paint thoughts in a way that inspires the audience, inspires people who have a difficult time articulating what is in their own hearts. We are, individually, works of art in a sense. But we're tied together by shared emotions. Our backstories make the fears/desires/dreams seem unique, but the core feelings are a common bond between us. We're social animals. Perhaps what makes an artist unique is not the backstory, but his/her ability to communicate emotion from that backstory, which the audience can in turn use as a flashlight into their own hearts. Paleo: I didn't mean to say "real art is the human being." I'm not that democratic. I think art is an active, creative process, not a belly button. If art were that universal, we wouldn't be talking about it so much. I guess what I meant to say was that it seemed like a more fulfilling and far, far more challenging art form to try to make an art of your life. backstories schmackstories. Those're just spins labels put on an artist's life to try to make more money. "I'm from so and so country" or "I wrote this many songs in a year." That's all bullshit. Think of your life as the thing you sculpt and tailor into something precious, for its own sake. And you can share it, make money off of it if you want to, at the risk of destroying it. The craft we choose (or that chooses us) to be the vehicle for our art is a sacred thing. I have no beef with poetry, music, painting, etc. All are more than a great deal older than I am, and I do my share of each. All's I'm saying we gotta keep our eye on the ball. Paleo: I really don't know who these guys are you keep talking about, Gaddis or Pynchon, sorry. But as far as reclusion, I've barely left this apartment in 4 months, I'm not exactly a social butterfly. I don't want to be misunderstood on this. I'm not saying whatever nonsense comes out of my "mouth" in some internet dialogue is more art than art. I'm saying sure whatever our dead white guy friends here wrote way back when may be the only way they could hold up a mirror to their soul, and now the reflection stained on those mirrors is all that's left of them, but they're just mirrors. It's not gold or silk, or food or water, and it's certainly not soul. It's easy to get confused sometimes. I didn't learn much, but I learned that. It's easy to forget which is which when the mirror is all you have. |
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