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A Troubadour For Change A Conversation with Theo Eastwind April 2005 Feature Monthly Partnership with Block Magazine. Feature Article by James Gregg.
It is a fitting response from an artist who refers to his fans as straphangers, and who is internationally recognized as one of New York's best underground artists. Adding to an already long list of well-earned recognition, Theo recently received 1st place in the second annual Williamsburg Live Singer-Songwriter Competition. However, Theo is not a troubadour in the traditional sense, regardless of his well-informed history of the 11th, 12th and 13th century knightly lyrical poets. "[Singer-songwriters] have an age-old responsibility that reaches back to the middle ages... the first time in history that we see the media being used [in] psychological warfare. And troubadours were the first ones, the first missiles, the first media missiles." It is Theo's ability to make interconnections between time, reality and ideology that contribute to his sense of philosophy and revolution. It is no doubt that Theo, whose fourth album Story of the O is scheduled for release in June, is and has been heavily influenced by his own relationship with life. Theo's story of arrival in the United States with a pocket containing his life savings is, in New York and American mythology, a familiar one. More visceral is his firm grasp and control over conceptions of freedom, responsibility and creativity, which far eclipse the care of average citizenry. "If I set up on the corner with an amplifier and play my music, let's say even moderately loud, the police [are] going to come and give me a ticket... It's totally against the First Amendment... If you take your sh-t, and you go on the corner... you will be kicked out... And that will intimidate you, and then you will not do it again... I want to pull the fear away."
"I am appealing to all singer-songwriters to rally and to recognize that there is a change... it's a battle of mobilizing to create." It is this sense that creates the common ground that Theo shares with Gabriel Levitt, executive producer of the annual competition. The ambition to create and acknowledge is part of the thrust behind Levitt's monthly Jezebel Music Showcase at Laila Lounge, which gave rise to the competition, and Jezebel Music, the promotion company centered around the music scene in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. As first-prize winner, Theo is to appear as Jezebel's first featured monthly artist. Theo's self-examination of purpose melds with Gabriel's and Jezebel's desire to highlight the 'explosion' that is musical culture in Williamsburg, and, collectively, is emblematic of the underlying creative force that is so prevalent among Williamsburg's residents and artists. Theo 'implores' the singer-songwriter community to collect and direct itself parallel to Gabriel's efforts to organize these creative endeavors. "It's about changing something. This is New York, the capital of the world... We had Seattle, we had it all, we had Vienna, we had Salzburg, we had Berlin, we had the classical music revolution, we had Moscow, we had it... we had it all. Now, it's our time, here, in New York f----'n City... right here." Further information about Theo Eastwind can be found at www.theoeastwind.com. Further information about the Williamsburg Live Singer-Songwriter Competition can be found at www. wlssc.com This article presented with permission from Block Magazine and can be found in their monthly section of Uproar. |
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