Weird Music Interviews
Information about the artists interviewed for Weird Music
Up front, although 14 people interviewed in this project, I sent out countless interview requests. For the people who did participate, I think it speaks to their openness and kindness that they were willing to be interviewed for a completely unknown project (even to me at the time of beginning). Without these interviews, this project would literally not exist. I'm indebted to everyone who agreed to talk to me.
Matmos (August 9th, 2009)
Matmos has released 12 albums as a duo and many others in collaborations and solo work. They contributed to Björk’s fourth and fifth studio albums, Vespertine (2001) and Medulla (2004) and also toured with her on the Vespertine and Greatest Hits tours. I took a train down to Baltimore and conducted my interview with Martin “M.C.” Schmidt and Drew Daniel in their home while they were working on their ninth album, The Marriage of True Minds (2013). That album was based on sessions they would collect of participants recounting anything they saw or heard while Daniel telepathically transmitted his idea of the new album to them from a separate room. After our interview I participated in one of these sessions. In 2022 they released their twelfth full length album and toured Europe and the U.S. Drew is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University.
Ches Smith (August 9th, 2009)
Ches Smith has been in many groups including Xiu Xiu and Trevor Dunn's trio-Convulsant. He also releases albums with his quartet under his own name and by himself under the name Congs for Brums. From my Baltimore interview with Matmos, I caught a BoltBus to New York City where Ches was playing an improv gig at the Stone, a not-for-profit avant-garde performance space started by John Zorn. I interviewed him on the sidewalk outside.
Aa (June 18th, 2010)
Aa (pronounced “Big A Little a”) was an electronics and drum band based out of New York who put out four albums from 2004 to 2016. Their lineup changed a lot over the years, but the members in this interview were Aron Wahl, John Atkinson, and Josh Bonati, conducted after their show at the Danger Danger Gallery. Grandchildren played with them at Johnny Brenda’s shortly before that, and I think they also played at the Danger Danger House (where all of Grandchildren lived) before either of those shows.
Joe Meno (October 15th, 2010)
Joe Meno is the author of eight novels, one non-fiction book, and two short story collections. I interviewed him for Skyscraper Magazine after the release of his fifth novel, The Great Perhaps (2009) while I was in Chicago on tour with Grandchildren. He is a Creative Writing professor at Columbia College Chicago and most recently released the novel Book of Extraordinary Tragedies (2022).
XBXRX (October 29th, 2010)
XBXRX originated in 1998 in Mobile, Alabama, but relocated to Los Angeles in 2003. They released seven albums before breaking up in 2012. I interviewed Vice Cooler and Steve Touchton at Vice’s home. This was later on the same tour as the Meno interview and also for Skyscraper. At the time they had recently released Un Usper (2009) and “O” (2010).
Greg Jamie (August 18th, 2011)
New York City-based O’Death put out four albums from 2004 to 2014. Singer-guitarist Greg Jamie has also released two albums with his project Blood Warrior and in 2018 released his first solo effort, Crazy Time. In 2011 Grandchildren joined O’Death on a leg of their U.S. tour promoting their album Outside (2011). This interview took place at Greg’s home and music venue, The Oak and the Ax, in Biddford, Maine.
Man Man (October 27th, 2011; December 14th, 2011; December 20th, 2011)
Man Man has released six studio albums. Although the band has gone through many lineup changes, Ryan Kattner has always been the centerpiece. My interviews with them took place during and after one of their U.S. tours for their fourth album, Life Fantastic (2011). Grandchildren opened those shows and I played guest trumpet on a couple of Man Man songs. I interviewed Ryan in the basement of our show in Los Angeles. After returning to Philadelphia, I interviewed Chris Powell and Jamey Robinson, both formerly of Need New Body, at Jamey’s home (and band practice space). About a week later I interviewed sculptor Billy Dufala and Matt Gibson of The Extraordinaires at Billy’s studio space.
For a primer of the music these artists have made, below is a Spotify playlist of their work. I recommend listening to this playlist while reading the rest of the posts in this series.
Technical Notes:
The interviews with Ches Smith, Joe Meno, and Ryan Kattner were all recorded in noisy environments. Also, the questions Ches and Joe were not as uniform as my questions for the rest of the interviews. In Ches’ case, it was due to being tired and not having the project well-defined in my head. In Joe’s case, the camera battery had not been plugged in completely the night before and the camera died after three minutes. Since there wasn’t going to be any footage, I stuck more to the questions I had written specifically for the Skyscraper piece. With both interviews, I still ended up finding sections that felt relevant to the overall project.