microphonic interview

Phil Elverum interviewed by Alex Pasternack


>Where are you now?

I am in my parents' house in Anacortes, Wash.
>
>Our issue's theme is Beat, beet, beat. You seem obsessed with it. What are
>your thoughts?
>
I am obsessed with what?

>(And what is the significance of the percussion in a song? In a
>microphones song? Are there particular songs that you are proud of from a
>percussive point of view?)

I think I hear everything in terms of percussion. It is everything to me.
I think the song of King Dark Death on the Mt. Eerie album has some cool
drums. I didn't use a computer or anything for that, (or anything ever,
besides this email) and I am a little proud of making "electronica" type of
beats with my hands.
>
>Do you have a favorite instrument?

I suppose my hands.
>
>When did you start to sing, and how did you find your voice?

I think we sung in Montessori school. I can't remember. There were a few
dinosaur songs.
>
>Who are your major influences and/or heroes?

I don't want to start listing people.
>
>Did you ever study music?

I took one piano lesson and I played tuba in the school band for 3 years. I
don't count any of that though. I didn't know what was going on. I was
just pushing the right keys.
>
>How big a part of your life is the making of visual art?

These days it is small because I have been travelling too much, but soon it
will be huge. I need to make big paintings.
>
>The music scene in Washington has been your soil, I take it: how important
>is the community to art making for you?

Sometimes it's very important, though it's not always in a direct way. I
usually prefer to be creative in a solitary way but I always need the
foundation of friends and family to be able to do that. It is good to have
a bunch of friends in the same building all working on their own thing and
not speaking.
>
>How/where do you find new music?

I have a very hard time getting into new things, and the world is cramming
it down my throat. I have taken up a defensive position and now I try not
to listen to anything.
>
>Is there someone you really want to make music with?

I have many friends who I wish I could make more music with. They are
people who also want to make music with me but it doesn't happen because
everybody is always thrown all over the globe, busy trying to feed their
children. Karl Blau, Eddy Blau, Genevieve Elverum, Mirah Zeitlyn, Julie
Doiron, Jason Anderson, Mike Feuerstack, Adam Forkner, Nikaidoh Kazumi, etc.
>
>How do you record these days? Do you use computers at all?

No. I don't record at all. I am trying to start again. I have been
collecting enough equpment to do it. I have an 8 track.
>
>When I listen, I can sense a space, and a type of weather, and sometimes
>think of stories just from listening to the music; it can be very
>inspirational when making my own stuff, whatever it is. What inspires you,
>and what conditions do you like to have, when you write?

Songs come out when I don't expect it. There is no one circumstance. They
come at weird times.
>
>Do you write with an audience in mind, or is it much more personal?

Sometimes I write directly TO an audience but I am trying not to because
that just sounds preachy.
>
>Many of your sounds are irreproducible, even for you I imagine, except
>through recording. (This seemed a disappointment to some people in the
>audience in Cambridge who have attached their heads to The Glow for many
>hours on end.) How much comfort do you take in the recorded medium vs. the
>live one, and is it ever a problem for you?

I always just think of it as 2 seperate things. The live show has
completely new and different "songs". It would be shitty if I got a big
band together with 8 musicians and toured in a big white van with a uhaul
trailer and had the keyboard dude who cued up the sample of the wind and I
had the 3 guitar players with all their pedals and the tight drummer playing
the exact beats from the CD, even learning the flaws. People do that. I
hate that kind of thing. The CD is made so people can listen to that kind
of thing in their home. When they come to the show I want people to see a
real live person doing something in front of them. I let myself make
mistakes and make up new songs at shows. Maybe some people would be
disappointed to not hear their favorite songs but I still think it's better
than being too scared to put myself out on a limb.
>
>Alicia Keys is now writing a travel column for the Boston Globe from her
>tour, which will include a show on the Great Wall I'm told. You are a
>something of a tireless traveler, and to often exotic places and unlikely
>stages, so how do you digest all of it, process it? Ie, will you have a
>travel column?
I used to keep detailed journals but after the 3rd time of visiting the same
places and not being able to tell St. Paul from Pittsburgh from Atlanta from
Kansas City from Denver I stopped. Not that I think all places are the
same. I just started paying attention to more subtle charms. (eating,
bathing, sleeping) Also, I stopped taking pictures. I think it is a
better way to live.
>
>Do you have an i-pod? And what is his/her name?

I don't. I won't.
>
>What do you think about mp3s? Is that the future then?

I don't know anything about it. My head is in the sand.
>
>What has been the most surprising part of all of this for you?

People with Microphones tattoos.
>
>Who's Woelvy? She is amazing. Are you married?

Its' "Woelv". She is named Genevieve. We are married.
>
>Is there a particular direction you're headed in these days, as far as
>music goes? Or as far as life goes? (I heard you were recently
>married...is this true?)

I am going to try to make some records. I don't know what will be on them
yet. I am starting right now. I will look for a home now too.
>
>
Thanks,
seeyou
Phil