Good advice, you're probably right, and maybe in the
next 10 years of playing shows and recording albums I'll sort it out.
But these first 10 years went pretty well without the need to explain any of that stuff. I think I'm doing okay.
The hilarity is, you're probably right. I could probably attach some ridiculous sentiments to it, I could romanticize it some more, I could probably go "yeah I just spent 2 years perfecting this song" and appeal to people with some sort of gimmick. There'll always be a gimmick, I guess, if you're appearing to do anything beyond playing music. The thing is, I take songwriting really seriously, but I don't take the "band" aspect or the "live" aspect or the "audience" aspect seriously...
For example, I don't tell the members what to wear or whatever, I just tell them to show up and am thankful for it, they can do whatever they want. I like to pretend everyone is an equal intelligent person who can bring their own shit to the orchestra. I'm not there to control or conduct them and I get mad if they submit to me. I don't usually practice with people in the current incarnation of the band, telling them they can listen to the cd's and figure the songs out. This usually leads to frustration and hilarity, and leads to awkwardness -- awkwardness is pretty much the entire point of everything I do. You have to kinda look past that aspect to get it...
Now I've revealed too much.
But you know, the entire idea of everything, beyond the awkwardness, is the cutting and the editing. It's a band that exists entirely in edit, apparently, it's a band playing against itself, I don't like the idea of a band, I want it to exist in some weird vaccuum where standards weren't "set" for the roles of guitar and bass or and so on. I wish I could make music without notes. But everything has notes. So, beyond that, what's the next step? To play music that is impossible to actually "play", to appear to "play" it in a recorded context. How do you pull that off live? Simple. You do exactly what's on a record: You never repeat yourself. Leave them guessing or wanting "more", or "less", at least it's interesting. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.
You can't even see my belt loops in my pants. Those are the only pants I own now btw.
Anyway, download the cd everyone, haha:
http://www.archive.org/details/Sciss...Existentialism
haha.
No honestly glice, the entire idea of the band is not to have an idea of the band, I haven't thought about any of this shit ever until just now.
There's a really really long interview with me in the new I'M ONE OF THE ODD FAMILY issue, # 4 that's a little illuminating, here's some excerpts:
http://blackguard23.livejournal.com/66408.html