The Complete Interview List

 

1 - Tell us how your project(s) were started.

The band is called BLATZ, and we were 6 individuals crammed into a 2 year band of chaos fun and subversion from 1989 to early 1992.
I've been in other bands like THE GR'UPS and THE CRIMINALS, and my current band is THE FRISK (we're on another local label called Adeline Records). BLATZ started as a weird one-off project for a 924 Gilman Street Holiday show, and the 2 main people, Eggplant and Joey, started the band for real the following summer in 1989. Since both of them were constant patrons/volunteers at Gilman Street here in Berkeley, they convinced Gilman soundman Marshal Stax to join as their bassist. That's where I came in, a recent transplant from the East Coast and fresh-faced Gilman regular and muck-stirrer. Immediately upon arriving in Berkeley, I started an off-beat misanthropic fanzine called "Berkeley Sucks." The 3 instruments were practicing one night in the Gilman office and I walked in, they asked me if I wanted to sing for BLATZ, we played some songs with lyrics I'd written for another band, and we were ready to create chaos and punk music (usually in that order, much to the chagrin of audience members!). After a few insane shows, we decided we wanted a woman in our band since we were all guys and it seemed like it would add a new dimension to the band. Through basically a miscommunication we asked 2 different women, Anna and Annie, to join. Both took to BLATZ like ducks to water. Since all six of us were so different, we were more like 6 roomates in a 6-way relationship, rather than 6 like-minded bandmates in a 6-way relationship. That really added to the diversity and the various views and actions of all of us on-stage and in the studio.

 

 

2 - What does music, in it's entirety, mean to you?

I know you want long-winded responses, but that's a 50 page answer you'd get, and that'd be too boring for anyone (even me) to slog through. Here's a short and incomplete answer instead.
I love music, I live and breathe music, as do all of my close friends. I find it difficult to personally relate to people who don't at least really like music. Frankly, the only people I relate to who don't necessarily really like music are blood relatives who I don't have a choice about accepting and loving.
Seeing bands is like being an addict trying to relive that first shot of heroin. The hope and expectation of musical power and bliss, that's why I see bands live and avidly follow them on record.
Great music and great lyrics (unfortunately not always in the same song) give me internal power, confidence, happiness, and satisfaction. Such greatness can also piss me off, rile me up (against the enemy, whomever s/he may be), and otherwise energize me. At the other side of the spectrum, it can comfort and subdue me, bring me down from screwed up situations and restore me to an even keel. It also serves as a mental bookmark for specific memories and specific eras in my life; an aural tattoo.

 

 

3 - What does art, in it's entirety, mean to you?

Again, a 50 page answer subsumed in the interest of readability. I'm a lapsed art student.
In my short college career my political utopianism and the wonders of hallucinogenics gave me an art movement my friends and I called "Liber-8". Liber-8 basically states that everything is art, and that no piece of "art" is finite- it can be re-worked and altered into another piece of art, forever and ever. It also re-states my current belief that if something is designed, it is art. Sure a table design may be utilitarian and boring and mass-produced, but it is still designed by someone and is therefore a product of creativity and therefore "art" at some level.
Liber-8 also dovetails into some of my core personal beliefs ("Change is the only constant" "Nothing is just black or white, including this belief" [which indicates that sometimes things ARE just black or white]) and resulted at the time in some fractured alterations of other people's paintings as well as a number of original paintings and found assemblages.
Oh yeah, and the whole theory also held that there's no way to put a price on creativity from the heart, so art for cash is more or less an invalid method for artists to interact with their patrons.
A lot of my current thinking about capital-"A" Art is contained in the 2 paragraphs above. Since then (which was 15 years ago and pre-dated BLATZ) my ideas and impressions of art have changed only slightly.
One thing that has changed dramatically is my feelings about cash and creativity. To me, it's clearly better for an artist (that includes bands, painters, photographers, designers, writers, any specifically creative endeavor) to survive in our wacked-out capitalist society from his or her art, rather than have to toil for McDonalds or a major corporation and squeeze his/her art into rare spare time. It took a dose of real life to realize that if any one can survive off of their creative output in an ethical manner, then they've acheived a great thing and should be encouraged. Note the "ethical manner" caveat!
To me, the very existance of a piece of art is a political and social statement, so I disagree with a lot of people who say that only overtly political art has value. Creativity, in any form, should be encouraged and patronized in the free market capitalist hell we exist in.
As I mentioned, Liber-8 has a lot of utopian urges that really originated from my involvement in the Philadelphia anarcho-squatting scene in the late 1980's. Specifically, we were all enamored of the best lil' utopian vision I've ever read, "bolo'bolo"- a Semiotexte book that I believe is still in print. Wonderful stuff, and the author nailed a ton of details simply and fairly.
I love a lot of modern art, whether or not I "get" it. I can appreciate a Jeff Koons stainless steel inflatable bunny rabbit for its looks and its lines and not give a hoot about its statement about consumer society and situationism. At the same time, I can appreciate a piece of art that makes a clear theoretical, political, or social statement.
I grew up devouring comic books as well- especially Batman and war comics like Our Fighting Forces and Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos - and stopped collecting them when I moved out of my mom's house and had to do things like pay rent!
Some of my favorite "representational artists" are Salvador Dali, Roy Lichenstein, Pieter Brueghel, Vaughn Bode, Brian Bolland (2000 A.D., Judge Dredd), John Severin (EC Comics and DC Comic artist), George Seurat.
I always appreciate stark realism as opposed to the more impressionisticpaiters, though there's exceptions, especially when there's interesting techniques or broad, bold swaths of paint involved.

 

 

4 - Who is your favorite author, and why?

There's a lot of authors I absolutely love, like George Orwell, Gerry Reith, Clive Barker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Homer, the myriad anonymous writers behind Greek mythology, Charles Bukowski, Elmore Leonard, Bob Black, and Tom Clancy, but my absolute favorite is Edgar Allen Poe. Poe's innovation, imagery, and dark outlook on life always refreshes me, and his life story is fascinating. I've read every short story he's written at least half-a-dozen times, even the ones I'm not completely astounded by. I think my all time favorites are Hop-Frog and The Cask of Amontillado. I've been trying to write a song version of the latter for years!

 

 

5 - As your best friend, describe yourself.

What is this, a job interview?
Honest, diplomatic, hard-working, leftist, political, funny, storyteller, analytical, loyal, thoughtful, willing to go great lengths to support his friends and family, and a great lay!

 

 

6 - As your worst enemy, describe yourself.

Rantin shit-talker, too careful, insulting, blunt, leftist, able to manipulate situations politically and diplomatically, and a great lay!

 

 

7 - If your persona were immortalized as a cartoon character, who would it be?

Well, like everyone, I'd like to be Bugs Bunny since he always has the most wascally fun, going through hard times but always coming out on top. I'm not sure I look as good in a dress, but I'll stick with him.

 

 

8 - Do you think there are conspiracies against the "everyday person"?

In terms of the current capitalist system, certainly. It's a systemic conspiracy, in that there's probably no secret cabal of international puppetmasters controlling the world. Instead, the incredibly negative effects of the free market capitalist system, or neo-liberalism, are built right into the gears and levers of the Machine. "bolo'bolo" calls it The Planetary Work Machine, and has a very good explanation of the Machine in its first couple of chapters. There's no need for overseers since it's a self perpetuating system that has very few cracks in it so far.
One of the major cracks in the machine, however, and one that should give anyone interested in being more than just a target consumer in life hope, is the increasing global protest, both on the streets and in various media, against the free-market globalization envisioned and practiced by organizations like the WTO and the IMF. More and more "normal" people are realizing just what economic, social, and environmental costs free trade agreements inflict on their countries. In the US, the NAFTA fight in the mid-90s prompted the left as a whole (as well as a lot of the right) to start examining and agitating about free trade, and that climaxed with the surprising Seattle anti-WTO protests that ushered in a new era of broad coalitions joining together to fight nasty anti-democratic institutions like the WTO. It also has forced examination of our governing class and their addiction to campaign contributions and inherent shadiness.
Overseas, the utter economic collapse of first Asia in 1997 and now South America is clearly the end result of unfettered free market globalization. The insane demands of the IMF for its blessing for investors to invest and bankers to extend loans have almost destroyed the economies it meant to "save"- a.k.a. change into a free-markey playground. Who cares if dirt-poor peasants have to pay exorbiant prices for privatised water? It's theoretically sound, so stop whining and pay the price!
Okay, I got off track pretty quickly there, from the systemic forces that try to keep us on the hamster wheel of consumerism, so I'll stop here.

 

 

9 - What do you do with your spare or free time?

I've heard of this thing called... spare time. Don't have it but a few times a year, J-dawg and I split town for a motel in a weird Northern California town and get off the grid for a few days. Bolinas, Rio Vista, Bodie, holiday excursions all! I read a lot when I'm not entranced by the Daily Show and the Anna Nicole Show - she's so outrageous!

 

 

10 - Please give us your interpretation of "the meaning of life".

Holy Grail was much more cohesive, though Meaning of Life had better tunes. Oh!
Seriously, I'd go with a cliche about living life to its fullest. Heck, we're all here for a limited time, why sit around and bitch about how there's nothing to do? You're lying to yourself when you say that, get the fuck out of your room and start wandering. That kind of crap bores me to tears and usually alerts me to a human lump that probably won't be worth investing time in being friendly with. Like I said, live life for today, don't waste too much time with drones.

 

 

 

LINKS:

Blatz

&

The Frisk