1 - Tell us how your project(s) were started.
I started Time of Orchids in the spring of '99, with Charlie Looker, who was our first guitarist. We soon found Keith Abrams and Jesse Krakow, and we've been working our asses off since.
2 - What does music, in it's entirety, mean to you?
Music is the art form in which I feel most comfortable and excited about expressing myself. At its best, it is a culmination of all of the other art forms, and really loses any sense of being some stupid fucking riff. No, it becomes highly visual, highly referential, encompasses all sorts of societal implications, twists your head into reaching otherworldy conclusions. It's the scariest thing on the planet! Why did you ask me this? God, I love music. It's the most beautiful thing I can imagine.
3 - What does art, in it's entirety, mean to you?
Art is thinking. It's creating worlds that are not necessarily NOT there, but ones that are presently unexposed. It's being in touch with stuff that is happening elsewhere, and, most importantly, HAVING FUN.
4 - Who is your favorite author, and why?
Beckett, because he's in touch with everything I've mentioned.
5 - As your best friend, describe yourself.
Way too excited about life and possibility, trying to fit 8 million projects into a minute... hopefully, inspiring.
6 - As your worst enemy, describe yourself.
Nervous, preposterous.
7 - If your persona were immortalized as a cartoon character, who would it be?
Ren Hoek, but I like to think a BIT of Stimpy, too.
8 - Do you think there are conspiracies against the "everyday person"?
To talk about conspiracies facing our nation, our society, our way life, blah blah blah... of course there are! But who gives a shit? There's nothing that can be done. What's more interesting is to talk about conspiracies facing the "everyday person" BY the "everyday person." Competitions where they don't matter, wars for the sake of wars... everyone has secrets. This is all part of man. Time of Orchids is a fucking conspiracy. I bet you didn't even know that Madonna's gonna be singing drums on our next album, did you?
9 - What do you do with your spare or free time?
I scheme, night and day, preparing for/reminiscing over the mega-quilt that is my art-life.
10 - Please give us your interpretation of "the meaning of life".
The meaning of life is a mixture of two extreme possibilities, both of which are wrong on their own. One is to live life purely for life's sake -- to have fun, get laid, eat, drink, die. The other is to live life purely for history's sake -- to spend all of your time and effort changing the world for AFTER the fact. If you have a great time, do everything you want and can to be happy, to make other people happy, to spread your art and ideas, and happen to change the world IN DOING SO, then you are a fucking master.
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