Interviews

Here is an interview I recently did to chat about my upcoming album:

Q.  What is the origin of the name “Ant of Heaven?”

A.  I am extremely fond of both ants and heaven, so it is my way of paying tribute to what I love.

Q.  How long have you been working on this new album, Utopia, which will be available May 23rd 2014?  Is it your first?

A.  I don’t actually remember when I started it, but it’s certainly been a few years.  I’ve written plenty of music in the past, but my life was far too chaotic for me to be able to release a proper complete album.

Q.  Do you write individual songs and then stitch them together into an album, or do you have a concept for the album going in?

A.  I usually have an idea for an entire album-sized group of songs before I write them.  I am really in love with this 70s Wurlitzer piano of mine, and this album was created in order to use it as a central sound.

Q.  You work in other art forms as well – why have you chosen music as a medium of expression?

A.  To me, creating music is an opportunity to translate complicated intellectual and psychological ideas into a sensual experience.  It’s a process of not just making noise about an idea, but manifesting it in time and space in a form whose consumption precedes conscious cognition.  It’s a method of communication that allows me to invite others into a zone of sensual reality that is very meaningful and valuable to me.  Not all the music I’ve created succeeds at this difficult task, but I aspire to it.  It is very important to me that I first establish in myself certain forms of spiritual pleasure in order to be capable of sharing them with others though the translation that is music.  It is a way to connect with others emotionally and share the best of what I have to offer.  I have all kinds of other things to offer as well, but I try to make my music a translation nexus for only what I value the most.  Also, of all the artforms, music has been with me the longest as I grew up around it in my musical family.

Q.  Don’t musicians often make music just because they enjoy playing it, find it fun, and have a great time with friends and fans while they do it?  Or because they want to be a superstar?

A.  I have never been so fortunate to have a life that involved so much levity.  Music is definitely a tool for me, and I am motivated to use it by heavy concerns.

Q.  Why have you chosen to be a solo artist?  Isn’t making music with others preferable, synergistically?

A.  I do prefer to make music in groups than alone, but my circumstances only allow me to work in a solo capacity.

Q.  What are your lyrics about?

A.  I usually don’t find out all of what they’re really about until several years after I write them, but overall I would say they are a product of my inner life.

Q.  You have done everything about this album by yourself.  Why so much DIY?

A.  I would really have preferred to do things in a group setting, and tried to when I was younger, but it never worked out and eventually I had to learn how to do all of the tasks associated with putting an album together if I ever wanted to actually do it.

Q.  These songs are quite simple, especially in comparison with classical masterworks.  How can you justify their existence, given that they are not virtuosic?

A.  I have always very much enjoyed music of all styles from the virtuosic, to the secretly virtuosic, to the mediocre, to the naive and artless, so it doesn’t really concern me to assess the apparent technical level of what I’ve created compared to any particular benchmark.

Q.  You are not planning to put on any performances at this time, can you tell us why?

A.  First of all, in my experience it’s not worth it financially to perform live – that’s not everyone’s experience but is mine.  Second of all, I don’t like to be looked at unless it’s absolutely necessary, which is not something everyone can relate to but which I experience very viscerally.  Also, I’m just really not into hassles.

Q.  Do you have any plans for the rest of your life, since you are not interested in spending it on tour?

A.  I want to keep making music and work in various other artforms.