The anthology is interesting in that it’s in alphabetical rather than chronological order. To me, it’s a remarkably cohesive collection. But were you surprised at well it flows?
When I had the idea to do it alphabetically I had the idea that it would mystically present itself – and it did, as much as I secretly hoped but more than I could have known. I learned a lot listening to my work in alphabetical order. When you get to the s’s, things get scary, out in space, those words, space, scary, and so on, and observing the letter and how it shapes the word and the word shapes the work and the works shape ...that was wonderful.
Would you say there’s a connecting theme among all your work?
Not that I can see per se, overall. Perhaps I have an overall theme, but I cannot identify it. Maybe one of perseverance, or hope, but hope is for the hopeless, who else needs it?
What was it like going back over 25 years of your music archives? Had you listened much to your records, or do you tend to be focused on whatever you're working on at the moment, or in the future?
I focus on my immediate noise! Occasionally I look out over the past, and am in awe. I don’t do it unless I am in the mood to appreciate, because otherwise I will feel very bad about my work. So when I am able to honor it with a little appreciation I guess I am inclined to listen. I was amazed at all the work. And to be honest, some was not as good as I recalled, and some was more amazing than I realized.
You write in the introductory notes that “a song is an ever-evolving entity”—do you consider your records just a snapshot in time? Do you like to reinvent songs every time you perform them (like Bob Dylan)?
l don’t think Dylan reinvents his songs, really. They evolve. To reinvent it ... implies a certain devotion to the song. I don’t think he works on the tunes as time goes by. I think he goes to work and says to himself, I think I’ll do this differently, I heard this blues song today, think I’ll do it all like the blues. Where as, I listen to a song like Atlas Marker, and I think, now I will reshape the song...i feel light and cool in my life, and the song will reflect that new feeling I have. Same song, totally new reason to sing it, now instead of a cry of defiance it is a cry of joy. Like that. The songs are always holding a mirror. If you allow them to. You can play them the same way, like a short story in a book, or you can play them like a play, the actors are different, the times are different, a new interpretation is relevant. It’s really quite joyful.
You noted in your press release that you’ve been a “challenge to those in marketing” and that “I’m my own genre” (obviously, those two are related). But have you always known that it couldn’t be any other way for you? From an artistic standpoint, it seems to have been the only choice.
I did not know I would be a challenge to market. Being so famous so early, influencing the marketplace, the art of others, I assumed I would stay in the game easily. I assumed the sophistication of my generation would not only be better in the next, but at the very least be consistant in my own. Neither was true. Journalists were for a long time uneducated and trendy, like the art they wrote about, and it was discouraging as years went by to see the the concept of me became more and more obscure and unconnected to the mainstreams own idea of what it held as cool and so forth. I realized it had nothing to do with cool, only with keeping your name in the marketplace. What is hip one year, like Prince, or talking heads, or me, it just means nothing to some other generation. Your own genre is good, because you have no one to compete with or look to for support, but also bad, because your have no one to compete with, or look to for support. Yes, I would not change it, worked hard to make it so, and grateful, but do wish my genre was supported by my generation. Like, buying!!!
Your bio on the Artemis site said that you had taken up boxing. How’s that going? Has it sparked any songs, ala Aimee Mann’s latest CD?
I started boxing about six years ago. I stopped a few years, started again, and hurt my wrist one day when I went out roller skating and had to stop boxing. (the only time on skates outside a roller rink in thirty years) but I did like it a lot. I don’t listen to Aimee Mann though so I am not sure of the reference.
What other projects are you working on? Are you planning another studio CD? Are you always writing?
I have been working on an improvised interpretation of Christian ideology. It is a big project, and it has been thrilling to walk in and improvise rants, songs, melody, on Bible passages, drawing stories through sound of early civilization, or Jesus' words, of the stories in the Bible. and it will be a very wonderful release. Perhaps under my name, or some other...
Can you talk about your current tour—are you bringing a band on the road, or playing solo?