Interview. Karn Junksmith interviews Erin Jorgensen January 2012

Transcription

1 Interview Karn Junksmith interviews Erin Jorgensen January 2012 Karn Junkinsmith: So you ve done a couple of interviews already about your show it s coming up in a few weeks, right? Erin Jorgensen: It s three weeks away [giggles]. K J: So it s probably all done by now E J: It s totally done. I can just go on vacation you know It s a music show, so really, how hard can it be? Three chords K J: I read some of your other interviews, and I was curious and interested just cause, I m not a musician about this concept album thing E J: I think what we meant by that was, it kind of sounds artier than it is, but versus just a music show, where a band would come in and be like, Song 1, Song 2 Hey, how s it goin, Seattle? It s not like that. But it s not like theater it s more like if you had a whole record, like a concept record, that you would put on and just lie on the floor and listen to the whole thing, so it s really seamless. K J: So everything s connected? E J: Yeah, there are songs but everything s connected and then themes come back from the beginning at the end. So it s not just like, Here s ten songs! You know? K J: So Modern Loneliness, as opposed to, like, Old-Fashioned Loneliness? E J: [Laughs.] Well, I think I had to write a blurb for the brochure in the summer, so I had to come up with something K J: Well, I have a little inside information, because you did share some of your songs with me, so I do think it does have to do with modern loneliness. I mean, it s hard to talk about that stuff but the lyrics do have to do with modern loneliness. E J: I guess so, I mean, I don t really know what I would compare it to really, since it s two thousand and twelve, and we re alive right now. So it s not about, Oh, isn t a horrible tool? It s not like that. I guess I just mean the time that we re alive in right now. K J: How do you feel when you re performing? E J: I feel like I get to escape for a little while. I feel like I meet so many people who are like, Isn t art just a present, and I m just giving people a gift of my blah-blah-blah. And I don t feel like that at all. If I m communicating to people, that s awesome, but it comes out of my own problems and my own selfishness and trying to escape my body and my brain and the world [laughs] you know? If people get something out of it, that s awesome, but it come from them. They make it have importance. I don t feel like I m giving a gift to the world at all. I feel like when I m playing or singing, if I know what I m doing, if I ve prepared enough, you kind of escape yourself and you re like a con-

2 duit for something else that s like the most you you at your utmost self, but also you get to escape yourself. It s kind of a paradox. K J: What are you discovering now, do you think? What are you in your journey as a musician? E J: I feel I ve been preparing a long time with just technique, kind of inventing my own way of how to play and you kind of figure out what works for your body and what works for your fingers. That s why it s been really helpful to accompany ballet or to watch so much art or watch sports or whatever animals and kind of figure out the easiest way to do it. And I feel like I ve been doing that forever and finally it s not perfect, it will never be perfect but I feel like I m at a place where I don t have to think about it so much. It s been so many years of just thinking about it and trying and trying This doesn t work, okay let s do something else, after a few months and then it s like worse, you know? So much trial and error. So I feel like as a musician, finally I feel like I m going the right way and that stuff is a lot easier. K J: So you really feel like stuff is coming together for you and this is like, a real Erin Jorgensen, fully E J: Yeah, plus I feel like I finally feel like I have something to say, even though I m not sure what it is [laughs]. I feel like I m not lying. People are always like, Oh, you should make a record! or, You should da-da-da, and I was just be like, bullshit, cause I didn t have anything to say. Like, am I going to write a song about my feelings? Who cares? So I didn t do it, and now, I m like, okay. And it s been really awesome working with Julian and with Fisk, because they ve both been doing this stuff forever, and it s really easy to just come together and put it together, because they ve done all the preparation beforehand. K J: So they re not pissing you off? E J: No! [Laughs.] My stuff is so caveman, you know? The marimba, it s like, a piece of wood, that you hit it with a stick... and those guys know all this electronic stuff So I feel like the questions I m asking them are either impossible or super remedial and I don t know what the difference is. I m like, Can you do, x, y, z? And they re like, Yeah how am I supposed to do that, with magic? And I m like, I don t know. Or else it s like, Yes, that s no problem. So I think it s a good marriage, but I m really clueless about that stuff. K J: You sound really open to the whole just being naïve you almost sound naïve in a way. E J: I am. In a way it s true. But it s way more fun. There s only so much I can do. The marimba s pretty and I look kinda girly, and my voice is kinda girly, so it s nice to have all this other stuff to work with, that adds a totally different texture or volume or drums, and then it gives me more ideas, so it s really fun. K J: Saying that it s like, caveman, that s funny. How do you feel about the music industry and where you fit in at this point, at this time on the planet and like fame, money and E J: [Laughs.] K J: I guess that s the hardball question [laughs]. E J: I have no idea about any of that stuff. I m not good at it at all. And I m not career-oriented I mean, maybe I should be, but I don t have that gene, really. Plus the stuff I do, I hate to say that I m

3 weird, cause I don t feel weird at all, but the songs that I write are kind of, not something you d play on the radio, really. And I also hate being in the cage of, the weird art girl, who plays the weird instrument you know, it s the harp or the whatever but I was like, Oh my God, I AM! And I did that to myself. With like red hair and tattoos and a frickin marimba [Laughing.] So I don t really know if that answers your question, but The music industry I don t know It s kind of a good place for me because my path has been a little bit weird since I studied classical percussion in school and then I was like, Uh, I m not cut out for this, I don t want to do this, I m not really that good at it either so I had to kind of figure out what I wanted to do. So in that way, it s been really good because even though it s hard to make a living I don t really know how to do it with marimba and with music you re doing what you want to do. So in that way it s awesome. I wouldn t recommend necessarily my way of going about it, but I would recommend doing what you want to do. K J: I think it s really funny that you say you re not career-oriented, because you practice every day, right? E J: I know! I m worried about getting good, you know. I m obsessed with that. But as far as how to translate that into like, a living I don t know how. K J: I know. You and I are we haven t figured that out yet. But, to me, it seems like you re really driven. Do you feel like you re driven from almost a force E J: Well I used to think it was kind of like, I am so special, that I have to be a musician because I m chosen, and blah blah blah. But then after a while, you re like, Well maybe you re just neurotic and it makes you feel better to practice like, x hours a day. So it s probably a mixture, or something. I think I have talent for music, but other than that, I just like it it s a really selfish thing to do, actually. When people think of artists or musicians as being somehow like a Messiah, it s like, I m really self-absorbed. I do like to practice a lot It comes from a pretty selfish place. K J: So the Redemption is E J: The Redemption is it s kind of accepting your life, and your death as well. K J: Oh E J: Yeah, I mean it s kind of half-assed, but K J: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. I think we re getting into that half-baked E J: Half-assed philosophy? K J: --existentialism. E J: Yeah, cause I just took little snippets from everywhere. Could be, read a book or heard an AA platitude or whatever. That stuff all kind of relates. But it s pretty abstract, you know, it s a music show. But Redemption just seemed like the right title. But it s really just kind of feeling okay with the reasons you give yourself, that you came up with for staying alive in a really mundane way, you know it s not like, Should I kill myself? [cue] soundtrack music. But it s kind of like, well, you

4 can you know what I mean? What s the big deal? So if you want to stay around and do stuff, then what s your reason and are you cool with that? So, Redemption sounds kind of grandiose, I think, but that s something everyone has to think about K J: What does redemption mean? E J: Redemption? Being saved. Saving yourself, maybe. But it will be interesting to see what other people think. K J: Do you just feel like, this is what I do and people are either going to like it or they re not and it doesn t matter to you? Do you care? E J: Yeah, I feel like it s not my problem. And I don t think about it. There are people s opinions who I would ask, that matter to me. Like, What do you think about this? or Do you have an idea about that? But other than that, I don t care. K J: If you had your wishes, would you take this show on tour? E J: Um, yeah! It would be great to see it somewhere else. But maybe we should see how it ends up first. You should ask me that in three weeks K J: See how it turns out. E J: Yeah. K J: So, what books were you reading? E J: I was reading a lot of different philosophy, which I d never been interested in before. I read some Deleuze, and Kierkegaard, and a little bit of Nietzsche just kind of like the Greatest Hits. K J: I haven t read any of those. Can you give a little E J: Interesting. No. [Both laughing.] Look it up on Wikipedia. Can t do it. K J: Like, can you summarize Nietzsche, please, in three words? Kierkegaard? E J: But I was just in a place where you want to start thinking about that kind of stuff and I never had before. Just got kind of interested in it. K J: I think there was an artist who performed here recently who had like, a temper tantrum and was saying, Why do I have to work alone?! Do you like working solo? Or right now do you like working with other people? E J: I like both but I think it s hard for me to find collaborators. Not just cause I m so awesome, but because the stuff I like doing is I m really obsessive, with playing marimba. So I want someone who s like, good, you know? And is kind of obsessive as well, and a little bit abstract. And I also like playing the same thing over and over and over and over and over. So it s kind of hard to find people who enjoy that. Could be good or bad. But yeah, I like both. Once you find somebody it s really fun playing music with Steve Fisk. It s super fun. It s way more fun than playing music by myself.

5 K J: So when you get your inspiration, you re just hitting notes on the marimba and then a tune comes? E J: Mmhmm. Usually I get it from inventing an exercise, like a technique exercise and I m trying to do something different with mallets or something, so I often invent chord patterns so I don t get bored cause I have to play it over and over again. So that happens a lot. I find some pattern that I like, and then since I play it so much I start to hear a song, or find a different chord. K J: Then, how do the words come? E J: They come kind of stream of consciousness, just like stuff that I write and anybody who s gotten an from me, ever, knows what I m talking about. So I just, blah blah-blah, blah-blah, and there s a lot of stuff like that and then you just go through it and edit it and then kind of, What am I talking about here? I just go back and edit it until it starts to make sense. Or, even in a song, if it s song lyrics, you can get away with a lot K J: or a little. E J: Yeah, you can get away with a little! Just repeat it and it starts to sound really important. K J: That s the chorus. E J: Yeah, exactly! Done! K J: Are you always hearing things and listening for things in your day? Or are you like, only this time I m doing my music and then this time I m doing my job, to get ideas? E J: I feel like my brain is always kind of spacey in that way, and I don t have to have a specific environment. I was like, I m going to get up at 3 o clock in the morning, every morning, and that is when I m going to be inspired, because I read some other people did that, it sounds cool, you know, and I ll do that every day for a year. So I did it for like, three days. And first of all, I was like, I feel exactly the same. My brain is always in space. It doesn t matter what time it is. And I was like, I m tired That s all I could think of Sure is quiet outside... It s ludicrous. I feel like it s kinda always there. I m not one of those people who write stuff down on a napkin in the middle of dinner or something. That stuff s just kind of always there. K J: I know you like to walk and you listen to music, and I always think about this: Oh, there goes Erin. She s walking. She s going to go for walk and walk all the way across the city, and she s got her ipod and I wonder what she s listening to? But you re not listening to you own music, you re listening to other music? E J: Yeah but recently I started listening to my own stuff. I get obsessive and listen to the same thing over and over again and walk around and get ideas. But with this, that s exactly what I did. I just recorded little tracks and then just walked around and listened to it over and over and then you start to figure out, Oh, this is what the words are. It totally works. It s a good trick. K J: Wow. But then sometimes you re listening to The Clash. E J: Sometimes yeah. I m not listening to myself all the time Wow, this is amazing! I could listen to this all day!

6 K J: So you ve been doing that to work on your show that s interesting. I always feel like when a show opens, that s when it gets born when it gets witnessed by an audience. So you re still in gestation right now. But it s pretty much all out, right? E J: Yeah, it s all mapped out. But we ll see. It ll be interesting to see what it really is. K J: I m really looking forward to it. E J: Thanks, Karn. K J: Thank you!