DAZE AWAY is the second installment in the Days Away series.
3. Mexicans With Guns – Me Gusto
4. Lykke Li – Get Some (Beck Mix)
6. Hot Chip & Bonnie Prince Billy – I Feel Better (Club Version)
7. Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is The Move (Hidden Cat Mix)
8. Mock & Toof - Farewell To Wendo
9. TV On The Radio – Will Do (Switch Mix)
11. Matthew Dear – You Put A Smell On Me (Photocall Mix)
DAYS AWAY: Florida & Ontario come together and it sounds like this…
1. Prince: Pop Life (Fresh Dance Mix)
2. Adele: Rolling In The Deep (Jamie XX Mix)
3. Crookers & Roisin Murphy: Royal-T
4. Gil Scot Heron & Jamie XX: Running
5. Michael Jackson: Man In The Mirror (Das Glow “In The Filter” Mix)
7. Kleerup & Robyn: With Every Heartbeat (Hugg & Pepp Mix)
8. Gil Scot Herron & Jamie XX: I’ll Take Care Of You
9. Gui Boratto: Azzurra (It’s Not The Same Version)
11. Kleerup & Lykke Li: Until We Bleed
13. Kleerup & Titiyo: Longing For Lullabies
Words by Max Vernon
I personally love when music tells a great story, so I try to create portraits of the people I meet. I admit I’m not above writing songs to get back at people who suck (as in the case of “Around Your Finger” and “Your Girlfriend”), as long as there is some kind of disconnect between the emo-ness of the music and the lyrics to keep it interesting. To me there’s nothing worse than a whiny, pissed off break up song that sounds like a whiny, pissed off break up song. But, if you take those bitter, slightly immature lyrics and stick them with a jaunty honky tonk jazz piano riff, then it’s a whole different creature…
If there’s one song on the EP that isn’t like the others (SAT flashback time), it’s probably “Hunted.” I still have no idea why or how I ended up writing a song about Grendel. I didn’t even really like the book! Must have been some good weed…
All of the songs on Manic Impression were recorded in my bedroom with basically just a laptop, a microphone, and a keyboard/guitar. I hear fuller arrangements in my head for a lot of these tracks and hope to rerecord them with more ambitious orchestration someday soon.
Music Is Art
In honor of the nature of this blog, I thought it also might be cool to share some of my other art with you guys also. I think the visual art and the costumes I create for performances are more surreal and a bit darker than my music, but it’s all just two sides of the same coin. The new songs I’m recording for my second EP kind of bridge the gap thematically between my music and art.
This is the outfit I created for my recent CMJ show, using about 1000 googly eyes.
.Inspirations of Music.
There’s so much incredible music being made right now, I can’t get enough! I love Final Fantasy, Fever Ray, St. Vincent, Beach House, and Joanna Newsom in particular. However, I feel a really deep sense of connection with Laura Nyro’s music. She had a lot of success writing for other artists in the late sixties, but I could never understand why people weren’t as receptive to her as a solo artist. She’s by far her best interpreter. Her ability to conform the pop music idiom to her crazy song structures, tempo and key changes, as well as her courage to pursue a musical vision that was so distinct from her contemporaries…it’s very inspirational to me. I could write an essay, but it’d be much better if you just listened for yourself.
.Fashion of Alexander Mcqueen.
His new Atlantis themed collection blows my mind. Those shoes/torture devices should be in a museum. I love the fearless creativity of his work, it inspires me to think outside the box when I’m making my costumes for shows and can’t afford to spend $12,000 on a jacket. I think life would be more exciting if people had the courage to turn themselves into walking works of art. All you need is hot glue, glitter, and a salvation army… check it out here: http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2010RTW-AMCQUEEN
.Art of Gottfried Helnwein.
Gottfried Helnwein is probably my favorite visual artist. I love this particular painting in which he reimagines the annunciation as an angel coming out of the TV screen. His work tends to be very provocative and macabre, but it definitely resonates with me. He basically does everything- film, photography, painting, drawing, set design, makeup, etc. Check out more of his stuff here: http://www.helnwein.com/
.Philosophy of Michel Foucault.
I think it might be a central ambition of mine to be the first Foucauldian pop singer…
As a student of queer theory, Foucault is kind of the starting point before you begin your slow descent into having an anxiety disorder haha! There is no centralized power to fight against! There is no such thing as sexual repression, because it is the repression that creates desire in the first place! We should all fist each other! You know, it’s all very enlightening…to anyone interested, be sure to check out History of Sexuality vol. 1, as well as Halperin’s Saint Foucault.
Blips Don’t Lie
Music & Words by Microfilm
LISTEN
Water Drops On Burning Rocks (Nine Devices Remix)
Teenage Symphonies (Olivia Hussey’s Reprise)
Matt Mercer: Working on this EP took a bit longer than past endeavours. We aimed for something brighter, more pop, without compromising the things that get us excited. I try to avoid repeating myself too much, although there are nuances and details and samples and sounds that are probably common in some of our other output. We definitely steered clear of the gravity of our last full-length and also the vague chip-tune flavor of the last EP.
Our initial starting point was acid house as a touchstone, but as with most influences the finished product obviously veers far off that course. “His N Hers Hibernation” is straight up freestyle with some added quirk. We liked the idea of making 3 fairly pop tracks and then remixing them with people we know and respect. Kid Whatever (one half of Peroxide Mocha, who we also recently remixed) turned out this full-on italo-disco-meets-Hi-NRG slammer that puts a smile on my face every time, and The Astrolabe from Chicago did a really great job of taking our slower original and punching it up a few notches, adding some great 90s throwback touches with some piano riffs and flourishes. Nine Devices is sort of the odd man out with his more sparse treatment of “Water Drops on Burning Rocks,” all but discarding our original audio tracks but being quite clever with his use of Sarah Nixey’s vocal backwards… to be honest, I have no idea what he sampled from her, but backwards it says “So hold me now” which is sort of haunting.
Matt Keppel: From a thematic/concept standpoint, I originally thought of this EP as a homage to house music in it’s various forms. I think my original working title was even ‘The House Sound of Microfilm’, like one of those old late ‘80s house compilations! Just the idea of making a fluid, dancefloor EP whereas our last one was much more electro, kind of brittle, and chunky, if that makes sense. I also had the idea of framing the EP like David Bowie’s ‘Station to Station’ or Pet Shop Boys ‘Introspective’ (both 6 track EPs), but where we wrote every one of the original tracks as a potential single.
Current Obsessions of Matt Keppel
Music of Billy MacKenzie
The lyrical ideas about the songs for this EP revolved around characters in relationship turmoil, except the first track ‘I’ll Sing Like Billy MacKenzie in Heaven’. That was a homage to the great but neglected (by many) talents of Billy MacKenzie, the late singer from the ‘80s UK band The Associates. He had a few hits in the early ‘80s in England but now is a bit of a cult star here in the US.
I’m intrigued by artists like MacKenzie that come from nowhere, become really big for a short moment, and then disappear into obscurity, but not for lack of talent. He had a beautiful, operatic voice and an insane lyrical mind. Like Morrissey, but weirder. I love completely off the wall, smart and original lyricists and he was one of them. I’m glad his music has been reissued/re-evaluated recently but he still seems to be one of those acquired tastes that will never become really huge and that’s kind of magical in itself.
Music of Wild Beasts
I just stumbled upon these guys this summer; don’t remember how exactly and now I listen to some of their new album ‘Two Dancers’ almost everyday. I find their whole aura fantastic. Music journalists like to describe how bands create their own world within their music (and I never believe it because they’re usually wrong about the band they’re describing) but Wild Beasts really do that. They remind me of early records by The Smiths or Suede, where it’s kind of loose, hazy, weirdly sexual and strange. It sounds really epic but not in a plodding, like Coldplay-way, but in a crazy, theatrical ‘The Queen is Dead’ way.
Blogs of Cracker Finishing School
& The Sound and the Furry
These sites are run by the same guy. Don’t know anything about him other than he has good taste! ‘Cracker…’ is more of an art blog, a Tumblr page with a lot of really great images, either funny or sexy. ‘…Furry’ is a blog of random cute, handsome bearded and/or hairy guys who are in indie rock bands. They are labeled as “fake boyfriends” and I think everyone can agree that it’s fun to have fake boyfriends who are bearded and cute. Well, some of us can.
Current Obsessions of Matthew Mercer
Music of The Caretaker
I once saw Jim Kirby perform in Cleveland as V/VM and it was one of the weirdest and loudest things I’ve ever seen. It’s a bit of a blur, but key takeaways were a man in a pig suit illuminated only by his laptop screen and a sort of chugging, rhythmic pitch-bending mangle of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.” The Caretaker is sort of the ethereal ghost of that weirdness. It’s The Shining after Jack Nicholson and co. have left the building — the aftermath of a party in the past. There’s dust in the air and this is the sound of how light strikes it. It’s haunting, but there’s something warm and inviting in balance; you don’t want it to go, you want it to stay….
Music of DJ Sprinkles
Terre Thaemlitz’s new album as DJ Sprinkles is a great deep house album, reductive but lush. It’s a statement on how house music doesn’t really help us escape, but brings us closer to our pain as a shared emotional and perhaps subversive experience — in addition to his more typical politics about gender and sexuality, how it relates to this music historically. (His monologue about a “Madonna-free zone” is effectively wry.)
Music of Warp20 Box Set
The new Warp20 box set is a marvel of packaging. While its contents musically are, for me, a little hit or miss, it’s so well-assembled, a triumph of surface. Uncoated, blind-embossed 10″ vinyl sleeves (5 plates), high-gloss hardcover 10″ CD book packaging, a dense book of all Warp artwork since its inception — it’s impressive and justifies its price. There’s a mixed bag of cover versions on one of the 2xCD sets inside, but it’s practically worth it for Tim Exile’s cover of Jamie Lidell’s “A Little Bit More.” (Tim Exile is one to watch, too — his last album Listening Tree was very exciting to my ears)
Genre of Dubstep
I think some of the stranger hybrid dubstep stuff out there like Brackles, Apple Pips, Rustie is all worth a gander. The straight-ahead wowowowowow-snarrrrrl dubstep stuff wears on me, but the more spry, lively, jerky stuff I’ve been hearing more recently has me paying attention.
A few sites to check out ::
Apple Pips Recordings | Brackles |Zomby Productions
Application of DopplerPad
I’ve spent the better part of the year collaborating on the creation of DopplerPad which is an iPhone-based touch instrument. It’s been inspiring to be part of something using new technology and marrying that with music in a cool and interesting way.
Books of Hand Job: A Catalog of Type
& Over & Over
2 books recently that I found inspiring: Over & Over and Hand Job, both by Princeton Architectural Press. Over & Over is a nice collection of hand-drawn patterns, appealing to the minimalist in me but with a less mechanical, more human touch. Hand Job is the typographic equivalent, focusing exclusively on hand-drawn typography. It runs the gamut from tacky or ironic to beautiful, ornate and sincere. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time in front of a computer that I have an affinity to hand-drawn things recently.
BEAT RADIO by Brian Sendrowitz
Thanks for giving me this space to share my experience. It’s a dangerous proposition–I’ve got so much to say. I’m like a roman candle. This digital age is where I belong. I’m really excited to have the chance to share this new record with people. It wasn’t an easy one for me to make. Some people approach music in a casual way. I enjoy records that don’t take themselves too seriously, but for me it’s not that way. I always feel like I’m fighting for my life.
Beat Radio has always been an evolving thing, with band members coming and going as our lives and music changed. About a year ago the band sort of imploded and I found myself making music alone for the first time in a while. My wife Liz and I were also going through lots of changes; finding ourselves with a young growing family and dreams we still needed to pursue. Some of these songs are sort of like love letters to her. We’ve always supported each other in our creative endeavors, but in the last year we’ve learned how to do it a bit more completely– more fiercely and courageously. Her favorite song on the record is “Follow You Around”. It’s about getting lost and finding your way back home.
I hope you enjoy the album. It was my first time recording and producing on my own. I kind of learned as I went along. I’d come down to the basement each night after Liz and our boys went to sleep and do weird tape experiments or download samples of strange old synthesizers and field recordings. I brought some friends in to help out after i’d gotten the basic tracks together, which helped alot. More than anything, it’s an album about how music can be a form of escape, transcendence, and joy. It’s about getting lost in the sound.
Safe Inside The Sound is available as a free digital download and limited edition cd at beatradio.org. It’s also available to stream/download at bandcamp.
I love how this website connects different art forms and embodies a unique vision and experience. Here are some things I’m currently enamored with:
Robert Frank’s Photography
I’ve been interested in Robert Frank‘s work for a while now–particularly from the mid 50′s although he did some amazing stuff later on, including the album cover of my favorite Rolling Stones record. I first discovered him because Jack Kerouac wrote the intro to his most famous collection The Americans. Kerouac’s my favorite writer. I’m fascinated by the whole time period really, and Frank captured it in such a beautiful and powerful way. There’s an exhibit on his work going on now at the Met. I’m hoping i can go check it out soon. You can view more of his pictures here.
Mad Men
Me and Liz, that’s our thing-stay in on Sunday nights, drink some wine and watch Mad Men. I probably would have finished the Beat Radio album sooner but we started getting caught up on season 1 and 2 last spring watching it on demand. In some ways we relate to Don and Betty I think. We live out in the suburbs. I take the train to the city every day while she’s home with the kids. I know everyone is already talking about this show, but I’ve never been so into a television show in my life. I talk about it with my friends the way I’d talk about great fiction. It’s brilliant.
Where the Wild Things Are
Another pop culture thing everyone is talking about, but we’ve got a really deep connection it. My boys have always been really big Maurice Sendak fans. We also really love “In the Night Kitchen” and “Brundibar.” They’re strange books, but I’ve sort of got strange kids. I always found the language in them really striking–it’s dreamy and emotional and also really musical and playful in a quirky sort of way. It makes me feel like a kid. My 4 year old son Elijah and I are particularly excited about the movie. We’ve got this routine where we read the book before bedtime and then we watch the movie trailer on my blackberry. He knows every word to that Arcade Fire song. You should hear him sing it, it’s beautiful.
The Diggs
I’ll leave out talking about music this time around because I feel like all I ever do is ramble on and on about music. I will mention my friends The Diggs though, because they’re probably my favorite band.
Here’s an amazing song from their first record:
The Diggs – Faith in Strangers (mp3)
Also, I have a blog and twitter account where I talk about music alot. I did a blog post last spring on my top ten favorite records of all time here, if you’d like to subject yourself to a whole lot more of my rambling.
My father was a very talented sculptor. When I was a kid, he was buying art magazines from Europe and used to hide them in the attic, because there were nude paintings in them that he didn’t want us to see. I come from a very conservative little town. But as soon as my parents were out of the house, I would run to the attic and spend hours looking at the art. I discovered Toulouse Lautrec, Rembrandt, Renoir, mostly the Impressionists at that time. And that’s when it started for me. I discovered that I was in love with art, especially with painting.
May you share about your academic background concerning art? Did you study art formally? What were your art studies like in general — any influential instructors?
I actually have a baccalaureate in teaching arts and crafts, but I realized very early on that being a painter and teaching other people how to make art are two very distinct worlds. I tried teaching to high school students for two years, but I got fired. At the time, I was 22 years-old, tiny girl with platinum blonde hair, I looked like a punk. I would get in the class and get a round of applause. I was a joke! The kids never took me seriously. I would rather have lunch with them then play ping pong with my fellow teachers. I didn’t have the credibility or the background to guide my students, to properly teach them. I didn’t know what I was talking about.
If you had to explain your work to a stranger, how would you do so?
I like to define myself as an urban expressionist. That is actually the headline of my blog. I always find it hard to describe my work to strangers. You kind of have to see it. I do figurative paintings with bold color mixes. Movement, energy and light are at the core of every single one of my paintings. That’s how you recognize my style.
What are your favorite colors to work with and what aspects do you like most?
As much as I love vibrant, fluorescent colors, I also like to work with yellowish grey, earthy shades – I call them my potato shades. I love working on contrasts. I usually create color mixes with shades that have nothing to do with each other – one that’s completely off, another that’s excessively flashy. I think color is one of my trademarks in my work.
What are your inspirations?
My biggest inspiration is to live New York: the people, the billboards, the urban style of NYC, I can’t find this vibe anywhere else. You’re the first to see everything, it’s right in your face. It’s such a melting pot of culture, and there are so many brilliant people who live here: the best people in the world, the most extraordinary artists, too. That triggers my creativity.
When you’re working, are you fully involved or is your mind already planning ahead? On average, how long does it take you to finish one of your pieces?
One painting brings the next one, but it’s not a conscious process. When I’m painting, I’m really living the moment, and I can be concentrated for hours. That’s actually one of my biggest strengths. Some take two days, some take two months, but the answer is: it took me thirty years of work to get there.
Do you prefer long periods of time alone, or are you energized by interaction?
Long periods of time alone. You need to be alone to create, painting is a private thing. I have lots of friends, but not a lot of people come to my studio.
Do you have a favorite way to relax when back home?
Two words: Dirty Martini!!!
What part of your process is the most challenging and do you dislike the most?
To be an artist is a non stop challenge. You can never stop the fucking clock. Sometimes, I want to turn the switch off and say: I don’t want to be that person for 2 months. But when you’re an artist, you always want to create something new for the world to see. You’re born with a karma that is so strong. Sometimes you want to be married with two kids, a dog and a swimming pool. Usually, that wish does not last for more than 10 minutes. Soon enough I find myself back in the studio.
What has been your favorite experience thus far in your career?
Moving in New York… to be able to afford living in Soho. Being here enabled me to travel all around the world, also. I’m all wrapped up in my dream.
What turns you on? What turns you off?
Smart people turn me on; people who evolve, who learn and who can teach me things. Close-minded people turn me off. They are like living dead. People with no juice – no energy are unbearable.
What do you hope people take from seeing your art?
I want to give them energy, it’s like when you watch a movie or you listen to music, you get a strong emotion from it. There is a big range of feelings in my work and the perception is subjective: it can be anger, sadness, happiness, fear, grief, love.
If you could meet with one visual artist, living or dead, who would it be and what would you like to ask them?
Julian Schnabel. I’d like to know what he thinks about life after death. I’d share with him the spirituality of being a painter. It’s such an intense thing. I want to know if he perceives it the same way that I do. If he gets in that zone.
On Music Is Art, our mission is to show how music and art are truly connected. Which albums do you credit as having the biggest influences as far as your art and life are concerned?
I can’t paint without my headphones. What I listen to sure does influence the way that I work. I listen to so much music, and I am inspired every week by something different… it’s hard to put only one thing forward. If you want me to choose three I’ll give you five, in no particular order: Outrospective by Faithless, Ready to Die by Notorious BIG, Pornography by The Cure, Mezzanine by Massive Attack, and Cross by Justice.
What is the basis for your upcoming solo show in Dubai?
It just happens that this show is charged with blondes and has a lot of fluorescent colors. It’s extravagant in that sense. I don’t think I created these pieces specifically for the show for Dubai. They could have gone anywhere else. I don’t create a show for a city; I work where I’m at now. And I really can’t tell what’s coming up next.
Aside from your new exhibit, what other exciting projects do you have coming up?
I’m working on a book that documents my story – moving to New York, all the crazy shit that happened. I have a lot of young admirers in Canada and I feel that now, I have something to teach, I have a story to tell. That’s why I write the blog, I feel the need to broadcast more stuff where the people are at, i.e. online. It’s part of my artistic development.
What are your favorite words to live by?
Either you sink or you swim! (laughs)
Please create a mix tape within a theme of your choice.
In for the Kill – La Roux
Easy Love – MSTRKRFT
Paris (Aeroplane Remix) – Friendly Fires
Love Lockdown – Kanye West
She Wants to Move – N*E*R*D
Electric Feel (Justice Remix) – MGMT
Ooh Ooh Baby – Britney Spears
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From Long Island, New York, Beat Radio is the beautiful and genuine work of singer/songwriter Brian Sendrowitz. Nostalgically written full of sweet guitar folk-pop arrangements, cathartic melodies and melancholy layers, the music represents emotional and visual connection in the best way. Taking live shows to the next level, Beat Radio collectively joins as a band of close collaborations, soaring with humbled confidence, exposed vulnerability and heartfelt energy. Recently, Brian kindly contributed to Music Is Art. Please enjoy his music, answers and personal mix tape below!
L I S T E N
Teenage Anthem for the Drunken Boat
[Sunday Matinee, 2008]
Mexico
[Great Big Sea, 2006]
Treetops (Demo)
[Four Track Demos, 2005]
Everyone’s Starting Over (The Diggs Cover)
MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: We played our first show in June of 2005. I’d made a bunch of 4 track demos of some songs I’d written really quickly in the month or so before, sort of in a flash of inspiration. it felt like a departure from the music I had made before, which was more acoustic based singer songwriter material. I got together the best musicians I knew to start playing live shows. Since then the lineup has changed a few times and it’s gone back in forth between being a band and a solo project in varying degrees. At the moment, I’m working on new material alone in my home studio.
MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: There’s a few places that come to mind in the sort of collective dream world of Beat Radio songs. I grew up and live in Bellmore, New York, on Long Island. There used to be this bar called the Juke Joint, it was my favorite bar ever. They had Tom Waits’ records on the jukebox, and Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. I used to put “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” on and make the punk rock kids sit through all 11 minutes and 20 seconds. When I sing our song Treetops, I’m thinking about that place. It closed a few years ago, but we’ve played at a few places since then that have felt like home in the same kind of way. My favorites are Union Hall in Brooklyn and Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, NJ.
MIA: Do you enjoy to perform live? How does the band like to get ready and is there a favorite song that you like to play for your audience?
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: I absolutely love performing. We actually don’t have any shows set up at the moment as my wife and I just had a baby. I’m still working on recordings but I’m anxious though. I can’t wait to get the next thing together and get back out with some new songs. My favorite songs change, but at the moment I’m pretty fond of one of our newer songs, Sunday Matinee. to get ready for a live show I don’t do much. I like to be alone before hand to sort of go into my own world. i don’t like to rehearse too much.
MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: Early on, I got criticism to work harder on melodies. Lyrics always came more naturally to me. I was a literature major at school and had started writing poetry when I was young. I really worked hard as a songwriter on melodies, and it makes me happy when people compliment that part of the craft. It feels like its something I earned.
MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: The Great Big Sea LP came together over the course of a year or so. With those songs, I had made a conscious effort to simplify the writing, and write songs that were really direct and hopefully universal. I’ve written about an albums’ worth of songs since then and think the songs are a bit more adventurous musically and lyrically. I’ve had a lot of fun with words on the newer material. I think no matter what I write, the way I sing the songs evokes that same sort of mood. I can’t really do it any other way it just sort of comes out that way naturally.
MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: I like music because it makes me feel better. Even really sad songs make me feel better. I hope my songs make people feel a little bit more alive, than they did before they heard them.
MIA: Name some of your favorite albums of 2008.
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: Ctrl-Alt-Del by the Diggs is really brilliant. They’re great friends of mine, but this album of theirs is one of my favorites ever. it’s a powerful, emotional, dynamic record.
Wye Oak is a band we played with at Union Hall and they’re absolutely incredible. Their LP If Children has some really beautiful, wonderful songs on it. Reminds me of great 90′s indie rock when indie rock actually had a particular sound.
49:00 by Paul Westerberg was really great and i love how he was messing with the whole concept of how we listen to music by putting out the album as 1 45 minute mp3 file. He’s sort of my idol.
The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit is really great and just the sort of heart on your sleeve kind of songs that I love to listen to.
I liked the Conor Oberst record a lot. I’ve always had sort of mixed feeling about the Bright Eyes work, but there’s no doubt that the guy can write great, great songs. I’d recommend this one all the way through.
I also really love M83′s Saturdays=Youth and For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver. There’s a lot of albums from this year i haven’t been able to get my hands on yet, particularly the Sun Kil Moon record. I really love Mark Kozelek’s work. It’s on my Christmas list.
MIA: Name any favorite visual artists, pieces of artwork and how it may inspire you.
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: I love Robert Frank’s photography. That’s the most direct inspiration I could think of in any visual medium. Particularly his book, The Americans, it’s just about the great mythic American road. The “endless poem” as Kerouac said. I like Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol alot also. I’m fascinated by the lives of artists.
MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.
BRIAN SENDROWITZ: These songs all make sense together to me..
…And In the End Shoot Back
by The Diggs
Unsatisfied
by The Replacements
Bobby Malone Moves Home
by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
The Temptation of Adam
by Josh Ritter
What Happens When the Heart Just Stops (Live)
by The Frames
Kim and Jesse
by M83
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
by Them
Left and Leaving
by The Weakerthans
Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
by Joanna Newsom
A R T W O RK
Beat Radio & Subinev
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Fujiya and Miyagi are an English electronic band that create minimalistic beats under whispered lyrics and calming synthetic melodies. Known for their inspiration and love for “krautrock” in bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!, F&M formed and joined together in Brighton, UK. Their name was easily pieced together using a character in The Karate Kid movie and the brand of a record player.
Currently signed to Full Time Hobby Records, Fujiya and Miyagi have created three albums and are currently on a US tour in support of their 2008 release, Lightbulbs. Recently F&M’s vocalist and guitarist, David Best kindly contributed to Music Is Art. Please enjoy his answers and personal mix tape below!
L I S T E N
Knickerbocker [Lightbulbs, 2008]
Collarbones [Transparent Things, 2006]
MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?
DAVID: Steve and I met playing football, and later we were talking about music and discovered we had quite a few groups that we liked in common like Can, Carl Craig and Talking Heads. Steve was coming from more of a techno background and my background was playing guitar in a more than less electronic group.
MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.
DAVID: The thing about Brighton, UK is that it’s quite laid-back. I don’t think it really effects how we write in as much as if you were writing dub-step in a high rise block of new flats in a big city. My favorite part of Brighton is Preston Park, as its one of the first things to see when we are coming back home.
MIA: Do you enjoy to perform live? How does the band like to get ready and is there a favorite song that you like to play for your audience?
DAVID: I enjoy it once I get there but I don’t really enjoy the traveling that much. I try not to think too much before we go onstage as if I do I forget the words. You sort of go on autopilot. I like playing “Pterodactyls” at the moment, especially the noisy bit at the end.
MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?
DAVID: I try to ignore any compliments or criticisms we receive as I don’t want it to effect what we do. Sometimes I feel like I could drown in a sea of opinions but these are often from people who have never created anything in their lives. I get upset if people get the wrong end of the stick with my lyrics.
MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?
DAVID: I think with this record we wanted to be more positive than negative, even if that was not how we were feeling. There’s a melancholy that sometimes breaks through but I think its overshadowed by the idea that you are striving for life to be better, not embracing the fact that sometimes its not. “Lightbulbs” took about 6 months, a lot of the other songs were written before that time but never recorded. I think at some point you really have to say it’s finished, otherwise we’d be constantly changing things.
MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?
DAVID: I hope people see that although we are obviously fans of certain genres or artists, we are trying to do something that is not swayed by what is currently fashionable or current trends.
MIA: Name some of your favorite albums of 2008.
DAVID: My two favorite records are Beck’s Modern Guilt and Gnarls Barkley’s The Odd Couple, both produced by Dangermouse. I’ve always liked Beck, the combination of his new songs and the production produced show this as his best record since Sea Change. The Gnarls Barkley record seems to me like they exist in their own world, which is something I always admire.
MIA: Name any favorite visual artists, pieces of artwork and how it may inspire you.
DAVID: I like a few artists like Sigmar Polke, Oskar Kokoschka and Jean Dubuffet. I like how Polke combined different unpainted aspects in his work and incorporated it into the pieces. There’s a Kokoschka painting called “Time Gentlemen Please” which has always stayed with me. It’s probably about death but I just like the image of being kicked out of the pub.
MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.
DAVID: The theme is Clowns…
The Clown by Chuck Wilder
Death of A Clown by Kinks
Everybody’s Clown by Johnny Dynamite
The Lady and The Clown by Silver Apples
Rockin Pneumonia by Huey Smith and the Clowns
Music Is Art was recently asked to play a game of war against Pretty Much Amazing. The rules include two music websites that are paired up with one song (for this round, Boyz by M.I.A.) and 25 songs based from each blog’s Itunes Genius Playlist feature.
Below are a few songs from this week’s game:
Please visit PMA to view more of the MIA playlist and vote!
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