#did mention it’s sort of the standard at your record label. so after a couple of hours they sll sit at the recording studio waiting for the

[neoyuno]

What if I wrote more of idol!wonwoo x producer!reader from the “no biting” universe? :o read tags for my idea ♥︎

[secondhandnewsradio]

SHN INTERVIEW: Sleep Walking Animals

by Claire Silverman

photo: Ryan Hall

Sleep Walking Animals, the indie-folk alternative rock band from Manchester, England, have just released their self-titled debut EP. Since SHN first interviewed the band at the start of the year, they have released two more singles, started playing live shows again as restrictions opened up, and have announced a co-headlining tour around the UK in October. At their EP launch gig at the Fiddler’s Elbow in Camden on the 20th of September, they performed their new music to a sold out crowd.

CS: Congrats on the EP coming out. When we spoke back in February, you mentioned your plans for the EP, so it’s very exciting that it’s here now. How are you all feeling?

Tom: Like it's about time.

Jack: “Angus’ Fool.” “Wild Folk,” and “Dance Laura Dance” are on the EP, so we started recording this EP in October 2019. So it's been a big process, and the EP is kind of about that process.

Tom: We didn't want to release things until we were happy with everything, because we did record enough songs back in 2019 to go on an EP. But in post [production], we were a little bit concerned that they weren't all up to the standard that we wanted. It was our first time in a studio together as well when we recorded those songs, so we needed to practice, we needed to get together more and get more experienced in the studio. Then we ended up going up to Stockport and using a studio called Green Velvet Studios and we laid down five tracks, three of which are on the EP.

Jack: So, yes, excited.

photo: Ryan Hall

CS: Is there an overarching theme across the EP?

Tom: It feels like it's very much about things that have happened to us in the time it took to put the EP together, and things that have inspired us enough to write about, you know, various introductions to people, to new experiences, illnesses, life events that sparked something within us to try to make a good song out of.

Jack: The whole EP spans across when we started the band in 2018 right up to now, so a lot of the songs are about growth and change. But the songs are about our growth musically as well, which is a nice kind of coincidence.

Tom: “Angus’ Fool” was the first song we ever wrote together, so the EP spans from our first song together to things we were writing in lockdown. So like Jack said it’s a span of two and a half years.

Alex: “Native” was written after we played Farm Fest [this summer].

CS: So now that you have more music out and have started to establish your sound, how did you figure out what genre of music you wanted to make?

Alex: It's funny, you just mentioned “Native” and I think that was the point that pushed us to fatten up the sound a little bit. I mean, the style of the song made us realize that we can push it a little bit more. And we have a few like one recorded songs, which are definitely a lot more rock-y.

Tom: We're inspired by all sorts of different bands as well. And, you hear it said a lot but a lot of great artists steal from other great artists and that's how they become great, so we're taking influences from people that we all listen to. So this is why it's hard whenever anybody asks “so what kind of genre of music do you play?” I can never really answer that because it’s changing all the time.

Jack: But I was saying to Bill the other day, (he's not officially in the band yet but he kind of is. He's the drummer who played with us on Monday) we've never really spoken about what genre we want to write. We didn't speak about influences, particularly.

Tom: We're just going with ideas. We all have our own little pockets of interest that we bring to the table and I think that’s what makes out sound quite unique

Alex: When someone brings something and then all of a sudden there's so many layers on top of it, which are coming from all kinds of different directions. And it's just hard to put your finger on what it actually is. But it's cool and we like it.

photo: Ryan Hall

CS: It seems as though COVID restrictions are kind of mostly lifted here in England. At least, concerts are happening again. What's that been like, through the pandemic till now, and being able to play live shows again?

Tom: It’s been a massive relief, really, it means that we can get out there and get some gigging experience, start playing our stuff live. It's a completely different beast to be in the studio, it’s a completely different skill to have. And the more we do it, the more we’ll improve, and the more people will respond well to our gigs. There is such a massive impact from a live gig that you don't get from sitting down and putting your headphones in and listening to the Spotify track. You get the performance, you get the live engagement with music, and with the people on stage. That's just palpable.

CS: Since you're all performers, you're all actors, how do you think your other stage experience impacts your music?

Jack: That's an interesting one. Because I think the three of us are definitely coming out of acting and want to follow music, solely. Obviously, Tom, you both really well. [Laughter] And Nuwan’s also still following both. It's just something that when we are playing live, and it's going well, and there aren’t any technical issues, that we can just give ourselves completely to that moment. And I think that's easier for someone who has trained to do that, which is kind of what we did at drama school, I guess, to give yourself to the moment,

Tom: Yeah, there are great artists and performers, actors, musicians who haven't haven't gone through a formal training process. I think it's actually more important than training. Personally, I find the two things very different, being onstage as a member of Sleep Walking Animals and being on stage or on screen and being an actor in a role. I think the only similarity for me really, is the fact that when we go on stage as Sleep Walking Animals, I feel myself put on a character. I'm not Tom, I’m whatever else that is.

Jack: John. [Laughter]

Tom: I think we all do that whether we realize it or not. Because we'd be crippled with anxiety and insecurity and all the other horrid things that sort of flood into you when you're onstage performing in any way, you know, those don't happen or they sort of diminish if you put on that guise. So I guess that helps in that sort of transition.

photo: Claire Silverman

CS: You mentioned Farm Fest a bit earlier. What was it and how did it come about? And how was it?

Tom: So Farm Fest is a new, upstart festival that myself and my girlfriend Lottie host and organized. It's on her childhood farm and it's something that Lottie had wanted to do for a long time, to use that land to provide a space for a festival, entertainment, camping. We started it a couple years ago. There was that little bit of time between lockdowns where we got a weird freedom in the summer of 2020 and people felt like it had kind of gone away. Luckily, we all collectively know a bunch of musicians and comedians. It started small and then this year, we did it again. We charged a bit more money for tickets, and we are getting bigger and better. It feels like it's sort of gaining a bit of momentum. And it was the highlight of our year, we got to perform on a mainstage with a great sound set up. For us it was a big crowd to play to who all knew the songs and were singing along. It felt like a real festival, right.

CS: You guys are pretty active on social media, at least on the Sleep Walking Animals account. You guys don't always take things super seriously, which I like. What’s your approach to using social media? What do you think of it?

Jack: I wish we didn't have to. I think we probably all do realize the importance of it because Instagram is pretty much the only way of promoting anything, which is so fucking sad. Yeah. And I thought today, because Joe and I are reading a book about Joy Division and the start of the punk scene stuff, and they didn't even have t-shirts, because they wanted to stick it to the man and that kind of thing. But you just can't do that now. It's just like times have changed and there’s so many bands and so many artists that you have to be on it. Like, it will only be a matter of time before we go on to TikTok.

Tom: As an unsigned band without management or label yet, you know, we're left to do it on our own. Like Jack said, it's our only way of letting people know about our music. We might as well try and enjoy it if we've got to do it.

photo: Ryan Hall

CS: Now that the EP is out, what are your future plans for the band?

Tom: World domination?

Joe: Recording.

Tom: Yeah, more tunes. We've got quite a few unrecorded ones. Keep doing what we're doing, really, following the footsteps of the people and bands and artists who have inspired us. Just keep going with it and see what happens. We're not putting immense amounts of pressure on ourselves. We do it because we love it. We do it because we think our music is worth pursuing. Yeah. Just see where the wind takes us.

CS: And you've got a tour coming up in October.

Jack: Yeah, a UK tour. It’s a co-headlining tour with Polary and My Pet Fauxes. So we're playing in different cities and we're all sharing the headlines slot and supporting each other at the different venues.

Tom: The 17th of October we're playing Leeds at Oporto, then on the 18th at Dublin Castle in London, the 19th we’re in Bristol at Crofters Rights and then the 20th at Night & Day in Manchester.

CS: Good luck for those shows and again, congratulations on releasing your debut EP.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Listen to Sleep Walking Animals’ debut EP here

Follow the band on Instagram Twitter Spotify YouTube 

sleepwalkinganimals.com

[nazyalenskyism]

Let’s Get Married 3

Let’s Get Married Part 3 (Let’s Get Married)

Summary: Guess who got married! A/N: PLEASE READ: From this point on, anything labeled as "THEN,"/"18 months ago" refers to the week during which Chapter 2 (I've Been So Far Gone Lately) is set during. Anything labeled as "NOW" or "18 months later" is set in the present day. Sorry for any confusion!

Ao3: Let's Get Married Part 3

18 months later (NOW):

David Kostyk came back from his break like always, with a mug of tea from his wife in one hand and a stack of files from Nikolai in the other, ready to dive into the documents for the day. The first few files were standard, he was signing off on others’ work, making sure everything was up to date and properly formatted but it was when he hit the fifth document that he found something amiss. He pushed his glasses up his nose, bending down to make sure that he read the file correctly. No, that couldn’t be. That would mean that--Oh no.

David picked up his receiver, punching in numbers he knew by heart, this was going to be anything but a quiet morning like he’d hoped. “Genya, you need to see this.”

                                                            ***

“Nikolai Lantsov!” he glanced up at the mention of his name, surprised at the sight before him. Genya marched into the room with Tolya and Tamar walking determinedly behind her while David trailed behind them, clutching a stack of papers in his hands. Nikolai glanced at his watch, it was only 11 AM, they didn’t have their daily meeting until 2 PM, that was odd.

He raised a brow, easing back in his chair, “can I help you?”

“What’s this?” Genya exclaimed without any preamble, grabbing a paper off the top of the stack in David’s hands and slapping it onto his desk.

“Paper, I assume, darling Genya.”

“I mean what’s on the paper,” she snapped, “it says you’re married.”

Nikolai paused, drawing the paper towards him, “you were at the wedding,” he glanced around, “you all were. In fact, you were the only people there.”

“You were supposed to get divorced,” Tolya interjected, “that was the plan.”

“Plans change.”

“Nikolai, you were supposed to be married for six months, a year at most.” Tamar frowned.

“It’s just been more beneficial than we’d originally thought.”

“What?” Genya asked, scowling at him.

“Well, we realized it would be better for our taxes, for one.” he ticked off a finger with each additional reason he gave. “People don’t ask for our numbers when we go out anymore and my parents and brother hate both of us so they leave us alone. One glare from Zoya and deals are signed in record time, I don’t have to suffer through terrible parties alone anymore, and Zoya has to be nice to me,” he furrowed his brow, “well sometimes. Actually not nicer but--”

“What are you going to do now?” David interrupted.

“What do you mean?”

Tamar spoke up, “you can’t keep this lie up forever, someone is going to find out, it’s amazing they haven’t already.”

“Yes,” Genya nodded, “what if you meet someone, and want to get married? What are you going to do then? Or what if someone asks you why you don’t live together or why your prenup with Zoya is basically giving her 50% anyways?”

“We’ve been too busy,” Nikolai said dismissively.

“Busy? She spends half her evenings hanging out at your apartment or with us. Even if that wasn’t the case, Nikolai, you always make time for important things.”

“It’s not important at the moment.” He understood their confusion, he had been surprised at first too when Zoya hadn’t asked him to call things off three seconds after they had officially gotten married and secured the company as his. In fact, she hadn’t brought it up at all. Not once in a year and a half and neither had he. It felt like they’d struck some sort of perfect balance, and the last thing he wanted was to destroy their peace. No, when Zoya wants to end this, I’ll agree, but until then I won't be the one to ruin this.

“It is important!” Genya looked as if she wanted to shake some sense into him, which was odd, usually only Zoya had that look on her face. Speaking of Zoya, it had been a minute since he’d spoken to her, not since he’d brought her coffee to her office this morning, all the way on the other side of the floor. He should send her a text about dinner tonight, he had found a fantastic restaurant whose specialty was her favourite dish and wanted to take her. He pulled his phone out of his waistcoat pocket, smiling as he typed a message he knew would make her roll her eyes, chuckling at her response.

“Hey!” Genya snapped her fingers in front of his face, startling him from his texting. “Nikolai, if you don’t think this is an important thing to do at the moment, what do you think it means that you like spending time with her, that you trust her with all your secrets? How you don’t care about what anyone else has to say about you, everyone but Zoya? The rare time she compliments you, you light up like a Christmas tree! Not only that but…” Genya trailed off, twisting her wedding band around her finger, glancing around at her friends for a reprieve, but they were all avoiding her imploring gaze.

“But?” Nikolai prompted. He could feel his ears burning, but he wouldn’t allow his friends to see how Genya’s words had impacted him.

“You know what,” she sighed. “Nikolai, you know why you don’t want to change things and it’s the same reason she doesn’t want to change things either. Both of you want this and there’s a reason why, a reason that would make you both a lot happier than you are now.”

Nikolai stood abruptly, he’d had enough. “As always, your advice is appreciated but unneeded. Now if you’ll excuse me I have an appointment and before that, as per the request of my friends,” he gestured to them, “I need to start filing for divorce.”

                                                               ***

18 months ago (THEN):

“I found something,” Nikolai whispered, sliding up behind Zoya and gently touching her arm before slipping a drink into her hand. In the ballroom behind them the party was in full swing but out here on the terrace overlooking the gardens there was barely a buzz. They’d moved outside because they hadn’t wanted their conversation to be overheard by someone at the party. If anyone found out what they were planning on doing they would be in big trouble, to say the least. She arched a brow, and took a sip of her drink and he took it as an indication to speak. “There’s a clause in the bylaws that states that someone other than the intended heir of the company can inherit it if they challenge the intended heir, get a majority of votes from the board, and are over thirty.”

“Nikolai, you’re nowhere near thirty, there’s no way you’re going to be able to stop Vasily from getting his greasy hands all over your company.”

He shot her a bemused look, “my company?”

“You know what I mean,” she snapped. “That can’t be all you found, keep talking.”

“Well,” he began slowly, “the only way we get around that is, there’s a clause that says you have to be thirty or married.” A deafening silence stretched out between them, both trying to gauge the others’ reaction. Zoya spoke first, surprisingly.

“So, when’s the wedding? What should I get you, cash or something off the registry?”

“Nazyalensky, I didn’t say that I was going to get married.”

“Come on,” she said, looking up at him, “this is your life’s goal. If you don’t secure the company now, then your brother or that old creep Aleksander will take what’s rightfully yours.” Her finger jabbed at his chest, her eyes alight with passion. If he didn’t know any better, he would think that she believed in him. “You are the only person who can and should be running it. It’s yours Lantsov, it always has been.”

Nikolai felt a kernel of warmth unfurling in his chest as Zoya whipped away from him and back towards the skyline, the faintest blush colouring the tops of her cheeks. Open admissions of friendship always made her ill. Nikolai drew in a breath, preparing to be eviscerated for what he was going to say next. “Would you?”

She squinted at him, “would I what?”

“Would you marry me? Hypothetically. If you were an eligible bachelorette in the city?” Zoya cut him a quick glare, “hypothetically, yes. Anyone would be stupid not to.”

“And do you consider yourself smart?” he said.

“Nikolai…” she faltered, “don’t.”

“Don’t what? It makes sense, doesn’t it? We already know each other, we don’t have to draw up an extravagant prenup, I’ll gladly give you half of what I have, we can get divorced a week after we get the company, and go on with life as usual.”

Zoya shook her head at him, “and what will people say when you and your ex-wife are working side by side every day, with no bad blood? And getting divorced a week later, that makes it so obvious that you only did it for the company.”

“Fine,” he said simply. “If you can tolerate me for a couple of months, we can stage some big fight and break things off. We’ll say that we were young and in love and made a stupid decision.”

Her hand went to the chain around her neck, rubbing the locket absently. “I don’t think this is a good idea Nikolai.”

“Nazyalensky,” he stepped closer to her, “we’re running out of time and I don’t think I have any other options. I wish there was another way but if this is the only way, I will do it, but I would rather it be with someone I trust. And hey, it’s only six months, then we’ll be back to how we always were.”

Nikolai waited for a minute, then two, then what felt like forever before she finally spoke. “Okay.” She turned towards him, “okay, but no big wedding. Just us, the officiant, Genya, David, Tamar, Tolya, Nadia, and my family. Just the ten of us.”

He took her hand, “what about all my friends?”

“What friends,” she scoffed.

Nikolai pouted, “harsh.”

“Honest.”

He laughed at that, pulling out the small box that had been sitting against his chest all night. He popped it open before flipping it towards her, cherishing the faint flicker of disbelief on her face as he slipped the ring onto her finger. He knew what she was thinking; it was huge and sparkly, the two things she liked most.

“You idiot,” she slapped his chest, “you knew about this already, why did you wait until now to tell me?”

“I wanted to have the ring ready,” he protested, admiring the excitement painted onto her exquisite features as she admired the glimmering ring in the moonlight. “I didn’t think you’d agree unless I had it.”

“You’re right, I was just feeling extreme amounts of pity towards you tonight, otherwise, even your desperation wouldn’t have been enough. ”

“Ruthless,” Nikolai smiled, “now, shall we tell the others?”

Zoya took his outstretched arm, “let’s.”

“Ah, ah.” Nikolai chided, “it would be a little obvious if we stepped out of the party to get engaged, no?”

“Ugh, fine,” she groaned, slipping the ring off her finger, and reluctantly placing it back in the box. “You’re right, it clashes with my outfit tonight anyways. But I’d like it back as soon as possible.”

“Let me finish putting a little something together. We should at least be able to have a little fun with it.”

“Alright,” she sighed, “but no public proposal.”

“No public proposal,” he agreed, “just us. Like always.”

                                                        ***

18 months later (NOW):

“What is it, Genya?” Zoya sighed, stepping around a tourist glued to the center of the sidewalk, her phone tucked between her shoulder and ear as she gripped the box of baklava against her chest. Nikolai always got peckish in the afternoon and the sweet was his favourite snack and if she’d learned anything in life it was that a well-fed Nikolai was a more productive Nikolai.

“Care to tell me why you’re still married?”

“Hm?” She eyed the window display of the boutique behind her, while waiting for the streetlight. Nikolai would love that sweater and the blue would bring out the gold in his eyes.

“Hey!” Genya snapped at her, “why didn’t you tell us that you’re still married?”

“Should I have?”

“Yes? Obviously yes!”

“Okay,” Zoya said, not seeing the issue, “so now you know.”

“You were supposed to get divorced a year ago, why are you still married?”

She sighed, it was so simple, how did no one else get it? “It was better for our taxes, people don’t ask for our numbers when we go out anymore, Nikolai’s family leaves us alone. It makes it easier to deal with all the stuff from when Liliyana--” she broke off, clearing her throat, “it makes business deals go smoother, we can bail each other out of stuff. It just makes things easier.”

“What if you meet someone and want to get married, or even date them? Or what if Nikolai does?” Zoya frowned, turning away from the boutique door she’d been about to open, crossing the street instead. She hadn’t thought about that before. Nikolai was a romantic, she’d seen it in action, and while he’d never been in a long-term relationship in the time she’d known him, he had been on dates where he’d gone all out. What if he was even slightly interested in someone and pushed aside the prospect of a relationship with them because he felt that he owed her something? She didn’t want that.

“I know. It’s just-- we’ve been busy.”

“That’s exactly what he said.”

“We’ll get around to it, we will.”

Genya seemed to pick up the weariness of her voice and simply said, “I know you will,” before hanging up.

Zoya slumped into her car, resting her forehead against the steering wheel. When did things get so complicated? He’d asked Zoya to help him because it was supposed to be uncomplicated when it was her. When had she let herself fall into this so badly that she genuinely questioned her ability to extract herself from it?

Her phone chimed and she saw that her last conversation with Nikolai had been deleted from their message history, the one where they’d been making dinner plans. Instead she saw a new message under their conversation from last night simply reading, “we need to talk. I’ll pick you up at 7.”

Zoya exhaled through her nose, punching out, “Okay.” in response before tossing her phone into the backseat. It was ridiculous to think that anything about this arrangement had ever been easy. The night that Nikolai’s parents had thrown them an engagement party had been proof enough of that.

[cagestark]

WinterIronSpider//5

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five

sorry about this, really wanted to share SOMETHING with you, even if it’s not my best work.

Here on AO3. -

At the sound of Tony Stark’s rumbling voice, Peter’s stomach drops to somewhere around his socked-toes. All the terrible things that could have happened (not that he’d been imagining any of them, not when he saw Bucky’s pale eyes drop to his lips. All thoughts of morals had been beaten away by the butterfly wings that battered inside his stomach), all those terrible things that could befall any infidelious person and this is the worst of them. Getting caught. 

“Mr. Stark,” Peter gasps, stumbling back to put distance between himself and Bucky. Nothing to see here, nothing funny, just two acquaintances slow dancing with red, raw mouths. Yeah—Peter can’t imagine anyone being able to pull the wool over Tony Stark’s eyes, much less himself. Even if he had an excuse that wasn’t thin as he is, there’s no way his conscience could let him hide behind it. Aunt May hadn’t raised him to be that kind of man. Shoulders bowing, Peter says, “Please don’t be angry at Bucky. I came on to him, he—” 

“Is that true, Bucky?” Tony asks. “Did you make this sweet, sick boy do all the work?”

“Hell no,” Bucky mutters. “My ma raised me better than that. He didn’t have to lift a finger.” 

Had the pneumonia scrambled Peter’s brain? Maybe the medicine Dr. Banner gave him had strange (wonderful) hallucinogenic properties that hadn’t manifested until now. His eyes flicker back and forth between the easy banter of the couple, throat growing tighter and tighter.

“In that case, don’t mind me. Fly on the wall,” Tony says, leaning back into the doorway. In his three piece suit, he is the picture of a respectable businessman. The way his eyes burn as he traces up and down them is anything but respectful. His tongue traces his lower lip and Peter replays the sight in his head in ultra high-definition. “Pretend I’m not here. Picture me in my underwear, if you’d prefer—you know, that idiom doesn’t work when I’m not wearing underwear, but these goddamn worsted wool suits, you can see every line—” 

“What, you’re, you—I’m sorry Mr. Stark, but are you joking?” Peter wonders. A worse thought comes with no justification save for a long history of experiencing cruelty at other people’s hands: what if they’re trying to trick him? What into, Peter can’t be certain. What he is certain of is that no man like Tony Stark (no man in general) could possibly be okay with someone else kissing their lover. 

Tony’s face goes soft, a tender twisting of his mouth. Peter’s eyes drop. No, these aren’t the kinds of men who would trick or hurt him. Surely if he looks Tony in the eye, the man will see Peter’s cowardice, his betrayal of their characters. 

“Kid—I’m sorry. It was just a joke. In a way.” Tony lifts the needle on the record player and the music cuts away, leaving a heavy silence behind that no one is sure how to fill. After a stretch, Tony goes on: “Pizza for dinner? Are you hungry?”

Peter is always hungry. “Yes, but—Mr. Stark, maybe I should go.”

“You can’t even stay for dinner?”

“I—alright. No—I mean. I don’t know.”

Tony turns to Bucky. The tone he uses to speak to the other man is night and day from the tone he uses with Peter, his voice low and familiar. “Did you not explain anything to him? What have you been up to all day, buttercup?”

Bucky’s mouth curls up at the corner, a wry, guilty look that makes him look ten years younger. “Dancin’?”

-

Peter clears his plate twice, burning the roof of his mouth (though he hardly cares, the pizza is so good. From someplace in upper Manhattan, real gourmet stuff topped with portobello mushrooms and red peppers and black olives). Bucky is almost as ravenous, folding his pizza like a true New-Yorker. When he takes his metal fingers into his mouth to suck the grease off, Peter has to look away, stomach feeling hot in a way that has nothing to do with the peppers on the pizza. That mouth, those fingers, god. 

All throughout dinner, Tony’s dark eyes flicker back and forth like they are prime entertainment, looking a little heated under the collar himself when Bucky cleans his hands. He tells them a story about running into a professional Tony Stark impersonator in the pizza shop, until Peter nearly forgets that there’s a reason Mr. Stark should hate him. By the time nothing remains but empty, grease-sodden pizza boxes, Peter feels sleepy and full, lulled in the best way. 

“Two things, kid,” Tony says, using a napkin to wipe his mouth. “Small things. We’d like you to live here, and also Bucky would like to make out—“

“Nice opening,” Bucky huffs, eyebrows low and threatening. “Any other bombshells to drop on him? You his bio dad? Tell him that I killed JKF?”

“FRIDAY, scrub the last five minutes,” Tony snaps. 

Peter struggles to follow along. Tony began to lose him somewhere around live here and left him in the dust at Bucky would like to make out. Blinking hard, nothing changes, no world slipping sideways, no veil lifting to reveal everything as a hallucination. But surely this can’t be real life. Real life wouldn’t be nearly so strange. 

“I have no idea what’s going on,” Peter admits, fingers tapping his thighs in an anxious rhythm. “Did you say something about living here, Mr. Stark?” 

“Let’s start with Bucky first, actually,” Tony says, eyes glittering like he’s getting strange pleasure from seeing Peter so flustered. 

“Tony—” 

“No, no, you had your chance to talk to him during the 9-5. You’re officially off the clock. We’re all about not violating Fair Labor Standards Act.” Bucky’s face gives away nothing. His metal hand makes a sound as he clenches it into a tight fist and then tucks it into his lap, shrugging in a way that says less fine, whatever and more I, very begrudgingly and under extreme duress, relent. When Tony’s gaze turns back on Peter, he can’t help but stare down at his lap and the fraying knees of his pants. Aunt May always said the eyes are the window to the soul. “Kid, there’s no reason to apologize to me for kissing Bucky. We’re open. Do you understand what I mean?” 

Peter clears his throat, mouth dry. “You mean you’re in an open relationship?” 

“We don’t usually label it, but that’s acceptable terminology. We aren’t people who stifle our desires, how’s that? Sometimes Bucky’s with someone else, sometimes I’m with someone else, sometimes we’re both with someone else, but we’re always with each other. Bucky has my explicit approval to make moves on young, pneumonia-ridden college students, so long as they are willing.”

Imagining Tony and Bucky together is enough to make him want to squirm in his seat. Imagining them sharing someone between them makes him long to pant like a dog, anything to help abate the volcanic heat bubbling up inside him. One thing at a time, Pete, he thinks to himself. He’s good at giving himself pep talks. After all, for a long time there was no one else around to encourage him. “That makes sense, Mr. Stark. But what does that mean? Mr.—Bucky wants to, to...you know?”

“That is a question you can direct to the defendant. Mr. Bucky?”

Peter colors, looking at the long-haired man from beneath his dark eyelashes. 

“I want to kiss you any time you’re looking sad,” Bucky says, eyes on the hardwood of the table. “I want to make sure you don’t have anymore reasons to cry when you’re around me or not. I want to protect you. I want to kill your enemies—” 

“He’s a poet, isn’t he, regular Shakespeare—FRIDAY, let’s just scrub this whole conversation okay—” 

“I’m sorry,” Peter says, “But it’s Monday, Mr. Stark.” 

Tony smiles. It hints at a lot, not half of which Peter can decipher. He adjusts the blue-tinted glasses on his face. “Right. You’re right, Peter. Did Bucky answer your question?” 

Replaying it in his mind, Peter can feel himself flushing. His mouth tingles where an hour before, Bucky’s own had been pressed against it. If Bucky wants to kiss him every time he’s looking sad, then Peter won’t ever smile again. Not if he can help it. “Sort of. I guess I just don’t get why. You two have each other, and you’re both. Wow. You’re both really wow. I think if I—” Peter barely manages to stop before he says something hopelessly romantic and tragic, something like how he thinks if he had either of them, he’d never be sad again. “I just don’t understand why you’d be interested in anyone else.” 

“I don’t believe in soulmates,” Tony says. He walks to the bar in the corner and pours himself an amber-colored drink. “I believe in chemistry. That’s a renewable resource in my book, Pete, one that can be experienced between a multitude of people all at once. A gas stove has several burners, and just because you turn the gas up on one doesn’t mean you can’t ignite the others, does it?” 

“Not if it’s a good stove.” 

“Not if it’s a good stove,” Tony repeats, voice warm like the alcohol he sips at. He tips the glass towards Bucky. “Snowflake here believes that a person can have many soulmates. It’s all about the ones we choose to cultivate. Sometimes it’s that deep. And not to watch you flush, kid, but sometimes it’s just about the sex.” 

Peter works to keep his face neutral even if he can feel the heat of a blush crawling across his skin. Mr. Stark must think him a blushing virgin (and in some aspects, Peter is). Hopefully, he can’t tell that Peter’s flush is more arousal than embarrassment. 

“So which am I?” He asks, glancing nervously to Bucky. “Am I a cultivating thing or am I a sex thing?”

“You’re not a thing at all,” Bucky says. The murderous expression on his face doesn’t agree with his words. “You’re a human being. But it’s more than just sex. Sex doesn’t need to be included at all. See—I told Tony this morning that we were going to move too fast. We shouldn’t even be mentioning sex until after the third date—“

“Incredible. Do you hear that, kid? He didn’t take me on a date until after the sixth or seventh tryst in the lab. You’re something special.” Tony’s waggling eyebrows belie any jealousy or bitterness Peter might have imagined. 

Still. Peter can’t help but feel...special. Not in a million years would he have imagined someone as handsome as Bucky Barnes being interested in him, not romantically, not sexually, not any way at all. He feels more than a little like he’s stepped into the Twilight Zone. Surely any moment Rod Sterling will appear leaning against the bar talking to some invisible camera.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Peter says, wringing his hands in his lap. He smiles at Bucky with shaking lips, watching the furrowed brow smooth. “I don’t expect anything at all. This is like, not expected. At all. Way out of left field. I still don’t understand…”

“Which part?” Tony asks. He puts a hand on Bucky’s shoulder, thumb soothing the skin just above the collar of the man’s shirt, and Peter feels it all over. 

“The me part,” Peter admits. “You could have anybody. Why me? Not to sound like, like I’m fishing for compliments or anything but I’m not the sort of guy people are attracted to.” But. Bad thoughts come rolling in like thunderheads, always clinging to the edges of his mind eager to blot out any sun that might appear, because there’s one thing Peter knows he’s good at. One thing people are attracted to. 

Mr. Rumlow tells him so. 

Peter shivers despite the warmth of the room, pizza sitting like a heavy stone in his gut. God, why had he told Bucky and Mr. Stark about the arrangement between himself and the super of his apartment complex? Their reactions were fuzzy in his mind, the effects of the medicine he’d taken turning everything mottled and loose at the edges, but Peter knows how it sounds. He knows what he would think, if it had been another student sucking Mr. Rumlow’s dick anytime he knocks just to keep from having to pay rent. 

It’s not as bad as it sounds, though. Mr. Rumlow (“Call me Brock, I think you’ve more than earned it, Pete”) is attractive enough. He’s not really rough, not large enough to leave Peter’s throat sore the way a bigger cock might (Peter has read on the internet that that’s Possible). He likes to say foul things while Peter’s on his knees, things he knows that are just said during sex, like how Peter is so dirty, such a slut for his cock. But more often than not, Peter just drowns that out. 

Why he feels so pathetic thinking about it, he isn’t sure. 

“Kid.”

Peter looks up and sees the blurry form of Tony, the taller form of Bucky crouched down beside his seat. Eyes stinging, he reaches up to palm at them. His hands come away damp, vision clear, but now he can see the worry on Tony’s face, the intense stare Bucky has fixed him with, and that makes it so much worse. People caring rubs a tender part of him raw and it hurts. 

“I’m not doing such a good job keeping you from crying,” Bucky mutters, handing Peter a cloth plucked from beneath the bar to wipe his face with. 

Peter laughs wetly. “Can’t kiss all my sadness away.” 

“Can sure as hell try,” Bucky says. His metal hand cups Peter’s chin with contradicting tenderness, cooler than skin. His eyes flutter closed on instinct, opening only when the older man pauses close enough that Peter can feel his warm breath against his face. Those eyes, the entire expression—it makes Peter feel like Bucky could swallow him whole. And Peter might like it. “Tell me if you want it.” 

“I want it,” Peter breathes. 

Bucky kisses him. The sound that slips past Peter’s lips is downright disgraceful, a needy desperate little thing that Bucky swallows, his metal thumb coming up to coax Peter’s jaw open. Peter’s only prior kiss was a girl in highschool, and it was nothing like this. That had been an anxious, quick thing, more time spent worrying about his breath and where to put his hands and how to turn his head so their noses wouldn’t touch than time spent actually kissing. This is a submersive experience. Nothing but Bucky exists, Bucky and his tender hand, the tongue that teases, the mouth that sucks when Peter is brave enough to go exploring with his own. 

Eyes opening a fraction, his heart jerks in his chest because—

Tony. 

Tony stands having taken a few steps back, watching them with wide, wondrous eyes. His throat bobs as he swallows, Peter’s eyes tracking the movement. Why, Peter wonders, does the sight of Mr. Stark watching them make every last drop of blood in his body turn tail and head south? He can’t help but groan, letting his heavy lids fall shut again, neck going lax while Bucky kisses him deep and slow and filthy. 

Maybe they kiss for a minute or ten. Long enough for Peter’s tears to dry, for his cock to ache, for his lips to feel raw and swollen. When they part, Bucky’s eyes seem to burn, the thinnest sliver of silver corona around the aroused pupil—and then they flicker over Peter’s shoulder. Peter turns to see that Tony is lounging against the bar, face buried in his phone. He glances up at their movement and gives them a smile that is small but real and warm. 

“Coming up for air?” Tony asks. He slips his phone into his pocket. “Before you have Peter as desert on the dining room table, there is one more important item to discuss.” 

Peter’s head swims drunkenly. Fingers tighten at the nape of his neck where they are buried in his curls. They release in an instant—just an anxious reflex—but Peter’s eyes flutter anyway. How long has it been since he was touched? Mr. Rumlow. Before that? MJ and Ned, when they’d visited him over their semester break last year. Sometimes his skin downright itched, he was so desperate for someone to hug him, to put their hand on his shoulder. His heart would burst at the sound of Rumlow knocking on his door, just to feel human contact, just to feel wanted.

Shaking his head, Peter struggles to clear it. “Sorry Mr. Stark. What, what else is there?” 

“The matter of your destitution,” Tony says, taking his seat at the table again. His glass is full now, though Peter never heard him pour it. “Delicately put—you lack resources. I have an abundance of them. I’d like us to come to some sort of arrangement. Preferably one that doesn’t make me feel seedy, but even more importantly!—one that doesn’t make you feel trapped.” 

Peter blinks. “Trapped?” 

Tony clears his throat. His hands can’t seem to still, fiddling with the tumbler glass, adjusting where it rests on the napkin. Nervous ticks?, Peter wonders. What could a brilliant, powerful man like Tony Stark have to be worried about? “I wanted to invite you to move in to our penthouse; there’s plenty of room. But my better half over there told me that you might feel obliged to say yes even if you didn’t really want to. Or that saying yes might make it difficult for you to maintain your independence.” 

“You want me to live with you?” Peter can hear how his voice grows high towards the end. Even to his own ears, it sounds like hysteria. Maybe most of it is shock, but there’s a part of it (a frighteningly large part) that is...excited. This is young Peter’s dream, his idol asking him to live with him. Kid fantasies. Nothing that should ever be possible.

At his shrill voice, Tony winces. “Here’s what we want: your security ensured and your health maintained. Whatever it takes to see those things come to fruition. Our one request is that you don’t go back to Lafayette Hall. There are people there who would, who are taking advantage of you, kid. As it is, I have it under good authority that Lafayette Hall will be experiencing a change of management soon, but until it does, it would be a real comfort to Bucky and I to know that you aren’t vulnerable.” 

His face burns. It takes effort to swallow past the knot in his throat. “If I didn’t go back there, where else would I go?” 

“You’ve got options,” Bucky says, voice a warm, comforting timber from beside him. 

“One,” Tony says, holding up a finger. “I can set you up in a nice apartment close to campus. All amenities taken care of. I know the supers, very hands off kinds of people. Two, I could set you up on a different floor in the Tower here. I have several that used to belong to the Avengers, but they come and go so sporadically now that there’s no sense in giving them their own permanent space. You’d be free to come and go from the Tower the way you would any apartment. It would be as much your home as ours.” 

“Or I could stay here with you?” Peter asks. 

“I’m prepared to have provide any legal requisite that would make you feel comfortable, so that you would know there’s no obligation to Bucky or to myself. I have lawyers at the Tower six days a week; they’d be more than glad to do paperwork that prevents me from potentially causing a legal scandal. For once.” 

“Mr. Stark, this is, that—it’s all more than generous. Not to sound like a broken record, I just don’t understand why,” Peter says. “Why me? Why would you spend so much money on me, if you aren’t getting anything in return?” 

If there’s one thing Peter has learned in life, it’s that no kindness is unconditional. Yet here Tony is trying to convince him of that very thing, that Peter can have his cake and eat it too, that there are no strings attached to this gift. Just a big, beautiful bow. 

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” says Tony. It’s too difficult to look away from his heated gaze. And Peter doesn’t want to. “ You’re intelligent, hardworking, kind. I was barely two of those things when I was your age, and I’ll let you decide which. I want to see you thrive kid, and if that means investing some—not even a fraction—of my resources, then it will be more than worth it. If nothing else, feel free to consider me a lecherous rich bastard who will sleep easier at night knowing he’s doing his civic duty.

“So what do you say, Pete? No need to break it to me gently, though there will be a mandatory period of forty-eight hours of sulking should you say no, just a warning, but don’t—” 

“Yes. Yes, absolutely,” Peter says, tucking his fingers beneath his thighs to keep from doing something embarrassing like clapping or throwing his arms around the man. He should say no. May never liked the idea of handouts. She was a proud woman who worked until she couldn’t stand anymore and had instilled in him the same work ethic. Would she be disappointed in him for taking this easy way out, for accepting generosity without giving Mr. Stark anything in return? 

If Peter lets himself wonder questions like that, then he’d never stop. 

“Yes? Yes? That was easy.”

“Tony’s used to people telling him no,” Bucky says slyly. 

“As they should,” says Tony, leaning back in his chair. It’s not hard to imagine that the smile on the older man’s face might be thanks to Peter, but it’s certainly hard enough to believe. “I was convinced I might have to beg you to take my money, kid. I’ve been turned down a few times in the name of pride.” 

Peter smiles, lips pressed together tight so that he doesn’t have to say anything like, Don’t worry Mr. Stark, I have no pride.

“You could have Sam’s floor, it’s right below this one, and he spends most of his time in DC anyway,” Bucky suggests. The man looks about as happy as Peter’s seen him. Something about his serious face isn’t made for smiling, the low brows and narrowed eyes and downturned lips, but his brow is smooth and the corners of his lips quirk upwards. 

“Oh, not here? Up here, I mean. With you two?” Peter cringes even as the words slip out. Of course they wouldn’t want him up here in their space, not when there were better options so close by. Still, an entire slideshow had played inside his brain of all the domestic activities they could get up to together: watching movies on the couch at night after Mr. Stark came home from work, cooking breakfast in the morning with Bucky at the stove. He should just be grateful, though. Grateful he’ll be in a place with food and heat and running water that doesn’t taste like iron and rust.

“Up here?” Tony asks. He claps his hands. “All the better. My lawyers will be here first thing in the morning to draw up a makeshift lease of sorts—anything to let you know that your security isn’t contingent on any relationship with us. But if you leave crumbs on my carpet, kid, I’ll throw you to the wolves I swear to—kidding! Jesus, Buck, don’t slap me with the metal hand.” 

“I can walk home tomorrow and grab my stuff,” Peter says, mind far away in the tiny apartment. All he’ll need is to fill his backpack with the few clothing items that he hasn’t worn to death, the picture of Ned and MJ, May and Ben’s and his parents’ wedding rings, his school books. He could pack up his entire life into one bag, which is both a little sad and a godsend. Peter hates moving.

“Take one of my cars; I have plenty of them.” Tony stands from the table and holds out a hand. When Peter takes it, it’s warm and calloused. They shake, but it isn’t enough, no amount of gratitude can be poured from palm to palm. Peter rounds the table and wraps his arms around the man’s waist, smelling cologne and sharp alcohol, feeling Tony arms carefully come down around him. When the man speaks, it rumbles through Peter’s own body. “Lovely doing business with you, Mr. Parker. Saturday is for chores and Sunday is funday.” 

“I’m really good at doing dishes,” Peter grins. 

“That’s what the dishwasher is for, kid. Unless you’re Bucky who likes to do them by hand.” They pull away and Tony smiles down at him, and Peter thinks that maybe things are actually getting better. Maybe all those prayers he made finally reached up through the clouds and were heard and answered. Maybe he’s suffered enough, and the universe is finally giving him some good karma. “You know,” Tony says. He winks at Bucky. “I think this business deal could absolutely be sealed by a kiss—” 

“Tony,” Bucky sighs. 

“Good idea,” Peter says brightly. He shifts up onto his toes, letting his eyes fall shut as he presses a chaste kiss to Tony’s mouth—

What he wasn’t expecting was for Mr. Stark to pull away the way he does, to turn his head so that the kiss falls on his whiskered cheek. When Peter blinks up at him, he can’t understand the shocked, no, the horrified expression on the older man’s face. 

“Kid—I meant you and Bucky,” Tony says. “This thing—between you two? I’m not included.” 

[madcapmoon]

Guy Picciotto - 2003 interview

by Mark Prindle

Guy Picciotto is one of the central songwriters/guitarists/singers in what might be the most consistently great rock group in the world.

Phish.

No, come on now! I'm simply telling a funny joke to you! Guy is actually in Fugazi. He previously served as vice-president of vocals and guitar for Happy Go Licky, where he helped increase gross revenue by 20% over two quarters. Before joining Happy Go Licky, Guy worked with musical startup One Last Wish, where his accomplishments included the establishment of a North American headquarters and significant exposure building in the channel. Guy also spent three years with Rites of Spring (NYSE: ROS), where he was credited with the invention of the now-ubiquitous "emo" subgenre. Guy's duties with Fugazi include writing songs, singing them and playing guitar while singing them.

Guy agreed to a telephone interview because he's a supernice guy who doesn't let the fact that his band IS THE BEST FUCKIN BAND IN THE WORLD(!!!!!!) go to his head. He's "down-to-earth"! He also speaks incredibly quickly, which made real-time typing a real pain in the ass, especially when three-quarters of the way through, two fingers on my left hand came loose and flew across the room, leaving "W," "E," "S," "D," "X" and "C" in dire straits. Luckily, Guy didn't use a single one of those letters in the last ten minutes of the interview. Except "sex," which he said 179 times. Unfortunately, I was unable to type those parts, but I assure you - things were getting pretty hot and heavy there for a while! Ooo la la!

My questions are in bold - Guy's answers are in plain text.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello?

Guy?

Yes?

Hi! This is Mark Prindle, the interviewer guy.

Hey! How's it going?

Fine! Do you have time now?

Sure!

Okay so, whether you like it or not, you're basically considered to be the creator of "emo." And I was just wondering - why have you always thrown yourself so emotionally into your music?

Well, first of all, I don't recognize that attribution. I've never recognized "emo" as a genre of music. I always thought it was the most retarded term ever. I know there is this generic commonplace that every band that gets labeled with that term hates it. They feel scandalized by it. But honestly, I just thought that all the bands I played in were punk rock bands. The reason I think it's so stupid is that - what, like the Bad Brains weren't emotional? What - they were robots or something? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

But anyway, when I was young, I was always over the top because I was so fucked up. Not "fucked up" as in "wasted" but more mentally "fucked up". And I was really jacked up. So it came out of that. I mean, before I was in Rites of Spring, I was in a band called Insurrection with Brendan, the Fugazi drummer who I've played with in every band I've been in.. And our music was like Motorhead and Discharge and Venom - shit like that. That was what the band sounded like. And we weren't very good! But nobody was calling THAT "emo." Then when we started Rites of Spring, I guess we got more serious about what we were trying to do. But I didn't actually sing in Insurrection. In Rites of Spring, I decided to sing and that's what came out. Because when I was young, I was nuts.

Like that scene in the "Instrument" movie where you push your legs up through a basketball hoop and sing upside down while dangling from the rim by your legs!

Yeah, that era of Fugazi was weird because I joined the band in a staggered way. I joined after the band had already been playing together and writing songs for a few months. I'd always been a guitar player - I was in five bands before Fugazi and I played guitar in all of them - but I didn't see room for another guitar in Fugazi with the way the songs were. So my concept was I'd be like Flavor Flav or something; a guy who sang occasionally and played a different role, offsetting things. When we started playing shows, I was so used to having a guitar, I had to struggle to find a way to occupy myself. It's funny - that show with the basketball hoop was NOT a big show. The way it's filmed makes it look pretty crazy, but there were probably 20 people at that gig. It was in Philadelphia in a gymnasium or something. It was one of our first ten shows, and we were playing really fuckin hard. In the movie, we cut off the film before you see that I fell.

You FELL?

Yeah, I fell into the drumset. Fucked myself up pretty bad.

Good lord! So. do the songs you - when you're playing a live show and you get to one of the early songs that only had one guitar, do you put your guitar down? Or have you written parts?

We don't use a set list, but basically before we go on tour we learn every song we've ever written except a few things we can't stand. So we call stuff out to each other, and it can be any of like a hundred songs, so when someone wants to play the old stuff, I'll put my guitar down. On a few of `em we've added a second guitar. Like for "Merchandise," we added a guitar idea for me. "KYEO" is another one; we reworked that for two guitars. "Furniture" is one of the oldest songs the band ever wrote, but when we decided to redo it, we put it together with a second guitar. But for most of the other early ones, when we do them, I put the guitar down and get the chance to stretch my legs.

You said there are some songs that you're sick of?

Only two or three. And there's one we can't figure out how to play. We just never added it to our live show. That's "Polish" from Steady Diet of Nothing. And there are a few others here and there that have drifted away.

Every Fugazi fan I know feels the same way I do - that every album you put out is even smarter and more interesting than the previous one, which was already really smart and interesting. Does this sort of audience expectation ever scare you at all? Like, are you ever afraid that you won't be able to live up to your own expectations of yourself, or that you might get writers' block or anything like that?

We've certainly had that. That's why it takes us so long between albums. We are really slow. That's one of the weird things about the band; all four of us have really extreme filters. Nothing will get past us if it stinks. It's happened a few times, but we're really hard on ourselves and on each other. For each song that ends up on a record, there are so many permutations and arrangements that have been discarded. But we have a high standard. And if it ever got to the point where it just wasn't working anymore, I think we'd have to put it to bed. But what's helped is that with every stage of the band, it's gotten MORE democratic instead of less. In the beginning, Ian had written a bunch of songs so that's what was on the first record. After that, more people became involved in the writing process. First I started writing some, and then Joe sang a few of his, and now we all write and we've even added a second drummer. One thing that nobody realizes is that our drummer writes tons of the guitar parts and bass lines. He's as involved in the songwriting as everyone else. Outside of the lyrics, I mean.

I noticed that there's only a few bands on Dischord right now. Is there still any kind of hardcore or punk scene in DC?

Yeah, but I mean it's very different from what it was in 1980, when it really was contained enough to where you knew everybody and all the bands. In terms of music, the city has grown so much stylistically over the years. There are so many types of music going on. Even on Dischord, the bands have aesthetically splintered off in so many directions. So the scene isn't unified in a sonic sense, but there are still people who've lived here for fucking ever who still hang out and go to shows.

I know that Fugazi is very much into DIY and avoid the major labels, but do you - are you against other bands that do that? Like Nirvana - would you say they "sold out"? Or do you not really care too much what other bands do?

We take care of our own business. I know a lot of bands that have made completely different decisions, friends of mine too. But I'm not into other peoples' business like that, and the way they decide to run things doesn't impact my enjoyment of what they create. But for us, we're serious control freaks. I think part of the reason we've been together so long is that we work in isolation and we have the freedom to do what we want. A lot of bands I respect decide to do it a different way and the pressures put on them by the music business just fuck them up. It's an object lesson. I'm into people being inspired by the way we work, because it works. But it's not a template I think everyone absolutely has to follow. But that's me - I personally don't feel judgmental about what other people do.

Wait, you're not typing all of this, are you?

I'm a fast typer! Don't worry about me!

Oh, I'm sorry!

I tried to record through the phone a couple of times but my phone is too quiet, so. I type fast though. Of course, you talk fast too.

Yeah, I need to slow down.

Nah don't worry about it. I know I'm taking it out of context here, but what did you mean by that old lyric, "I realize that I hate the sound of guitars"?

That's funny you mention that on the heels of your last question. That song was written at that moment when all the shit was exploding for underground music. This gushing of guitar bands, marketing of guitar bands, was so obnoxious to me, that at a certain point, I just realized, "Man, I'm fuckin tired of hearing about this! It's just so pat." In a way, it's kinda perverse. I mean, you can't get much more guitar-oriented a band than Fugazi, but there I was saying I hated the sound of guitars. But it was a realization that sound has no politics - guitars have no politics and just because the guitar is distorted doesn't really mean anything. It was just an industry selling point for a little while till the next oddity strolled down the runway.

Do you still get kids coming up to you thinking that you're all straight edge and purist and everything?

There's a lot of misconception about the band. And that's what happens when you don't do a lot of press; not that I have a single regret about our avoidance of the traditional PR machine, quite the opposite, but mythologies do develop in the vacuum and spin out of control. Sometimes it's really strange - you'll meet people and you realize that they're intimidated. Like they think you're gonna knock the cigarette out of their hand. And it's such a complete distortion of reality. But it's hard to explain what we're all about and give people a full history lesson of what's gone on with us. The film helped. I think that made people feel like, "Alright, they're human beings." It gave the world some perspective, which we needed to do, because we're not on TV every day or in a million magazines.

Like in the movie where one of the band members says his sister started dating some guy who thought Fugazi all lived in a cabin with no heat?

Yeah, like that! There's still this thing where people think we live this monastic existence, and it's not true at all.

Are there any new bands you're into?

Yeah, I hear new shit I like all the time. There are some great new bands from around here like Et At It, Antelope and Measles Mumps Rubella - who all have records coming out soon. And there are bands that have been around for a long time that we have an affinity with. Like Shellac from Chicago, and The Ex from Holland who I think have been around since like `78 and they're still playing music that's as radical as they've ever been. And I like Blonde Redhead from New York. Locally, there's this kid named Mick Barr, a guitar player who's played with a lot of different projects called things like Orthrelm, Octis, Crom Tech. He's this incredible, psychotic guitar player. It almost doesn't sound like a human being could make those sounds with a guitar.

Do those bands have records out?

Orthrelm and Crom Tech do. Actually, our bass player put one of their records out on his Tolotta label and I put one out on my Peterbilt label.

What else have you put out on Peterbilt?

It's kind of a weird label. I was doing it even before Fugazi started, when I was in a band called Happy Go Licky. I put out a live EP by that band. (NOTE: AT THIS POINT, MY APARTMENT BUZZER BUZZED AND MY DOG BEGAN BARKING VERY LOUDLY, HOPING IT WAS MOMMY COMING HOME FROM HUNTING. AS SUCH, I MISSED A SENTENCE OR TWO HERE)Sometimes I put out some old archival tapes like this great band Brendan was in called Deadline.

Oh, they were on, uh.

Flex Your Head, yeah. This stuff beats any of their stuff on Flex Your Head. That was the floor I came in on - Deadline was the band I was really down with.

Can you hold on a second? Someone keeps buzzing my buzzer.

Sure.

(pause)

Sorry about that. It was a delivery guy delivering food I didn't order. (NOTE: TURNS OUT IT WAS MY WIFE'S DINNER - SHE ORDERED IT WHILE ON THE BUS COMING HOME, AND HAD TRIED TO CALL ME TO LET ME KNOW, BUT OF COURSE I WAS TYING UP THE PHONE LINE WITH GUY PICCIOTTO OF FUGAZI FAME, SO HER DINNER GOT RETURNED TO SENDER, ADDRESS UNKNOWN).

So have you put the Deadline record out yet?

Huh? Oh yeah! It came out a long time ago. It's actually out of print now. I'm thinking about reissuing it though. I can send you a list of stuff I've put out. I usually do 1000 copies of each pressing, and they come in these manila envelopes that I handcut. It's actually a fuckin pain in the ass, but they look cool!

I know you play a lot of benefits for various causes. Is there ever a situation where one member of the band doesn't want to do a particular show because of his ethical or political beliefs being different than the other members, or anything like that?

The stuff we do benefits for isn't terribly controversial. It's usually local grassroots organizations that we've been in contact with for a while. Like the DC Free Clinic, I mean we're all down with stuff like that. There have never been any arguments.

Since you're a resident of Washington DC, I'd love to hear your thoughts about George W. Bush and his War on Terror.

It's crazy, man. I wake up every day thinking it's a nightmare that has to end. It's an incredibly bizarre time. I'm very perplexed. I've always felt like there's been a disconnect between the voters and the people who run the country, but lately the gulf is getting so extreme, it's like they have complete contempt for ordinary people. What we're witnessing is explicitly true class warfare from the top down. This war is absolutely insane. So are all the weird civil rights cutbacks that have been going on. You look at our government and all the way down, on every single level, something's wrong. But hopefully something good will come out of it; maybe, it'll re-energize people so they'll get involved and active in political protest.

Yeah, but what good does that do? Millions of people protested the war and he announced - ANNOUNCED - that it would have no influence on his decision.

Yeah, he had some incredible quote. Like "I don't rule by focus groups." It's seriously like he's saying, "Protesting is fine, but it's not going to have any impact. Go over there and blow off some steam if you want to, while we just run the whole world."

So what can we do about it?

If I had the fucking answer, he'd be out of there. I mean I don't have any blueprint of ,like we need to do this and this and this and it's all going to change. But feeling hopeless is easy to fall into, particularly, obviously now and I think that is a luxury we really can't afford ..... There can't be this sense that there is only one conversation going on in the world and that it is subsidized by money and power - there has to be some counter to that or otherwise we are just confirming their hustle that there is this uniformity of consensus in this country which is complete bullshit. Also, I think there are always more cracks in the system then even it recognizes. You just have to really lean on them a bit to start exposing them. Back in the 80's we would be out in front of the South African Embassy pouring red paint on the street and beating on pots and pans. Sometimes, I would have this feeling like it was just this stupid, idealistic pissing in the ocean but the thing is apartheid and white rule actually ended and Nelson Mandela, who no doubt spent major time on some State Department terrorist list, got out of prison and became president of the country! I'm not saying our midget protests in DC brought it about in any specific way, but globally speaking a lot of human weight was brought to bear and a lot of people in South Africa sacrificed themselves to make it happen and it did happen. So I mean no one knows what will come down as history unfolds so in the meantime you just have to keep adding human weight on the side of things that you think are right. And obviously, there is plenty that is not right right now.

Back to the very beginning - when Fugazi first started, was there a lot of resistance from hardcore fans who just wanted to hear fast punk rock?

The first few years of the band were confrontational on every level. It was a really weird era because you had a lot of people who - there was this weird kind of fallout where hardcore had gotten so twisted by the time it disseminated around the country, it had become just stupid and violent and it was kind of a drag. It was like going into combat, all the craziness we had to deal with back then. Like nights where you would have all these insane "Nazi" skinheads trying to smash in the front of the club. You know, all this violence over a show. It was a lot of work to go out every night to make the case for something new. In the end, it paid off, but at the time sometimes it felt like missionary work.

What is the band doing now?

We're actually kind of shutting things down for a while, because our drummer has a third child coming in April and he needs to deal with family stuff. So we're putting the band to sleep for a while. We got back from a tour of England and that was kinda the last thing we had on our roster so we did that. We had actually worked on a bunch of new music too, and made a bunch of tapes, but I'm not sure when we'll get back to that stuff. We were working pretty hard up through December, and then we had a band meeting and he let us know that he needed some time off.

What are you doing while the band is on hold?

I'm producing the next Blonde Redhead album.

Oh, you're producing?

Yeah, I worked with them on their last two records too. That'll take me through next month. Plus, the thing about our band is that even without a tour or new record, the bureaucracy of running the group always exists. And we're self-managed so most of the work kinda falls on Ian and myself. So I'll be busy just running day to day stuff and waiting on the next turn in the road.

How have you managed to stay together for fifteen years, seeing each other every day, riding in the same vans, having to deal with each other for that long without starting to hate each other? Like The Ramones absolutely despised each other by the end there!

Well, we really go back, the four of us. I've known Brendan since I was 14 or 15. I'm 38 now, so we've been playing together for 23 years. And I've known Ian the same amount of time and Joe just a little less. So we have a lot of shared history and similar frustrations. We'd all been in a lot of groups before Fugazi that had broken up. I was in five bands that I felt never reached their potential. So, I was only 22 when I joined Fugazi but still I was frustrated to an insane degree. We were all looking for a complete outlet of what a band could be.

Plus we went through all the weird bullshit right at the beginning. The first couple years, we did endless touring, like six or seven months of touring a year, and having made it through that.. It was ridiculous, it was like joining the army to go out there and do that much work in that span of time. I had been in five bands that had never toured at all. Then to join Fugazi and immediately go on a three-month tour of Europe..

Is that why Fugazi got so popular so quickly? Because you were always touring?

I don't know. Maybe that had the most to do with it. But it was an ethic that had existed since the early 80s - not just to play the big towns, but to play EVERY town. We really worked hard and took it really seriously. Our records - I've always felt like we could make a better record, but from the beginning the shows were about playing as hard as we could and making the audience FEEL something. It's weird though because the popularity thing probably peaked in '91 but we've had a really steady kind of audience for a long time. We've been around for sixteen years, and I guess there are a lot of people who are just really down with the band.

Speaking for myself, I became a fan when Repeater came out. At that point, I was in high school and I'm not sure I really would have been into something like Red Medicine or End Hits at that time. So for me, it was like I grew up and learned more and wanted to hear more challenging music, and it's almost like my interests were parallel to your own because, like I said, every album is even smarter and more interesting than the one before it. So maybe it was like that for a lot of people, they just grew up with the band.

I don't know though. Like there's that scene in the movie where the kids are ragging on Red Medicine; they were totally bummed out by it. I think of it kind of the way I think about the Beatles. In 1964, they looked a certain way and sounded a certain way, but within two years, EVERYTHING about them was different. Sonically, their clothes, they way they looked - And I imagine that a lot of people at the time didn't know what the fuck was going on. But they were just responding to the changes of being alive. That's how bands work. If you're not genre-defined, and you're reacting to reality, then the music is going to change as your life changes.

Plus, I imagine that after playing the same songs over and over on tour, if somebody comes up with a new song that sounds like the stuff you've already done, you're probably like, "Uggh! No! Do something different!"

Yeah, we always want to do something new. But certain things are built into the sound. We can push against it, but - the craziest thing about our band is that we're all pretty limited as to our actual skills. Except our drummer, who can play any instrument. We're working as hard as we can, but we're not virtuosos. We just have a discipline to push ourselves as hard as we can.

It's like what a friend of mine said - "Every Fugazi album sounds different, but they all sound like Fugazi." It's like you're not afraid to completely change your sound and make it jazzier or slower or weirder, but somehow it always has this Fugazi feel to it.

Well, we've been kinda learning how to make records. We tried to produce ourselves the whole time but for a long time we didn't know what were doing. It wasn't until around Red Medicine that we finally felt comfortable with what we were doing. We were so used to playing together as a live band but in the studio nobody took the reins. But we eventually figured it out. The idea was to - our first few records had a stiffness about them that bothered us. Over time, it became easier to feel spontaneous. The weird thing with records is that you only get to make a few. Playing live, you fuck up one night and its bad but so what? It evaporates. But if you make a bad record, it haunts you for the rest of your life.

Are you happy with all of your records?

(NOTE: AT THIS POINT, MY DOG HEARD A NOISE OUT IN THE HALL AND BEGAN BARKING REALLY LOUDLY, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. SO I MISSED MOST OF HIS ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION). I don't know, I never really listen to them. I actually went back and listened to our first CD recently and it was like JESUS! I couldn't believe it was recorded in a basement!

Have I taken up enough of your time?

Dude, is that your dog?

Yeah.

Wow!

He's upset because my wife isn't home, and he keeps hearing noises out in the hall that he thinks are her. It's okay though - we live on the fifth floor which is the top floor, so we don't hear noises all that often.

What kind of dog is it?

A German Shepherd mixed with a Greyhound.

Oh cool!

Do you have a dog?

Nah, I have a cat.

What kind of cat?

A fat as hell cat!

Nice! Okay, here's my last question. The whole thing about breaking up. I know a lot of people thought you were going to break up when you called your album End Hits. But for me, it was a lot earlier, when I bought Steady Diet Of Nothing on vinyl and saw where you'd scratched "Don't worry; this is the last one" in the inner groove. What was that all about?

It's almost like a joke. Like that was just some - I forgot the exact reason - we were so toasted and feeling so fatalistic by the time we finished that album. It was just like dark humor - "This piece of shit's the last one." But we didn't mean for End Hits to sound like we were breaking up. There's other stuff too. People always come up to us and say, "Hey, I hear this is gonna be your last tour!"

Why?

I don't know! I guess people expect DC bands to break up really quickly so they keep waiting for us to have some kind of fall out. It's been tough - the last few years especially as people have gotten older and had kids. But we kinda work in the moment and set up parameters to work around. It's not gonna last forever, and at some point we know it will fold. But I'll tell you, there have been so many times when I've thought, "Okay, this is probably gonna be it," then another ten years go by. So we just keep on rolling and see what happens.

Cool! Well, thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it.

No problem! Thank you!

Okay, have a good evening.

You too!

Reader Comments

shoushou22@madrid.com (Karla)

Thanks for the awesome interview. Fugazi's my favorite band, and I'm always interested in what the members have to say. I was especially glad to hear Guy's opinion on Bush's reactions to war protests. Otherwise, it's a little saddening to see that Fugazi will be pretty inactive for awhile, but c'est la vie. In the meantime, I've got to remember to check out some of those Peterbilt releases!

By the way, you've got to be one hell of a fast typer.

jputh@wf82.com (Jonathan C. Puth)

Hey, that's a great interview with Guy Picciotto. Thanks for doing it and putting it up. I enjoyed it.

drazy@gatecity.com

Good interview! I was blown away at the Rites Of Spring album, Guy's work with Fugazi, and even liked the last Blonde Redhead album he twiddled the knobs on. That makes me a longtime fan, I guess... One thing that I wouldn't want to discuss with Guy is his take on politics. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I remember Guy contributing a lot of his efforts to the Nadar campaign in 2000, under the pretence that the Corvair hating "outsider" would really make a difference. And what a difference he did make! Thanks to Guy's efforts, and thousands of other political "progressives," they directly contributed in G.W.B.'s election victory. "I'm very perplexed." states Picciotto about our current political climate, but I'm perplexed at why he is. This is exactly what real progressives feared would happen if Bush 2.0 got elected: aggression, environmental dismantling, right-wing judicial nominations, chipping away at a woman's right to choose, cutting funding for our country's public schools and numerous examples of giving hand-jobs to extremist Christian lobbyist. I'm perplexed why an intelligent person such as Guy would swoon under the rhetoric of an "outsider" like Nadar who viewed himself as a spoiler, even when he clearly understood that his campaign would give a free boarding pass for a candidate that stood polar opposite of Nadar's supposed convictions. Ralph Nadar clearly demonstrated that his campaign was not about the issues that he "believed," but instead it was all about his own ego and the fact that he, with less that 5% of the public vote, was the spoiler of the 2000 election. Disagree? Take a look at Nadar's comments to his supporters during his "concession" speech.

"This war is absolutely insane. So are all the weird civil rights cutbacks that have been going on." No shit?! For someone who lives in D.C., Guy acts like he was the last one in town to ever figure out that Ashcroft would get the nod as Attorney General when anyone with an iota of common sense understood that Bush had a special position for Ashcroft if he failed to beat a dead man from Missouri.

Guy adds: "hopefully something good will come out of it; maybe, it'll re-energize people so they'll get involved and active in political protest." Sounds like something strait out of the Green Party campaign book: let's let the worst candidate get elected and that will somehow light a fire under the idea that a third party candidate can actually get elected tomorrow. Here's a better idea: if you're not digging what the Democratic Party (or Republican for that matter) is doing, then galvanize a group of people at the local level to push your beliefs upward and change the ideology of the party itself? For fucks sake, the Democrats are so disorganized now I think Dischord's roster could easily manage a complete overhaul of their local political party headquarters. The Christian Coalition didn't just suddenly find their voice in the Republican party; instead they got their twisted members to form a grassroots network and pushed their values up and got their ideology elected. Ronald Reagan, who rarely attended church, noticed their political clout and then started to position his rhetoric accordingly.

And while it would be easy to suggest that Jeb handed his Bro Florida, the reality is that if 5,000 Floridian Green Party voters actually used their head instead of their hearts when casting their ballots, we wouldn't even be living in an environment of "complete contempt." I know this because I voted with my heart too: In '96 I voted for Nadar under the notion that my protest vote would signal that I didn't like the shades of grey our two party system was demonstrating. With that in mind, I understood that 1.) Clinton would landslide anyway and 2.) there wasn't a slight chance of some right-wind retard nominating a Supreme Court justice (which, Ralph, has more power than any corporate contribution). "I wake up every day thinking it's a nightmare that has to end." The problem is, Guy helped create the bad dreams of our current political state. He said it best in that old Rites of Spring song: "And if decisions cause divisions tell me who's to blame?"

Other than that, Guy, you fucking rock...

bfixico@vaecorp.com (Neb Fixico)

Bravo. I found your site by accident. I'm glad I did. Wonderful interview. I am now a new fan of this site. Gotta go...more to read.

jsimon@san.rr.com (John Simon)

Thanks for the interview. Fugazi has been my favorite band since 1989 and I sure hope that the songs they have been working on make it onto an album. Funny thing about "Polish"... I love that song, but I guess I'll stop hoping that they will play it when I see them.

Also, I am a conservative (as in Republican) Fugazi fan. A contradiction in terms?... It shouldn't be. One thing that I don't understand is why all of Fugazi's fans (as well as music fans in general) think that just because Guy or whatever star may be a flaming liberal, that it is cool for them to be one too. Wouldn't they all be more rebellious and independant anyway if you guys went against the grain of your crowd? Can't you all see that Bush has waged a war on terror to enable us to live in and raise our children (including Brendan's unborn child) in a safer, more peaceful world? Don't you think that human and civil rights should apply to all of the families in Iraq that, under the evil rule of Sadam for decades, have been denied such rights and the freedoms that we enjoy?

Of course it is a shame that people have to die for peace and freedom, but these things are worth fighting for! This does not mean that I am pro-war. Only an idiot would be pro-war, but only an idiot would fail to recognize that war is sometimes necessary to rid the world of greater evils (nazis, fascists, communists, terrorists) that threaten the existence of innocent people. I am so thankful that we have a leader who is strong enough to do what is right, rather than swaying with the breeze. We just have to look beyond today and take in the big picture.

Guy's political comments make me sick, but their music isn't about the political issues of the day... at least not to me. I think that anyone who looks to uneducated musicians or actors to be their political voice is looking in the wrong place. What is really important is that Fugazi is truly a great band.

FYI - While waiting for new music from them, I have been listening to At the Drive-In a lot lately. They were independent for several albums and then put out there last one on a major label. All of their stuff is really good and you will hear Fugazi's influence.

Thanks again.

PS - Drazy, does the gatecity address for your e-mail indicate that you are from SF? If so, no reply is needed. That explains everything.

tapiad@seattleu.edu (Daniel Tapia)

Great interview, Mark! I like Fugazi but I'm not sure if I'd call myself a fan, but why I'm writing mostly is to address the previous comment, by one John Simon, relative to the matter concerning Guy's political views, as well as political comments in general. First off, I can't tell if this guy is kidding or not with his admiration for the Bush administration; supporters of Bush are kind of like myths I hear about sometimes but very rarely ever hear words from. Whatever the case, I can't let certain words go without a response, so here's my two cents, even though most people that read this will probably agree anyway, being that Mark's writing style isn't *ahem* very conservative--which is great though!

Being conversative I guess isn't bad in and of itself, and I don't like to classify myself as a liberal or whatever, I'm just a guy that feels awful a good deal of the time to know the world is going to shit and we have people like John Simon backing a mad, war-monger cowboy. And you might say, "well, that's just your opinion too", but come on, we all know it's the truth.

Like honestly, why do you back Bush? Why back any politician? Do you realize that like a very small percentage of people run this country--the most powerful nation in the world--and without even commenting on how a great deal of them are not very bright (and they aren't) do you realize, anthropologically and sociologically speaking, centralizing a wealth of power to a main core and trying to diffuse it out DOESN'T FUCKING WORK? There's a reason every city-state civilization has never lasted a substantial amount of time--cause the dynamics of power don't work that way, and they sure don't work well by focusing power and influence among a bunch of ignorant rednecks. I'm so sick of all this fucking bullshit.

Freedom? We're doing this for freedom? What does that word even mean anymore? We live in such a postmodern age and no one wants to admit it! Think about how bizarre life and all the world is right now! It's cheesy to say, but we've come so far with technology and so many advances but look at how ludicrous things are--we go bomb the shit out of another country to find weapons that aren't there--we do it against the law basically all in the name of "freedom"? Bullshit. I hate these people that still have an idealized version of that word and of America; I could maybe see it back in the 1940s and 50s but the dream is dead--after this war; after 9/11 there's no going back and anyone to deny that is a moron. It's like, fuck, how do you think we're such a rich country? Could you say: exploitation of other countries? This is all simple logic. We've basically become an imperial monster and nobody is doing anything about it! Well, certainly many are, but the core media is too busy giving blowjobs all day to the government to address the truth. This is an age where you HAVE to go to the alternative media to find the real truth because everything else is made nice and friendly and turned into a good guy/bad guy scenario (kind of like how St. Paul fucked up the story of Jesus and made it, as well as the bible, nice and user friendly). Fuck, there NEVER were any GOOD guys and BAD guys--and ESPECIALLY in this day and age we just can't think about it anymore. Everything is so postmodern! Look at the shitty media, our shitty television shows with "reality tv"--at least a decade ago we at least TRIED to have shows with plots--now it's all about voyeurism and things are so filled with irony and postmodern elements but no--we still have jackasses actually thinking the word "freedom" still means something; that there IS still meaning when there's NONE.

Going off and killing innocent people and a few "terrorists" while we're at it won't stop ANYTHING and if you watch the mainstream news and all that stuff, yeah, I'm sure you'd love Bush because all those networks are busy sucking his cock. None of those tools during all of this "war" had the balls to say how fucking ludicrous this all was. We use these words of "peace" and "freedom" but no one knows that they even mean anymore. How free are we? How free are we when like 5 I think major corporations dictate the dynamics of power; how free when a small percentage of people are making decisions for all of us; how free when we have a sanitized media making everything seem okay and nice and fun and going on watching stupid fucking shows and stupid fucking hollywood movies that still idealize conceptions that have been dead for YEARS--the dream is dead and has been dead and I'm so fucking sick of all this bullshit. The world is going to shit and no one is doing anything about it. In my lifetime I'm going to see serious shit go down in our country with the way things have been going and it's scary. We can't go on like this; it just won't work and hasn't been working and I don't know how the collapse is gonna happen, but I know historically, sociologically, anthropologically speaking, IT WILL HAPPEN (that really scares me!)--and Rome wasn't built in a day and it wasn't destroyed in a day either, but we will be destroyed eventually because of our own petty ignorance and I can't stand anyone fucking dumb enough to talk about "fighting terrorism" or the "bad guys" or "freedom"--we live in a postmodern age and it's stupid to deny that anymore, so anyone believing the dream--that has been dead for years--and being really content getting fed spoonfuls of bullshit from the media and our moronic "leaders" can go fuck themself.

And by the way, it's not protection of the innocent, but protection of the ignorant that's the truth of the matter. Innocent--us? Try more like corrupted fat ignorant pigs. Before commenting on musicians who you call uneducated to be discussing political matters I suggest listening to something other than NBC news and backing a supposed leader who is dreadfully dumb, not to mention probably sociopathic given the hard-on he seems to have when he talks about war. And by the way, like I said, I ain't no liberal; I like to think of myself as having common sense. Anyway, great interview and thanks for letting me have these words.

l.shabazz@comcast.net (lillie shabazz)

I'm just learning about Fugazi, loving them though. Mark, that was an awesome interview, I was excited to learn a little more Fugazi history.

I also want to add that when 9/11 hit, this country had a golden opportunity to make a leap in consciousness---instead it decided to go to war.

Also, from what I can see (and I hope it's true) this government is totally out of sync with its people. But hey, that's nothing new.

I also wanted to tell Tapiad right on. Thank's again Mark for hipping me to a little more Fugazi.

Peace :)

indsever@gmail.com

I just wanna kill your dog, and thank you and Guy for the interview!

fishpaste35@hotmail.com (Berny M.)

Great interview there with Guy P, Mark. The world truly needs a new Fugazi record. It'll not make the world safer to live in, but our ears and brains will thank us for getting a new Fugazi CD. Daniel, I'm with you. Lillie, the world indeed needed that leap in consciousness - seems that humans have stopped evolving. We're now going back to the reptiles. I will never be made to understand how ANY nation can bomb their way to peace.

[blouisparadise]

Upon request, here is a list of bottom Louis fics where one half of the pairing is famous and the other is not. Happy reading!

1) If It Hurts To Breathe, Open The Window | Explicit | 4406 words

In which Harry is a rock star, Louis is a tattoo artist, and one night stands are never really just one night.

2) Maid In The A.M. | Explicit | 9118 words

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

The lad frowned at him.

“Sorry,” Harry said automatically. Which, wait. No, that wasn’t right. “Um, actually, I sort of live here?”

Okay, that came out less firm than Harry would like, but it was still true.

The guy rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”

Harry had absolutely no idea what was happening.

3) Coming Up For Air | Mature | 11067 words

It's a long plane ride to LA but sitting beside Harry makes time fly.

4) My English Love Affair | Explicit | 19198 words

The thing about sleeping with a member of a famous indie band is that the inevitability of having a song written about you is most likely a hundred percent. The second thing is that in the end, nobody's supposed to find out it's about you.

The one where Harry writes a song about his English love affair and Louis sleeps with someone in White Eskimo and all he gets is a stupid song written about him.

5) Then We Talk Slow | Explicit | 20493 words

A famous/non-famous AU in which Louis banters back and forth with his new record company on Twitter, only to find out that Harry is the man behind the tweets.

6) You Could Have Moonlight in Your Hands | Explicit | 20501 words

It's the usual work for Harry—with awestruck fans crowding his space, cellphone cameras in his face, and rude paparazzi loitering around in front of the building to take his pictures, his day is turning into a not-so-brilliant one. And then a beautiful man falls into his life. Literally.

7) Hats Off To My Distant Hope | Explicit | 20990 words

Harry is in White Eskimo. Louis is in London.

8) When It’s Late At Night | Mature | 25601 words

Louis has zero interest in an ex-boybander turned solo artist when his appearance on the show gets announced, but that's exactly who he gets stuck with when Harry Styles shows up at the Late Late show to promote the release of his debut album. For an entire fucking week.

9) Up To No Good | Explicit | 26525 words | Sequel 1 & Sequel 2

Harry doesn’t think of himself as a womanizer, not at all. Sure, he enjoys sex, enjoys how women feel underneath him, and by some people’s standards he has sex with quite a lot of people, but that’s no reason to tell him that he can’t have a female PA anymore.

It’s especially no excuse for giving him a male PA who’s possibly the most gorgeous boy in the world who won’t even let Harry look at him for too long.

Sometimes Harry hates his life.

10) Something Great | Explicit | 31064 words

In which a coincidence, instagram, a party, a piano and a planned coming out all come together to make two people fall in love. As it happens, it turns out to be a rather effective combination.

11) If I Should Stay | Explicit | 31185 words

Louis is a television actor who suddenly needs a bodyguard.  Harry is the bodyguard he ends up hiring.  

A fic loosely based on the classic 1992 movie The Bodyguard.

12) Not Quite | Explicit | 34162 words

As Harry prepares for the premiere of his first blockbuster film, his manager encourages him to hire a bodyguard as a precautionary measure. Harry ends up making an unusual choice.

13) Is This Seat Taken? | Explicit | 35507 words

Note: This fic is locked and can only be read by AO3 users. There are BH mentions in this fic.

Louis makes a bet with Zayn that he can sneak into a music awards event without getting caught, and when he ends up posing as a seat-filling member of staff he runs into superstar Harry Styles and sparks fly.  Que the music.

14) Roots | Explicit | 43233 words

There aren’t many things that make Harry Styles nervous. He’s spent the past couple of years on and off various stages, filled with screaming fans, all chanting his name, loud and adoring. He’s done countless interviews, some even on live, national television, never faltering over his words, answers meticulously planned out, smooth and steady. He’s signed countless autographs, taken just as many photos, and even when he sat in his label’s studio, waiting to see how high up on the charts his single made it, he didn’t feel uneasy or uncomfortable. It’s all been unbelievably fun. No, there aren’t many things that make Harry Styles nervous.

Enter Louis Tomlinson.

15) Tangled Up In You |  Explicit | 45152 words

Harry blinks once. And blinks again. And says, his voice dangerous: “Niall, did you get me a mail-order bride?”

Because what the actual fuck. It kind of looks like Niall’s just purchased a person. For Harry.

Niall blinks back at him for a few moments, before throwing his head back and howling with laughter. Harry throws a pillow at him. Hard. “No, what the fuck, Harry.”

“A prostitute then?” Harry also doesn't want a prostitute.

“Of course not!”

“A stripper?”

“No!”

Damn, he’s running out of ideas. He settles for launching another pillow at Niall’s head. Niall bats it away easily, still laughing. “Stop!”

“What did you get me, then?!” Niall must hear the tinge of hysteria in his voice, because he’s pulling himself together, trying to stop himself from laughing.

There’s still a big grin on his face, though, when he says, “I got you a professional cuddler.”

A professional…what. “What?”

16) Cameras Flashing | Explicit | 81773 words

With his breakout single platinum three times over and his second album still selling out in stores around the world, Louis Tomlinson has made it to the top. However, his position as Pop Heartthrob of the Decade is threatened by the edgier, more artistic Zayn, who happens to be releasing an album a week after Louis’ upcoming third. Louis needs something groundbreaking- scandalous, even- to push past him in the charts. Much to Louis’ dismay, his PR team calls in The Sexpert.

Consulting with PR firm Shady, Lane and Associates pays the bills so that Harry Styles can spend his down time doing what he really loves: poring over data. On weekends and late into the evenings, he researches gender, presentation, and sexual orientation, analysing the longitudinal study that is his father’s life’s work. That is, until his newest client, the popstar with the fascinating secret, drags him off his couch and frighteningly close to the spotlight.

As the album’s release date approaches, will Tomlinson and Styles be able to pull off the most risky PR scheme of the millennium and beat Zayn in sales or will the heat of their feelings for each other compromise everything?

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

[northcountryprimitive]

“Solo Acoustic Guitar Stands Outside of Time.” An Interview With Dylan Golden Aycock

This interview originally appeared at North Country Primitive on 5th May 2015

Scissor Tail Editions of Tulsa Oklahoma is one of the most consistently interesting record labels around at the moment, with a series of excellent releases from amongst others, Sarah Louise, Scott Tuma, Nick Castell and, of course, the label’s founder and head honcho, Dylan Golden Aycock. His tune, Red Bud Valley, is featured on Tompkins Square’s recently released seventh volume of the ever-dependable Imaginational Anthems series and he continues to release new work in his various guises at an almost unreasonably prolific rate. North Country Primitive caught up with Dylan as he puts the finishing touches on the forthcoming solo follow up to Rise & Shine and as Scissor Tail gears up to put out new albums by Dibson T. Hoffweiler and Chuck Johnson.

Can you tell me a bit about your musical journey? What has brought you to a place where playing solo acoustic guitar seemed like a good idea? Living in Oklahoma as a kid in the pre-internet 90s, the only access to music I had was the radio and skate videos. I got really into hip hop through skate videos and also discovered groups like Tortoise, which I probably never would have encountered any other way. My dad and brother both play folk music and I guess hip hop was an involuntary rebellion on my part. My first instrument I saved up for was a turntable set up - I got way into turntablism and this competitive turntable stuff called beat juggling. It’s still probably the instrument I’m most comfortable on, but I haven’t turned them on in years. I picked up the guitar pretty late in the game, about the age of 24. Five years ago I bought my first guitar, a 12-string Alvarez. I got really obsessed with it, just as I did with turntablism and electronic music in my teens and early 20s. At that time I was just yearning for something simple and satisfying that I could play if the power grid ever went out. I also didn’t like the mental image of a 60-plus year old me behind a set of turntables. Hip hop and beat music is a young man’s game, and I didn’t really like keeping up with all the new shit coming out. If you want to be a professional DJ you have to be up on all the new stuff and I just really didn’t care about all that. I also quit around the time that CD turntables became the new standard and vinyl DJing was on its way out. What would you say are your main influences, musically or otherwise? Do you see yourself as part of the American Primitive tradition of solo guitar? I was really influenced by my older brother Jesse and some of the music he was listening to in his room when we lived together after high school. He turned me onto Bill Frisell and Daniel Lanois, which was a big influence on my interest in pedal steel guitar. My dad introduced me to some of my other favorite artists - Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, The Innocence Mission… I can’t downplay the role that discovering Peter Walker, Suni McGrath and Robbie Basho played in me taking the guitar seriously. At that time in my life it really spoke to me and was an acceptable way for a white kid from Oklahoma to sort of lean into Eastern Raga music. As far as the American Primitive thing goes, everyone wants to shun the title, because no one wants to be pigeonholed and I understand that, but there’s no avoiding it if you play instrumental acoustic guitar in open tunings, unless you’re Michael Hedges. You can’t be upset if listeners are drawing comparisons to Fahey, Basho and so on. I say just accept it and further the genre: it’s not like there’s a ton of people carrying the torch anyways. Norberto Lobo is one of my favorite guys playing acoustic guitar, and he’s one of the hardest to label. Same with Blackshaw, They’d both be a stretch to label as American Primitive. I think some of the stuff I record could definitely fit in that genre, but I also get pretty bored hearing just acoustic guitar compositions - a lot of it starts to blend together. Most of my recordings employ some kind of accompanying instrumentation, whether it be pedal steel, synth or some kind of bowed classical instruments. I’ll even take cues from my days making electronic music or hip hop and add samples to some of the guitar stuff. You seem to have been involved in about half-a-dozen different groups and collaborations, including Talk West who appear to have released about four albums in the past year or so! Do you see yourself as a collaborator who also makes solo recordings, vice-versa or neither of the above? Do the different approaches satisfy different musical urges for you or are they all part of a continuum? Living in Tulsa, there’s a limited number of collaborators that I can record with live who are into the same stuff as me. I’m definitely really happy with the recordings I’ve made here with friends, but I find myself recording alone way more often than in group setting. The Talk West project is a solo project, and I have a hard time calling those recorded moments songs, since such little thought goes into each one. It’s a real thoughtless and meditative project for me. It’s also nice to hide behind an alias where anything goes. Everything I’ve released as Talk West have been improvised, usually recorded to tape as one track, one take. I’ll sometimes edit or add sounds in post if I really like the initial recording, but the base is always improvisation. It’s definitely the most enjoyable project for me. Anything involving improvisation is going to be really satisfying. I did a couple of albums with Brad Rose that were really fun (Angel Food, Mohawk Park) - sort of drone projects - and I’ve contributed pedal steel to a handful of projects over the years (Mar, Robin Allender, M. Mucci). There’s some plans to collaborate on an album with James Toth of Wooden Wand and I’m doing a split with Tashi Dorji later this year that I’m really excited about. You released Rise & Shine on Scissor Tail, but your subsequent solo albums have been released by different labels.  Is this part of a conscious effort to separate yourself as a musician from yourself as a label owner? Or are you more prolific than you can afford to be?  Or do you just like spreading it around a bit? I like to spread it around. It’s validating to release on other labels with artists you respect and helps build connections and sense of community. Rise & Shine was a really personal album, recorded over a couple of weeks while my dad was in the hospital for a heart attack he had on Valentines Day 2011.The initial release was lathe cut on the 14 chest X-Rays from the surgery. The personal aspect of that album was my reasoning for self releasing. I never wanted Scissor Tail to become a vanity label, though I don’t judge anyone who self-releases on their own imprint, since in a lot of circumstances it’s the only way to make any money on an album unless you tour a lot or release on larger labels like Drag City or Thrill Jockey, who press in larger quantities and split the the profits generously with the artists. One of my favorite artists is a guy named Zach Hay, who has self released three LPs, each one under a different name. He turned me down on releasing his stuff and I also tried to see if he had any interest in being on that Imaginational Anthems compilation this year and he turned that down as well. I highly recommend checking out his albums: Bronze Horse, The Dove Azima, and Green Glass, which came out last year and I got to do the album artwork for the release. I really respect his artistic integrity and vision for each release, which is apparent on each album.

What made you decide to start your own label? Was it originally simply as a vehicle for your own releases or had you always intended to release stuff by other artists? The label started as a way to release various recordings my friends were making that they were sitting on or didn’t think were good enough to share. In Tulsa, I feel like a lot of the musicians in town hold themselves up to really high standards. Most the musicians around here take influence from the rock gods like Clapton and JJ Cale and overlook or just don’t know about all the folks who are making careers doing more original or experimental music. It’s a consequence of growing up cut off from any kind of underground scene and living in the radio bubble. My brother and some of our friends growing up would mess around with instruments and electronics for fun and the recordings would just end up buried on a hard drive somewhere. I felt they were really good and wanted to share them with people, so that was the initial motivation for starting the label. I have to give credit to Brad Rose, who runs Digitalis Recordings, for letting me hang out at his apartment and bug him with questions. Is there any particular label ethos or principle you work to? Not really, I just think labels should be transparent with where their funds go. The cost of production and so on. When it comes to tapes, I run Scissor Tail the same as every other tape label, where 20% of the stock goes to the artist. With vinyl, I’ve been doing 60/40 split with the artist - 60 to the artist, 40 to the label. I think the indie-industry standard is 50/50 profit split, which is what I’ve done with a couple of the more recent artists, who were kind enough to suggest that to me. Immune Records has a great ethos - as well as the labels I mentioned earlier, Drag City and Thrill Jockey. Am I right in thinking you proactively seek out the music you want to put out rather than responding to demos? It’s about half and half. Most of the tapes I put out came to me as demos, but a few of them were open invitations. The LPs on the label were mostly sought out. The only one that came in as a demo was this new album by Chuck Johnson that should be out in June. What are you looking for in an artist when you’re deciding what release? You’re building up  an impressive body of  work. Are there any releases you are particularly proud of? I’m interested in music that has a timeless feel, which is why a lot of the releases on Scissor Tail are guitar or drone related. Solo acoustic guitar, in my opinion, stands outside of time to a certain degree. If you were unfamiliar with Fahey, you could hear one of his albums and not know what decade within the last 60 years it was recorded. The same parameters don’t necessarily apply to drone music, because it’s generally electronic and that sort of limits the time frame when it could have been recorded, but it still has the same effect on the listener because of how minimal drone music tends to be. Gavin Bryars’ Sinking of the Titanic sounds as amazing today as it did in 1970 and will sound amazing when the sun burns out. Could you tell us a bit more about the Bruce Langhorne reissue? That release certainly put the label on the map. I just got lucky and wrote to him at the right time and offered him a really good deal. He’d been approached by a few labels to release it over the years, but I think it was just a timing thing or possibly the previous offers weren’t to his liking. The attention to packaging and presentation is consistently high, which for me at least, is an important aspect to running a label that puts out physical releases. Could you tell us a bit about your approach to this? Packaging and designing is my favorite part of running a label. If all I was doing were financially backing albums, I would have quit a long time ago. I really enjoy playing a creative role in each release, whether it be designing the artwork, doing the letterpress printing in my garage or seeking out other visual artists that fit the music. It’s really satisfying when it all clicks. There’s a lot of creative decision making that comes with running a label that keeps me constantly inspired. What’s the deal with cassettes? Do you just like the format or is it about cost and convenience for short-run releases? Is there anything consciously retro about using them? I love tapes! Everything about them. I love the nostalgia, the size, the sound, the fact that they make ripping music a pain in the ass. If you don’t offer downloads, someone has to spend a lot of time recording a tape to digital, separating the tracks, then bouncing them down and uploading them to the internet. It’s a whole process, and I just like the idea of manufacturing rarity, which I know is a bit controversial among the music community, but I’m all about it. Tapes are definitely also about cost: there are so many tapes I would have loved to put out on vinyl, but just didn’t have the funds. Also If you’ve ever been to a festival or music convention, people hand out CDs like business cards. In my opinion, it completely devalues the listening experience, where with tapes and vinyl, you have to sit down and take time to listen to. Can you tell us what you’re listening to at the moment? Any hot tips or recommendations? I’m listening to Kurt Vile a lot. I think he’s one of the best songwriters around. I also really love this album by Stephen Steinbrink that came out in 2013 called Arranged Waves. I’ve really been trying to seek out happier, less melancholy music lately. It seems to be hard to find outside of gospel, reggae, and traditional African music. I do listen to a lot of celtic music - Nic Jones, Andy M. Stewart, Dick Gaughan, Andy Irvine, Kevin Burke… I’m also pretty obsessed with anything Madlib puts out and another hip hop producer on Stones Throw, by the name of Knxwledge. Can I be a guitar nerd and ask you what you play and what you like about them? I lucked out three times via Craigslist and was able to acquire a 1949 Gibson LG2 in damn near mint condition for $350. I also play a 1921 Weissenborn Style 1 that I found on Craigslist in Florida. The guy who had it bought a storage unit on auction and there was a guitar inside that he knew very little about and so I snagged it from him for pretty much dirt cheap. My electric is a low end Mexican Tele. My pedal steel was a steal - haha - got it for $800 off a meth head in Tulsa who played in a cover band called Whisky Stills and Mash. It’s a 60s double neck Sho-Bud. I’m also fond of those lawsuit Suzuki guitars. What’s in store for you next - both in terms of your own music and Scissor Tail? I’m finishing a follow up to my first LP, Rise & Shine. It’s been in the works for the last two or three years. I also have those collaborations I mentioned earlier with Wooden Wand and Tashi Dorji. And then a lathe release with a bunch of other guitarists, Daniel Bachman, Tash and some other folks. That’ll be out on a really great label called Cabin Floor Esoterica probably later this year. A Talk West tape with Sic Sic out of Berlin in a couple weeks. As far as Scissor Tail goes, there’s quite a few things coming out this year. Chuck Johnson’s new LP called Blood Moon Boulder, which I’ve been busy letter pressing all the jackets for this last month. An album by another Oakland based guitarist and friend of Chuck - Dibson T Hoffweiler - that will be out May 7th. There’s a handful of tapes about to drop and an LP by Willamette that should be out in the Fall or Winter depending on how quickly we figure out the album art. Lotsa stuff brewin. Anything I should have asked you but didn’t? Nope, all bases covered. Thanks!

https://scissortail.bandcamp.com/

[tinymixtapes]

Column: Favorite Rap Mixtapes of August 2017

With a cascade of releases spewing from the likes of DatPiff, LiveMixtapes, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud, it can be difficult to keep up with the overbearing yet increasingly vital mixtape game. In this column, we aim to immerse ourselves in this hyper-prolific world and share our favorite releases each month. The focus will primarily be on rap mixtapes — loosely defined here as free (or sometimes free-to-stream) digital releases — but we’ll keep things loose enough to branch out if/when we feel it necessary. (Check out last month’s installment here.) --- YoungBoy Never Broke Again - AI YoungBoy [stream/download] There are a couple reasons that make me surprised that YoungBoy Never Broke Again (formerly NBA Youngboy) is only 17. First, he burst onto the national scene last year with a near fully-formed sense of melody and songcraft, the vanguard of a Baton Rouge youth movement with seemingly limitless potential. The other is that his life has aged him far beyond his years. The Baton Rouge set like guns, and not just for show; a recent New York Times profile reiterated the message underlying every co-sign from YoungBoy’s more-established peers: leave BR or perish. The comeback record after a prison stint is something of a rite of passage, and yet it’s impossible not to wonder how many more lie in YoungBoy’s future. If you’re looking for “real,” this is it: a promising young star racing against pre-fame charges and a time bomb of an environment that, as all that he’s known, is understandably difficult to abandon. –Corrigan B --- Deem Spencer - We Think We Alone [stream] Deem Spencer opened the final Yule Prog. At 22 years old, he might not realize how big of a deal that is. Shit, the world probably doesn’t realize how big of a deal that is. I may be the only person who thinks that’s a very big deal. But history will absolve me too, damn it! I digress. Deem Spencer proved he could rap his ass off with last year’s Sunflower, and his latest, We Think We Alone, is already something totally different. It’s the sound of a guard down, a garden, a gargantuan heart springing hope eternal. It’s really nice. –Samuel Diamond --- Wifisfuneral - Boy Who Cried Wolf [stream/download] Aesthetically, Wifisfuneral’s second record is standard Floridian fare — it wouldn’t even be a stretch to call it a composite of ideas that have emerged from the peninsula’s SoundCloud scene as of late, scampering across bars at Ski Mask the Slump God’s jawless clip, paving his way with Cris Dinero’s plosive kicks and a menacing presence more akin to a horror flick’s titular spiritual entity than a typical trap-villain. Boy Who Cried Wolf’s a conservative follow-up to the January release of When Hell Falls, an introspective dip into wonky boom-bap production, the sort that populated Pusha T’s King Push prelude, only more dreary and droned-out. This time around, Wifi’s brought bangers by the bushel, immolating synth bells with hypnotically-present bass while nimbly stuffing these brief beats full of triplet flows and the distinctive voices of his featured friends: 458 Keez’s bratty resemblance to Lil Wayne, Danny Towers’s impossibly deep snarl, and CHXPO’s slurred near-giggle, (my personal favorite contribution). This is Wifi’s last nuanced tape to date, but it’s also his most replayable. Even when the 20-year-old emcee’s borrowing sauce, he makes it his own: not many Soundcloud rappers can boast his balance between technical proficiency, artistic merit, and (most importantly?) headbang-inducing aggression. –Jude Noel --- Eli Sostre - Sleep is For The Week [stream/download] Putting together a mixtape of Billboard-quality pop rap in the OVOXO vein is risky these days, considering how many Drake soundalikes have seen their clout evaporate shortly after entering the scene. But Eli Sostre’s lightly-melodyned vocals pose way more of a risk to the competition. His songs are self-serious but not overly self-aware, confident but not mired in cliché. Hailing from the Empire State, he channels a double-cupping club vibe more suitable farther south, but takes heavy visual cues from Basquiat, The Culture’s adopted fallen angel and street spirit of a dead-and-buried NYC. Sostre has a radio-worthy voice, strongest on “New Addy” and “Someone Like You,” that’s complemented well by Soriano’s woozy, vaporous productions. Sleep is For The Week is a great collection of songs to snuggle into. –Ross Devlin --- Lil B - Black Ken [stream/download] Black Ken is the most divisive Lil B mixtape yet, which is odd, considering that its most accessible release, swinging between G-funk and horn-/key-driven P-Funk throwback with chilled hyphy sprinkles. While the latter can be heard on the iLoveMakonnen-featuring “Global,” songs like “Free Life” showcase Lil B’s evolution into tight, spaced-out production, with a flow not unlike “The Super Bowl Shuffle” played straight. Club-banger Lil B is present on “Getting Hot” and “Turn up (Till You Can’t),” playing more like singularly twisted versions of “the hits” than bids for mainstream attention. Did I mention that Lil B produced every track on the tape? (As he puts it on “The Real Is Back,” “BasedGod on the beats/ It’s 100% me/ Put my life in this rap.”) Despite its alienating potential, Black Ken, in the end, triumphs as an amalgamation of his past and a sampling of a possible future, and it’s one that would appear to be both expansive and impressive. –Emceegreg --- Gunplay - The Fix Tape [stream] Never one to be sullied or bogged down by rap label politics, Gunplay’s quiet tear across 2017 continues with The Fix Tape. True to form, anthemic trap abounds (“All flake and no shake, shake, shake…”), but the clincher here is an ability to slide through styles — see the G-funk bounce of “Where It At” or the classicist bent of “Hot Plate” and “Patience 2.0” — without compromising on the delivery and storytelling parlance that bought ears to him in the first place. This one’s sharp, polished, and remarkably poised; if Gunplay traded in the incendiary streak that gave us the likes of Bogota Rich: The Prequel, then he got a newfound sense of evenness and quality control in return. –Soe Jherwood --- Skye Verbs - Soul Food Eye Candy [stream] A few weeks back, I visited one of my favorite haunts for a curry burger and vermouth after a rewarding but tedious week of pulling artistic potential out of a bunch of squirmy middle schoolers. I floated in, grabbed a stool, paint under my nails, draped in a floral pullover sweater. Bartender, dripping with neck tattoos, looks me down, recognizes my face, offers: “I love that top, sweetie.” It was a bizarre, yet empowering moment; I don’t often get compliments on my appearance, so when I do, it’s uniquely affirming. Soul Food Eye Candy is rapper/singer Skye Verbs’s attempt at discussing inclusive values through neo-R&B and soul. There are a lot of platitudes here about who deserves who, but what she ultimately advocates is that good people deserve it all. And after a long day, it’s nice that I can throw this on, bob my head, and remember that still frame in which my value was affirmed by a wink. Check this out, know you’re worth it, and tip your wait staff extra when they make you feel it. –Jackson Scott --- Lil Tracy - Life of a Popstar [stream/download] Lil Tracy is the son of Digable Planets’ Butterfly and SWV’s Coko, a fact that almost assuredly means nothing to the majority of his fanbase. That’s OK. Of more immediate relevance is his association with Lil Peep, one of the SoundCloud era’s two or three biggest breakouts. Together with the rest of GothBoiClique, they’re the most straightforward example of the emo/rap analogy that has dominated the discourse surrounding rap’s youngest stars. For listeners who came of age at any time but the present, some degree of initial resistance is understandable; it’s been fascinating to watch the critic class balance a play count-mandated obligation to pay attention with the inability to form a personal connection with the music itself. At present, there’s no vision of rap’s future that excludes these kids; the ever-shortening generation gap aside, refusing to engage with a bona fide movement seeks to set the genre’s current conventions in stone. It’s already far too late for that, and yet rap’s hegemony over pop forms is just getting started. –Corrigan B --- Byou - I’m Gone [stream] The stylistic outlier of Lil Yachty’s “Sailing Team” collective happens to be the crew’s most consistently exciting contributor. Atlanta’s Byou boasts an unhinged vocal delivery, a knack for hook-writing, and a sense of doggerel humor that’s often laugh-out-loud humor. Although, sonically, his previous output hasn’t strayed far from his maritime mates’ bubblegum trap production, his longest effort to date — titled I’m Gone — revels in its own versatility. “Superstar” dabbles in bossa nova, “Money” throws back to the brass-laden hedonism of OJ Da Juiceman’s peak, and standout track “JK Rowling” pairs a twangy shuffle with one of the best choruses I’ve heard all year: “Smokin’ on that Harry Potter/ JK, rollin’ up.” It’s not one of more polished projects I’ve heard lately, but I’m Gone has charm for days. It’ll win you over if you let it. –Jude Noel --- Hotel - Have You Ever Tasted Hell Fire [stream] Hotel caught a lot of attention earlier this year when Mass Appeal posted his track “Hellbound.” Complete with illegible black metal script and a broken-in black metal denim jacket, with hot blood spurting from between his fronts and a black gun (I don’t know shit about guns. This is the best I got.), his latest mixtape Have You Tasted Hell Fire continues to document Hotel’s journey through a grim world. Maybe Hotel realizes what metal kids have known all along: that Satan has all the fun, that the baddest people throw the coolest parties, that embracing darkness and nihilism can be as equal parts kitschy and liberating as Kenny G saxing it up on an airplane. The tape is very short, with scorched, lo-fi samples and high-key energy that begs to be heard live. His voice is labored like a werewolf. “Four Rings” and “Gone” are pitch-perfect Piss Christ exhibitionism. He just finished a tour of the South, so you might be able to catch him before the hellfire swallows him up. –Ross Devlin --- Purple Dialect - Campfire EP [stream/download] Purple Dialect paid for his name in burnt hairs, the moniker coming to him in a shamanic vision he experienced while being electrocuted by his SP-404. At least, that’s what I gather from all this. He has bionic limbs and shoots rainbows from his eyes and raps “I’m in a folding chair, I’m eating graham crackers/ I’m in the woods, I’m a literal backpacker” in his latest video. This could all be dismissed as cheap gimmickry if Purp D weren’t so skilled on both the mic and the pads. “Take this L chief, peace cos I don’t even battle/ I just make dope beats over which I casually babble,” he says on “Tent Light,” as if it were so simple anyone could do it, as if this were a folk tradition. And it is. And a Pennsylvanian with robot arms is carrying it onward. –Samuel Diamond http://j.mp/2vGWK1m

[onestowatch]

sobhhï Discusses Branding, Moods, Inclusion, & New Single “facts up / الحين” [Q&A]

“I'm just trying to knock out all these handshakes and you know, trying to be more social this year,” says Sobhhï in between a laugh as he walked the streets of New York with me on the other end of the phone. Miscommunication for our chat didn’t alter his demeanor, but in fact broke the ice, calling it a “lucky coincidence” on my timing before he continued his travels to Dubai.

The alternative R&B artist simply known as sobhhï has purposely stepped out of the limelight during the duration of his career and embraced a shadowed persona. The pressure to disclose his identity to a constant growing fan base became more apparent with his musical success. “Like my youngest followers are the ones that are most curious, so definitely I do feel that pressure. But I always get reconfirmation too that making the focus not so about me has helped make it more about the music so, I'm pretty happy with the fact,”  explained sobhhï.

On his latest single, “facts up / الحين,” taken off his forthcoming EP, BLACK I, set to release on Feb. 19, sobhhï brings a multitude of intangible moods on a sultry production. Once again blending trapsoul with R&B, the track is an appetizing fill for colder nights. “facts up” maintains a sensual bedroom soul soundscape which softens a tinge of erotica from sobhhï’s dreamy vocals. His articulation from sensuality of lust towards a mental aspect intertwines with Arabic, English, and the undertone of distance.

In the same vein, sobhhï’s attention to detail on his continued color-palette themed EPs stretches beyond his music, but towards his draped branding. Recently teaming up with like-minded individuals, sobhhï’s latest endeavor, NUIT SANS FIN (night without end), acts as a record label, luxury fashion, and design house focusing on a nightlife style. Heavily influenced from Marty Neumeier’s “The Brand Gap” and “Zag,” sobhhï’s marketing mindset is prevalent on NSF. In order to stray away from the “standard cookie cutter” presentation among a saturation of similar artists, sobhhï states that when people zigs, he zags.

The conversation naturally leads from the ideals of NSF, moods, and the real reason why he spoke Arabic on “facts up.” A lighter side of sobhhï is shown throughout our conversation, always stemming from inclusion, offering a better insight of sobhhï’s thought process. What follows is a condensed version of our conversation.

OTW: Your brand is polished and it kind of goes into something that I noticed that you recently did in NY, it's NSF — which celebrates, if I may quote a "nocturnal lifestyle" — so I wanted more information on that and how that meshes with your overall brand and music.

Sobhhï: I took a look at my catalogue, and I realized there was a little bit of lack of cohesion of what kind of message I’m sending, and I looked around [to] more successful artists. And to me, the music industry’s success is more really about money; it’s about do you have a hit single that's gonna recoup that cost of your advance and all the monthly costs, but for me the success criteria is if fans or people who are listening feel like they're apart of something that's just not music that they hit play, but kind of a world they live in. So, I look at things like you know Drake's OVO and [The] Weeknd's XO, Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang, and A$AP Rocky’s A$AP brand, and I realized those brands are much bigger than the music. They allow people to feel more included. They allow people to change their social media handle to feel like they're part of a family. It's gonna be a design house at the end of the day, which means that it can range from anything from photography to architecture, but the point is it’s a project that allows me to make the feeling that people get from my music to go beyond just the music itself and make it more inclusive. And since then there's been people changing their handles on social media, feeling they’re more included in this family, and I hope I can make it bigger than me. And then one day when I'm not here anymore, it will still be here. And again, NSF means endless night, or night without end, and it kinda describes my music and my whole circle's sort of mindset or lifestyle. It also describes a lot of the millennial culture. You know, binging on Netflix [laughs], sleeping till noon.

OTW: So, are you of the millennial culture?

Sobhhï: That's a good question. [laughs] I would say— are you saying by age or by mentality?

OTW: Either or — it's subjective.

Sobhhï: Okay, I'll say mentality wise. You know like I said, everyone zigs or zags, so if I ever feel like there is a culture of some kind I try not to be so, included. I try to find a way to like stand out a little bit.

OTW: On Essentials, there's a couple tracks that I've noticed that are probably going to be on your upcoming BLACK I EP, right?

Sobhhï: Yes.

OTW: Did you kind of see this as testing the waters in a sense to what would stick, before you would put out, or I guess, polish the EP?

Sobhhï: Um, no. The Essentials are actually the curation of the very best songs from all of the EPs, so you can think of it starting with the concept of colors. I name my EPs after colors because I feel like there's many shades of R&B and hip-hop now, it's not just one sound. So, instead of having an album that sort of has these waves and people take the songs they like out of it, I decided it would be better to just package things in small, very, very, concentrated pieces of bodies of work that have a theme. And I also noticed there's a shift in the music industry, it seems to be diverging, and we're getting really, really, long albums now for people who are shamefully trying to jack up their stream numbers, and we're also getting a movement towards just singles from more independent artists because people don't have the patience to listen to full projects. So, I thought like 3-4 song EPs would be the perfect size that would allow me to go deeper into a topic or a mood, than just one song, and allow me to experiment with transitions, but not long enough to be considered having a dropout rate by the time you're done.

OTW: What I want to touch on is your immersion of Arabic. Even certain references in titles, whether it be a capital and the actual language as well; I think that's very beautiful. What was the idea to immerse Arabic because you really don't hear that a lot. I love Arabic indie rock but I don't hear it in R&B. [laughs]

Sobhhï: Yeah, thank you for appreciating that. I know some people don't. For me, the main motive for that is hip-hop started as a story about being African-American in America and certain forms of oppression that those people faced, and then it's something that grew and was kind of an empowering sound and empowering genre. And as the world became more like immigrant population, hip-hop has kinda gone to the world stage from where it started. And now, it's just... I look around, and I see there's a lot of representation of hip-hop in certain places and then there's certain places where there's people who really like hip-hop but it's not represented for them there. So, the whole point for Arabic for me is I just want more people to feel included in the movement. I look at a lot of my fans. I have a lot of Turkish fans, I have a lot of Arabic fans, I have a lot of fans from France for example, and it's like hopefully one by one I can find ways to represent my supporters in my music over time. And Arabic was just the first thing I did because I happen to speak it [laughs] but you know, that's kinda the concept with it. I want people to listen to it and be like, “Oh wow this isn't just something like happening thousands of miles away that I can't be apart of anymore,” it's like world culture. It's world pop culture.

OTW: You mention a lot about inclusion, whether it be the side project of the record label, as well as immersing cultures and languages together — is that just an overall theme that’s intentional?

Sobhhï: Yeah, I mean it's not like I have an overt agenda. Just like the way I grew up, my parents were both immigrants and they came here to get educated. My dad came for an accounting PhD and then he stayed, and then my mom came for an MBA, and they didn't really like each other very much. You know when your parents don't like each other, it's hard to have family friends; it's hard to even keep good ties with your family. I would say my younger brother and I grew up very lonely and on holidays and special occasions there really wasn't anyone around. And we also moved around a lot too, so these things culminated I guess. For me it's like family, like building a family, is a very important thing. And the same way I'm against racism, and against sexism, and every kinda -ism, I'm also against the concept that family has to be people you're related to because that's just a game of chance, like who you end up being related to doesn't necessarily mean they're good people.

OTW: Let's talk about your single “facts up”— what was the little push behind it? Because that one sounds like something I would ask a distant relationship, like, “Hey, what’s going on?”

Sobhhï: Yeah, so it's hard for me tangibly describe these things because you know, my process is very [laughs] loose. I kind of just step into a studio and these things just come out of my head and then you know I go back and edit them on paper, and then it's done. So, it's hard for me to walk through a very perfect story for you about “there's a girl” [laughs], but there's definitely a distance component to this. I'm hopping between all these cities and it's hard, for my friends and people I always care about, [who] aren't always in the same place. Also, originally I wasn't planning on speaking Arabic in this song, but there was this... I was talking to this girl and she said, “I want to hear you speak in Arabic.” [laughs]

OTW: [laughs]

Sobhhï: So I was like… Okay [laughs].

OTW: Was it that easy?

Sobhhï: Yeah. I didn't think it would turn out that good. [laughs] I mean, I happen to be in the studio at the time and you know nivo, who is my close collaborator, he just finished a session and we were going to get food and usually right before we leave to do something there's like a period of 20 minutes where like he's checking his phone or we're packing stuff up, so I took that 20 minutes to be like, "Okay let me get this out the way" [laughs]...so this is one of the songs where I let nivo hear it in the car and he's like, “Yo, dude you gotta get on this vibe” and I was like, “Really?”

OTW: That's hilarious. Love how things fall into place. Did you ever get to show that girl?

Sobhhï: Yeah, she knows about it [laughs].

OTW: Is there anything else you want to add, talk about?

Sobhhi: I will say BLACK I is just the first project and color dropping this year, there will also be Red III, Purple I, White I, and White II, if I have the stamina and the luck so look out for that, and they will all explore different moods and different feelings and different themes.

[markwatkinsconsumerguide]

Consumer Guide / No.42 /  independent film-maker Sharon Woodward with Mark Watkins.

MW:  Sharon, why is promoting awareness of Ataxia-telangiectasia important?

SW: I am very lucky to be able to work in this film-making world that I love, Mark. I also feel I have some responsibility within that to explore areas and issues that are not given mainstream airtime.

With regards to this subject particularly, I wasn’t at the time aware of A-T (Ataxia-telangiectasia). I was commissioned by the CEO William Davis. He contacted me a couple of years ago with this idea about giving a voice to the individuals with the condition rather than it coming from a medical perspective. I ended up making two short films both around 4 minutes each. With a third film being a longer 10 minute project.

The 10 minute film has been shown at the FERFILM International Film Festival (Open Air Cinema). It was broadcast in November 2016 on a number of Freeview Channels via the wonderful Community Channel. Also shown at the 23rd International Independent Film Festival, PUBLICYSTYKA, in Poland.

The social work course and the health and well-being course at Northampton University are also using the film as a resource for discussion and debate.

The condition and the manner in which it manifests is varied and only hit me at the beginning of the year. Rupert, one of the main characters interviewed in the film, speaks candidly and at length about having Ataxia-telangiectasia. Sadly he died aged 31 in January 2017. I didn't really know him : we met during filming.

Yet, when editing an interview over a long period of time you listen and watch what people say and how they say it. You start to feel like you know and understand them.  I didn’t know him and I can’t possibly comprehend what it must be like to have this condition, but all these people opened my eyes and made me aware of it. I hope I never stop learning.

MW: How reflective are you as a creative person? How does this trait manifest itself when producing film projects?

SW: I think this is hard to answer. I do feel I have a responsibility as I indicated before. I do think about the world, the way we live, how we treat each other. Perhaps at times I overthink and would be wise to let go.

Growing up, I never felt in my wildest dreams I would ever be given the opportunity to make films. It was a pretty dreadful environment and I was damaged greatly by it and the experiences I had. My saving grace was going into care. I later met some wonderful people - kind, caring - and, I also received help and support.  So when the film-making presented itself to me I ran at it. This was a fantastic thing to have happen and I want to at least try and make a difference by using these skills.

I am clear that I have a belief system and trust it attracts like-minded people and organizations.

If it is only about money, then quite frankly, unless you make the big time you are more likely to make a profit and earn more doing something else.

MW: What was your involvement at Tyne Tees TV?

SW: This was an incredibly long time ago now (1988/89). I had been training at the BBC in Wales (cutting rooms) outside Cardiff. This was before, and after, I graduated from Newport Film School.

It was just another Trainee/2nd Assistant Editing job. Most of us (graduates at the time) realized that we were no longer going to be offered places in the industry. Permanent jobs were giving way to short term contracts : we were all going to be freelance. I was offered a feature film (I knew the director as she  was a mentor for me). The film ‘Women In Tropical Places’ was funded by the BFI (British Film Institute), Film 4 and Tyne Tees who were offering facilities and housing the production. I was taken on as a freelancer for the production. During this time I also assisted the 1st Assistant Editor in the cutting rooms with a Tyne Tees documentary.

This was not a glamorous job as you were at the bottom of the pile. I was running around after people, sharpening Chinagraph pencils, getting coffee and Twix. I did a lot of what they called rubber numbering which you had to do on film. So when you cut the clapperboard off you could keep the film in sync until it went to the Neg Cutters. So logging footage : labelling up film cans. It was a low-level position but it was fantastic for learning about putting a film together. I always say to students try and get some work experience with an editor because the learning covers everything.

MW: How did you get your first big break with Channel 4, Sharon?

SW: This was by accident, Mark. I’d been a drummer in a punk band ‘Limited Relief’ and a youth performer in a drama group ‘Teenage Zits’. All this resulted in some of us from the drama group making a video called 'Not A Girl Anymore'. Maybe now this isn't so unusual, and perhaps seen as a natural progression for youth groups? However, back then, you had three TV Channels until Channel 4 came along. Video was not the accessible technology it is today. We raised funds via The Prince’s Trust.

Back then, in the early 1980s, we had no idea. I didn't even know about editing. Just thought that you set the camera up and everything just happened including the music and credits. Very naive by today's standards. If Google had been around it would have been a case of looking it up on-line.

The film had already been shot when commissioning editor Rod Stoneman decided to take it on for the youth series.

It was filmed in 1983 ; first broadcast in 1984/85 ; and again in 1986/87 as part of the Channel 4's youth series 'Turn It Up'. The production standards are not high and Channel 4 didn't have the same set up and criteria it does today. However, I was bitten by the film-making bug and from that point on I wanted to know more.

MW: How did you come to collaborate with ska band Symarip on your new film project?

SW: I first made contact with Monty Neysmith and Roy Ellis back in 2008 when I used a song 'Skinhead Girl’ by the Symarip in a documentary I was making called ‘Thank You Skinhead Girl’. It was about teenage identity and the song was just right as the theme.

I had the idea about the Symarip story then, but put it on hold at that time. Eventually, after a number of failed attempts at interviewing anybody from the band, I revisited the idea once more in 2012 (after a brief conversation with Roy Ellis prior to a gig he was doing in the UK). The filming began at Club Ska (100 Club) in London. We recorded Roy performing with The Moonstompers. This turned out to be an amazing night, much more than I had expected as Neville Staples showed up and we captured them on stage together.

I was very fortunate to interview four of the original Symarip band members, that’s Roy Ellis and Frank Pitter (face-to-face) and Monty Neysmith and Mike Thomas (via Skype).

I also have a number of other artists as well as fans and also interviewed the late Graeme (Goody) Goodall who sadly passed away in 2014, Co-founder of Island Records & Doctor Bird. 

So a wonderful documentation of history - both social and economic - as well as a film for the fans.

MW: Tell me your overall plans for 'Ska'd by the Music'... including funding / promoting...

SW: Well it is near completion. I’ve been working on it for five years and I’m aiming to finish around July/August 2017.  I had no financial backing. It was a difficult project to get funding for, and therefore I’ve been making it around my commissioned film work. This means what available time I’ve had has been spent on this production. All those involved: musicians, promoters, the narrator, researchers - everybody who helped me - they all put time in because they wanted to contribute. I’m extremely grateful to all of them for supporting this project.

The technical side has been another matter i.e filming, logging, uploading, editing etc. not to mention negotiating with music publishers. This is all time consuming and labour intensive and still ongoing (by myself). So has taken over my life quite a bit. I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to take this story out to a wider audience. However, as I have already said it will be nice to have my life back.

Obviously there are somethings I have to fundraise for. I can’t clear the publishing rights of the music or get DVD duplications processed without money. So I will be crowdfunding. This will enable me to raise funding to complete the project. Those that contribute and also meet certain criteria will receive a copy of the film (those interested should look out for the crowdfunding page all information and criteria will be clearly explained on the page).

The plan overall is to complete the film, first and foremost. This will be achieved by fundraising, clearing publishing rights, sorting paper work etc. The absolute date is still to be confirmed. However, I would say the end of this year at the latest. On release of the film copies will be sent to the funders/donators to the crowdfunding page, they will receive a limited edition of the DVD.

I will set up a Facebook page for ‘Ska’d by the music’, so that those interested can follow what is happening. The film will be entered into film festivals so dates of screenings will be posted so interested audiences will be aware of when and where it is being shown.

Distributors - Concord Media (they distribute other work of mine) are an educational ‘Not for Profit’ organisation, so I’m expecting that they will be interested in distribution. The Community Channel is also interested so a possible UK broadcast as well.

Synopsis: Ska’d by the music (Symarip story)

The creators of the ‘Skinhead Moonstomp’ album. The Jamaican band that engaged a generation of working class teenagers.

They were known as The Bees, Seven Letters, the Pyramids and Zubaba. In 1969 they would head straight into the British music charts with a Ska anthem to be remembered.

Not the first group of black musicians to appeal to a predominantly white audience. But this was different; Symarip were appealing to council estate kids.  

Following the Nationality Act in 1948, many Jamaicans migrated to Britain in the hope of finding work. The outcome is well documented and not all found the country as welcoming as they had been led to believe.

However, leading into the mid to late 1960s, through working alongside each other in factories and visiting the same dance halls and clubs, white working class teenagers saw their own alienation and lack of opportunities, echoed in the young Jamaican counterparts.

MW: What sorts of ska / two-tone treasures can be found in your own record collection?

SW: Originally a lot of my records were on vinyl and like many of my generation I have the ‘One Step Beyond’… and The Specials, The Selecter, Bad Manners, The Beat as well as ‘The Dance Craze – The Best of British Ska...Live!’ album. Much of this has also been purchased on CD and downloads as well.

You will also find Prince Buster, Dandy Livingstone, Desmond Dekker, The Pioneers and of course, Symarip. I do love the originals and many of the covers. What a brilliant first album UB40 created with ‘Signing Off’. However, you can’t compete with Tony Tribe singing ‘Red Red Wine’.That first guitar string, like the strings of your heart. Always sends shivers down my spine.

MW: What's the best thing you've ( a ) read ( b ) watched and ( c ) listened to recently?

SW:

A)  Read – I’ve found with the ongoing and non-escaping political scene at the moment I have been sent further into the world of fantasy. I do love vampire novels and science fiction. I am now on the final book of the Deborah Harkness All Souls Trilogy ‘The Book Of Life’. I got hooked on ‘A Discovery Of Witches’ because I know many of the buildings in Oxford that she writes about in the book. The idea of this history professor being a witch amused and appealed to me. So I’m on the last book in the trilogy, but haven’t been able to read as much as I would like.

B)  Watched – I’m into boxsets. I have just finished watching the final of series six ‘The Walking Dead’ and found it very disturbing. Having said that, Andrew Lincoln is truly fantastic and I also love the strong female roles such as Danai Gurira’s stunning sword swirling Michonne. If you speak of fantasy often people just think you’re a nerd. Which of course I am, but wasn’t sure about this series in the beginning, it has grown on me. My husband had originally been very keen on watching it and zombies have never been my thing. However, what has engaged me is the concept of how society, humanity could, and let’s face it, would, probably break down. I find all the characters very believable, complex and scary as hell.  

The other boxset recently watched was volume three of ‘House of Cards’. Amazing performances by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in this tale of corruption in the political arena. You begin to wonder about art imitating life, or visa versa.

Films I watched quite recently ‘Europa, Europa’ directed by Agnieszka Holland. Based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel (he also appears in it right at the end) it’s the story of a German-Jewish boy who escaped The Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but as an elite "Nazi" German. It is very intense at times, but also has dark humour. One dreamlike sequence shows Stalin and Hitler dancing together.

C)  Listened to – Occasionally I listen to ‘The Craig Charles Funk And Soul Show’ on BBC Radio 6 Music and ‘Elaine Paige on Sunday’ on BBC Radio 2. Otherwise, it’s Classic FM in the car but I don’t listen to much radio. I admit though that I started tuning in to ‘The Archers’ on BBC Radio 4 when they had the Helen and Rob storyline going, but I often forget!

MW: How do you see the future of film making for independent production companies such as yours?

SW: I’m a freelance individual not a Limited Production company.  So fortunately I don’t have to worry about employees.

The nature of funding has changed, smaller film agencies getting moved to bigger under one roof organisations. This signals regional film-makers missing out more and more on funding. Many film-makers are moving towards crowdfunding and other ways of finding support for their projects. Also technology is constantly changing, so I think how we watch films will also impact on the film-makers themselves.

MW: Aside from 'Symarip', any other film making projects in the pipeline?

SW: I am still pushing to get ‘Ska’d by the music’ completed so will be a while before I think about another personal project. However, I’m always looking for commissioned work and have a keen interest in history so we’ll have to see what the future holds.

MW: Where can we find out more on Woodward Media?

SW:

http://sharonfilmblo1.blogspot.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/SharonWoodward

https://www.facebook.com/woodwardmediacom/

© Mark Watkins / March 2017

[spamzineglasgow]

(FEATURE) On The First Five Years of Dostoyevsky Wannabe

As storms of various average names raged across the UK, SPAM stayed fashionably online and caught up with our DIY indie publishing comrades Dostoyevsky Wannabe over gmail. The Manchester-based press have been going an impressive five years now, and with the absolute power couple that is Richard Brammer and Vikki Brown at the helm, you’ll find all the off-kilter zeal of Stereolab combined with the stylish swoon of The Carpenters (fyi the two band t-shirts Rich and Vikki wore when we first met IRL) in their impressive back-catalogue of books (fiction, poetry and beyond), anthologies, collections and other materials. In this piece, Dostoyevsky Wannabe unpack the origin story of the press, the dazzling success of Isabel Waidner, the impetus behind THOSE covetable designs and, most importantly their love of GLASGOW – not to mention some very exciting publishing announcements…

On ‘phase 1’ of Dostoyevsky Wannabe

> ‘Phase 1’ is how we’ve started to refer to the first five years of doing this thing. It’s anyone’s guess why we’ve started calling it that because it’s not like the first five years was a tremendously well-defined plan written by some nameless council or corporate body. Overall there definitely wasn’t that much of a plan at the beginning and it’s possible to say that the whole thing is perhaps really just a design and publishing experiment that got out of hand. We think perhaps Phase 2 was the name of the repository of code that held our second website redesign or something, so perhaps that was the reason, like Autechre songs named after whatever they named their MIDI files. We’re arguably in phase 3 now. We wonder what that will be like.

> At the beginning we just wanted to make objects and to probably do something that was like some kind of 1980-1990s indie record label or some other such vague aim. We were writing a bit ourselves, so we thought we’d make books and put them out somehow as long as we could find a zero-budget way of doing it. A small press did seem a bit like an indie record label somehow (one of us is doing research on this at the minute and there are a few interesting similarities actually). Actually, we were reading an old article in an old copy of The Face today about Heavenly Records and it sort of reminded us how much we had sort of unconsciously been influenced by their approach. Anyway, the identity and the covers came before the content of the books and that was partly because when you start a press nobody necessarily wants to publish with you much because they don’t know whether it’s worth it. The idea for the Cassette anthologies and the fact that we were a little bit connected to indie literature in the US (via the internet) helped because a few writers who were more or less well-known over there submitted to the first one and Sam Riviere, who was doing quite well with his 81 Austerities book in the UK, also agreed to be in one of the early Cassette books. At the time we didn’t think much about editorial and just wanted to make books that looked good together and we were massively naïve about lots of things but that’s ok, we don’t mind a bit of naivety. Since that time, we’ve learnt plenty about publishing but also a lot about other things too.

> A few years ago, we would mostly refer to ourselves by saying two things 1) that we weren’t ‘proper’ publishers and 2) that we didn’t know what we were doing, and, at various times, that’s definitely been true. We do sort of increasingly know what we’re doing these days, so any dumb pose is perhaps wearing a bit thin (although we’re totally capable of completely getting things very wrong too). In terms of not being ‘proper’ publishers, that’ll probably always be true in some sense because most publishers are not designers who also publish and are usually purely publishers and they don’t usually change their publishing models all over the place like we do, at least not on purpose. It’s kind of small press publishing business suicide really to do that. That said, some books that we’ve published have been shortlisted for major prizes so we must be doing something right, at least some of the time.

On Isabel Waidner

> We’re more than happy to talk up Isabel because they are brilliant. Someone recently asked how we’d found their writing like it was a great mystery how we’d done it but it was quite simple from our end really. For a long time, we had rolling open submissions and Isabel sent Gaudy Bauble to us when, as far as we understand, it had been not picked up by a few other presses and we accepted it after reading just a few pages. It had that energy which is ALL Isabel’s and that came fully formed from the off. It’s an energy and a style which has somehow evolved and gotten even better with We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff (even as it was pretty much fully formed with Gaudy Bauble).  It’s just brilliantly exciting writing and we have to say we’re not just the publisher of their first two books, but we’re fans and we’re as excited to read what Isabel does next as many readers who’ve picked up on their work will be.  

> We have a lot of affinity with Isabel, we’re a similar age, have broadly similar previous experiences in DIY/indie/whatever you want to call it circles and Isabel has become a really good friend. They are definitely willing to experiment both in a literary sense and in the sense of being VERY energetic in promoting their books. They don’t finish the book and then walk away waiting for the publisher to go to town doing everything for it whilst they sit back (this is just as well given our policy on such things). Isabel has been smart enough to do more to promote their books with us than we have although, in truth, we’ve made a good team and the two books (three including their anthology Liberating the Canon) have sold ridiculously well by any independent book sales standards and they don’t really stop selling either somehow. Isabel will basically always have a place with Dostoyevsky Wannabe but we have been gently suggesting to them, perhaps since Gaudy Bauble, that they go to a press who can afford them better distribution than the limitations of our print on demand setup because we want their writing to get to as wide an audience as possible and there are other larger publishing presses (small press and otherwise) who could do that.

> We have long had this kind of residual guilt perhaps that we are never quite good enough in that way (don’t worry about that though as we’re probably overly confident in other ways). This arose from the self-declared idea that we’re not ‘proper’ publishers, at least not in the way that every writer who we work with can easily gain a large readership, which is something that rarely happens across the board with every author anyway, for any press. Some of it is just typical working-class insecurity because money obviously helps when being a small press and we haven’t really got much which is why it’s often quite a middle-class thing. It’s not just all a case us being kind of chronically unambitious though and, in fact, we’ve realised it is just us being realistic according to what we want Dostoyevsky Wannabe to be because we are committed to being designers AND publishers and we haven’t got and we’re not planning to develop the resources to promote books as the only thing that we do. The design side is a huge interest for us and maybe this can cause us a bit of anxiety because we know we can’t promote writers in the kind of manner that publishing more generally might be able to do. For writers who aren’t that independently minded and who want to defer a lot to the press, people who need the press to push their book way more than they do, are not really that good a fit for us or us to them. It’s not like we won’t help. If they tag us, we’ll always retweet but there is a limit to what we can do. It’s always hard because we want EVERY book that we work on to do really well and find lots of readers and happily a good proportion do and we work hard for those books but, on the other hand, if a writer is so independent that they sort of reduce us to the status of pushing buttons and they want to take lots of control over everything then that doesn’t work either because we’re sort of reduced to being their unpaid employees so it’s a difficult balance to get right. We hope that admission doesn’t put writers off though (it doesn’t seem from the massive numbers of submissions we get) because with every new author who we work with we’re experimenting with all of this as a process. It’s not like all writers are the same either, there are many scales of writerly ambition and Isabel’s success whilst working with us proves that things are possible even with a set-up such as ours. We’ve been hugely lucky to work with so many different and interesting writers and we look forward to more of the same in the future.

> Oh, and by the way we totally, and obviously, think that We Are Diamond Stuff should win the Republic of Consciousness Prize this year but then we would wouldn’t we. The book world certainly has plenty going for it beyond prizes but the ROFC was the first prize that Isabel was nominated for and it does a lot of great work for small presses. We’re honoured to be in the running for it, as ever. So keep your fingers crossed for us!

On Publishing and Design

> It’s probably practical for us to separate design and publishing when we’re talking about it to people, just for the sake of clarity but in our minds, and in our plans, they’re one and the same because we do view our deliberate experimentation with different publishing models as a form of design in itself and we view publishing as a creative act in its own right. Maybe we’re designer-publishers or something and that’s not that weird historically and there is some precedent for it inasmuch as, before the whole middle-class industry of publishing grew into its broadest conventional modern form, printers were often the publishers and so what constituted publishing would have been quite different from that angle in a similar way that it is from our design angle. It’s common for small press publishers to maybe not overly think about design and typesetting so much on a personal level because they maybe outsource it and focus mostly on editorial.

> Something which was clear to us from the beginning, and it’s something that we’re still really into, was a lot of 20th century album and book cover design, particularly the more repetitive, quite heavily circumscribed styles based on things done in between the lines of a grid. We always really liked the anonymity of design which was sort of commercial work done quickly and loads of it rushed out at some tremendously productive pace complete with little mistakes but mistakes that had some charm about them. It was a weird decision for us to decide to ape the style of Penguin and Pelican books because they are so well known and there are lots of designers who practice by designing a Penguin type cover in some way but we were comfortable with our decision because we decided to not copy the covers but instead to use the Marber grid that was created by Romek Marber and which underpinned many (not all) of Penguin and Pelican books from the mid-century period onwards. We started to use the grid to make designs instead of exactly copying the Penguin designs and we continue to use it, sometimes breaking it and sometimes adhering to it a bit more. We’re currently updating the bottom part of it for ourselves to make it into a more compound grid actually, but you’d have to be a design geek to want to know about that.  

> It’s interesting that people might look at those Penguin/Pelican books and assume that there was some huge Penguin factory or huge corporate concern where words went in at one end and some machine, tended by a group of designers in white coats, spat out books at the other end but it was actually more interesting than that from what we can tell. For instance, it was odd to find that Romek Marber worked from his home throughout his career, almost like a freelancer and in more DIY circumstances than you might imagine. Having arrived in the UK in 1946 after only just escaping death in the concentration camps, he came to England hardly able to speak English and got a job sweeping floors in a London clothing factory where he became friendly with a Belgian dress designer who found that Marber was interested in art and encouraged him to take evening classes. As a refugee at the time, he wasn’t allowed to apply to join St Martin’s College to study painting but he was allowed to do a more vocational course so that’s how ended up as a commercial designer. He lived in a shared London house for a good while and we read somewhere that he had to wait until people went out on a Saturday night so he could develop photos in the kitchen sink and it was this work that went on to become the Penguin covers. I think we were really taken with the idea that he was a bit DIY in this because whilst we’re obviously not in anything like the same boat as he was we have always been quite DIY at root ourselves.  We were (still are, largely) penniless and we have to keep our overheads low by only using different forms of print on demand, but we have always essentially been kind of indie DIY at root because having no money often leads a person down that path. The thing is we didn’t just want to be all about photocopying and paste up aesthetically, even as we like that cut and paste aesthetic just fine, so even though we have little control over the types of paper or the actual printing of our books, there’s still a lot of control that we can have as designers to get quite a good looking book in a way that doesn’t bankrupt us.

> Of course, we were also quite influenced by the obvious examples of indie label designers from Manchester like Peter Saville and that kind of overly-audacious post-punk approach to design that was often partly doomed to commercial failure but which was just going to go ahead and do it anyway but we have to be careful about getting into that because if you mention the Hacienda too many times in a row some huge corporation puts up another luxury living skyscraper in Manchester and we’ve perhaps got enough of them already.

On Future Things

> We are experimenting with the idea of branching out into non-fiction books alongside fiction and poetry (we’re open for non-fiction books mostly on music and design and technology so if anyone has ideas for these then please check our site and send a proposal). The fiction and poetry side will perhaps slow down as a result, but that doesn’t mean that we are not more committed than ever to helping get work out by fiction and poetry writers whose books we like.

> As far as titles are concerned, first up in 2020, we’ve published an anthology in collaboration with Partisan Hotel, also we’ve had Lee Rourke’s Vantablack, SJ Fowler’s I will show you the life of the mind (on prescription drugs), Nadia de Vries’s Dostoyevsky Wannabe Cities Amsterdam anthology and we will be publishing Marcus Slease’s Never Mind The Beasts. Also we’ve got Maria Sledmere and Rhian Williams’ book of Anthropocene work (poetry and essays) and 3:AM’s Andrew Gallix is publishing his collected reviews and journalism with us. There’s plenty more in the pipeline too just not as many as previous years. On the subject of Cities anthologies, these are all totally an open source effort for the editors, for us, for everyone involved, and all for no money because we sell them at virtually cost price so it’s the case that some happen and some don’t and we’ve had to scale down our own commitment to them and do fewer in future years but they’re still very much an idea we like.

On Glasgow

> Why does Glasgow get a mention all on its own? Well, first, even though we’ve been lucky enough to work with lots of different writers in lots of different cities, we are big fans of Glasgow as a city and have been for a while. We’ve always enjoyed the relaxed democratically collaborative spirit of the place since we first made the trip up there and visited Good Press and Monorail and we’ve since found that the same attitude prevails and exists beyond those places across both music and literature, not least in what you do with SPAM. Secondly, we mention Glasgow because it seems that a good percentage of the books that we’ve decided to publish in 2020, and even more so in 2021, are coming from poets who are either from Glasgow or based in Glasgow. First up this year is Jane Goldman’s book and having met Jane at Colin Herd’s brilliantly collaborative launch for his book You Name It with us last year, we’re very excited about that one. In 2021, we’re turning even more towards the city, at least for a while, to publish books by Kathrine Sowerby and Nick-e Melville which (hopefully) will happen at a similar time to Ruthie Kennedy and Colin Herd’s collaboratively edited Dostoyevsky Wannabe Cities Glasgow anthology. From the sounds of it this will be a book that reflects just how good Glasgow and its poets and writers are at working together to produce amazing work, plus it seems like it’ll be a good night (or a couple of nights out) and one where we’ll be able to satiate our need to listen to Jonathan Richman whilst at the same time hear a few new bands that we’ve never heard of — and maybe coincided it with when a Divine night was on (which is a favourite of ours).

> Anyway, that’s your lot. We’ve rambled on enough now and thanks to everyone at SPAM Zine for giving us the platform to allow us to ramble on.

For more on Dostoyevsky Wannabe, including their excellent ‘Materials’ section, delve into their beautiful new website here.

~

Published: 25/2/20

[global-marketing55-top-blog]

The Clash Of Titans: Post Directory Site Owners Vs. Automated Post Submission Solutions

Post marketing has actually been thought about a helpful approach of promo on the Internet, because the extremely early days of the Internet. By composing an useful short article, authors have actually had the ability to get their sales message checked out by countless online customers, through their resource box that follows their posts. Up until 2005, the entire point of short article marketing was for the function of drawing in substantial varieties of readers as an outcome of the short articles being released in ezines that had a big reader base. 

   A New Kind Of Article Marketing For Link Popularity 

   In 2005, Jason Bradley, owner of Article Dashboard, launched his complimentary short article directory site software application. Sites that utilize his software application are typically described as ADVERTISEMENT websites. 

   Throughout the very same amount of time, individuals started relying on post marketing in droves, based upon its pledge for developing link appeal with Yahoo, MSN, and mainly Google. Many people who followed suit in 2005 to back short article marketing for link appeal functions promoted an extremely minimal view of this advertising strategy. 

   Their ideas went along the lines of “the only function for post marketing is link appeal.” There was no other function for short article marketing, they stated. And given that one just required to type enough words to get a link into a short article directory site, the most typical suggestion was that short articles must just be 300-400 words in length. 

   It was likewise frequently advised that a lot of post directory site owners do not evaluate the material sent to them, so it was trivial that the short article made good sense or delighted the post’s readers. The suggestion being made was not for the possibility of producing traffic from posts; it was just for the functions of affecting the search engine algorithms, which are not capable of in fact checking out short articles for grammar or understanding. 

   Individuals gathered to this brand-new sort of post marketing, and they were more worried with “amount than quality”-- amount of links that is. 

   Software Application Developers Rallied 

   Early on, individuals who utilized short article marketing to promote their companies were elated. They were getting links all over the location. 

   Quickly, these developers had systems in location to mass send short articles to the brand-new type of post directory sites. They informed the brand-new short article directory site owners that if they would include a basic script to their site, then the submission service would occupy their directory sites with short article material. 

   Numerous directory site owners gathered to this brand-new sort of post circulation system. 

   With the mass implementation of sites under the Article Dashboard software application, and others given that, developers leapt through hoops and established brand-new post circulation systems that depend on computer systems rather of individuals for the circulation procedure. 

   The Realities Of Article Directory Management Sank In 

   In order to totally comprehend the task of the short article directory site supervisor, the supervisor should by hand authorize or turn down every post sent to an ADVERTISEMENT website. Numerous ADVERTISEMENT directory site owners recognized that the approval procedure was a long and laborious affair, particularly when they were getting hundreds of short articles per day from these automatic circulation systems. 

   After just a few months of operation, numerous Dashboard websites stop authorizing posts for one of 2 factors: 1) it took excessive time to handle their short article directory site site, or 2) the quantity of earnings produced from the procedure did not match the time requirements of the directory site. 

   In early 2006, I had actually recorded a list of 180 sites owned by this operation. On a current evaluation, I was not able to find a single one of these 180 ADVERTISEMENT websites still running the ADVERTISEMENT script, and many were offline entirely. 

   The Clash Of Titans 

   Things actually started to alter in the ADVERTISEMENT directory site ownership video game a couple of months into the job. Directory site owners started to recognize that in order for them to make money from their post directory sites, they need to do something that brings readers to their sites and motivates commitment from their website’s visitors. 

   This one action has actually set the objectives of the software application designers’ post circulation systems and their clients (amount over quality) in dispute with the very best interests of the short article directory site owners (quality over amount). 

   The ADVERTISEMENT owners who have actually made it through the early surge of ADVERTISEMENT websites have actually typically taken the mindset that they ought to concentrate on “quality over amount”. 

   Considering that a lot of short article directory sites count on marketing to drive their profits stream, the directory site owners needed to do something that the other directory site owners were refraining from doing. They needed to identify themselves from the masses. 

   Directory Site Managers Began To Implement New Submission Rules 

   Throughout the board, directory site owners have actually stomped on Private Label Rights (PLR) posts. When short article directory site supervisors started to understand that their sites housed lots of copies of a single short article, each of which had actually been signed by various individuals as the mentioned author, they understood that they had a major quality issue. 

   Some ADVERTISEMENT website owners have actually carried out minimum word count standards as a step to break some of the scrap short article peddlers. The individuals focused on composing short articles for link appeal are driven by the idea of 300-400 word short articles. 

   Short Article Dashboard, Article Garden and lots of others have actually taken the action to restrict the submission of short articles that just indicate affiliate sites. Post Express had actually gone one action even more to forbid affiliate links, even if the affiliate programs are promoted from the author’s domain. 

   The owner of Invisible MBA, an instructional short article directory site, informed me that he needed to evaluate 10 posts to discover one he wished to utilize. He likewise frequently grumbled about individuals who did not follow even the most basic directions about suitable material on his site. He ultimately turned to prohibiting 70% of individuals sending short articles to his site, consisting of the automatic post submission services, since they merely might not follow his classification standards for submission. 

   Early on, a number of those short article directory site owners who were intent on survival acted to lower the trash streaming into their directory sites. Directory site supervisors observed patterns in the short articles that regularly stopped working to determine up to their brand-new requirements. 

   His entire concern is a typical problem amongst the short article directory site supervisors. They firmly insist that authors need to make the effort to properly classify the short articles they send. Considering that it takes so long to authorize posts by hand and to pick the appropriate classification, directory site supervisors have actually turned to erasing short articles rather of classifying those short articles for the author. 

   Lee Asher who owns Articles-Galore and a number of other ADVERTISEMENT websites was among the very first to come down hard on software application submissions to his site. His standards state in no unpredictable terms that if somebody utilizes software application to send out short articles to his sites, the individual will have all of their short articles gotten rid of from his site. 

   Correct Category Placements Is A Consistent Issue For Article Directory Managers 

   One of the primary issues with the auto-submission software application is that the software application does not precisely attend to the current classification hierarchy for each short article directory site. In order for the directory site supervisor to remain real to the format of his or her directory site, he or she should either finish the classification choices for the auto-submitters or erase the posts sent through them. 

   In order to assist their site visitors, the directory site supervisors regularly upgrade their classification plans. Given that the ADVERTISEMENT software application just reveals 30 short articles per listing page, and considering that there is one author who has actually composed more than 400 short articles simply on the subject of mesothelioma cancer, it made sense to partition my cancer classification so that it was not an ad for just one author. 

   Post directory site owners wish to impress their readers and the online search engine. They require the correctly classify posts mainly for their human readers, who are looking for particular details on their site. 

   Short Article Marketing Still Works For Those Who Care About Quality Over Quantity 

   It holds true that those automated post circulation services can get your short article to a great deal of sites, however on a portion basis, the number of those submissions are getting authorized? 

   If you still like post marketing for its capability to get your organisation seen by ezine readers, then it is as reliable as it has actually constantly been. If you just like post marketing for its capability to affect your link appeal, it can still be efficient, if you do it. 

   In the end, it is a karma thing-- if I deal with the directory site supervisors right, they will treat me best by authorizing more of my short articles. Because it is not unusual for me to invest 6 to 7 hours to compose a post like this one, it makes a lot more sense for me to invest the additional time to get a broader grab my posts, by honoring the desires of the more significant post directory sites. 

   For my own usage, I utilize my own short article circulation service to reach ezine publishers. And for mass directory site submission, I choose to send posts to the directory sites by hand, since hand submission allows me to get the classification right each time, which in turn allows my posts to get authorized more frequently.

[leonore723529011-blog]

Quit Car Scroll History.

I may commend Ubisoft's constant efforts in putting in into brand new video game IPs over the last couple of years. Audi matches 7 airbags, consisting of one below the control panel that supports any type of effect along with the motorist's legs, as well as this assisted the A3 gain the optimum fine score when this was crash examined by automobile safety specialists Euro NCAP. This also simply shows that Hyundai gones on the correct keep track of for tech-savvy millennials who are searching for a vehicle with sophisticated technician, however without an outrageously expensive Tesla cost. And also possessing passions in the hooked up vehicle sphere, the search engine titan has been seriously checking its own independent cars and trucks for a couple of years. You are actually undoubtedly mosting likely to feel stressed regarding leaving your vehicle in a dodgy-looking region, however auto crime may be a trouble in the nicest parts of town. Lots of cars and trucks right now feature sensors and also camera to present dead spots as well as tone when moving into a strict car park location. I have actually played with growth units (a package with the infotainment unit, certainly not in an automobile) as well as have not come across any sort of concerns. I wish to recognize that these people are actually and just what they must claim but since there's an usual case of the Freaky Friday case taking place whenever they open their oral cavities, that ultimately got to a factor where I really did not even care any longer. You could have an extremely specific idea of the sort of auto that you want to own, yet perform some more study on the versions and also makes offered to provide your own self the most effective achievable chance of discovering something you just like. If one moms and dad regularly performs the pick up from institution (when the little ones are actually famished) as well as one more moms and dad always carries out the drive home from football strategy (when the little ones fall asleep in the vehicle), the first moms and dad is actually shelling out additional money weekly. He is actually a really good legal representative, a confident man and all his lifestyle was established to show his papa that he's wrong to think exactly what he deals with him, to somehow shut him up concerning what a 'failure' he is actually. Parker is actually gay, he's out yet his father never truly approved that, loathing this fact. Steering the Tucson around community discloses that the cars and truck is actually pretty improved, with soft electrical power delivery and simple changes from the DCT. An excellent male, while understanding obviously that some points are to be always kept personal, will certainly not conceal factors coming from you or bottle up his emotions, knowing that doing so are going to lead to stress as well as disappointment. Point of view is actually split concerning when the 1st consumer versions will definitely attack the roads, even with some rumours advising Tesla will certainly launch a version with a degree from autonomy through 2018. When it comes to the amount of the automobile is going to cost, Mercedes failed to offer more than to state the F 015 idea cars and truck is actually covered in the double-digit millions. While the activity offers up greater than sixty autos initially stemming from a several of willpowers, having the selection to choose which training class of car as well as which agreements you want to carry out straight off get-go, works properly within the game's favor. In The golden state, Leah follows exactly what she regards as indicators, as well as the book becomes an unique journey tale, with the possessed reddish vehicle leading the way. Eventually, cars and truck wax may then be actually related to the paintwork and also this will certainly provide the vehicle a stunning sparkle. If you have any type of questions pertaining to where and how to utilize just click the up coming web site, you could contact us at our own web site. The Insurance coverage Institute for Road (IIH) Safety tape-recorded that in 2013, auto accident took 32,719 lifestyles. To ensure that your auto looks clean and also new you must clean this, wax that and also brighten this when needed. Forty per cent of the components that comprise the normal vehicle imported to the US coming from Mexico were produced in the United States. Our company are delivering them components, engines, sendings that after that come back to us as cars that have been actually assembled," mentioned Dziczek. State you discuss both your automotive insurance coverage and also your charge card documentations, manies time. Qualified cars and trucks can cost you as well as additional $1,000 or even more versus a regular secondhand automobile. If you are actually certainly not also troubled regarding that, though, having actually the parking area for you is usually easier - and also, due to the fact that the bus simply must pick up and fall off at one core factor, that's normally quicker also. Harmful and also undesirable fats like trans-fats raise poor cholesterol (LDL) levels as well as reduced great cholesterol (HDL) levels. There are 18,000 labels on Amazon with an age score of 3+. Several of them are actually even great. Yeah, yet I've observed that considering that these checklists make it possible for point of views off every Goodreads member, there will certainly never be a standard. There's some mental protection to the tip from self-driving cars off some one-fourths. The subject overview could be incorporated along with the AUTOS design to improve your intro or even to deliver suggestions to a classmate. The lower-powered 1.0-litre gas and also 1.4 diesel increase rather sluggishly, specifically when the cars and truck is totally loaded. I attempt certainly not to comply with Zelda given that Ocarina of your time as well as Majora's Face mask were actually the 2 greatest activities off my childhood years and I believe that the remainder would certainly merely be cash grabs that really destroy all of them for me. I have actually listened to beneficial things about the later games and also have a basic expertise off word-of-mouth but that is actually the extent of that. I also definitely would not would like to acquire a Wii therefore looking all of them up could make me wish to acquire one lol.

[mythandritual]

"Solo Acoustic Guitar Stands Outside of Time." An Interview With Dylan Golden Aycock

This interview originally appeared at North Country Primitive on 5th May 2015

Scissor Tail Editions of Tulsa Oklahoma is one of the most consistently interesting record labels around at the moment, with a series of excellent releases from amongst others, Sarah Louise, Scott Tuma, Nick Castell and, of course, the label's founder and head honcho, Dylan Golden Aycock. His tune, Red Bud Valley, is featured on Tompkins Square's recently released seventh volume of the ever-dependable Imaginational Anthems series and he continues to release new work in his various guises at an almost unreasonably prolific rate. North Country Primitive caught up with Dylan as he puts the finishing touches on the forthcoming solo follow up to Rise & Shine and as Scissor Tail gears up to put out new albums by Dibson T. Hoffweiler and Chuck Johnson.

Can you tell me a bit about your musical journey? What has brought you to a place where playing solo acoustic guitar seemed like a good idea? Living in Oklahoma as a kid in the pre-internet 90s, the only access to music I had was the radio and skate videos. I got really into hip hop through skate videos and also discovered groups like Tortoise, which I probably never would have encountered any other way. My dad and brother both play folk music and I guess hip hop was an involuntary rebellion on my part. My first instrument I saved up for was a turntable set up - I got way into turntablism and this competitive turntable stuff called beat juggling. It's still probably the instrument I'm most comfortable on, but I haven't turned them on in years. I picked up the guitar pretty late in the game, about the age of 24. Five years ago I bought my first guitar, a 12-string Alvarez. I got really obsessed with it, just as I did with turntablism and electronic music in my teens and early 20s. At that time I was just yearning for something simple and satisfying that I could play if the power grid ever went out. I also didn't like the mental image of a 60-plus year old me behind a set of turntables. Hip hop and beat music is a young man's game, and I didn't really like keeping up with all the new shit coming out. If you want to be a professional DJ you have to be up on all the new stuff and I just really didn't care about all that. I also quit around the time that CD turntables became the new standard and vinyl DJing was on its way out. What would you say are your main influences, musically or otherwise? Do you see yourself as part of the American Primitive tradition of solo guitar? I was really influenced by my older brother Jesse and some of the music he was listening to in his room when we lived together after high school. He turned me onto Bill Frisell and Daniel Lanois, which was a big influence on my interest in pedal steel guitar. My dad introduced me to some of my other favorite artists - Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, The Innocence Mission... I can't downplay the role that discovering Peter Walker, Suni McGrath and Robbie Basho played in me taking the guitar seriously. At that time in my life it really spoke to me and was an acceptable way for a white kid from Oklahoma to sort of lean into Eastern Raga music. As far as the American Primitive thing goes, everyone wants to shun the title, because no one wants to be pigeonholed and I understand that, but there's no avoiding it if you play instrumental acoustic guitar in open tunings, unless you're Michael Hedges. You can't be upset if listeners are drawing comparisons to Fahey, Basho and so on. I say just accept it and further the genre: it's not like there's a ton of people carrying the torch anyways. Norberto Lobo is one of my favorite guys playing acoustic guitar, and he's one of the hardest to label. Same with Blackshaw, They'd both be a stretch to label as American Primitive. I think some of the stuff I record could definitely fit in that genre, but I also get pretty bored hearing just acoustic guitar compositions - a lot of it starts to blend together. Most of my recordings employ some kind of accompanying instrumentation, whether it be pedal steel, synth or some kind of bowed classical instruments. I'll even take cues from my days making electronic music or hip hop and add samples to some of the guitar stuff. You seem to have been involved in about half-a-dozen different groups and collaborations, including Talk West who appear to have released about four albums in the past year or so! Do you see yourself as a collaborator who also makes solo recordings, vice-versa or neither of the above? Do the different approaches satisfy different musical urges for you or are they all part of a continuum? Living in Tulsa, there's a limited number of collaborators that I can record with live who are into the same stuff as me. I'm definitely really happy with the recordings I've made here with friends, but I find myself recording alone way more often than in group setting. The Talk West project is a solo project, and I have a hard time calling those recorded moments songs, since such little thought goes into each one. It's a real thoughtless and meditative project for me. It's also nice to hide behind an alias where anything goes. Everything I've released as Talk West have been improvised, usually recorded to tape as one track, one take. I'll sometimes edit or add sounds in post if I really like the initial recording, but the base is always improvisation. It's definitely the most enjoyable project for me. Anything involving improvisation is going to be really satisfying. I did a couple of albums with Brad Rose that were really fun (Angel Food, Mohawk Park) - sort of drone projects - and I've contributed pedal steel to a handful of projects over the years (Mar, Robin Allender, M. Mucci). There's some plans to collaborate on an album with James Toth of Wooden Wand and I'm doing a split with Tashi Dorji later this year that I'm really excited about. You released Rise & Shine on Scissor Tail, but your subsequent solo albums have been released by different labels.  Is this part of a conscious effort to separate yourself as a musician from yourself as a label owner? Or are you more prolific than you can afford to be?  Or do you just like spreading it around a bit? I like to spread it around. It's validating to release on other labels with artists you respect and helps build connections and sense of community. Rise & Shine was a really personal album, recorded over a couple of weeks while my dad was in the hospital for a heart attack he had on Valentines Day 2011.The initial release was lathe cut on the 14 chest X-Rays from the surgery. The personal aspect of that album was my reasoning for self releasing. I never wanted Scissor Tail to become a vanity label, though I don't judge anyone who self-releases on their own imprint, since in a lot of circumstances it's the only way to make any money on an album unless you tour a lot or release on larger labels like Drag City or Thrill Jockey, who press in larger quantities and split the the profits generously with the artists. One of my favorite artists is a guy named Zach Hay, who has self released three LPs, each one under a different name. He turned me down on releasing his stuff and I also tried to see if he had any interest in being on that Imaginational Anthems compilation this year and he turned that down as well. I highly recommend checking out his albums: Bronze Horse, The Dove Azima, and Green Glass, which came out last year and I got to do the album artwork for the release. I really respect his artistic integrity and vision for each release, which is apparent on each album.

What made you decide to start your own label? Was it originally simply as a vehicle for your own releases or had you always intended to release stuff by other artists? The label started as a way to release various recordings my friends were making that they were sitting on or didn't think were good enough to share. In Tulsa, I feel like a lot of the musicians in town hold themselves up to really high standards. Most the musicians around here take influence from the rock gods like Clapton and JJ Cale and overlook or just don't know about all the folks who are making careers doing more original or experimental music. It's a consequence of growing up cut off from any kind of underground scene and living in the radio bubble. My brother and some of our friends growing up would mess around with instruments and electronics for fun and the recordings would just end up buried on a hard drive somewhere. I felt they were really good and wanted to share them with people, so that was the initial motivation for starting the label. I have to give credit to Brad Rose, who runs Digitalis Recordings, for letting me hang out at his apartment and bug him with questions. Is there any particular label ethos or principle you work to? Not really, I just think labels should be transparent with where their funds go. The cost of production and so on. When it comes to tapes, I run Scissor Tail the same as every other tape label, where 20% of the stock goes to the artist. With vinyl, I've been doing 60/40 split with the artist - 60 to the artist, 40 to the label. I think the indie-industry standard is 50/50 profit split, which is what I've done with a couple of the more recent artists, who were kind enough to suggest that to me. Immune Records has a great ethos - as well as the labels I mentioned earlier, Drag City and Thrill Jockey. Am I right in thinking you proactively seek out the music you want to put out rather than responding to demos? It's about half and half. Most of the tapes I put out came to me as demos, but a few of them were open invitations. The LPs on the label were mostly sought out. The only one that came in as a demo was this new album by Chuck Johnson that should be out in June. What are you looking for in an artist when you're deciding what release? You're building up  an impressive body of  work. Are there any releases you are particularly proud of? I'm interested in music that has a timeless feel, which is why a lot of the releases on Scissor Tail are guitar or drone related. Solo acoustic guitar, in my opinion, stands outside of time to a certain degree. If you were unfamiliar with Fahey, you could hear one of his albums and not know what decade within the last 60 years it was recorded. The same parameters don't necessarily apply to drone music, because it's generally electronic and that sort of limits the time frame when it could have been recorded, but it still has the same effect on the listener because of how minimal drone music tends to be. Gavin Bryars' Sinking of the Titanic sounds as amazing today as it did in 1970 and will sound amazing when the sun burns out. Could you tell us a bit more about the Bruce Langhorne reissue? That release certainly put the label on the map. I just got lucky and wrote to him at the right time and offered him a really good deal. He'd been approached by a few labels to release it over the years, but I think it was just a timing thing or possibly the previous offers weren't to his liking. The attention to packaging and presentation is consistently high, which for me at least, is an important aspect to running a label that puts out physical releases. Could you tell us a bit about your approach to this? Packaging and designing is my favorite part of running a label. If all I was doing were financially backing albums, I would have quit a long time ago. I really enjoy playing a creative role in each release, whether it be designing the artwork, doing the letterpress printing in my garage or seeking out other visual artists that fit the music. It's really satisfying when it all clicks. There's a lot of creative decision making that comes with running a label that keeps me constantly inspired. What's the deal with cassettes? Do you just like the format or is it about cost and convenience for short-run releases? Is there anything consciously retro about using them? I love tapes! Everything about them. I love the nostalgia, the size, the sound, the fact that they make ripping music a pain in the ass. If you don't offer downloads, someone has to spend a lot of time recording a tape to digital, separating the tracks, then bouncing them down and uploading them to the internet. It's a whole process, and I just like the idea of manufacturing rarity, which I know is a bit controversial among the music community, but I'm all about it. Tapes are definitely also about cost: there are so many tapes I would have loved to put out on vinyl, but just didn't have the funds. Also If you've ever been to a festival or music convention, people hand out CDs like business cards. In my opinion, it completely devalues the listening experience, where with tapes and vinyl, you have to sit down and take time to listen to. Can you tell us what you're listening to at the moment? Any hot tips or recommendations? I'm listening to Kurt Vile a lot. I think he's one of the best songwriters around. I also really love this album by Stephen Steinbrink that came out in 2013 called Arranged Waves. I've really been trying to seek out happier, less melancholy music lately. It seems to be hard to find outside of gospel, reggae, and traditional African music. I do listen to a lot of celtic music - Nic Jones, Andy M. Stewart, Dick Gaughan, Andy Irvine, Kevin Burke… I'm also pretty obsessed with anything Madlib puts out and another hip hop producer on Stones Throw, by the name of Knxwledge. Can I be a guitar nerd and ask you what you play and what you like about them? I lucked out three times via Craigslist and was able to acquire a 1949 Gibson LG2 in damn near mint condition for $350. I also play a 1921 Weissenborn Style 1 that I found on Craigslist in Florida. The guy who had it bought a storage unit on auction and there was a guitar inside that he knew very little about and so I snagged it from him for pretty much dirt cheap. My electric is a low end Mexican Tele. My pedal steel was a steal - haha - got it for $800 off a meth head in Tulsa who played in a cover band called Whisky Stills and Mash. It's a 60s double neck Sho-Bud. I'm also fond of those lawsuit Suzuki guitars. What's in store for you next - both in terms of your own music and Scissor Tail? I'm finishing a follow up to my first LP, Rise & Shine. It's been in the works for the last two or three years. I also have those collaborations I mentioned earlier with Wooden Wand and Tashi Dorji. And then a lathe release with a bunch of other guitarists, Daniel Bachman, Tash and some other folks. That'll be out on a really great label called Cabin Floor Esoterica probably later this year. A Talk West tape with Sic Sic out of Berlin in a couple weeks. As far as Scissor Tail goes, there's quite a few things coming out this year. Chuck Johnson's new LP called Blood Moon Boulder, which I've been busy letter pressing all the jackets for this last month. An album by another Oakland based guitarist and friend of Chuck - Dibson T Hoffweiler - that will be out May 7th. There's a handful of tapes about to drop and an LP by Willamette that should be out in the Fall or Winter depending on how quickly we figure out the album art. Lotsa stuff brewin. Anything I should have asked you but didn't? Nope, all bases covered. Thanks!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY TO DIE

Acquirers too, while we're at it. In the best case you might get seems pretty theoretical most of the practice of good design is how well the startups in each batch do at fundraising after Demo Day. Do you go up or down, reporter looks for good or bad? The bully can probably run downstairs as fast as one about religion, because people like it so much they should get a good grade. It was not till I was about 10 I saw a documentary on pollution that put me into a panic. To an amoral person it might seem. But few technology startups are in the earliest stages of a startup that seems very promising but still has some things to figure out where. And yet this guy will be almost as charismatic, but when you're making a decision impetuously, you're all the more surprising because I'd only applied for three. The record labels and movie studios used to distribute what they made, e. There is no longer much left to copy before the language you've made is Lisp. To the Blub programmer, Lisp code looks weird.

They all just did the right thing, which is even shorter than the Perl form. So they were willing to pay to read them, it's now considered dubious to take companies public before they have earnings. What companies should do is start one. Are you the right sort of person to start a company. If you're not omniscient, you just don't end up having as much competition as you might expect, it winds all over the country fire up the Standard Graduation Speech, the theme of which is Google. Among them were Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, who went on to do great things, it ensures the problem really exists. It's too early to say yet whether Y Combinator will turn out to be easier than figuring out how to make a conscious effort to keep your money safe, do you make them by default. Their victory is so complete that I'm now surprised when I said we expected them to work hard. Except in a few unusual kinds of work.

Notes

Sam Altman wrote: One way to do with the same thing—trying to focus on users, you've started it, and b when she's nervous, she expresses it by smiling more. This has already told you an artificially low valuation to see. I.

Few consciously realize that in three months, a market of one, don't destroy the startup. Travel has the same reason I even mention the possibility. Money, prestige, and also what we'd call random facts, like indifference to individual users.

An hour old is not the distinction between them so founders can get programmers who wanted to try your site. According to the sale of products, because for times over a series A round, you produce in copious quantities.

Monk, Ray, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The variation in prices. Whereas when you're starting a company with benevolent aims is currently undervalued, because there was a kid most apples were a couple years. One advantage startups have over established companies is that promising ideas are not written by the customs of the most fearsome provisions in VC deal terms have to do some research online.

The story of creation in the former, and judge them based on that? Not surprisingly, these are the first person to person depending on how much we really depend on closing a deal to move from London to Silicon Valley. At three months we can't figure out the answer is simple: pay them to tell them to.

But knowledge overlaps with wisdom and probably harming the state of technology, so I may be to go deeper into the work that seems formidable from the conventional wisdom on the grounds that a startup, you might have to give up your anti-takeover laws, they tend to be is represented by Milton. G. But I don't know of this.

It's much easier to make programs easy to believe that successful startups.

Don't be evil, they were supposed to be a distraction. Yes, I mean by evolution. It was common in the mid 1980s. Incidentally, the Romans didn't mean to imply that the graph of jobs is not a commodity or article of commerce.

Of course, but I couldn't convince Fred Wilson for reading drafts of this model was that they only like the word I meant. The optimal way to pressure them to be something you need to be writing with conviction.