Hi Jay, please give us a brief history of Cea Serin.
Like everything, Cea Serin started as a single idea. This idea was born from a vast number of stirring occurrences that strung themselves together (in just such a fashion) to allow for unfettered flow and unbridled recourse. I was in a progressive metal band along with Keith Warman for a number of years called Ashen Dawn. The band wrote mainly melodic metal with a progressive mind set.
I met Keith when I first started in college. I had just gotten out of high school and my band at that time had just broken up. I, along with a fellow guitarist in my high school days, placed an ad at a music store that basically said we were looking for a drummer and a singer. At this time I was just a bass player and my guitar player friend and I were really wanting to do something like a Dream Theater meets Pantera thing.
A little while later a drummer and a guitarist gave us a call and we eventually met up and hit it off. This is how I met Keith. He and the drummer were good buddies and had been together for a long time; myself and my guitarist friend had also been together for a long time. We basically just teamed up and tried to find a singer while trying to write interesting music. I didn’t really have any songs to bring to the table at the time so the songs were mainly from Keith and the drummer which was more along the lines of a Vicious Rumors and Crimson Glory feel.
It was around this time that I began to come accustomed to heavier bands like Carcass, Cynic, Cradle of Filth, Emperor, In Flames, etc. When we actually found a singer he began having some concerns about singing certain lyrics that I had written. Apparently he had just found God and was being overly cautious to where the effects of singing certain words might eventually take him. Now, I’ve never written obscene language in lyrics, nor will I ever. I’ve never said anything blasphemous either. I’m not that straightforward. He just interpreted some metaphors into meaning things they didn’t; no matter how I explained it.
So I eventually started writing some material with a drum machine to play the music that I wanted to play and write the lyrics I wanted to write. Just to have fun with it and experiment with sounds and techniques. Keith eventually heard one of these songs and really was into it. After I had written three songs we decided to make a project out of it. We recorded a demo and sent it off into the world to see how people would receive it. Just for fun, of course. We really didn’t have any intention of getting label interest or any sort of buzz. I, personally, thought people would hate it. I was using my variety of vocal styles to symbolize certain emotions in the words. At the time, 1997, there weren’t many bands doing that. Either it was death metal, or it was progressive metal. Far be it from me to say that I invented a new genre, there was Opeth back then. I’m not saying I was doing anything out of the ordinary, just material that I liked.
So after a while Cea Serin began to get more attention than the other band I was in. As all bands experience, there were a couple of disagreements between members which left Keith and I together to focus primarily on Cea Serin. It was a great learning experience for us. As we recorded we learned all about how and how not to do things. So for the past couple of years we’ve put a live band together, played a couple of shows, sold a couple of independent CD/demos and challenged ourselves as musicians.
Have you played in other bands before? What’s the current lineup?
I have indeed played in other bands. I’ve usually been just the bass player and performed backing vocals. Keith and I used to be in a band called Ashen Dawn, which was the Crimson Glory, Vicious Rumors style band I mentioned. Before that I was in a band called Eleventh Hour. This was a high school band and not very serious. I’ve also recorded some stuff for other bands as well. I did some bass tracks for one band. I did some vocals for another song for one band. Keith has done a lot of session guitar stuff as well. I’ve also written some music for radio commercials, a local TV show also has original music by me, and I’ve even done some work for Entertainers. Keith has engineered some albums in our area as well. Forrest has played in a black metal band prior to joining us. This band is signed as well, but I’m sure he wouldn’t want me to mention their names.
The current lineup is myself on bass and vocals, Keith Warman on the lead guitar, and Forrest Osterman on rhythm guitar. We had a full band together at one point with a live drummer and a different bass player but it didn’t work out with them for one reason or another.
What does “Cea Serin” mean?
Cea Serin is the English translation of a word that was found scribed on a wall that depicts the coming of a new age. The age that we are in now promotes blind faith in things intangible and unproven. The next era is the coming of truth brought upon by science and logic. What’s interesting is that this new era is the time before a drastic change in the way we know our world. Let’s say that we are approaching the time of Cea Serin which has us casting down our beliefs in spiritual healing, life after death, alien abductions, etc. (things that are held in wide belief but stand without proof) and we enter a time of Skepticism. When everything that we believe in has been cast aside for a life of science and reason the world as we know it will be turned on it’s side. Cea Serin bridges the gap between the herd mentality that we live in today to the greater worth of inspired living which is brought upon by individuals taking control of their lives; stop believing in fate and start taking responsibility that comes with logic.
How would you describe or categorize your music? Which bands and artists
influenced you in composing your music?
I would describe Cea Serin as a “mercurial metal” band. People keep throwing the term “progressive” at us and I don’t like that. There aren’t many progressive metal bands that I like. Partly because none of them are actually progressive as the term is defined. Most of them are just following the pack and doing what their peers are doing. Of course, they want to outdo each other and out-perform each other, but what this creates is a field of music that is based on competition and status as opposed to ideology and applied musical philosophy. I also don’t want to call it progressive because who knows what we’ll be doing next. The term progression as applied to a music group implies that every album will be a step forward in some case. However, our current situation in “prog metal” doesn’t suggest this at all. There are bands who have been releasing the same album over and over again. There are bands that are released sub-par albums that don’t stack up to their previous efforts. I don’t want to suggest that we are going to be doing a better album over and over again. If we’re around for 20 years our 10th CD should sound like it came from the mind of some great god. What if I want to do a CD of just piano and vocals? I personally feel that I am always making progress in my life as a musician and song writer but experimentation and expression are often overlooked as not being a work in progress but works out of context.
I still hold dear to what I used to listen to a decade ago, as well as inspired by music of today. When I began playing music I was really taken by the early albums of Megadeth up to Rust in Peace. I remember hearing Yngwie Malmsteen for the first time and being in love with it. Stuff like that changed my life. I was used to seeing bands like Firehouse and Skid Row on MTV but then somehow I get my hands on Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Stu Hamm, Randy Coven, stuff like that. I remember my friends being into Motley Crue and Faster Pussycat, but I would never buy those albums. I was buying the stuff on Shrapnel Records and other solo guitarist/bassist records. Driving around playing things by Stephen Ross, Darren Housholder, Vinne Moore, Satriani, Ritchie Kotzen, Cacophony, Jason Becker, Michael Manring, Randy Coven,etc.
Those guys set the bar for me. And when I would compare those guys to the likes of Poison or Warrant, there was just no comparison. The MTV bands that were made popular I just hated. I never could stand Guns and Roses, I hated bands like Brittney Fox. People would try to tell me that they were all great bands cause they sold tons of records but I would just argue that you don’t see any classical albums hitting number one. You don’t see any opera singers coming out with hit records. Classical and Opera has huge amounts of applied talent but you never see those reaching the Billboard Charts on a weekly basis. So early on I knew how to choose good music.
I’m not saying popular music is bad. There are a great many pop acts that I absolutely adore. I love Josh Groban, Sara Brightman, Yanni, Sarah Mclachlan. In fact, I plan on doing a Sarah McLachlan cover song on the next record, maybe as a bonus track. I’ve grown up a bit and now I realize that you shouldn’t compare and contrast different styles of music for the purpose of domination. You should recognize what each artist is doing and listen to it for what it is. Poison is a glam band, that’s what they do and they were good at it. Their goal was to get chicks and make radio hits, they did that. I can listen to country music and enjoy it because I know where it is coming from. I’m not going to say ‘it sucks’ because it doesn’t.
However, I’m really inspired today by avant garde stuff by Devil Doll, Angizia, and Dornenreich. Bands like that are inspiring to me from what they are trying and are accomplishing. I’m still into Dream Theater of course but I’m also into some of the newer bands that are out today from Adagio to Zero Hour.
Even though the music is very complex and progressive, the whole material
is very catchy. Can you share that opinion? If yes, is this your aim?
I don’t necessarily have an aim. I have certain rules that I live by when it comes to music though. 1) no foul language. I feel that if you want to express vulgarity it is the easy way out to just sing or shout a curse word. The artist in the musician should find a way around that to express himself on a different level than the average school yard boy. 2) never use the word “reality” because reality is perspective. and 3) disregard any rules including my own.
When it comes to being “catchy” I just want something that pulls at you. I’m not looking at making a hit song by any means. There are some catchy choruses because I like a strong chorus. It’s the point where the song is building to. There are a lot of bands who will have a ‘chorus’ and the dynamics just don’t work. It’s about dynamics; the song can’t be on level 10 the entire time for me.
Are there any lyrics for “Where Memories Combine” available?
There will be lyrics inside the CD booklet. I’ll even include them at the end of this interview if you would like. I’m glad you mention this because lyrics are a big deal to me. There aren’t many bands or musicians today that focus on lyrics. And I especially hate reading an interview from a musician that I like and have them say they don’t to talk about the lyrics and they don’t want to say what they’re about because, to me, that says that they don’t even know what the songs are about. they’re just writing some ambiguous drivel down and hoping it flies. I hear that so often, ‘I just want the listener to interpret the song for themselves.’ That’s like making a movie that has a different meaning for everyone. No one gets your vision. There is nothing learned. It’s just this empty space that an individual fills with their own hang-ups, short comings, and misguiding information. No, I have a specific point to each song and I want people to get that.
Where did you record “Where Memories Combine”? Which equipment did you
use for the recording process?
Well, first let me say that I don’t really have anything to do with the recording process. I don’t like computers, I don’t like phones, and so on. Engineering and sound production is the realm where Keith really comes in. He’s the one that determines how the mics are set up, how to get a guitar sound, how to make the input to the computer a usable source for an excellent output. I’m not particularly sure how he records and what programs he uses. I know that we do use all computers though and recording software. We have a mixing board, and all that stuff, we even built our own studio a couple of years ago. But I don’t really know anything about what it takes to make something sound good as far as audio production.
If i heard and read that right, the drums are electronic. So, if yes, are
they programmed or do you play the stuff on an electronic drumkit?
Let me make something completely clear for many reasons. I have a very specific vision for the music and a very specific vision for the lyrics. That doesn’t stop at the drums at all. I’ve used drum machines, and I’ve used real drummers. When it comes down to it though, when Keith and I record we don’t need 15 people to come in and tell us how to arrange the music, how to record the drums, how to set up this and that. We know what we’re doing. I’ve arranged the drums just the way I like them. What you’re hearing as far as the drums go is a painstaking process of manipulation and augmentation. I know how to get around a drum kit but drums aren’t my thing. What Keith and I have, works. And I don’t see us changing things for a while. I can say this though. I do plan on making a completely different drum set. Making the drums myself. Constructing each drum and putting the thing together. My goal is to not have the desired rock drum set, but to use percussion with the same impact as a metal kit. I want to have a powerful bass drum sound but not a bass drum. I have the pictures in my head, I just need to figure out how to make it. I can tell you that the “bass drum” I have in my head is actually a large ball on a tri pod stand. This ball will have 6 to head drum heads on them but only one opening at the top for the sound to escape. the different drum heads will give different tones. I find that the current bass drum situation for rock kits is very static. They only produce one sound. So when a metal drummer plays a double bass part it’s just this repetitive sound over and over. I want to change that. The snare will be constructed from leathered cow skin stretched over a head, some springs will be involved also.
In Cea Serin’s Music, i recognize a lot of parallels to Chuck Schuldiner
and the band Death. Is this on purpose? Or am i totally wrong?
Totally wrong. I have respect for Schuldiner and co. of course. However, I’ve never considered myself to be a big fan of Death and Control Denied. If you handed me a cup of Control Denied Tea I would probably pass it by and ask, instead, for a cup of Samael Coffee. That’s just me. A lot of people throw band descriptions at me and wonder if I’m influenced by acts I actually don’t like and have never had a single album from. People ask me if I’m into Iron Maiden. I’ve never owned a single cassette, CD, record, or greeting card by Iron Maiden. In fact, when watching the Head Bangers Ball and Iron Maiden would come on, I would change the channel. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great musicians, they just don’t’ fit inside my internal jigsaw puzzle.
I believe that everyone has this jigsaw puzzle inside them and all their life they go through trying to find the pieces that fit. Sometimes they find a piece and they try to make it fit. They’ll hammer at it, scratch the sides, try it at different angles, but if it doesn’t complete the picture it wasn’t meant to be there. Bands like Death, Iron Maiden, Control Denied, Spiral Architect….they’re great musicians, I recognize the talent, I have nothing bad to say about them. It’s just one of those things. You won’t catch me listening to them. Whoa Whoah Whoa, now, I’ll listen to it once. I’ll see where they’re coming from. Maybe I’ll learn something. But it won’t find it’s way into my CD rotation. You’ll see it in my CD collection and a friend might come over and say, “hey man, how does this Sex With Stereotypes record sound?” and I’ll answer, “it’s okay,” but I’ve only heard it once.
So I never understood the comparisons to Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Iron Maiden, Control Denied, Depressive Age, etc. I just don’t hear it. If you catch me driving around you’re more than likely catch me jamming to Yanni, Devil Doll or something new that I bought but will only listen to once.
When will your web site be relaunched? I’ve found an old version that
was kinda obsolete where i could read that Cea Serin are very busy working
on the site.
As I said before, I know very little about computers. I don’t even own a computer. I don’t really have an interest in getting a website up at all. I’ve been telling people to go to our mp3.com site. At least there they’ll be able to hear the songs, check out a little info on the band, blah blah blah. If we were to get another website up it would have to be done by someone else. Keith attempted at putting up a website but after a while we just lost interest in it. Some bands spend a fortune to get a great looking website. I dont’ really have the money, the time, or the interest to get one going. I personally don’t like the internet too much. I never go to download music, or to check out band sites, or to look at goofy pictures. None of that. I work, I come home, decompress, mess around with some songs, read some stuff, etc.
Where and how do you live?
I live in a house somewhere in the Southern part of the United States. I live by use of my circulatory, nervous, and mainly respiratory system. Occasionally I will consume food to keep these systems working in top form. However, due to fatigue, stress, and fluctuations in conditions these systems are not always up to snuff. There are a lot of stereotypes concerned with living in the South of America. People can’t understand how a band that sound like Cea Serin can come from where we come. Well, that’s the beauty in recognizing the benefits of free and critical thinking at a young age. Every member of Cea Serin comes from a long distance away. The three of us now live around 10 to 20 miles apart however. Forrest came form a neighboring state, and Keith was from all over the place until he finally settled in the area he resides in right now.
Back to the music… I was really impressed by the strange things
happening in your music, such as tap dance, backwards and vocoder vocals. Is
the tap dance just a sample or was it recorded live? Will these weird things
stay a future part of Cea Serin’s music?
The tap dancing was recorded live. It was a bit stressful for me because I had the idea of a tap dancer to perform on “the end of silence” but didn’t really know how we were going to do it. So once we had the music recorded there was no going back. We had this space specifically for a tap dancer and if we couldn’t get one it would sound very odd and out of place. So we ended up going to the place where I took some of my singing lessons from, the B.R. School of Performing Arts.
When we got there, the air conditioning was out and we were instantly sweating it out in this dance studio. Keith brought along a portable 8-track recorder and a mixing board and we just used by tube-mic to record her. She was on a wooden stage and I tried to explain to her exactly what I wanted. It was odd, she had these headphones on hearing this music that wouldn’t normally have anything related to tap dancing and she was trying to use my ideas over it. What we ended up doing was just getting a lot of different takes of her dancing to certain parts. Then, Keith went back to the studio and pieced it all together. He was basically responsible for getting the end result. What you hear as the finished product is hours of him listening to different takes and making a tap solo out of it.
I got the idea from watching a lot of stuff like Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. I loved the music to that so much I went out and got the sound track. However, the soundtrack didn’t have the tap dancing on it. It was like a metal band missing a drummer. It didn’t sound right to me. The tap dancing was such a part of the music I couldn’t believe they would take all that out. So that’s what gave me the idea for “the end of silence.” The song is dealing with a part in the middle when everything ends that normally wouldn’t end, i.e. time ending, culture ending, media and language ending. Along with the tap dancing there is myself performing additional pieces to symbolize the death of such things. The ripping of paper to represent language, the skipping records for recorded art, the tap dancer being the death of culture, the exploding TV represents the end of knowledge through media. All of this was performed live, no samples. I got a TV in my vocal room and had a crow bar ready. I’ll have to send you a pic of that. We were even going to perform that live at the Prog Power pre-show but the club manager said the band after us was going to be lying on the floor in some parts and thought the broken glass would cut up the singer. So I didn’t tell them about the fire blowing….I got through that eventually.
And as far as us doing strange things like that? Well, I have a couple of ideas I want to get to eventually but I assure you that that is going to be the last time you’ll hear tap dancing in our song. I don’t want to be known as the band with the tap dancer, or the band that breaks TVs. I want to base our career on innovation and progression and not do the same thing over and over.
How do you perform this music live? Have you played any important gigs?
Will there be any European/German dates?
Yes, we have performed lives on a couple of occasions. I personally don’t like playing live. Everyone is just judging you and waiting for you to screw up and for you to not be able to live up to the hype. There are only a couple of people that are actually appreciative of it all,and in that respect it is worth it. However, I don’t have this deep need to be playing live for personal validation.
I guess my point of view of an important gig is different from others. Some would see playing live in front of 20,000 people as important. While, some say that playing in front of 4 people is important. I personally don’t need to be validated for my artistic work. Some people have this sick need to present their music just to get a pat on the head. This is a dog’s behavior. Everyone wants to be liked. I could care less. Why should I perform for a group of people that sit at the bar and won’t pay attention cause they’re waiting for the “kick ass” bands to start. There will be three people out there that will actually give a damn about serious music. And for them, if they really want to, they can just come to my house and I’ll play the piano for them. Hell, those people, I’d rather just hang out with them and have a cup of coffee then make them stand in one spot for an hour.
And as far as how we pulled it off live…Well, the keyboard has a lot of parts to it, including percussion. Live, I just routed a pair of headphones to the drummer so he could hear a click track and a drum program so he would know where he was at. And then I ran a separate mix to the mixer which was all the keyboards. So we had a big keyboard and drum sound live. Two guitar players, a separate bass player, and myself.
Will we be in Europe? We’ll have to see how the CD goes. If no one buys it, then we won’t go. If there is a demand for us over there and the label can afford us to go, we’d be on it.
The German prog maniacs surely want to know when “Where Memories
Combine” will be released in Germany. Do you have any information concerning
the CD release?
It should be after February of next year. The limited edition digipack will have a release date of March 3rd though. The label needs to secure a couple of license deals before the actual release date so that there is no confusion at when certain countries will put it out.
I hope one day to come to Germany. I think if a lot of people raise up some voices about Cea Serin and there is indeed a need for us there we will arrive one day. Who knows, maybe we’ll move there.
There is a self titled debut called “Chiaroscuro”. Is it still
available? If yes, where?
That CD was a result of us putting a bunch of songs up on mp3.com. Mp3.com has this thing where you can make your own CD for free using them. If you upload your songs on their computer you can make this CD format that they will print out for whoever buys it. It’s cheap cause they don’t make a bunch of CDs that they have to sell. If someone buys it, they’ll just print up a four page booklet and put it on CD for them and ship it off. It’s pretty cool if you’re just starting off and people want to have your stuff. That’s really it. I don’t even have a copy of that. I keep giving all mine away.
I just got an email from someone that bought it a couple of weeks ago so i know it is still available and you can get it through www.mp3.com/ceaserin
In your promo information sheet, i’ve read something about the “Cea
Serin II” project. Can you tell us something about it?
Yeah, it’s kind of embarrassing now. Cea Serin II was just this thing I did for one week. I met this girl one night that was the girl friend of a buddy of mine. She was the prettiest girl I ever saw and I would find any opportunity to go hang out with them. Well, one night we were out playing pool and this song by Orbital comes on the overhead radio system. I hear her telling her friend about a time she had to dance to that particular song. So I’m listening to this song and I’m thinking, ‘man, this is some easy junk to put together. It’s probably only a total of 6 layers.”
So I go home that night and start slapping together some songs in that vein in an attempt to impress her. So, it’s really just a collection of songs where I’m doing wild piano solos and dance beat rhythms. I ended up marrying her, not as a result of the CD I gave her, and not the Hunkeydorey (WHICH IS MY MOVE, PATENT PENDING) but some other reasons which I’m sure I’ll write a how-to book about.
What is your opinion about the current music scene? (Development of
trends, of rock music, of music in general, of media, industry..)
There is one particular thing I want to comment on song length. I hear a lot about the length of Cea Serin songs. I want it to be known that I’m not writing long songs to write long songs cause that’s what prog bands are doing. This is the way I see things about song length:
Take a look at just about any CD you have. You’ll find that each song is around the 3 minute to 5 minut mark. This is a pop music trend. It is desirable to have your songs heard by as many people as possible, this way you’re more likely to a higher number or records. The means to get your music heard these days is through videos (MTV) and the radio. For obvious reasons you can’t have a 10 minute long song on the radio, they just want play it. That will cut into ad time. And that’s how they make their money – advertisements. So it has been a popular music trend to write songs that are short and to the point so they can get adequate play time on radio and television. Since most metal musicians grew up listening to this kind of music it has been installed in their brain that this formula is what works.
I say to hell with that. There are all these metal bands that claim to be outside the norm and outside the mainstream but they use the same formula as any other pop act today. Of course there are your deviations. But unless your Michael Jackson or Bob Dylan you’re not going to get the good grace of MTV to play a 10 minute video on their channel. Headbangers Ball will maybe play 2 to 3 videos before a commercial. Why play one video when you can play 3.
Here is another trend that bands are doing these days. I see bands that put out great debut CDs, they even put out a couple of great follow ups. It has been apparent to me that certain bands catch on to a fever. They’ll see that something works in their sound. Fans latch on to a certain thing. A certain smaller aspect of their sound becomes boosted by fan response. They then start writing material to please the fans and continue to do so throughout their career. I don’t now about you but I’m sick of buying the same CD by the same artist. However, these artists will abandoned by their fans if they change their sound too much.
I also personally find a lot of good in today’s pop music scene. There is definitely something to learn from it. People ask why I have CDs by so many different artists. Why the hell would I buy a Spice Girls CD? Why on Earth would I buy a Ricky Martin CD or a Lauren Hill disc? It’s easy. They don’t write songs for the most par but their producers are responsible for bringing in song-writers to help them reach a wider audience. It would be beneficial for Christia Aguilera to try to reach a hip hop audience, a Latin audience, the suburban crowd, and so on. So they have these songs that are a mish mash of styles. It’s good to study that for song writing purposes.
I also feel it is a shame to bash obviously talented music. There is a lot of bad mouthing of acts like Yanni, Michael Bolton, John Tesh. If it’s easy listening it must be bad. That’s the current state of America right now. We have to dumb down our music for it to be accepted.
What do you think of the file sharing scene and music piracy? How does
it affect “big” bands, and how does it affect underground bands? Can you
share the opinion: “better reach 1000 fans with free music than selling 50
demos and reach 100 fans”?
I honestly don’t like file sharing. there are a number of reasons why I don’t appreciate it. One is that I think it is disrespectful to the bands that you like. If you have a favorite band and you download their album before it comes out, you’re more than likely going to listen to it and have it grow on you so that you don’t want to buy it when it hits the shelves. The media focus right now is on the large bands that are living off their music. They focus mainly on bands like Metallica and Hole who have long standing careers and whose viewpoints are quotable in magazines. No one cares what Larry Lemoine says from Sex W/ Stereotypes on the subject. It’s not a cut and dry situation.
You have bands that are coming out with their first albums and its very important for them to make a strong showing in sells because this determines if that band will continue to be signed and if that band will get the opportunity to tour. If thousands of fans world wide download the albums for free and never buy the CD itself, and this band only expects to sell a couple thousand anyway, that’s going to matter more to an underground band than an established band.
Our U.S. label told me the sad truth that he might only be able to move a thousand units of our first album. A thousand units is not a lot at all when you think of the entire united states. Will that number be significantly different if file sharing didn’t exist? Whose to know. I don’t claim to be a seer of any kind. I do know that i was pissed when a fan told me he loved our first CD. When I asked him where he got it he said Napster. I’m thinking, ‘our CD is only like 7 dollars online. that’s cheaper than you can buy in any store. if this dude likes us so much why can’t he give us one unit so that we can help establish ourselves to interested labels, and so on.”
It’s different then when you were a kid and you bought a tape by some cool band and you made a copy for your friend. It’s true that once you buy the CD you can legally copy it for someone. But I do believe that it is a different case when you have the same copy available to thousands of people. Our world is constantly changing and so should our laws reflect that changing world.
Are you more musician than fan? Or vice versa? Or is it fifty/fifty?
I’m much more of a musician than a fan. I never get star struck by artists and I never have a desire to go to concerts to see them perform. There are a couple of people I would like to meet of course, but they’re just people doing things similar to what I do.
In fact, I’ve pretty much given up on seeing metal concerts in general. Just about every one of them I’ve been to I’ve found that the bands just don’t take things seriously. They phone their performances in, they goof off and are basically just waiting to get off stage to rub noses with the fans so they can have their asses kissed. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen plenty of excellent metal shows…however, it’s just not worth it for me.
Double Whopper or Salad?
I don’t eat fast food.
Watching movies or watching people and life?
There are pluses and minuses to each view. Of course, you won’t catch me watching movies like Spy Kids or anything; i opt for films like Begotten. Watching movies can bring you into a life that you would never see while you’re out in the real world. Movies can bring you into someones home and someones life if it is done right. Watching people out in their daily lives, milling around, is less than inspiring. Unless you know how to see through the facade you can get very little out of it.
I used to work as a sort of personal protection for someone. I would watch these people watch her and I could get these brief glimpses into there secrets. It was rather disturbing watching the herd gather and separate themselves from the world outside. People can be inspiring in their own right. I can catch myself being drawn in to someones world in unexpected places. I remember recently going to an establishment and seeing a woman crying at work. She would be doing her job, and then stop to kind of wipe at her sleeve and look away, then work a bit more. I was wondering what could be so bad to make you cry at work…but stay at work. I just stood there and watched her. She saw me briefly so I hid around a corner and watched her from her reflection in some glass and just looked at how she operated under her stress. I was teetering back and forth between not giving a damn about her problems and being more enthralled to her actions, and wanting to just ask her what the problem was. It wasn’t like I was repelled and drawn in at the same time, as opposed to being just intrigued and being intent as an impartial observer.
However, I think true inspiration comes from uncovering the void within yourself and letting what’s really in there flow out. Looking at a sunset and holding hands with someone just covers this void up.
Art = product? What do you think?
That would be entertainment. Art is meant to be consumed though. It’s created for display, it’s made for presentation whether we are talking about a painting that will be admired/judged, a piece of music that will be adored/reviewed, a culinary masterpiece that will be consumed and appreciated, an aesthetically chalked up mathematical theorem, a perfectly executed pirouette, etc.
Quite possibly the distinction between art and entertainment is the intention behind it. If you are in a metal band and you want to write music that “kicks ass” then your intention isn’t geared towards art but entertainment. If you are in a metal band and you want to change peoples minds about lyrics; you want to be drawn into a mind set of your own perception; you want them to have a piece of music that will create the soundtrack of their most memorable moment and most devastating time…then I think your intention is profound in art.
If you are in a pop rock band and all you want to do is get laid, sell millions of CDs, buy a big house, and grace the covers of every news stand and television screen, then i hope you crash and burn for making music and life a little less significant. It’s sad that decades upon decades of cinematic achievement is advanced only by award ceremonies and board meetings that determine where the trends are heading. Gladiator won best picture one year and that was the best anyone could do…a movie about a gladiator.
Enough stupid questions, hehe… so, do you have any famous last words
to our readers?
Yes, some of the answers I have given you are out right lies, but most of them are truth.