1 You can take one record to a desert island for the rest of your life – what would it be?
Sacrifice.
2 Who is your favourite artist?
Wassily Kandinsky
3 Favourite chord?
This one formed the basis of a tuning I like:
D7th (without a 3rd) – from top to bottom, it’s: D A D A C D.
4 Can God invent a rock that he cannot lift?
Can God invent a rock?
5 Who did you last vote for in an election?
Cynthia McKinney
6 Favourite fiction writer?
Hard, because I don’t read a lot of fiction.
Let’s say Ray Bradbury.
7 If you could invite 5 people to dinner (dead or alive) who would they be?
Sam Gorski, Brendon Hertz, Noni Fineberg, Bird, and Smally OM.
8 What pisses you off?
Waste and consumptive excess. Also, being interrupted when I’m on a good roll with a project.
9 What’s the best song you’ve ever written?
Sold for wind
10 One wish – what would it be?
To introduce one novel quanta into the circuitry of tommorrow’s brain.
11 Favourite band?
I actually don’t have a favorite band right now; I’ve been really mood-dependant in my listening choices.
12 3 websites worth checking out?
http://med.stanford.edu/personal/pointfinder/
13 Posters above your bed when you were a teenager?
Not really. I did have some neato glow-in-the dark stars, though.
14 When was the last time you cried with laughter?
Reading the running commentary that accompanied the (enormous) list of mispellings of my last name.
15 If you could learn and play one instrument, what would it be?
Hmmm, right now, that’d be anything with a double reed.
16 Preferred mode of travel?
Foot.
17 Shuffle your iPod – what are the first five songs that play?
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots – The Flaming Lips
dad wanted melody – Simon Piler
Cannon Ball Blues – Jelly Roll Morton
This is the Future – Brendon Hertz and The Burnt Orange Crayons
Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues – Skip James
18 Snowballs, snowmen, or sledging?
Oh, sledding! I love it. I like to crosscountry ski, too.
19 Best gig you’ve ever been to?
ACK! That’s very hard.
But Roscoe Mitchell playing the Madison Center for the Creative and Cultural Arts. (Just for the impact it had on my mind.)
Runner-up: The Flaming Lips live; with Wayne Coyne rolling directly over me and Brendon in an inflatable ball at the beginning of the show. And having the time of his life while doing it.
20 What’s the most embarrassing record in your collection?
Chumbawumba’s ‘Tubthumper’
21 Favourite drink?
Gin and Tonic
22 Drug of choice?
Well, I guess besides Caffiene that would have to be the suite of compounds in jimsonweed seeds, mainly Atropine.
23 If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
Wait. I AM an animal.
24 And if you were a colour, what colour would you be?
Eye-rending Chartruse.
25 Are you good at any sports?
Ultimate frisbee, especially defense.
26 Last book you read?
‘Earthlight’ by Arthur C. Clarke.
27 First thing you think when you get up in the morning?
Usually, “Okay, motion now.”
28 Last thing you think when you go to bed?
Mad colors / Winging shapes.
29 Describe your music in three words?
Falling down stairs. (Small/Subdividing cosmic particles.)
30 If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?
Son House. So I could wear a bow-tie and play guitar with one finger and flatten you to the wall with my voice. Still working on the one finger bit, seriously. When I breathe it will rattle like the the percussion of the earth.
HUMAN BEINGS
HUMAN BEINGS
HUMAN BEINGS!
WAKE UP
JUMP!
31 Favourite comedian?
Charlie Chaplin
32 What colour is your front door?
Wood colored.
33 Favourite film?
Adaptation
34 A quote that stuck in your head?
Eadem mutata resurgo (“Changed and yet the same, I rise again”)
35 Favourite subject at school?
Always split between science and the arts. I especially liked biology, chemistry, and sculpture.
36 Which actor/actress would play you in a film about your life?
Anybody know any young, goofy-looking actors with beards?
37 What music makes you want to dance?
Zydeco and Animal Collective.
38 What should they write on your gravestone?
Well, I don’t really want a gravestone, nor to be buried, but if I do end up with one:
“Paul Bunyan”
39 How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?
Several.
40 When did you first start writing your own songs?
About two weeks after I bought my first guitar. That’d be the Spring of 2003?
41 What’s the weirdest thing you ever saw?
Ya, right. Here’s a good one, anyway…
Jokertown:
When we approached there were two kids lowering another kid off of the porch by his feet. When we went inside, the green shag carpet was covered in smashed beerbottles (they had been playing ‘baseball’ (so we were told. The bat sat by the door.) There was a ultrastained, uncovered matress in the stairwell were the walls were all duct taped over with egg-crate foam. On one side, entire wall of amplifiers. When you went back in the living room, people were crashed-out on the couches – but the legs were all sawn off, so they sat flush with the floor. And two guys with skateboards were doing in-place tricks over the broken glass. The shelves had nothing but books on philosophy. There was a rotting turkey carcass as a delightful centerpiece to the room.
I think Hieronymus Bosch did a painting of this place.
42 Favourite smell?
This award might have to go to Asclepias pumila (Plains Milkweed). Dry, but very zesty and fragrant smelling flowers. They are small, white, and almost leathery to the touch.
43 Favourite sound?
Rain on the roof.
44 Swings, roundabout, chute, or climbing frame?
WOW, that was like reading Greek for an instant. Then I realized we were talking about playground equipment. That’d have to be the ‘climbing frame’, I think.
45 Who is your favourite Beatle?
John. (Used to be George and still close, of course.)
46 Point us in the direction of a band one of your friends is in?
Venice Gas House Trolley. Here’s one of my favorite songs of theirs:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
47 A YouTube video the world should watch?
That shot of those dogs. WOW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGgoW9OWM80
48 Cats or dogs?
DOGS
49 If you had to join the circus what would you be?
A Clown, undoubtedly.
50 Favourite book?
This is a hard question. In the end, I’m going with ‘In Praise of Plants’ by Francis Halle. A very thoughtful discourse on the relationship between form and function… with intermittent cartoons.
51 Have you ever been on TV?
Actually, yeah, lots of times. My dad is a photographer for the local news station in my hometown, so as a kid I was always showing up in stories. Not so much anymore, of course.
52 Have you ever been arrested?
Nope.
53 What songs do you (would you) sing at karaoke?
I’ve only sung ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’. *(At an extremely rural Country Music bar surrounded by citrus groves in Florida. People started going pretty crazy and whooping.)
54 Have you ever seen a ghost?
Presumably.
I also got killed by a posessed person:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=43941934
(11:23)
55 How do you like your coffee? Or would you prefer a wee cup of tea?
Coffee: thick-black, brewed with a pinch of cinnamon. Tea in the afternoons.
56 Punk or Raver? Mod or Goth? Hippy or Beatnik? If you had to label yourself, what gang would you be in?
Well, at one point I was living the fundementals of West Coast hippie / Neobeat fellow. Though that will probably always stick with me, I kinda live the ‘Turn Of Last Century Gang’ lifestyle now. There will always be a very dense ember of Who-derived Mod in my heart as well.
57 What’s the worst job you ever had?
Honestly, I haven’t had many bad jobs. I guess I’m lucky, there. But it’d have to be my first, working at a pizza place.
58 What’s brown and sticky?
Maple syrup. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
59 Do you have any recurring dreams?
Two extinct, one extant:
#1. This Eric Carle style Uroburos (green, against a plain white background as in the ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’) would eat itself until it was just a ball, and then ‘Pop!’ would disappear and start all over again. (Stopped around age six or seven.)
#2. Irritating Baseball Dream – Basically the ball would come and I’d try to hit it, but it would impossibly curve around the bat at the last second. However, before it got to the catchers glove, I’d reverse time, ‘unswinging’ the bat, and rewinding the ball back about 20 feet, then try again. I always missed. This one was where I started to realize I had conscious control over things in my dreams. It doesn’t work like in real life, of course. (Became infrequent around age 14 or 15.)
#3. Teeth falling out! I’m still having this one. My teeth are loose, or I’m picking at them, and they just keep falling out. GAD! I think this is probably a remnant from when this actually (sort of) happened to me in the Great Plains. Picking at one of my molars and half of it cracked out. The size of a pea. WHOA. No pain, no nothing… didn’t see a dentist for 5 months. Apparently it was cracked from when they put in the original filling.
60 How many records have you released and which is your favourite?
I think I’m up to 13 with KINGTIME, but there should be some good archival releases coming up soon. (I’m pretty excited, actually.)
I have a lot of favorites for a lot of different reasons. I listen to ‘Short Score’s Album’ the most, but I think my overall favorite is ‘Simon Piler and The Atom Band’.
61 Where in the world would you like to go?
Australia, Nepal, Peru, Great Britain, and Ireland are all high on my list right now. I’d like to spend some time in the Midwest, again, too. The shores of Lake Superior or exploring Chicago.
62 Favourite kind of cloud?
Lenticular.
63 Favourite line from a song?
Well, my favorite lyrics are probably to Phish’s ‘Train Song’. But it’s a story, so the lines all depend on each other for their might.
Otherwise,
“If I had a pair of eyes on the back of my head for each time
You forgot to think of all the things you forgot to talk about when you took a bite out of my spine,
I would have a lot of eyes on the other side, wouldn’t I? Wouldn’t that just be fine.”
- They Might Be Giants, Letterbox
64 What’s the music scene like where you live?
A few local bluegrass jammers.
65 Who would make up your dream band? (one singer, one guitarist, one bassist, one drummer, plus one extra)
Muddy Waters – singing
Roscoe Holcomb – banjo (instead of guitar, though he played both) and harmony vocals
John Entwistle – bass
Steven Drozd – drums
Page McConnell – keyboards and effects
66 Favourite cover art?
From the album Billy Breathes.
67 Early bird or night owl?
Very much an early bird, actually.
68 Which of the seven sins are you?
Lust.
69 Three words people use to describe you?
Odd bearded kid.
70 You have ten minutes left to live, what would you do?
Listen to a song.
71 Do you support any sports teams?
Well, hell, I’m from Wisconsin! Obviously the Packers! (Even though I don’t watch TV. Nor know who they are playing any given week. Nor know if they won or lost when they are done playing. Or care what their record is, except I like them to win because if they don’t everyone I know back home is really depressed for 18 to 24 hours.) Despite all these wimpy things, my blood still runs Green and Gold. It’s hereditary.
71 What do you want for Christmas?
Bopcrons.
72 Favourite track from all the Daydream Generation compilations?
ACK! How about ‘Burnt Trees Dead Leaves’. Second only to ‘Let’s Start A Country’, which is the song that really got me hooked on DG.
73 Can you cook up a storm in the kitchen?
I like to make curries and Cuban food. And sourdough.
74 What’s the first thing you remember?
My childhood neighborhood; how sunny it was, getting feet stained by Black Walnut rinds, stealing green apples from the neighbor’s house. A large row of lilacs. The peeling yellow paint on the duplex. Rabbits in the two-story cedar.
75 How do you go about writing a song?
This is another hard question, but I’ll give it a shot.
It’s sort of a multi-stage process. Right now, I’m in the ‘accumulation’ stage, where I get myself pretty weird by sitting around and aimlessly staring off into space / surfing the web. (Not much difference, is there?) Then just trying to improvise at the right times and in the right sonic spaces to get music to pop out. Sometimes it’s just ‘record as much as you can’, sometimes it’s ‘wait for a melody’. Sleep deprivation, caffiene, fapping marathons, theatrics, thistle-walking, getting lost in nature, observing stuff, and stretching are all methods I use to culture creative spaces.
76 When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
Dogmer.
77 What’s the best advice you were ever given?
“Relax.”
78 Do you smoke?
Not anymore… A wily case of pneumonia sorta took all the fun out of it.
79 Tell us a joke?
A skeleton walks into a bar; orders a beer and a mop.
80 Pick a card, any card?
Jack of Spades.
81 One question you’ve never been able to answer?
What is space?
82 If you could travel back in time, when and where would you go?
I’d meet my great-grandad. On his farm in Racine, WI, sometime around 1935 or so.
83 Favourite philosopher?
Fa-tsang and his hall of mirrors.
84 Do you have any pets?
Not right now; I don’t feel like I could take care of a dog properly.
85 Ever climbed a mountain?
Why, yes. As a matter of fact, I love climbing mountains! Mmmmmmmmountain….
86 What do you do in the real world to pay the rent?
I’m a low-rung sound scientist. I mostly do data-analysis and repair equipment.
And, it’s a seasonal gig, so next month, WHO KNOWS???
87 Self-diagnosis: any psychiatric disorders?
Bog branches bloomin’.
88 Favourite poet?
It’s a tie between Gary Snyder and Jalal ad-D?n Rumi.
89 What wouldn’t you do for a million dollars?
Do you mean to say, ‘What wouldn’t I do even if offered a million dollars to do it?’ Rape someone. I can’t think of anything more horrible or gross.
90 Adrenalin junky?
Not in the least. Though I used to do Wildland Firefighting, though, which is typically the choice-sport for Adrenaline Junkies.
91 What bands have you been in?
Something About Pirates
Hamiltonian Circuit
Chime Collective
Bloom (short lived, but awesome – backing group for Raka Bandyo. We also played as ambiance music for the areal dance troupe, ‘Cycropia’.)
Unnamed Fantasy-Metal Folk Band (Oh, well… so dense with potential that it collapsed inwards on itself. The roots of The Atom Band, really.)
92 Favourite board game/computer game?
I probably got the most enjoyment out of the original Half-Life – multiplayer mode. As kids we’d ride our bikes to the university library and install it on their computers so we could have up to 10 playing at a time.
Runner-up: The Incredible Machine.
93 What kind of recording set-up do you have? Equipment etc.
Well, a 4-track, but my microphone’s quarter inch cable is wacky. So, right now, I just use my computer. I also use my MP3 player’s built-in microphone – it’s great for field recordings.
94 A character you love from a book or a film?
Pere Ubu.
95 Who is the sexiest person in the history of the world?
Audrey Hepburn? No, really she was just the cutest person the history of the world.
96 If you could genetically fuse two animals together what would they be? And what would it make?
Lemur & Dog. It would make something very fast and awesome. But maybe a little scary, too.
97 What kind of drunk are you?
That’d be Sleepy/Pensive.
98 What was the first record that really blew your mind?
Peter Gabriel. The 1980 one with his melting face. (I grew up as a little kid with that album. Like 5 or 6 years old and jumping-on-the-couch-dancing songs and not understanding a crumb of the political nor social sides of the album. I don’t think we listened to ‘Family Snapshot’ then, but we did listen to ‘Games Without Frontiers’ and ‘Biko’ a LOT. I really did learn about political prisoners from Peter Gabriel. And a lot about western gluttony and waste to boot. And assassination. And police brutality. And war and anarchism and apartheid… Yow.)
99 What are your musical plans for the future?
Well, I’m going to try to get the best of my older records up on CLLCT. And mayyybe (with a little help from my friends, see) organize a ‘Best of Simon Piler’ disc, too. I’m in the good part of ‘the lull’… brewing up new moods and musics. Dreamin’ a bunch.
100 Got some websites of your own we can visit?
http://www.myspace.com/simonpiler
http://www.cllct.com/art/simonpiler
http://theuticaflowercompany.wordpress.com/ship/cabin-5/