ALEATORY #20: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Owen Ashworth feels your pain.

This is probably why he records so many damn good songs as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone -- as perfect and descriptive a band name as there's ever been. Maybe you've heard his songs, or seen Los Campesinos! lead singer Gareth wear a CFTPA T-shirt in the documentary that came with the group's We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed album, or maybe you'll just see Owen at SXSW this year, or pick up his new rarities album Advance Base Battery Life on March 10th, or maybe even pick up his new new album Vs. Children in April. No matter what though, Owen's aesthetic -- after all these years -- remains almost exactly the same: plug in a keyboard, turn on the mic, and just play it baby. We feel for you.

Congratulations to both him and us: this Globecat's 20th Aleatory -- thanks guys.

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4. Favorite person to have worked with?

I used to work in a bakery with a woman named Kara who was really funny and great. we ate a lot of damaged baked goods together.

10. Favorite lyric?

I ain't no goddamn son of a bitch you better think about it baby

13. Favorite Shakespearean play?

Cats

14. Favorite sound?

Flute samples played in chords

15. Favorite exhibit or subject at the museum?

Wild animal taxidermy dioramas in natural history museums

17. Favorite plant?

I think it's a tie between kudzu and basil

39. What's something you could probably beat anyone you know at?

I don't mean to brag but I am very good at cribbage

40. What was your best/worst subject in school?

I took some anthropology classes in college that I did pretty well in. I never skipped my anthropology classes. I have never done very well with math. I skipped lots of math.

42. What's an image that haunts you to this day?

There was a picture of a dude who had done a mess of PCP and then cut off his face and fed it to his dogs. I saw it on the internet. I still think about it every once in a while and go "ugh" or "ack." Once you put something in your brain you can never take it out again, kids. Think twice before clicking those warning disturbing image links on www.snopes.com.

43. What's the road ahead look like?

It is covered with snow and hazardous

44. Something you've heard, know is false, but wish were true with all your heart?

I heard that polar bears hide their black noses with a front paw or leg when they hunt. This helps them blend in with the snow so they can sneak up on school children or seals or whatever. Sort of like a reverse negative Dracula. Polar Drac. I'm pretty sure this is not true but the image is too endearing and chilling to not want to believe in.

49. Now that you know a much larger audience will get to hear the music you've made, has your writing changed at all? How? What's changed and what's stayed the same?

Oh man I don't know. I think the biggest factor that has changed my writing has been my age. I get older and I think about different things so I want to sing about different things. Also, once you've written a song, you can't go around rewriting it forever so you actually have to come up with some different ideas every once in a while. I am averaging about thirty songs per idea these days.

54. So far in your career, what's been your proudest accomplishment?

Playing in Russia felt pretty nuts. I feel weird listing any names but there have been some people who I have been very proud to have met and shared mutual admiration with. Okay fine Tom Hanks.

57. Most rock star thing you've ever done?

I accidentally knocked all of my equipment off of a stage and the people in the front caught it and pushed it back upright. And everybody thought it was on purpose and some kind of cool trick. IT WAS NOT A COOL TRICK

63. Band/artist you're secretly envious of?

My friend Nick from No Kids because he lives in Canada and gets all kinds of amazing government grants to record expensive andfabulous sounding records. Also, because I would like to be able to play piano like him. I am pretty lousy musician and I am envious of lots of people's musical abilities.

67. Do you reach any kind of personal catharsis when it comes to songwriting/performing?

Yeah, I guess so

78. Your life has been reduced to a bumper sticker: what does it say?

NPR

92. Which venue are you dying to play but have not yet had the chance to?

I would like to play at the Warfield in San Francisco, CA. I saw Kraftwerk play there once and I hear it's haunted.

94. What's your hardest song to replicate live?

There are a few songs on my new record that were arranged for many more hands than I have. I haven't tried to play them live yet and I really don't know what to do with them. There are also plenty of old songs of mine that I just don't like to play because I just don't really like them anymore. I would find it hard to replicate those songs with any sort of sincerity, even though they aren't particularly difficult to play.

99. Licensing your music out to companies for TV ads: good or bad?

Shit I don't know. I haven't done it yet but maybe if I have a kid who needs braces some day I'll feel differently. You pick your battles, you know?

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Visit Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's website.

ALEATORY #8: Titles

... and in step the indie-rockers. With a laid-back style the mixes both backwoods rock drawl with indie quirkiness, guitarist Brad Amorosio began working as Titles after his previous Connecticut college rock act bailed out. Soon, with the help of drummer John Miller, a fleshed-out sound emerged, and as of later this year, a new album as well. Brad sits down with Globecat to take part in its eigth Aleatory ...

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1. Favorite word?

I don't know. [Editor's Note: That's actually three words.]

5. Favorite piece of equipment?

1960 Gretsch Clipper.

14. Favorite sound?

Lightsabers.

26. Favorite badass?

Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York.

45. What's the best lie you've ever told?

Probably something on a job interview.

53. So far in your career, what's been your biggest regret?

No regrets.

54. So far in your career, what's been your proudest accomplishment?

Putting out our last record.

60. What's the worst show you've ever played? What would you have done different?

They are all OK. Even the worst ones have some value.

63. Band/artist you're secretly envious of?

It would be fun to float on the crowd in an inflatable bubble.

65. Ever see yourself penning the score/soundtrack to a TV show or film?

Not anytime soon.

76. Dream collaboration?

When is that Dangerhorse record coming out?

82. Current pop song that you would file under "guilty pleasure"?

I liked that Jessica Simpson song with the roller rink video ["A Public Affair"].

89. You just died. I'm sorry. Fortunately, your will states that you want very specific music to be played at your funeral. What did you choose?

"Hello Goodbye"

90. Sexiest thing about you?

Post nasal drip.

91. Which single album should be in everybody's home?

The first Huey Lewis and the News record.

97. Your label wants to do a music video for a song off your album, and have inexplicably procured $1,000,000 as a budget, then decide that you'd best direct the visual accompaniment to your own music. What song do you choose, and what will your video look like?

We'd probably do something with animatronic dinosaurs.

99. Licensing your music out to companies for TV ads: good or bad?

Depends what the ad is for. Car insurance? Hamburgers? Sure, what the hell.

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Visit Titles' website.

ALEATORY #7: Mark Romanek

You may have heard of Mark Romanek.

Mark spends his time directing music videos. Some of the videos he has directed include Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" and "The Perfect Drug", Fiona Apple's "Criminal", Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way", Janet/Michael Jackson's "Scream", Johnny Cash's "Hurt", and Jay-Z's "99 Problems", just to name a few. He also directed the incredible paranoia-thriller One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams, along with some of the revolutionary iPod TV spots. He's won everything from Grammy Awards to VMA's, and now sits down to partake in the seventh Globecat Aleatory. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado: the inimitiable Mark Romanek.

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1. Favorite word?

I've always liked the word: nuance. I also like the words: perhaps, affinity, translucence, tangential, hierophant, and taupe. I also love to say the name "Miroslav Ondricek."

4. Favorite person to have worked with?

I found it thrilling to work with Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie. My experience with Robin Williams on One Hour Photo was really great too.

6. Favorite visual artist?/Favorite work of visual art?

Pablo Picasso/Various paintings from his "Rose Period."

7. Favorite composer?

Bob Dylan. Tom Waits. Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder. Erik Satie. Ludwig Van Beethoven. J.S. Bach.

11. Favorite music video?

Wax "Southern California" by Spike Jonze. Also: Iggy Pop "Home" by David Fincher, Björk "All is Full of Love" by Chris Cunningham, [and] Björk "Isobel" by Michel Gondry.

19. Favorite foreign film?

Fellini's 8 ½, Truffaut's 400 Blows, Polanski's The Tenant, Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice, Bergman's Persona, Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc.

21. Favorite album(s) from the past year?

Bon Iver -- For Emma, Forever Ago, Coconut Records -- Nighttiming, Radiohead -- In Rainbows

23. Favorite natural oddity?

The human orgasm, bio-luminesence, Aurora Borealis, rainbows, fireflies, hummingbirds, transparent fish (In that order.)

28. What instrument would you most like to learn to play?

Acoustic guitar. To my great shame, I never learned. (I took a lesson when I was nine and was discouraged by a teacher who said I had no aptitude. I later found out I was a lefty. That guy was a dumb asshole.)

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

I learned to get the fuck out of the way.

33. What's something you could teach anyone in an hour or less?

I suppose I could teach someone how to use a 35mm still film camera.

42. What's an image that haunts you to this day?

When I was five years old, I was very eager for the next day to come, because it was my birthday or Christmas or something. The idea of having to wait all night long for the next day to come was unbearable to me. So, that evening, sitting in my bed, I closed my eyes and wished with all my might that when I opened them, it would be morning. And it worked! (I swear to God.) It was morning in the blink of an eye! I thought the world was magic and that I had magical powers. (I guess, I must''ve closed my eyes and fallen asleep without realizing, and I actually opened my eyes about ten hours later.)

44. Something you've heard, know is false, but wish were true with all your heart?

I have an opposite example. I heard something that's probably true and wish with all my heart that it wasn't. Someone who actually knows J.D. Salinger said that he's stipulated in his will that when he dies all his unpublished manuscripts are to be destroyed. I think this would be a cultural tragedy of unimaginable proportions.

54. So far in your career, what's been your proudest accomplishment?

I guess, One Hour Photo. That, and a handful of my music-videos.

I would say that I'm proud to be involved with all the Apple iPod silhouette TV spots, because I do think it's a really great product, and the ads are sort of iconic . They are defining an aspect of the era. (I should note that the silhouette idea itself is not mine, of course. I just help execute them.)

66. Worst song you've heard recently?

If it was "worst" I almost certainly would've changed the station before I could discover the title. I have a low tolerance for insincere, synthetic crap.

76. Dream collaboration?

I'd love to work with: Tom Waits, Thom Yorke, Leonard Cohen, Björk.

85. What's the biggest mistake you've made that you inadvertently learned a great lesson from?

Isn't any "biggest" mistake inevitably an enormous learning experience? I think any mistakes that big would be too humiliating for me to discuss in this forum.

89. You just died. I'm sorry. Fortunately, your will states that you want very specific music to be played at your funeral. What did you choose?

Erik Satie's "Gnossienes #5." (No question about it.)

90. Sexiest thing about you?

My talent for gracefully deflecting embarrassing questions.

96. The one thing that no one knows about you (yet)?

I can be pretty funny, once you get to know me. (Just not so much in this questionnaire.)

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Visit Mark's official website.

ALEATORY #2: Gotye

If you live outside of Australia, chances are pretty good you haven't gotten to hear Gotye—yet. At home, Gotye (the one-man act of Wally DeBacker) is an award-winning indie pop star, pulling down an ARIA (the Aussie Grammy) for best male artist in 2007 and a Most Outstanding New Independent Artist award in 2006 for his album Like Drawing Blood, which went gold.

Now Like Drawing Blood is hitting Europe and Japan later this year, behind lead single "Hearts A Mess," a track Davecat has been putting on pretty much every mixtape he's made since it came out. Everyone needs to hear this song (no, really), and now, soon, you'll be able to get the album without the hefty import fees (assuming you don't live on the left side of the map). Wally was kind enough to take some time from rocking the rest of the world to be our second Aleatory interviewee, and we couldn't be happier.

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9. Favorite song to start (or end) a mixtape with?

"In My Pants" by The Reddings. Defies description. Everyone should find outwhat this song is about.

10. Favorite lyric?

Well, I might as well elaborate a little on that Reddings track.

"There's a girl name [insert garbled name that rhymes with, um, something like "blurl" here], who took me round the world- every place she thought I should be. I said "hey- wait a minute. My rank as a lieutenant- in the army of the freaks". No sense. Absolute gold.

22. Favorite vice?

Nutella. With a side of nutella.

23. Favorite natural oddity?

Metamorphosis. CATERPILLARS TURN INTO BUTTERFLIES PEOPLE! HOLY SHIT!

27. Favorite chord/chord progression?

The one from the chorus of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb". And also Urban Cookie Collective's "The Key, The Secret". And 65.37% of other pop songs ever written. It's something like C, G, Bb, F.

31. Other than musician, what career would you most enjoy?

Highway toll collector. Every day's different.

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

CATERPILLARS TURN INTO BUTTERFLIES PEOPLE! Wait... I found that out last month. Hmmm... I learned about Iran's history (from a graphic novel called Persepolis). It's bloody terrible. And I felt both intensely thankful and guilty for the luxurious, safe and wasteful existence we enjoy/exploit in Australia and other parts of the western world.

34. What's the best joke you heard recently?

Apparently the shortest joke ever. Very American. Not very funny. But here it is: "Pretentious? Moi?"

35. What's the best place you've randomly discovered while on tour?

Having a roll of toilet paper on you at all times is incredibly helpful. Particularly when preparing to go on stage and beset by a last minute toilet call in a venue whose toilet you haven't checked out beforehand.

38. What is your family like?

Brilliant. Loving and inspiring and supportive. I'm incredibly lucky.

46. Where do you keep things hidden? What do you keep hidden there?

On my hard drive in a folder called "BoringSoftwareDriversYouWouldn'tEverNeedToLookAt". In it, there are LOLcats.

47. Biggest fear?

Someone discovering my LOLcats collection.

51. What are you currently obsessed with?

The newest record player I bought. It's a tiny model of a Volkswagon "combivan" (I dunno what folks outside Australia call this particular model of van) with a stylus attached to the bottom. It drives around vinyl you place on the floor, and has a little built in speaker to play the music. I bought it in New York and although it warbles, skates and has a terribly tinny sound, it's still the best record player ever.

54. So far in your career, what's been your proudest accomplishment?

Getting the first copies of the "Hearts A Mess" 7" single on vinyl. It's not really like I manufactured them, but it felt great to see my first vinyl release. The artwork looked brilliant, the vinyl master and cut was pretty good, I'm proud of the song, and I felt proud all over.

57. Most rock star thing you've ever done?

Admonishing the audience for yabbering loudly in the front row during a show. As it turns out, they were yabbering about how they wanted to bonk me. But all I heard was distracting chatter. Wait... the most rock star thing I've done is brag in an e-interview about fans discussing wanting to bonk me in the front row of one of my shows.

64. Weirdest promotion you've been a part of?

Promoting myself. It gets stranger every time I speak. Did you know I was born in an airoplane that crash-landed on the tip of K2? I crawled down the peak (at age 0, yes) and was raised by villagers until I left my adopted parents to become a world-famous pastry chef. Where did I go to begin my brilliant career? Antarctica of course. Great weather there.

68. Favorite interview you've ever been a part of (aside from this one, obviously)?

One in Japan where the fellow tried speaking English for an hour. He couldn't speak English. I just replied in Japlish-isms. Things like "YOU OUGHT TO GET DO SOME A LITTLE EXERCISE .EVERYDAY" and "ERIC CRAPTON".

71. How well do you feel your music lends itself to remixing or being covered?

It's fine I guess. Depends on who's doing the reworking.

86. With Radiohead's In Rainbows release and Nine Inch Nails doing boffo business with his online releases, do you see yourself ever doing some alternative kind of release for any of your future projects?

It's something I've been thinking about for the next record. Not that I've got the massive profile and existing fan base to be able to support such adventurous and progressive release strategies. But you gotta think big, and original, to get places.

88. What's your deepest source for musical inspiration?

The deep, deep boom of an 808 deep kick drum on the bottom of the deepest deep house track you've ever deeped. I mean heard. It's so deep I almost experience brown note response.

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Visit Gotye's website.

Photo by James Bryans.