FEATURE: Comic Book Tattoo: Kelly Sue DeConnick

Part two in Globecat's Comic Book Tattoo feature is the lovely and talented Kelly Sue DeConnick!

Most well-known for co-authoring 30 Days of Night, DeConnick teamed up with artist/Image Comics art director Laurenn McCubbin (of Rent Girl fame) to tackle Tori's first big breakthrough single, "Silent All These Years," off of Little Earthquakes. As Rantz mentioned in part one, their approach is surprising, original, and nothing short of fantastic. We are honored to have gotten the chance to talk with such a true talent. Thanks, Kelly Sue!

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>>>>How did you become a part of Comic Book Tattoo? Had you been a Tori Amos fan before the project started?

Oh my yes, I was a Tori fan before I was approached for the project. In fact -- and you’d have to check this with Rantz -- I believe that may have been a large part of why I was approached. Rantz and I knew each other from... gosh, I think it goes back to Warren Ellis’ old Delphi posting board? Somewhere around 2000, maybe? Anyway, it was definitely something we’d previously discussed.

>>>>What made you choose "Silent All These Years"? What is it about the song that made you pick that song over any other?

I didn’t labor over the decision, I knew what song I wanted to do. My biggest fear was that it would be taken before I could stake my claim.

I’m having difficulty addressing the “Why this song?” question without sounding cliche. “The song speaks to me.” “I feel like it was written just for me.” They’re frightful interview answers but there they are at the essence of the thing nonetheless. "Silent All These Years" is chock full of angry images, desperate and despairing tones, and yet that delicate tinkle of piano keys and the gut rush of “it’s been here,” sweep in and turn it into something triumphant, even celebratory. I love that. I can not hear this song as anything but a paean, a balm, a kiss on the forehead, a squeeze of the hand, an assurance that no matter how thunderous the shitstorm of my life is at the moment, as long as I can still find my way to that quiet place inside myself where I can hear my best self, my own voice, as long as I can do that, then I can identify the Next Right Thing. And if I can just do the Next Right Thing, I can usually find my way back to okay.

>>>>"Silent All These Years" may be Tori Amos's single most well-known song, having practically launched her career in the United States. How did that affect your approach to the story? Was there anything you knew you didn't (or did) want to do with it from the outset?

I absolutely could not think about the significance of the song or I’d never have been able to write a word. Hell, I couldn’t even let myself think about the possibility of Tori reading it. Eep.

I knew from the outset that I didn’t want to do anything about a break up and nothing too literal. That would have been heavy-handed and wouldn’t have served the song.

>>>>"Silent All These Years" makes all sorts of leaps lyrically and tonally, moving back and forth between the deeply personal, the darkly humorous, the surreal, the metaphoric, etc., and yet it all comes together into a very moving song. How hard was it to match the story and the artwork to the tone and mood of a song that varies as much as this one does?

It really wasn’t that difficult, honestly. It came to me whole cloth and changed very little in execution. The original idea was a teenaged girl sitting in class drawing on her jeans. She draws a bridge and we follow her into the drawing, off the bridge and under water where she becomes a mermaid, opens a clam shell and finds herself inside. Clamshell Girl whispers to Mermaid Girl, “Yes.” The only regret I really have about the piece is shying away from using “Yes.” I ought not to have changed that. Oofah. Oh, well. Bit late now.

>>>>Please talk a little bit about the collaborative process between yourself, Laurenn McCubbin, editor Rantz Hoseley, and Tori Amos on this project. How much (if any) influence did Rantz and Tori on the direction the story took? What was it like working with Laurenn on this?

Rantz was amazing -- he was both the most hands-on and hands-off editor with whom I’ve ever worked, though I realize that sounds impossible. He checked in with us at every step in the process, but did so without issuing orders. He made suggestions and asked questions, but acted as a doula and traffic manager more than critic. He also managed to make us feel like the only people in the book even though he was dealing with at least 49 other creators. Mind-boggling, truly.

Laurenn is a friend and we’d long wanted to work together, so it was dreamy. My favorite piece of hers is called HARVEST GYPSY. It ran on artbomb.net years ago. I knew I didn’t want her to work in panels after seeing that.

>>>>What was the hardest part of taking a song and making a comic book story out of it? Have you had any experience working with taking other forms of art and turing them into comics?

Mike Doughty told me he would go to the MOMA with his notebook and jot down a sentence inspired by each piece. I loved that as an exercise and, I don’t know, a shot of creative Red Bull. I’ve made a practice of it ever since and some of those sentences have gone on to be starting points for pieces completely unrelated to the artwork that inspired them. I think that’s probably as close as I’ve come to this process before now.

At the San Diego Comic Con, on the Comic Book Tattoo panel, Tori Amos mentioned that the comics inspired by her songs have, in turn, inspired new songs. That took my breath away.

>>>>Now that you've had this experience, are there any other songs (Tori's or otherwise) that you'd enjoy writing a comic book story about?

I now desperately want someone to do a Johnny Cash anthology. And I’m not going to tell you what song for fear that someone else will get to it first!

FEATURE: Comic Book Tattoo: Rantz Hoseley

When Davecat first found out about Comic Book Tattoo, the Tori Amos-inspired story collection written and illustrated by over eighty of the best and brightest working in comics today, underneath the elation and jumping and clapping there was a tinge of something else. Like being watched, almost.

Do you ever have the feeling that someone you don't even know has made something especially with you in mind?

Davecat likes comic books. Davecat likes Tori Amos (okay, Davecat loves Tori Amos). But Davecat likes a lot of things separately that haven't panned out when combined, like acting and Quentin Tarantino, or bicycles and jousting. Video games are pretty good, but when combined with movies they wind up being not so very good (looking at you, Silent Hill).

However, none of those things, even jousting, are as near and dear to his heart as art, writing, and music. But all three? Together? What if something went wrong? The more you love something, the more of a potential there is that changing it, or adding to it, or combining them all into one big smoothie, could make it all go terribly wrong.

Of course, as soon as he picked the book up, he realized all the worrying was for nothing. Especially (and this is where you come in) since he talked to several of the artists and writers of Comic Book Tattoo beforehand and interviewed them for Globecat's first big feature! There's nothing like good discussions with the smart, talented people behind a project to wash away any doubts about it, and Davecat talked with a lot of them for this feature.

Over the next week or two, Globecat will be sharing these interviews with you, starting today with the man who put it all together, Comic Book Tattoo's editor, Rantz Hoseley. A long-time friend of Tori's, Rantz also wrote two of the stories in the book, based on the songs "The Waitress" and "Mr. Zebra," and was instrumental in helping us put together many of the interviews with the other artists and writers, for which we are extremely grateful.

It is our great honor to present to you: Rantz Hoseley! And please check back over the next few days for the rest of the feature, featuring the lovely and talented:

• Kelly Sue DeConnick
• Ming Doyle
• Tom William

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>>>> In the press release for the anthology, you say that "Comic Book Tattoo is the pure distillation of how these two art forms [music and comics] inspire and feed off of each other across all the classifications, genres and styles of comic storytelling." The phrase "pure distillation" definitely stands out for me as the key: What about the collection and the way it came together makes it transcend just "art about music" or "comics inspired by songs" and become something so refined as to be a distillation of arts?

I think a large part of it comes with Tori’s and my ‘mission statement’ for the book... that the book reflect how one form of art inspires and fuels another, and that this not just be a case of ‘videos in comic book form’. Tori’s been inspired by comics for years... the most obvious reference being Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, but she’s certainly had music and songs that were sparked and inspired by more comics than just that one. The thing with the arts, if they are well done, is that the inspirations aren’t always apparent on the surface when someone takes it in. Movies and film can inspire music, which might inspire a work of prose, which in turn might inspire a series of paintings, which in turn might inspire a graphic designer, and so on. In that same way, we wanted the creators who contributed to Comic Book Tattoo, to really get to the emotional essence of the songs, to use the themes, the tones, the cadence and pacing, to be that inspirational springboard to fuel their creation, rather than being hung up in the whole notion of worrying about whether or not ‘this is what Tori meant with the song’. To Tori and I it was more important to show how one form of art can inspire different types of reactions in creators and how those inspirations become something wild and wonderful when you get so many creators who all have their distinctive styles and artistic ‘voices’. Tori herself said in another interview that it’s an ‘endless cycle potentially’, since the stories produced in CBT have inspired new songs in her, new directions for her to riff on musically. I think that whole approach and the resulting book, is what sets it apart.

>>>> You've been friends with Tori for a very long time, and comic books are a big part of your life. What made now the right time for Comic Book Tattoo, as opposed to, say, ten years ago? What was the final impetus that got everything rolling for what would eventually become this anthology?

Well 10 years ago, I don’t think the market was ready for it. It (the comic industry) was going through a bit of financial problems due to growing pains, and a general lack of direction. Also you had a lot of creators leaving comics at that time. God knows I did. It just seemed like a place that wasn’t really open or accepting of anything different or unique and the few singular voices in comics were stand out exceptions, rather than the rule. Not that there was anything wrong with comics as a form of creative expression... just that the market was going through one of those cycles that all art forms go through where it wasn’t growing, where it was repeating a lot of the same old same old, and just was kinda boring.

By comparison now, there are so many exciting creators making comics with very unique and different approaches and styles. Those creators have made such an impact that now you have companies like Marvel and DC, who historically are a bit resistant to anything ‘different’, now hiring these creators to take on some of their highest profile books without expecting them to change their style... Just look at a writer like Matt Fraction. He has his creator-owned book Casanova, which is one of the most kinetic, surreal, and brain-f’ing comics to come out in years, and now he’s the guy writing Marvel’s X-Men and Iron Man. I don’t think I’m being too cynical when I say it seems unlikely that would have been the case 10 years ago.

So comics now I think are ripe and ready for something as ambitious and different as CBT. That assessment had kinda been building in the back of my head for a couple years, but really the trigger point was seeing Image put out so many books with a music-themed element. From Phonogram, to the back matter in Casanova where Matt explains the soundtrack of the book and compares the panel pacing to the Phil Spector wall of sound, to Amory War (the Coheed and Cambria comic) and so on... that just kept building until finally I talked with them about it last San Diego comicon. They agreed that the time was right, and that the project sounded great, so... off we went.

>>>> There has been a lot of crossover between the music world and the comic book world over the past couple years: MF Grimm's Sentences, Gerard Way's (of My Chemical Romance) The Umbrella Academy, Phonogram: Rue Britannia, PopGun, the Belle and Sebastian book, The Hold Steady and Subtle (among others) including a graphic novel with their latest albums, etc. etc. What do you see as the driving force behind the large number of music-related comics recently? Is this a new trend, or is there just more attention being paid to the music-comic interplay now (and if so, why do you think that is)?

Well, it’s always been there in one form or another. Look at the 50’s... you had comics based on pop music stars, in the 60s you had people name-dropping Bob Dylan, in the 70’s you had Marvel putting out the KISS comics, the 80’s had those... um... interesting... ‘Rock n Roll’ comics that were bios of various bands and so on. I think now, you have more ‘back-n-forth’ between the two forms, because what used to be geek culture has become the mainstream. Look at the two big films of the summer, Batman and Iron Man. That’s not even getting into the rest like Hellboy 2 or the X-Files movie... The geeks and nerds who used to watch Star Trek after school and read comic books have become the people who make entertainment these days. Frank Miller’s making movies, Joss Whedon’s writing comics. That kind of reciprocal relationship between art forms carries through to music as well, and so you’ve got a generation that grew up loving comics, now demonstrating that love back through their own respective art forms. I think it’s only going to get stronger, and the blurry line between the art forms is just going to get fuzzier over time.

>>>> What made you choose "Mr. Zebra"? What about that song spoke to you more than any other?

I’ve always had a fondness for Mr. Zebra’s Dadaist structure... When James Stokoe became available at the last minute, I knew it had to be a short story in order to fit his schedule, and it also had to serve his art style, which is this wonderfully manic-yet-stoned, detail-oriented surrealist style that always references cooking in some way. With that in mind, "Mr. Zebra" seemed to be an obvious choice.

>>>> "Mr. Zebra" is a delightfully strange song: whimsical in tone, with a surreal -- and sometimes dark -- lyric about animals and whirlpools and burying someone alive, all in just over one minute. What struggles did you have in taking such an odd piece of music and then building into a whole different art form? How difficult was it to match tonally?

When I designed the tour programme for Boys for Pele, I had different comic artists and painters do one page illustrations to go with the lyrics. For "Mr. Zebra" I had my and Tori’s friend Andrew Brandou, who does this wonderfully dark-yet-whimsical style, paint a riff on the ‘dogs playing poker’, except it was painted with Zebras. I’ve always seen "Mr. Zebra" in my head... this cynical, haggard Zebra who really is kind of put-upon by life... kind of a mix between Ricky Ricardo and Krusty the Clown. So, in writing the story for CBT, I just let the stream of consciousness-nature of the story dictate it out. Of course Mr. Zebra’s a burned out hack of a talk show host. Of course he has recurring guests, and of course one of those would be the chef Kaiser Wilhelm. It came incredibly easy and was a blast. Perhaps, given the nature of the story, that should worry me somewhat...

>>>> What was the most obscure song someone chose to illustrate? Which stories surprised you the most (in terms of style, approach to the project, relationship with the song the artists chose, etc.)?

Probably "Pirates," to answer all of those questions. Ivan Brandon and Calum Watt said that they wanted to do it, and I just thought they were pulling my leg for a minute, since it’s a little-known song off Tori’s Y Kant Tori Read album, which she has understandably distanced herself from. Ivan’s a ‘cutting edge’ kind of writer... he’s always on the look out for the next cool and inspiring thing... god knows he’s turned me on to a ton of artists and writers who ended up becoming huge, and yet he’s wanting to do a song from Tori’s ‘hair band years’?!? I really couldn’t wrap my head around it, but I also trust he and Calum’s chops, so I let them run with it. The end result is something I couldn’t have imagined in a million years, and is really stunning. Kelly Sue DeConnick and Laurenn McCubbin also took a very different kind of approach with one of Tori’s mainstays “Silent All These Years" that will surprise a lot of people, but Tori and I loved the approach, and the nerve it took for them to go that route.

>>>> When the average persons hears the words "comic books," they think of the DC and Marvel superhero rosters: Batman, Superman, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk. Is that a hurdle you think Comic Book Tattoo will have to overcome in drawing in new readers who may not go for superhero stories, or have never picked up a comic book or a graphic novel before?

We were very aware of that fact from the beginning, so all of the choices that were made, the book dimensions (12” x 12”), the art-reproduction-quality paper stock, the book design, the artist we chose for the cover... all of those were made to give the book more of a feeling of being a coffee table art book instead of a comic book. Everyone loves comics, they love the format. There’s a reason newspapers have a comic section. But at the same time, as you said, there’s this hang up that many adults have about buying a ‘comic book’, so we gave them a book that with its format and packaging, not to mention the lush art inside of the book, that they could subconsciously justify it as ‘oh, I’m buying a art book for my coffee table... it’s not really a comic’. Based on the reaction from people at BEA, who are ‘book folk’ moreso than comic fans, I think we’ve hit that sweet spot dead on.

>>>> In the same vein, what does the anthology have to offer those who love superheroes and science fiction more than anything?

There’s a hugely wide variety of styles and genres in CBT. Traditional comic fans... those who love the more action-driven elements, will find a lot to love in CBT, as will the kind of comic fans who like more of the ‘human drama’ element found in the more ‘indie’ comics.

>>>> There are some very big names in this collection, and then there are some artists and writers who are perhaps a bit lesser known. Who among the less-famous contributors really blew you away and left you excited to hear more from them in the future?

It was funny, because the lesser-known creators on the project were creators that I had come across on various comic forums... people who were trying to ‘break in’ to comics, but hadn’t had their ‘big break’ yet. I picked them because I felt, looking at the work they had done, that was up on their sites... each of them was going to be huge. That wasn’t in question, it was just a matter of *when* it would happen. The funny part comes in that, every one of these creators, in the time it’s taken to complete CBT and get it out, has gone on to do other comic work, and in some cases gotten quite a bit of noise for their efforts. I consider myself very blessed to have Ming Doyle draw the story I wrote for "The Waitress," because she’s going to be so big, so quickly, I’ll probably never be able to get to work with her again because companies will be throwing oodles of money at her to draw their ‘hot’ book. Across the board, I’m confident that in five years times if you look back at CBT you’ll see every one of these ‘new kids’ being major forces in comics.

ALEATORY #14: The Burnside Project

Every once in awhile, a band comes along that just has everything you love crammed into one place. The Burnside Project is such a band: spry indie-rock guitars meet throbbing synths and techno beats, all while lyrics pour out Richard Jankovich's head that range from smart to smart-ass (I mean, c'mon, the guy gave an in-song shout out to Philip Seymour Hoffman years before that big Oscar win). Though their disc The Networks, The Circuts, The Streams, The Harmonies scored a minor hit with "Cue the Pulse to Begin" back in '03, they band has remained busy, releasing The Finest Example is You in 2005 and re-releasing their '00 effort digitially late last year. Now, Richard is busy doing lots of new songs and remixing under his Pocket guise, but, also, delivering terrifically sarcastic answers to Globecat's fourteenth Aleatory ...

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16. Favorite campfire story?

Unfortunately, I cannot remember any. It probably had ghosts in it.

26. Favorite badass?

Pat Buchanan.

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

Particle physics.

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

The East Coast of the United States Of America - it is a lovely place!

36. Lyrics first or music first?

Differs on each track. Mostly, music first.

43. What's the road ahead look like?

Sleepy. Burnside is pretty inactive right now but my Pocket work is in full swing. Check it: www.music-by-pocket.com

52. At what point did you realize that music was going to be your full-time occupation?

Um...it's not. Well, actually it is - I work in music branding and licensing. But I don't think that's what you mean...

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

Way too many to count - probably at Pianos when I lost my shit and kicked a mike off the stage. That's about as punk as we get. It was pretty cathartic for us.

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

I reach catharsis through kicking mikes off of stages, as I mention above.

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

No, this one is pretty terrible. My best interview was probably while on tour in Japan and I had no idea what they were asking - I just answered everything with "green and tumbleweeds."

81. If you could sync an album of yours to a movie (like Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz), what movie would it be?

Magnolia.

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

I really like Rihanna and I will kick anyone with a mike who disagrees with me.

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

Agreeing to do this interview.

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

The world around me, television, paranoia.

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?

New Order for the upbeat parts, Replacements ballads for the part when everyone cries.

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

The Houston Astrodome.

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

Well, probably the ones we never played live like "Outside Tennebrae" or "An Easy Sell"

98. Would you say that there's somewhat of a political undertone to your music? If so, what motivates it?

Absolutely - though I keep it purposefully subtle. What motivates it? A deep and utter hatred for right wing lunacy and left wing failure to give a shit.

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

Have you seen our songs on TV?

100. Even with the gradual decay of the B-side, most artists still have vaults of unreleased songs. What's in yours?

Loads of garbage - it's unreleased for a reason, in my opinion.

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Photo by Angela Langer.

Visit the Burnside Project's website.

ALEATORY #13: Pale Young Gentlemen

This is a first.

Here at Globecat, we receive e-mails all the time -- be it publicists, readers like you, or even band members themsleves: we happily sift through all of these, but something was quite different when Pale Young Gentlemen drummer Matt Reisenauer contacted us, eagerly discussing the second disc from his band's album Black Forest (Tra La La). We followed up on the lead, and soon found Black Forest to be a tragically beautiful album of indie-folk done right: dramatic without being theatrical, touching without being self-serving. Ripe with cellos, acoustic guitars, and singer Mike Reisenauer's pointed vocals, this is the kind of disc that will sound just as good five years from now as it will when you pick it up later this month. Yes, this is the first time we've featured an artist who has contacted us instead of the other way around, but, really, this is the first band to contact us who genuinely deserves to be on our Aleatory wall. Mike R. takes this opportunity to gladly discuss re-recording radio interviews, the big spoiler he knows about wolf packs, and how Rufus Wainwright gave one of the worst concerts he ever saw ...

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20. Favorite new band?

Our old bass player (Andy Brawner) left the band to work on his own stuff. He released an album called "A Sun Goes Down" as Time Since Western that is amazing.

27. Favorite chord/chord progression?

Any half-diminished chord. Most chords/chord progression have a lot of baggage- they're hard to make your own- but these things add a lot of nuance, I think, so ended up using them a lot on the new record.

30. How many languages do you speak?

One and a half. For some reason, I remember a lot of the Spanish I learned in middle and high school. Or at least I think I remember it. Or at least nobody I knows more than I do and feels alright correcting me.

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

I saw a thing on PBS about the origin of dogs and how they split from wolves. I won't ruin it for you, but a nicely done show.

36. Lyrics first or music first?

Same time. Back and forth. Like two young boys trying to outrun each other.

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

I'm really good at trying to be funny.

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

Who cares?

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

Once I saw a dog get hit by a car as I was pumping gas, a springer- spaniel, I think. It was very dramatic from start to finish.

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

That people still listen to entire albums. I wish we were limited to 8-track players sometimes. Make everyone listen to the whole side at least.

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

My brother and I used to be clowns with my dad. We'd perform skits and tricks on the street. This is totally true. Anyway, fooling another person with a magic trick has to be the most pleasant, guilt-free lie possible.

48. Biggest moment of triumph?

I think I'm still waiting for this one...

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

When I was six, my mother told me to take my little garbage can up to my room. I paused and said "No you". My mom reacted in such a way that has prevented any more rock star moments.

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

Once we played a show as a three-piece that was all-the-way embarrassing. Christ, we really should have rehearsed. I still regret it.

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

Anybody that's actually making a living at this.

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

We did an interview once for a local radio station that was being taped for a later airing, but the interviewer forgot to press record for the first 40 mins. of it. It's not a terrible thing to lose 40 minutes, but it is weird to re-answer the same questions and try to seem genuine. We ended up with a big inside joke we couldn't share with the audience.

69. There's got to be one: who has been your craziest fan?

We had a fan in Chicago once that wanted to pay us a hundred bucks to play "Clap Your Hands" again. We didn't do it, but maybe we should have.

84. Most disappointing concert you ever attended?

I once saw Rufus Wainwright at the Barrymore Theater. I think I remember wanting him to shut up and play the songs. The whole thing seemed kinda cheesy or something.

87. Ultimately, you will want to be remembered as …

Somebody's dad who wrote some nice songs.

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

I am a fantastic cook and I'm really great at driving cars.

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?

I'd keep the money, split it with my band, and have my dad shoot it for free. I'd probably want to do "Kettle Drum" or "She's All Mine, I Think" because I've always pictured those songs taking place on my dad's property in rural Wisconsin.

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Visit the Pale Young Gentlemen's website.

INTERVIEW: Travis Morrison

Travis Morrison is a chameleon.

When T.Mo started out as the driving force behind The Dismemberment Plan, the group was all smart-allecky screamo-rock, like your favorite indie record done with wreckless abandon. Yet, as time went on, the band grew, and before long, the Plan had become one of the most respected and revered indie rock acts in the nation, as biting tracks like "The Ice of Boston" and cathartic albums like Change managed to bring a wit and intellgence to a scene that rarely saw such generous amounts of it. Then, the group disbanded. T.Mo went to pursue a solo career, and Evcat clearly remembers how each new song that Morrison posted on his site being a revelation unto itself: beautiful idiosyncratic bites of electro pop that were as funny as they were melodically stunning. (Oh, and let's not forget Entertainment Weekly covering that "What's Your Fantasy?" cover ...) A notable rock site slandered T.Mo's first solo effort, Travistan, but, really, this was the sort of multi-textured pop gem that we all knew Morrison had lurking in him. The more straightforward, darker (and, hell, even more intriguing) follow-up album All Y'all came in 2007.

Yet Morrison is at a good place in his life: he's found a band that he feels very comfortable fronting (the Hellfighters), is writing even sturdier songs than before, and, appropriately, is addicted to Twitter. Morrison sits down with Globecat to discuss his latest excursions, how the Plan has defined his life, and how his gas tank has destroyed his wallet ...

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>>Listening to All Y'all, it feels like the making of this album was a very deliberate move for you: focusing on a very band-oriented approach where Travistan was much more studio-oriented. Obviously, this makes the record easier to tour, but, given how quickly the second disc came out, would you say that it was somewhat of a "reactionary" move to the reception that Travistan received?

No, not at all. I know this sounds strange but I adore Travistan. I have nothing but fond memories of making it and I really like a lot of songs on there. But I did assemble a band to play it live, and then we just started writing songs together, so then All Y'All came together.

>>On the new disc, I got to say that "I'm Not Supposed to Like You (But I Do)" immediately struck me, not just for its straightforward approach, but also because it -- like much of /All Y'all/ -- seemed to be coming from a darker lyrical perspective (reflected in the similarly-themed "I Do"). To a degree, if feels like something of a "confessional" record, but set in a much more excitable setting. Did you find much catharsis in making/touring All Y'all?

Yeah, I can see that. It is kind of dark. I think I was in a pretty dark place--by my standards, not by Metallica's standards. I wasn't strung out on smack. I was just broke, probably still adrift post-Plan (which was kind of like getting out of the Army), and not sure why I was making another album. I loved some of the other musical stuff I was doing; getting to choir practice at the National Cathedral I can remember with the brightest, most excited light. I felt like a kid. It was challenging and beautiful and I loved it. But in terms of playing rock music in public, I was kinda like... where is this going? I don't feel that way at all now, so in a lot of ways now I'm glad I made a record at that point in my life because I think it does capture how I felt.

>>To what degree do you feel your career has been defined by the Plan, and to what degree has it been defined as a solo artist? Is there one you prefer over the other?

I think my career is totally defined by the Plan. That's when I had a "career." Although I don't like that word much. It's more like, x amount of money falls on your head and you can live on it for a while. It's like a grant from the cosmos, not a career. But anyways, I think if anyone knew who I was, it would be as the lead singer of the Plan.

>>I remember when you were recording Travistan, you were keeping people updated on its goings-ons with your blog, and the moment that sticks out the most is when you were looking for a string quartet for what would turn out to be "Angry Angel", unable to pay the string players, but asking for help out of the kindness of their hearts. There was something utterly inspiring about that -- trying to create something grand on a budget of absolutely nothing -- and it really went to show how much your records are real labors of love. With that said, I remember you expressing some doubt about your recording future prior to the release of All Y'all, saying being a solo artist/bandmember was no longer a full-time occupation for you. If we do hear another T.Morrison record in the future, what circumstances will there have to be for it to come into light?

Oh there'll be another record! It's touring that's hard. We did one in March and it was actually really successful and fun, but man, gas prices and touring ... wow. We would have made serious bank six years ago, but I poured it all into the gas tank instead. Phew.

>>Finally, so far in your career, what's been your biggest regret and -- conversely -- what's been your proudest accomplishment?

Oh man. I can't really say I think that way. I'm definitely proud of all the talented people I've had the opportunity to work with, I think that's what I'm proudest of. I feel like that must reflect on me pretty well.

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Visit Travis Morrison's website.

INTERVIEW: Nico Muhly

Sometimes it's easy to forget that musicians do other stuff, too. When your only connection with an artist or band is through live shows and recordings, it's difficult to imagine them having a life outside of that bar or concert hall, or that record player/stereo/iPod. Like running into your grade school teacher in the supermarket, it takes seeing a musician in a different setting to jar your senses back to what should have been obvious all along: artists are people too, no larger than life than life.

With the Internet, finding out more about artists' lives outside of music becomes stalker-easy. Many of them, such as composer Nico Muhly, keep weblogs of their travels, detailing their hobbies and musings of a less musical nature. Sometimes, as Davecat found out, you have a lot in common with an artist. Except for working with Björk, Philip Glass, and Antony Hegarty, scoring films, writing cantatas inspired by grammar books, releasing two albums of achingly, head-splittingly gorgeous contemporary classical music (Speaks Volumes, and this year's fantastic Mothertongue), graduating from Julliard, etc. etc. etc., he and Mr. Muhly are pretty much into the same things.

Here, Davecat attempts to talk with Mr. Muhly (who he refers to as Mister to feel better about his own wasted youth: Muhly is only 27, which is obligatory to point out) about some of their shared interests, in part to demystify what it means to be a Composer -- especially of contemporary classical music -- and to learn more about the person behind the notes, but mostly because, as stated, Davecat is a big dork.

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>>>> In all of the reviews I've read, for both Mothertongue and Speaks Volumes, the critic always mentions your age. Do you feel like a "young" composer, or that your age has any bearing on what you write? What does it mean to you to have praise (or criticism) qualified by how old you are?

Oh, this will pass. People just don't like to write unqualified nouns anymore, so you can't just say "composer." You have to say "young" or "venerable" or something. The 30's are a desolate wasteland where you're neither young nor venerable, though. So we'll see what happens in 3 years.

>>>> The pieces on Mothertongue come from very personal places: writing out all the phone numbers and addresses stored away in your brain, your parents singing "Twa Sisters" to you as a child, the time you've spent in Iceland. Was making this album a cathartic experience for you? Are the pieces on Speaks Volumes as personal in other, non-textual ways? Or is writing from specific events in your life something new about this work?

Well, Speaks Volumes was very impersonal inasmuch as I was trying to make chamber music, the historical idea of which being that it belongs in other people's houses, not mine. Mothertongue, on the other hand, is a vocal album, and as such, required explicit "texts," which were more personal. So: yes. I'm not sure if it was Cathartic, although it was incredibly exciting to me (and still is) to hear Abby scream out those zip codes at the end of the fourth part of Mothertongue, and I find the entirety of The Only Tune to be very autobiographically titillating.

>>>> What has your audience been like on tour? Indie kids? People dressed for a night at the theatre? Are you ever surprised by who shows up to see you perform?

I am always surprised. Like, literally always. It was different in different cities – I assume you're asking about these most recent shows in the Coastal Areas (+ Chicago). Boston and DC were mainly older, NPR-listening people, with some indie kids scattered around. San Francisco was a lot of young people! I seriously have no idea. I should have handed out a questionnaire. In Montréal, there were a bunch of young, straight-seeming MBA students and law students. What? In L.A. there were a lot of single handsome gays. In New York it was all about 40-year old gay couples. In Seattle one 50-year old couple (straight) turned up like they were going to the opera. A total mystery to me.

>>>> What's the best thing you've learned this week/month?

I finally figured out how to use the expression "I shudder to think" in Icelandic, which is like "shiver with" — very satisfying. Hrylla.

>>>> What have you been reading recently?

Tana French's In the Woods, Chris Bohjalian Midwives, really whatever Oprah tells me.

>>>> Back in 2005, you wrote a cantata based on Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. Being a grammar dork myself, I have to ask: what's your favorite didactic example from the book?

"Somebody else's umbrella."

>>>> In previous interviews you've talked about your love of "text and language games," particularly Scrabble. Being a Scrabble dork myself: what's the best bingo you've ever gotten? What is it about taking words apart, not for grammatical or communicative purposes, but to gain more points, that's so exciting?

"Lesbian." I don't know what it is. It's like, motivic development in Brahms or something, re-arranging a scrabble board.

>>>> How many languages do you speak? Do you have a favorite language? Sound? Character? Orthography? Linguistic feature?

I have good English, French and Italian, in that order. Then I have bullshit Icelandic and even more bullshit Arabic. I love the way that Arabic uses a rhythmic pattern to make the difference between words related to the same root. I am also really into the specific Icelandic sounds, especially aspirated consonants and pauses inside words; I'm not going to write you an ipa rendering of it, but check out this webpage: http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=94 and have fun.

>>>> One of my favorite parts of your website is reading about your adventures with food. You talk about sauces as narratives, whale recipes, and all the great things you've eaten on your travels around the world. Aside from being delicious, what is it about gastronomy, as an art, that hits home for you and makes it such a big part of your life?

I'm going to give you a long answer, but basically, I had a long conversation with my friend the other night about this. She is a total gourmande and sensual æsthete. We realized that you can divide the world into people for whom eating and sharing a meal is THE social intercourse, and those for whom it is not. For me, it definitely is. When I talk to my mother, or her mother, 95% of the time it's about food: what we're eating, what we're thinking about eating, what color the stalk of a chard might have been. For me, food is really the only thing that there is. It's how I plan my day.

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Visit Nico Muhly's website.

INTERVIEW: Rob Pollard

Q: How does Globecat write an intro about Robert Pollard?

A: You give him a guitar and let him write it for you. Though a six-stringed instrument was unavailable at the time, Robert Pollard -- the frontman for seminal indie-rock outfit Guided By Voices, co-founder of roughly a billion side-projects, film score composer, and iconic songsmith -- managed to sit down with Evcat to discuss the use of the Guided By Voices name, that new band that's he excited about (hello, Boston Spaceships!), and then takes time to clear up the biggest misunderstanding that anyone would ever have about him ...

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>>You recently launched your own label, Guided By Voices, kick-starting it with ...Is Off to Business, one of the most critically heralded records you've released thus far. What were your reasons for revitalizing the GBV name for your new label venture? Will the GBV name forever be associated to you or does it just apply to a certain era of which you were recording?

Well, I had actually entertained the notion of using the name Guided By Voices again, but then I thought that it might be construed by some as a move to sell more records. It wasn't but it might be seen that way. I just thought, what the fuck, Guided by Voices had 50 or 60 members over the course of 20 years, so what's the difference? Anyway, my manager, David Newgarden, suggested when we decided to split from our label and form our own, that we use it as the label name. So I agreed and we went with GBV, Inc. The name Guided by Voices does apply to a certain era as a musical entity, but as a mental/spiritual concept, it is ongoing and stays with me.

>>After your collossal, epic closing show for GBV, you've been relatively quiet on the touring front. With the new Circus Devils disc coming out, do you see that changing anytime soon? With a back-catalog as extensive as yours, do you ever find difficulty in picking a set-list?

Well, I have a new band that I consider to be real and not a side project. It's called Boston Spaceships. We just released our first album, we have another in the can, and I just finished the demos for a third. We're doing a U.S. tour starting September 25th. Yeah, I've got a lot of songs so it's not difficult to make a list. We'll be doing the Boston Spaceships album, and my new solo album, Off to Business as well as some side project stuff and some old obscure GBV material. Suitcase 1 & 2 songs. Maybe a couple old crowd favorites.

>>Starting with Bubble, you've gradually shown more interest in scoring films, working in both songs and instrumental numbers -- how has soundtracking changed/effected your songwriting style (if at all)?

No, not really. For the most part it's just been small budget films and the director or studio requests songs that already exist on record. Steven Soderbergh and I have shared mutual interests for a while. He requests particular songs that he believes will suit the film. I've provided music for Full Frontal, Bubble, and the upcoming musical Cleo based on the life of Cleopatra. For Bubble I gave him a compilation of 45 or 50 acoustic demos and he chose, I think 10 for me to film. So far, it's been done in this matter, but at some point I might like to write songs specifically for a film.

>>What is the one thing that people most misunderstand about Robert Pollard?

That I'm some sort of mad, band-member firing dictator. I ask that you have a good time, be enthusiastic and play your instrument.

>>Finally, so far in your career, what's been your biggest regret, and -- conversely -- what's been your proudest accomplishment?

My biggest regret was writing "Hold On Hope". A lot of people like it but I consider it pompous, both lyrically and structurally. My proudest accomplishment was the recording and releasing of my first post-GBV solo album From a Compound Eye. I always wanted to do a double album and it's not easy to pull off. It has to be epic and sprawling with a lot of good songs, or it can me Metal Machine Music. That's ok too. I'm pretty proud of Bee Thousand and what it means to people, too.

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Visit Robert Pollard's website.

Photo taken by T. Nelles for Prefix.

OFF THE RECORDS: Patting Ourselves On the Backburner

We're still awe-struck, truth be told.

When we started off Globecat, we had sky-high ambitions, hoping to interview nothing but the greats, those artists who are either bathing in the spotlight or bathing in obscurity, making good music regardless of Billboard chart rankings, all with something valuable to say. Though reaching 2000 hits might not be a milestone for many, it certainly is for us, especially considering that at the start of June, this blog did not even exist. Since then, we've interviewed the likes of Anton Newcombe, Girl Talk, Aesop Rock, the Vivian Girls, and so many spectacular artists it's almost intimidating to mention. We have our Coming Soon to Globecat feature on the top-right of the page, and though sometimes it looks kind of empty, that's only because we file things in there that are already written & completed. Behind the scenes, there are so many things at work (and so many big names being tossed around) we can barely contain our excitement ...

But, there is something that is sorely missing from Globecat, and that's you. We have been contacted by all kind of publicists, but what we really want is to hear from you guys, the fans and followers. Though many, many songs are passed around here at the Globecat offices, we want to know who you want to see interviewed. Now that we've been around for awhile (and have interviewed big names, Grammy-winners, and cult icons), we have a bit more pull, and more than likely we can fulfill whatever interview requests you might have. Link us in your blogs, help spread the word, and -- most importantly -- let us know who you want to see next on Globecat. Please e-mail us at globecatmusic [at] gmail [dot] com post-haste -- we are excited to hear what you have to say!

Keep it tuned here, as all the latest developements will be posted here before anywhere else.

And, most importantly, thank you for all the support. It helps more than you can imagine.

--Dave & Evan

ALEATORY #12: Grails

It's been a busy year for Grails, and it's not over yet. Back in May, the Portland four piece dropped their fifth full-length in as many years, Take Refuge in Clean Living, pushing their grungy instrumental psych into new and groovy places. In October, their sixth album, Doomsdayer's Holiday, comes out on Temporary Residence. And their 2005 EP, Interpretations of Three Psychedelic Rock Songs from Around the World, was just pressed re-released and pressed vinyl. They also toured with Nadja in June, are hitting up Athens, GA and NY in November, and in the meantime are probably working triple shifts at their day jobs, just because they can. Three of the Grails guys—guitarist Alex Hall, drummer Emil Amos, and keys-man William Slater—took a breather from their hectic schedule and were kind enough to be our twelfth Aleatory.

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12. Favorite band when you were in high school?

AH: Split decision between Metallica and (old) Van Halen.
EA: Dinosaur.
WS: Drive Like Jehu, Public Enemy.

13. Favorite Shakespearean play?

AH: Porky's 3.
EA: Zardoz.
WS: Henry IV.

15. Favorite exhibit or subject at the museum?
WS: Very old books and forgotten manuscripts. Sea monsters of the late cretaceous.

16. Favorite campfire story?
AH: Hamlet.
EA: "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" - Ray Nelson.

17. Favorite plant?
AH: Robert.
EA: Francis.
WS: Treebeard.

19. Favorite foreign film?
AH: Irreversible.
EA: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.
WS: The Lady Vanishes, Throne of Blood.

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

WS: Flute, maybe cello.
AH: It'd be nice to actually learn guitar at some point.
EA: Either a ham-radio or some Harry Partch shit maybe.

60. What's the worst show you've ever played? What would you have done different?
AH: Eureka, California, 2004, I think. It was in some Italian restaurant. An hour before the show, our violinist ate a handful of mixed scrip drugs he had scored off some dude on the sidewalk. By the time we started to play he was still in the van, writhing in the backseat and clawing at the air. He kept losing consciousness during the set with his violin shrieking a wall of feedback. After the show he passed out in the car and we couldn't wake him up. Eventually he came to at 4 AM, and was furious because it was freezing outside, he didn't know where he was and he filled my voicemail with about 20 hateful, threatening messages.

EA: The time I remember feeling the worst was in around 2001 when someone put the loop for a song called "Canyon Hymn" on a cassette. Since all tape player motors play at slightly different speeds the sound man hit play and we slogged thru 8 minutes completely out of tune with it. I remember experiencing an intense/unparalleled degree of shame while I was putting my cymbals away.

WS: The aforementioned two were the first two that came to mind… Honorable mentions to the show where the very heavy Rhodes organ collapsed on top of me mid-song, trapping me beneath, and the show where i played despite having a 102 degree fever, during which our violinist flipped me off repeatedly from the other side of the stage because he didn't like the set list I'd written. I remember that one as somewhat of a Robitussin-induced waking nightmare.

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

EA: I'll speak for Alex on this one and say it's a tie between Rita Coolidge and Clay Aiken.

71. How well do you feel your music lends itself to remixing or being covered?
AH: I hope that someone might actually cover a Grails tune one day, since it might confirm that we'd succeeded in making an actual song. Most instrumental music these days is either just riffs or drones, rarely ever real songs....

81. If you could sync an album of yours to a movie (like Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz), what movie would it be?
EA: Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
WS: Dirty Dancing

93. Longest show you ever played? What was different?
AH: We've played probably a dozen shows in Europe where the promoter hadn't bothered to add any support bands, leaving us as the sole 'entertainers' for the evening. So we were obligated to go total GBV and play really long sets....which is fun for us but bad for the Italian people who are waiting for the techno DJ that's going on after the rock show.

95. Do you ever read your own reviews?
AH: Yeah, always. I've never understood the idea that a lot of people have about separating oneself from one's criticism. It's just part of the process.

EA: With the amount of dispassionate publicity you generally receive, we mostly just end up reading our own press releases that've been copied and pasted 4000 times. Between that, deleting spam and shredding junk mail modern life has become a refreshing break from reading Kafka. When there's not much tangible community left in the underground it makes us sentimental to watch old videos of the crowd spitting upon the faces of the members of Fear.

98. Would you say that there's somewhat of a political undertone to your music? If so, what motivates it?
AH: You mean in a topical sense? No, we don't have any 'Bush is bad' songs. Music like ours is more about focusing inward than outward. It's head music that benefits from a generous amount of dissociation.

100. Even with the gradual decay of the B-side, most artists still have vaults of unreleased songs. What's in yours?
AH: A lot of stuff that will stay unreleased for good reason. But the rest is being compiled into a DVD project that should be out some time next year.

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Visit Grails' website.
Visit Grails' MySpace.

INTERVIEW: Girl Talk

Girl Talk is inescapable.

When Gregg Gillis burst onto the scene with 2006's Night Ripper, no one really knew what to think. After all, illegal mashups had floated around for years immediately after the advent of Napster, but no one would have figured a Biomedical Engineering student at Cave Western Reserve would wind up redefining what the very definition of the phrase "mashup" even was. Night Ripper (following two similarly-styled but more glitch-oriented releases) traffic-jammed the whole of popular music into one non-stop party disc, challenging listeners beyond the mere "spot that song" guessing game and instead tearing down the rock and rap monoliths that have so dotted the past few decades, all in the name of fun. As if his acclaim (and insane live shows) weren't enough, Gillis then decided to release Feed the Animals -- his latest sample-heavy masterpiece -- in a Radiohead-styled "pay what you want" format only eight days after he finished mastering it. At the rate he's going now (and already an in-demand remixer), Gillis shows no signs of slowing down, except -- of course -- for the occasional detour into the land of interviews. Gillis graciously sat down with Evcat for yet another exciting Globecat one-on-one, and if you thought he was already manic, just wait 'til you hear what he did at his high school talent show ...

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>> In retrospect, there really wasn't a huge wait between Night Ripper and Feed the Animals -- but that's also because you were touring like a madman at the time. For an approach that's so sample-based, what is about touring that you find so inspiring?

It was actually a little over two years between Feed the Animals and Night Ripper. That seems like a relatively large chunk of time between albums to me. I work slowly. I like ideas to develop over time. The past two albums have basically been an attempt to make a cohesive whole out of a bunch of tiny ideas. I always feel the need to have some new material to work with in the live setting, just a few small elements each week. Because of this, the live show is constantly evolving. I get a chance to see how crowds react to the new ideas, and this influences how I'll perform or the content of the next show. After a certain amount of time, I can take a step back and say "OK, I have enough material now that I feel that I could make a cool album out of it." Then, I'll start the editting process, and that's usually a long process as well. For the last album, it took about 6 months.

>> Much has been made about the release format you chose for Feed the Animals, yet what I found most interesting was that for those who selected the $0.00 option, there was a list on the screen that asked why people were choosing to get your work for free, with reasons ranging from [and I paraphrase] "I'm in the media" to "I don't believe in paying for sample-based music". Why did you create this options in the first place, and what did you learn from them?

Illegal Art, the label who is releasing the album, and I both thought it'd be interesting to get a gauge of why people weren't paying. We weren't the first people to do the "pay what you want" model, but it's still novel enough that we were kind of treating it like a social experiment. I don't have the exact stats on me, but I think most people who didn't pay said it was because they were either going to pay later or didn't have the money. The least popular answer was "I don't value music made from sampling," but that was also the most specific option. "I don't like Girl Talk" even got more clicks than that one. Our set up was pretty raw, so we can't really treat the response data as scientific or anything like that.

>> With your remixes, live shows, and fourth (!) album just out, where do you see yourself taking the Girl Talk sound into next?

I have no idea! After I finish an album, I typically don't know where I'm heading. I mean, there's already a bunch of new material that I'm experimenting with live, but I have no idea what shape that will take down the road. I want to do some collaboration work, which I haven't done much of in the past. I want to work with Dan Deacon and Skymall on separate projects. I'd love to get away from dance-related music at some point, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.

>> Has the notion ever emerged of doing a production job for another artist?

Yeah. That could be interesting at some point, but right now, I definitely wouldn't want to focus on anything like that. If I could keep my sample-based style, then that would be great, but for most artists, there would most likely be sample clearance concerns. In general though, I'm content doing music the way I've been doing it for the past 8 years.

>> Plain and simple: with tastes as wildly eclectic as yours, whose music do you find the most inspiring?

I'm inspired by everything I sample. I get pumped everytime I turn on the radio. I can't really isolate anything specific, there's too much.

>> Finally: so far in your career, what's been your biggest regret and -- conversely -- what's been your proudest accomplishment?

I honestly have no regrets in my musical life. My proudest accomplishment is when I was in high school, and my band, called The Joysticks Battle The Scan Feed Relay To Your Skull, played the talent show. We were a noise band and were all about smashing things and lighting off fireworks at the audience. Our junior year, we were kicked out of the talent show during rehersals because our act was a little too over-the-top for the organizers. The next year, we faked a more subtle performance during the rehersals, and there were new organizers so they didn't know what happened the year before. They let us into the show. We were pretty infamous in our school and in the local Pittsburgh music scene, so we drew a lot of people to the show who assumed we were going to go crazy and do our typical style show. We got on stage in radiation suits, stood completely still, and had the lighting guy just run a steady strobe on us. We played a noise loop that was about 3 seconds long on repeat. It was actually on cassette, and we were prepared to play for one hour. After about 10 minutes, the entire audience was heading for the exit. The talent show organizers ended up cutting the power in the entire auditorium to stop us and in the process, they broke the PA system. The rest of the show was canceled.

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Visit the Illegal Art website.