Warmest Chord

Eat That Question with…. Micah Lidberg

WC: Please introduce yourself…

Micah: I’m an illustrator currently residing in Kansas City, Missouri. Recently, I had been living on the east coast, close to New York, but I decided to give the midwest another go.

WC: How long have you been illustrating and what still inspires you about the medium?

Micah: I’ve been professionally illustrating for about three years now. It’s been an amazing experience. I think the thing I enjoy most is illustration’s ability to share ideas and connect people. Also, illustration seems to strike a nice balance between intuition and reason. 

WC: We love the striking screen print heavy with symbolism that you summoned for the Slow Talk Warmest Chord release… where did the idea come from?

Micah: I wanted to make something beautiful and elemental with some tension buit in. The music has a lot of drama and emotion and it’s really beautiful to hear. However, there’s a side that seems a bit darker and more violent. That is what the cat and viper are. They are two natural entities that oppose each other. The print, as well as the album I think, is about what happens when these entities collide.  

WC: What’s your favourite piece you’ve produced so far?

Micah: That’s a hard one. There are qualities I treasure about each project I work on. It’s rare to find a project that doesn’t have some mix of love and hate. If I had to pick one, I’d say my book, Rise & Fall was pretty satisfying to make. It is a continuous drawing that chronicles the demise of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals. 

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Eat That Question with…. Caspar

WC: In layman’s terms, what is a screen print?

Caspar: Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink through the holes, and usually onto a piece of paper or a tshirt. A squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing ink through the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas. The result is that the ink only passes through the area you have intended with your stencil, resulting in your image coming out on the other side.

WC: How would you describe the effects and artistic possibilities of screen printing?

Caspar: From an artistic point of view, screen printing is enormously diverse. You can print on to glass, wood, metal, plastic and a multitude of other materials. A screen printed artwork can be a soul entity, i.e just ink on paper, or used in conjunction with other mediums to make collages and much more. Then there is the world of textile screen printing which in itself is a whole other entity and artistic craft in itself.

WC: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt whilst working as a screen printer?

Caspar: Never cut corners! Every screen printer in the world will tell you, unless you’ve spent a decent amount of time preparing every aspect of a job, you are going to make life a lot harder for yourself if you’ve tried to speed things up by not getting prepared correctly. Even if you spend two hours setting up a twenty minute print job, you’ll thank yourself afterwards. The alternative of having to start again from scratch just because you were lazy at one stage of the process is really too painful to consider!

WC: Biggest work disaster? And success?

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Eat That Question with…. Slow Talk

WC: Who are you and what’s the origin of Slow Talk?

Steven: Well my name is Steven Ross and I live in Oxford, Mississippi. I started recording songs for the project sometime last year but I just recently started putting stuff out as Slow Talk. The name was prompted by a long visit to my grandparents house a little while back. 

WC: What instruments do you play?

Steven: I play guitar, bass, drums and keys on all the recordings, but I also like to mess around with anything I can find like mandolins and banjos. Basically anything that makes noise is an option.  

WC: How long have you been making music?

Steven: Well, thats hard to say. I started playing piano and other instruments when I was really little but i think I recorded my first set of songs when i was in the 7th grade or so.  

WC: How would you describe your music?

Steven: That’s always a difficult question. I have never tried to force one specific sound but the songs have always seemed to develop an indie pop feel with lyrics that are somewhat meant to create the opposite effect of the music. 

WC: Who are your musical influences?

Steven: My musical influences change all the time but I am mainly drawn to people who are innovative with pop music. Bands like New Order, Sparks, Jens Lekman and Bruce Springsteen are some of my favorites. Also, from a production point I have always liked the way Kevin Barnes does things.  

WC: Outside the music world, what influences and inspires you?

Steven: There are a lot of things outside of the music world that I find really inspiring. mI probably find more inspiration in books than music. I specifically enjoy good fiction short stories. I am also a very big fan of soccer. The World Cup is always an amazing experience. Besides that it’s just the daily surprises. A party with friends or the occasional HBO TV show. Living in a small town like Oxford gives me a lot more time to think about the littler things which is sometimes a good thing I guess.  

WC: What well-known tracks have you covered / have you a hankering to cover?

Steven: Well I have learned by trial and error that covering songs is not much easier than writing new ones if you want to do it right. It’s always fun to think about though. I have been wanting to do a cover of “Dancing in the Dark” for a long time now but I’ve never gotten around to it. I’m just always nervous to touch classics.  

WC: What’s the first record you bought?

Steven: I believe the very first record i ever bought was Aftermath by the Rolling Stones. “Paint it, Black” was my favorite song for a long time.

WC: What’s the last record you bought?

Steven: The last record i bought was Night Falls Over Kortedala by Jens Lekman. It turned out to be one of the best albums I’ve bought in a long time.

WC: Pick five of your all-time favourite records?

Steven: Brian Wilson Smile

Sparks Angst in my Pants  

Arcade Fire Funeral  

Elliot Smith Roman Candle

Velvet Underground Velvet Underground & Nico  

There are probably a lot of albums I have forgotten but these are pretty accurate.   

WC: Some of your favourite album artwork and why? 

Steven: Well I am usually pretty open to any style of album artwork but I think all of Andy Warhol’s stuff is amazing. I used to have a vinyl copy of the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers that had the zipper on the front. To this day it is probably my favorite piece of album art. It’s sad, though, that so much of the artwork these days is only being put out digitally.

WC: What book are you reading at the moment?

Steven: I feel lame saying it since I live in Oxford, but I actually just started “Intruder in the Dust” by Faulkner. I have yet to make my way through most of his stuff so I am looking forward to getting into this one.

WC: Last gig you went to?

Steven: There are a lot of good small shows that we have in Oxford. The last one I went to was a local band called Dead Gaze and another group from Florida called The Jacuzzi Boys. It was really good.

WC: Best musical moment so far?

Steven: I have spent most of my time helping friends out with their records or playing with them live so I haven’t had a chance to do much live with my own stuff. Getting everything started and looking to start playing some of my own shows consistently will hopefully bring some good moments.

WC: What’s the most important object that you own?

Steven: I have a Nuemann microphone that I use for almost all of my recordings. I’ve had it for a while now and really like the sounds I can get out of it. I would say thats probably the most important thing I own musically, at least.  

WC: What hangs on your bedroom walls?

Steven: I have a poster from the movie “Reservoir Dogs” by Quentin Tarantino and another one of Einstein riding a bike. I have some soccer stuff too. I like to change it up every now and then though.

WC: Alive or dead, who would your dream collaboration be with?

Steven: I have heard some crazy stories about the way Brian Wilson used to record. Working with him and Nico would be a pretty ideal situation for me. 

WC: If you had to choose one record to take with you on a desert island, which would it be?

Steven: That’s really difficult. One record that never seems to get old to me is Uprising by Bob Marley & The Wailers. That or Night Falls Over Kortedala by Jens Lekman would fit the situation pretty well. 

WC: How would you spend an ‘ideal’ day?

Steven: I would wake up at the stroke of midnight and go out with some friends. Then I would probably look for some good Japanese cuisine somewhere; maybe sushi. Next, I would go play some tennis before it got too hot. After that I would look to relax and read for a few hours. Maybe play some FIFA. In the late afternoon, me, my friends and their dogs would grille out at my house. That night Ii would go see a good show somewhere on the square. And finally before it got to 11:59 pm I would hopefully record something decent. That is pretty much all i could ask for out of a day.  

WC: What keeps you awake at night?

Steven: I procrastinate pretty badly sometimes. I let a lot of stuff pile up on me at night and that usually keeps me up. I also have a hard time being able to just stop thinking and fall asleep. I will go over things in my head until late in the next morning which can be pretty tiring.

Steven Ross photograph by Jane Anne Duddleston

Eat That Question with…. Wild Nothing

WC: Who are you and what’s the origin of Wild Nothing?

Jack: Well my name is Jack Tatum. I started writing songs as Wild Nothing only recently, last summer to be exact. I just felt like I needed a change stylistically so this is it.

WC: What instruments do you play?

Jack: Mostly guitar, but I play all the instruments on my recordings. Bass, synth, drum programming. Anything I can get my hands on and try to figure out.

WC: How long have you been making music?

Jack: I’ve been playing guitar since I was about 11, but I didn’t really start trying to write songs and record until I was 15 or 16.

WC: How would you describe your music?

Jack: I think that’s a hard question for anyone that makes music, but I usually just give it some sort of generic, vague title like indie pop or jangly dream pop. Lyrically its pretty nostalgic.

WC: Who are your musical influences?

Jack: I pull heavily from older indie, jangle, synth, dream pop, post-punk, shoegaze. All kinds of stuff really, everything from Fleetwood Mac to Motown. I have a lot of respect for contemporary bands too though, swedish pop in particular. I really like Jens Lekman, The Radio Dept., El Perro Del Mar. Pop in general really.

WC: Outside the music world, what influences and inspires you?

Jack: Oh, I don’t know. I think a lot of people are influenced by fashion and art and whatever, but to be perfectly honest I’m not so sure I think about those things when I’m making music. That’s not to say I’m not interested in other things though. I really enjoy comic art, pop art. Homemade things always get me excited about creating and song-writing. More than anything I’m probably just inspired by my supportive friends and living in a small town. I think you do a lot more sitting around and talking when you live in a place where there is nothing to do, which is kind of nice.

WC: Your cover of Kate Bush’s Cloud Busting got everybody hot around the collars, what other well-known tracks have you covered/ have you a hankering to cover?

Jack: I’ve covered “Baby It’s You” by The Shirelles before. I don’t know though! I always think of songs I want to cover and then forget about them. I’ve recently started to dig into Morrissey’s solo stuff and I’ve been addicted to Kill Uncle, which is the album that no one else seems to like at all. But I’d like to cover “Mute Witness”. I’ve also always wanted to cover “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.

WC: What’s the first record you bought?

Jack: It’s kind of a tie between the Lion King soundtrack and Green Day’s “Dookie”. I was weird.

WC: What’s the last record you bought?

Jack: I think I download more than I should…. but I bought a handful of records not too long ago. The Go-Betweens, Modern English, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Smiths “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” single. I also found Echo and the Bunnymen’s “Heaven Up Here” on cassette recently and I’ve been wearing it out in my car.

WC: 5 of your all-time favourite records?

Jack: The Smiths “The Queen is Dead”, My Bloody Valentine “Isn’t Anything”, The Go-Betweens “Spring Hill Fair”, Jens Lekman “Night Falls Over Kortedala”, The Microphones “The Glow Pt. 2”. There are way more but those 5 are pretty honest.

WC: Some of your favourite album artwork and why?

Jack: I’ve always liked Phil Elverum’s artwork for The Microphones and Mount Eerie. Just the homemade feel and really beautiful, creepy nature photographs. I’ll probably like any Factory records album art you throw at me too, for the exact opposite reason. They are just so clean and sensible. I appreciate both methods.

WC: What book are you reading at the moment?

Jack: Unfortunately with music and school I don’t get a lot of free time to read anything. Actually I started reading “Anagrams” by Lorrie Moore in like September but haven’t picked it up since then. Kind of sad. Been too busy!

WC: Last gig you went to?

Jack: I don’t get to see a lot of music that isn’t local where I live, but we recently played with Real Estate and Woods in NY which was fun to see. Real Estate in particular really impressed me as a live band. It was a really good time.

WC: Best musical moment so far?

Jack: The show I just mentioned was certainly a highlight. It’s all been great though, I can’t pick a particular moment. I’ve just been in touch with a lot of interesting people lately and getting to make my own music on my own time. It’s really nice. I’m looking forward to this summer mostly, coming to Europe. I’ll have some “best musical moments” then hopefully!

WC: What’s the most important object that you own?

Jack: My Telecaster which I write most of my songs on probably.I don’t really own a lot of stuff, I live in a little apartment. My book and record collections. My girlfriend’s gold wisdom tooth? Ha, I don’t know.

WC: What hangs on your bedroom walls?

Jack: I’ve got some photographs of friends and things, a few Roy Lichtenstein paintings, some goopy monster screenprints my friend Mike made, a giant poster from a Mount Eerie album. Pretty boring and “college” really.

WC: Alive or dead, who would your dream collaboration be with?

Jack: Morrissey and Kate Bush singing a forbidden love duet over a song that the three of us wrote together.

WC: If you had to choose one record to take with you on a desert island, which would it be?

Jack: Oh, I don’t know! That’s just impossible for me. Probably some best-of Smiths album or something. “Louder Than Bombs”. Can’t help it.

WC: How would you spend an ‘ideal’ day?

Jack: Well in an “ideal” day I would wake up at the crack of dawn and not be tired in the slightest, eat some eggs and fruit, sit down and write the best song ever, start recording it. Then I’d call some friends and we’d grab lunch and then go swimming in the river that’s close to my town, because obviously it would be gorgeous outside. Then maybe play some music with my bandmates, maybe have a cookout somewhere. Just hang out and have some drinks with the people I love. Go home, play some Zelda with the girlfriend and go to bed. Sounds pretty ideal to me.

WC: What keeps you awake at night?

Jack: The internet. I have a really bad habit of telling myself I should go to bed and then just laying there in bed with my computer looking at random nonsense for hours. It’s terrible.