Everyone knows the 405 has got mad love for Adam Gnade, Myself included. I’m lucky to have seen Adam in lovely little places with the also lovely Youth Movies.
I’m also really lucky to have hung out a couple of times with him. Awesome guy!
So when interviewing cropped up I jumped at the chance!
I’m not very good though, so hopefully enjoy!!
Photo by 957 (Flickr)
(405)To me as a listener, your work provides some really gorgeous imagery, but scary gorgeous if that makes sense. I’m not a writer so I really don’t know but when you do write, can you see it all stretching out in your head, is it a case of saying what you see or is it something that you write then it all comes together?
(Adam)Yeah, I see it all like a little movie. Most times it’s like I’ll be wandering around in the woods or swimming in the river or making soup and suddenly I’ll just have a song playing in my head and I’ll have to run off, grab my banjo, and write it down.
I’m sure my friends are all real sick of me suddenly jumping up and going, “I’ve got a song! I gotta go!” It’s rude. I probably wouldn’t be friends with me if I wasn’t me. But I guess if I wasn’t me I wouldn’t exist anyway—though maybe the second me would exist in the absence of me. Though I guess if I didn’t exist I’d like to exist as rock in the face of a mountain (is existing determined by cognitive sentience?) So, being a mountain … watching the world thrive, die, thrive, die, thrive, die, over the course of millennia. Wow, THAT was fucking depressing.
(405) I never knew that in 2006 you recorded with Dave Allen and Danny Seim, that must have been pretty intense, how did that come about?
(Adam) I wish I could remember. I know it was right before Dave left on tour with Gang of Four and right before Danny’s new Menomena record came out, but that’s all I know.
(405) You’re represented by Four Paws Media, man, that must be awesome. Their bands list is one that rotates on my ears heavily. Did they approach you to join or did you get on it yourself?
(Adam) I don’t know. That was a long time ago. Hmm … I imagine I asked her. Marissa from Four Paw is doing press for my book so I’m pretty excited.
(405) Its summer here now, so I’m listening to a lot of Stars and I’m awaiting the new Tilly and the Wall, What 2 bands would you recommend for people to listen to in summer and also what two bands would you suggest are good in the winter months?
(Adam) Sure doesn’t feel like summer where I am. We’re all locked inside with the furnace on. Wind’s raging outside. It’s cold, real cold. So, winter: Ma Rainey and Jana Hunter, kind of like a shot of good warm whiskey. Summer: Jonquil and … let’s say Donovan, who told me he was going to do a record with Devendra. I’m wondering why that never happened. THAT would be a summer record.
(405) You’ve starred in a couple of indie films, what’s your favourite film at the moment or ever?
(Adam) I was in one. Wasn’t really acting. The director just pushed us out there and made us ad lib. He’s really into Harmony Korine and had Jake Reynolds, the star of Gummo, in the film; going for some Dogma 95ishness.
My favorite film at the moment … the housemates are blasting the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack right now in the dining room while giving each other haircuts, so I’ll go with that one. Gummo’s up there; it’s definitely what a lot of America is like. I liked Children of Men. The Zizek documentary was great.
(405) Like I previously mentioned about the Dave Allen project, if you could put together a supergroup with 5 musicians you really love, who would be in it?
(Adam) Were there five people in Neutral Milk Hotel?
(405) What can we expect from you in the next few months, what should people look out for?
(Adam) My first-ever book came out this week.
(405) Your novella/novels are lovely, have you known for a long time that you wanted to do stuff in printed media, or has it happened by chance?
(Adam) The book that just came out, Hymn California, is probably the fourth or fifth I’ve written. It’s also the first one that was publishable. I burned the rest in my fireplace in Virginia. They were awful. Exorcism as immolation.
(405) Your tour buddies with Youth Movies, heaven in a gig really. If you could tour with any other UK bands who would you choose?
(Adam) Youthmovies … yeah … anybody you can sneak into Stonehenge with, trash dressing rooms with, and trust to punch the hiccups out of you without rupturing your small intestine is good by me.
So tour, tour … I’d like to tour with Donovan, but the Donovan of the ‘60s. I went to see him play a while ago and it was awful. He looked like the American fitness celebrity Richard Simmons and kept talking to the audience in a fake Jamaican accent, yelling “jaaaaazz hands!” and saying all this really self-aggrandizing shit.
(405) And my boyfriend wants to know Do you watch Lost?
(Adam) I don’t have TV service, but I watched the seasons that are out on DVD in one sitting. Winter where I live right now is pretty heavy and long, so some friends and I shut ourselves indoors during a storm and watched like 200 hours of Lost in a row. It was a beautiful little … I was going to say “lost week,” but no. I haven’t seen the new season. If they kill off John Locke I’m shooting somebody. He reminds me of my dad.
I really like the Neutral Milk Hotel answer!!
Lo
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Aaron // Jun 10, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Awesome Interview Lo!
2 lois // Jun 10, 2008 at 7:25 pm
thank you, i was really nervous! i hope its not actualllllly crap haha! it probably is it was my first! xo
3 oliverx12 // Jun 10, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Dave Allen’s blog is on our blogroll!
4 csy // Jun 14, 2008 at 6:03 am
you can order his book at
adamgnade.cashmusic.org
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