Who am I? How did I get here?
Interests
Who am I? If I had to pick two words to describe myself, they would be passionate and interdisciplinary. I love learning and have a wide array of (peculiar? disparate?) interests. While I love spending all day hiking by myself in a beautiful place, I likewise enjoy the commotion and energy of urban life. Both great nature writers and abstract German electronic music make me feel grounded. I like rustic living and abstract modern art, furniture, and design equally well. Somehow it all just makes sense to me.
Music
I like music. A lot. While I grew up on the Chicago punk scene, these days I listen to an equal mix of punk, hardcore, indie rock, electronic music, rootsy stuff, and a bit of 20th century classical, jazz, and hip hop thrown in for good measure. Some recent favorites are the indie rocker Laura Veirs, the neoclassical composer Max Richter, the harpist Joanna Newsom, the Japanese hardcore band Envy, and the indie group Okkervil River. Some old favorites of mine include Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young, Daniel Johnston, Joan of Arc, Ted Leo, The Jam, Donnacha Costello, Rechenzentrum, Jim O'Rourke, Smog, Billy Bragg, and Will Oldham. For the morbidly curious, you can check out a list of nearly every album I own at the given moment. Have fun with that!
My collection of musical instruments is as diverse as my interest in music. In my apartment I've managed to fit one 12-string acoustic guitar, one 6-string acoustic, two electric guitars, one mandolin, three keyboards, two synthesizers, a drumset, and a collection of miscellaneous noise makers.
I have two distinct frames of mind when writing or playing music. On the one hand, I love playing guitar or drums in a plain ol' rock band set-up. The feeling of playing with a group of people when everything clicks is hard to beat. This summer I was fortunate to play drums for a day with my friends Twotrack. They rolled in to town on a Tuesday night, we went over 20 songs once, then played a gig in Flagstaff the next night as a CD release party. While we played all the songs off their new album, we also played a couple covers, including Barstool Blues by Neil Young and New Madrid by Uncle Tupelo. A little sloppy, but I hadn't played drums in a year, and we only practiced the songs once, so I think it turned out OK!
The other frame of mind I take when writing music is much more abstract and academic (and unlistenable?!). Much of my thinking in these regards has been influenced by John Cage's focus on "chance music," the big minimalist composers (mostly Terry Riley and Steve Reich), the Chicago experimental art rock scene, improv, and abstract electronic music.
These are a couple clips of the more listenable songs I've recorded over the past 7 years: Here are a couple clips from songs I created from bird calls, a couple songs made with insect sounds, and a song I created entirely from an elephant call. On the more experimental side of things, here is a clip of the crescendo of a sound collage piece I wrote, part of an ambient song created from water and guitar, and a clip of a guitar drone song.
I also enjoy making stereo field recordings, such as those made by Quiet American. I use a pair of in-ear binaural microphones and a minidisc recorder to capture sound as we naturally hear it. Listening to these field recordings makes one realize how much sound we filter out on a day-to-day basis, and for me, makes me appreciate the musicality of every day life. Here is a recording I made while walking my roomate's dog. Try listening to it with headphones!
Books
Besides music, one of my other great loves is books. I tend to go through phases where I get really curious about a subject (or feel dumb for not knowing enough), and buy lots of books. Usually I'll make it through half the books I buy, then pick the rest up later. This past August ('06'), after the most recent flair up between Israel and Hizbullah, I felt ignorant of middle eastern history and culture, and frustrated by adequate coverage of both sides of the issue, so I picked up half-a-dozen books on the middle east. Three months later, I went through a graphic & web design phase, buying 20 books on design over a 2 month period, and then another 5 books on philosophy of science. I think it's safe to say most of my disposable income goes towards music, music instruments, or books.
I read a fair amount on a lot of different topics. Favorite non-fiction topics include philosophy (postmodern theory, Marxism, philosophy of science...not that I can always comprehend the stuff!), music theory & history (such as David Toop's books, books on 20th century composers, etc.), history, and graphic design. With non-fiction, I've always steered towards early 20th century working class literature (Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Richard Wright), as well as ecological literature (Ed Abbey, Terry Tempest Williams, Wallace Stegner) and miscellaneous other authors I pick up from friends (Milan Kundera, Dave Eggers, Thomas Pynchon).
Coffee
What does one do while listening to music or reading books? Drink coffee, of course! This past year, I turned coffee drinking into a semi-obsession by roasting my own coffee beans and investing in a 47 lb beast of an espresso machine, the Quickmill Anita (pictured at left). I can't recommend enough Sweet Maria's for green coffee beans and the CoffeeGeek forums for learning everything you could ever hope to about espresso and coffee.