I've always believed that you should learn theories, then absorb them so much that they become second nature so that you don't really have to think about them and you can wilfully forget them.
With that in mind i think it was Carl Rogers, chief theorist behind Person-Centred Counselling, who felt that the act of openly verbalising responses to questions was a way to get people to understand what their actual feelings were about the given topic. But like i said, i deliberately forget a lot of the specifics of most theory after a few years of using it solidly.
And this is pretty much how i've always viewed interviews; as a quasi self-indulgent way for me to work through some of my opinions on the world and how it works, though usually only in the relatively narrow (but by no means unimportant) terms of the culture of music.
In a sense this blog is really a record for me of things i've said so i can keep some kind of track of it. Almost like a diary in a way, though the Tumblr page i have is much more of a (largely symbolic) record of current personal activities and obsessions. Similar to tattoos or the more less defined in intent sigil stuff i've done, though far less serious than either of those.
Last night during a drastic lull at work i found the following two interviews from three years ago.
In the longer one some of my predictions about the state of the scene seemed to come true. All hail my mighty divination powers i guess...
In the shorter one i didn't really feel much empathy to the article or publication and the content of my responses shows this.
Listening:
Haggatha - 2nd LP
Drainland/ Grinding Halt 10"
Mauthausen Orchestra - Vernichtung Lebenunwerten Leben 2xLP
Witchrist - Ancient Tombs demo
The Damned - s/t LP
Reading:
Kevin Coogan - Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International
John Gray - False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism
Destroying Angles #10
Robert Anton Wilson - Sex, Drugs and Magick
Hans Heinz Ewers - Nachtmair
Watching:
Dog Tooth
Black Death
Valhalla Rising
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3 comments:
The decibel interview was how I heard of the endless blockade. It's interesting that this interview was kind of a fuck you, and an anomaly. I think the harshness was kind of refreshing. Most people are so scared to be interviewed by a big publication, that they just end up agree with everything and saying that there next release is going to be heavier and faster than their last...
this was going to mentioned in the as of yet unsent email...
less of a fuck you and more just utter disinterest in what i perceived as total outsiders trying to write about something that came and went fifteen years prior
ultimately i think the entire article actually came out relatively well, though that wouldn't really have changed my answers
and yes, 99% of decibel (or any non-fanzine music publication really) interviews are fucking terrible. The interviewers and interviewees are equally to blame for promoting a culture of uselessness
Yeah. That makes sense. It goes back to frank zappa's quote about rock journalism...
I'll give decibel credit for posting in depth interviews in some parts of the magazine, and it's good place to find out about bands if you live in the middle of nowhere and don't have the internet (as I have at various points), but if anyone realistically thinks they're learning much by reading 1/2 page interviews in which both parties are disinterested, they're full of shit.
The only interview I've ever done where I didn't feel completely shitty about the whole affair was for Grind and Punishment. I think that comes from the fact that he is interested enough to put time in and figure out what people are trying to get at rather than merely extracting the aforementioned soundbites. Which is kind of the fanzine approach, I guess.
I've also found that interviews through email are much more intelligible than transcripts taken from a conversation.
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