The Propagation

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May 22, 2005

Karate Chopin(') the Whipping Post (& gettin' pine gumtarsap between the fingers)

Wel, gollygodamit, came across this interview with Karate man guy hitting on (with open fist and rigid straight fingers, of course) the very thing I was circling about. Let’s see…

As much as I love the music, I’ve always been fascinated by your lyrics in particular. I’ve had many conversations with musician friends about whether great lyrics can equally be considered poetry. Do you have any theories on that? Do you consider yourself a poet as much as a songwriter? [Ed. Okay, interesting question, but not especially rich or deep.]

I don’t know. Those are just names and don’t have much to do with my everyday experience making music. I have an abstract concept of what I’m trying to do, and whether or not it fits someone’s definition of “poet” isn’t really important to me. I guess I would never call myself a “poet” or and “artist”, and I think those terms get overused. [Ed. Right on; first part especially.]

Perhaps because of your phrasing and vocal style — and just your general deftness with words (vocabulary, symbolism, alliteration, etc.) — I’ve always thought of Karate lyrics as capable of standing on their own, even though that obviously isn’t your intention. Regardless of semantics, then, do your lyrics have their genesis on paper or are you sitting on the couch, coming up with lyrics with your guitar in hand? [Ed. Oh, shit, I vomit alliteration far too regularly, fouling up my work area and leaving pungentsity for others coming behind me and through; it is, as I say (to myself), the one visible change/behavioral effect that crack cocaine has on me.]

It’s kind of hard to answer these types of questions because it’s difficult to pinpoint the genesis. I often sit and write w/out a guitar, but I also sing when I play guitar, and sometimes bits and pieces of lyrics come out that way as well. I never really sit down and write the lyrics to a song or even a verse in one sitting. A lot of times I’ll even write dummy lyrics so I can work on the singing, and then after the vocal part sounds good, I’ll change the words. In general my writing process is constant, and it’s hard to pinpoint where a song started or came from. [Ed. Hmmm, maybe, when you put it that way, the majority of what I write is dummy text, working most of the time, as I do, on the singing, getting the voice nailed, making sure it sounds good, flows, have rhythm and music. Sometimes I’ll then go back and change some/the words but damn it all if it doesn’t just now occur to me that this is my problem: I’m leaving the dummy in there after the crash test, after the damage is done.]

So many of your lyrics demonstrate an incredible attention to detail — I’m thinking particularly of the pine needles in “Pines” (Pockets, 2004) and the “basketballs and black-top” of “Pordenone Plaster” from your solo work (Reverse Eclipse, 2000). Do those kinds of details arise from a particular mindset? In other words, do you tend to see things in that kind of abstract symbolism, or is it a conscious effort in the writing process? [Ed. Fair, if slightly off-putting.]

I think that details are the meaning of the song, not just the example of the meaning. [Hells fucking yes, that I can get behind and give a rousing, riotous-verging cheer, my hands all a-thrown in the air. That’s that I’m talking about ladies and gentleman! Well, the praise of detail and attending proclamations of their being the at least seasonal abode of our Higher Power for sure and certain aren’t anything new or, as they say, earthshattering {thank, HP}, but let’s now all take it one giant step for {hu}mankind further—a especiality of mine, I’m afraid—and say loudly and rhetorically, “Where in lies that supernaturality par excellance, that deity Story? In those damned details? No, I extrapolate: further afield, bannished hinterlandedly, to a Siberian cold appropriate to our frigid disdain for it {in it’s commonly conceptioned plotting form and sense}. Cutting to the fictional chase, then, I—no, We, please—inquire, “What story?” And leave it at that.] For example, I think there’s a huge difference between writing a song like “Tow Truck” that illustrates a specific character who is intolerant of a specific idea in a specific context, and writing a song that derides ignorant people for their intolerance of illegal immigrants. Even though they are seemingly about the same idea, one should be a song, and another should be a pamphlet or slogan. [Again, I’m there, fully and heartily, though, again, not so original an assertion. Bears repeating, however, for the ears of those that still want to write a point, a changing, ranting, supposedly voice-giving, eye-opening, heart-s0ftening as-well entertaining tome of a treatise. They’re die hards in a double-digited Die Hard formula sequel.] I’m not a politician, and it’s not my job to make general abstract statements, and I don’t think that those kinds of statements always belong in music, or at least in my music.

Do you have favorite songs in your repertoire, selections that you’re especially fond or proud of? If so, what are they and why do appreciate them so much?

Sure, I like different things about different songs. From Pockets, I am proud of the lyrics to “Pines” because I think there is some very effective imagery that helps convey the story, but I don’t particularly like the performance or recording of that song. I also like “Tow Truck” because it is very direct and concise both lyrically and musically. There are some old songs that we play a lot that still sound fresh to me, like “The Roots and the Ruins” and “If You Can Hold Your Breath”. I like those songs because they always sound like we just wrote them, and they seem to grow with us. [So, I searched up the lyrics for those songs, being selected as representational of personal artistic success word-wise, and, I am disappointedly disappointed. They’re goopy, they are. Still, it should be remembered (by me) that this whole thing began as an appreciation of the man’s lyrics. And that brings up another, very compelling to me, question: how do all those things that get taped and stapled onto the words when they are lyrics—melody, tone, timber, inflection, volume, rhythm, emotion, attitude, etc. and so forth quite lengthily if you want—affect the way we hear them, how we ascertain their aesthetic value, how we assign meaning and import, how we feel them. And, as has especially been the case with this black-belt musical wordster, how does our hear bits and pieces rather than every word in order and broken into discrete lines—how does that phrase here, turn of word there, that plucking and ducking, that happens when we listen to a song that we inevitably—either due to our own inattentivity or the singer’s inarticulation or any other reason in the myriad of plaus- and poss-ibles—won’t hear and understand completely. What kind of reading is that, what is it’s theory, how does it operate on our feeling for those words, our connection to or reception from them? I find lit-geeking along and across these multi-disc- lines pretty interesting.]

Posted by peligrito at May 22, 2005 2:13 AM

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