[Hammy]

It took a while but it's finally done!

I've found I'm not very good at interviewing, but whatever Gowienczyk has a lot of interesting things to say and you should read it.

Tonality: To start, introduce yourself, anything BEA doesn't know about Gowienczyk that you would like to share?

Gowienczyk: I actually didn’t cover a lot of depth when I introduced myself last year, so this is something that I was looking forward to in the interview I guess you could say. I grew up in the Detroit Metropolitan Area in a small suburb which I still continue to live near to this day—literally I can walk to the house I grew up in with a fifteen minute “hike”, though there are people I don’t know living in it now. As I’ve explained in the past, my nationality is American yet I still hold up the Polish flag on my user account. This is because of my father’s parents roots took form in Eastern Europe and specifically Poland. It’s a flag of heritage and culture that I fly… sort of an honorific thing I guess? Outside of my dad’s side of the family, my mother was descended from French-Canada, so there’s that too, but I’ve never really gotten close with that side of the family since they are so distant and morbidly… dying off.

There’s probably a lot more I could go into that is either personal or impersonal, but for now I can say that some of my hobbies of the last thirteen years include music appreciation, creative writing, and fanaticism towards literature (which my goodreads account is a good example of).

I think that’s a good start to an introductory thing, anyway.

Tonality: Talk about what's going on in your life right now. Any big plans for the future? Career. Schooling. Interests. Places to see, Things to do etc.

Gowienczyk: Academically, I’d like to get my life together to the point where I’m able to pursue a Degree in Business or Literature. I had a problematic time after high school and anxiety led to depression which really conquered my life for a time so here I am at twenty-five having the hopes of an eighteen year old. I suppose it’s idealistic to keep that optimism in life, though. As for “goals” I’d like to visit Eastern Europe in my lifetime as well as finish a book of my own creative outlet—not publish, but just truly finish. Outside of that I’m fairly content as long as employment kicks back in a positive direction again, which I’m hoping it will. I could just relax in my hobbies with money to “just get by” if I had to. I’m not too social, but I have a few local friends who help me not be a total recluse and three very supporting roommates.

Tonality: Moving on to music, what are your earliest memories or experiences?

Gowienczyk: My earliest experiences of music were mostly radio and mixtapes—my dad had several of these mixes he had made when he wasn’t completely devoid of passion for the medium. This is where I was introduced to chanson, krautrock, jazz, and some weirder stuff; these sort of things had artists like Kraftwerk and Goose Creek Symphony on them and it was something I appreciated from the get-go out of wonder for the strangeness of the artists. I of course was still more in love with music that exhibited harmony and melody like the Beach Boys for example, but it is one reason why avant-garde and harsh noise wasn’t something I ran away from when I heard them later in life.

There’s also the time I was introduced to the concept of a “music video”, I think I was seven years old at the time? I was sitting in my sister’s house and I caught my first glimpse of musical parody (my father’s collection would show me Frank Zappa later) with Weird Al Yankovic’s “Like a Surgeon”, which I admittedly became obsessed over. Initially my mother didn’t approve, but I’m not sure why; either way, in spite of this she would end up buying me “Running with Scissors” and one of his Greatest Hits compilations a few years later—so she came around.

Those two are fairly nostalgic to me over listening to the radio on car trips (of which my mom would decide on oldies, classic country, and 90s pop music strangely enough), so those paint early experience with me quite a bit.

Tonality: Besides your parent's clear influence on your taste in music. Can you talk about, if it exists, the influence growing up in the Detroit Metropolitan Area has had on your taste in music, literature, cinema or any of your other interests?

Gowienczyk: The biggest thing growing up in the area has taught me is about hip-hop—you either reject it violently or quietly accept it if you aren’t the “target audience”. The neighborhood I grew up in was mixed and my best friend was of africian ethnic descent; not to say the “yo all dey watch is BET and listen to is rap doe” stereotype, but a lot of African culture experiences I found was through hanging out in his basement every weekend. This is where I got exposed to Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and the like. I’d say this period was between the year 1994 and the year 2000 (my parents would divorce and I would move around then). I’m trying to think what else I could say of those years as a influence—and I can say this is where my interest in Basketball started as well as the first experiences of Anime I had.

Tonality: On the topic of anime, I feel so out of touch with it right now, any shows worth watching this season xD?

Gowienczyk: I’ve been really liking Haikyu!!, which I would describe as a sort of slice-of-life thing about a bunch of volleyball players. Whilst sports-related media has to impress me to really keep me interested, I find I’m way more into Haikyuu!! more than I was into Kuroko’s Basketball when I watched that one last year. Other than that I’ve been watching Chaika – The Coffin Princess, Nanana’s Buried Treasure, the second season of Mushi-shi (seriously watch the first season, it’s essential), No Game No Life, and a short skit-based series called Tonari no Seki-kun: the Master of Killing Time which is the most hilarious thing this season.

Tonality: Sort of a side question, what is art, specifically regarding music. Is music commodity, art, or does it simply depend on the intentions of the musicians and composers involved? Feel free to talk about what is and what isn't "art" in any other exploitable medium if you wish though.

Gowienczyk: This is a very hard question for me to answer, as I do feel there is a sort of line separating art and entertainment—though it’s obviously difficult to define as much as I’d like to be easy to objectively state what is and what isn't. I admit that I’m still subjective-driven even if I’m at times analytic or objective in a discussion-based approach. As you can tell though, I feel it depends on the piece itself… if it was designed to speak as art or speak as entertainment; that’s not to say entertainment-focused music can’t be artistic (look at pop art as a genre for example I guess). I think it’s on a case-by-case basis with what I feel, though my own opinion has been successfully contested by my peers before but I can’t help but still think this way even if I was “proven wrong”. This answer has been a jumbled mess, I realize…

Tonality: So we're five months into 2014, what do you think of the year in music so far? Any current musical obsessions, artists or albums?

Gowienczyk: Admittedly, I haven’t been able to find time to really dive into this year—I’ve maybe listened to sixty or so records so far (fifty-one of which have made it onto my top 2014 rankings). It seems like to me that this will be a strong varied year since I’ve really come across high quality bits of dark jazz, progressive metal and rock, singer/songwriter, doom metal, folk, hip-hop, country, and power metal. If it made my BEA list than I think everybody should have listened to it at least once to fill an opinion about it.

As far as what I’ve been listening to? I haven’t noticed a defining mood—I mean in the last seven days I’ve listened to The Raveonettes, Ayreon, Alison Krauss, and Bad Religion a bit and those are all favorites of mine but nothing has led into obsession—perhaps I’ve been putting more time into writing and anime than I have been paying attention to my music library or mindset.

Tonality: Do you play any instruments?

Gowienczyk: Yes, though I’m not what I would call “traditionally skilled” as I prefer to write noise-driven sort of experimental ideas. I’m not very good at music theory or making sounds that sound appealing to my roommates. I tend to experiment with what sounds neat to me and how I can incorporate it into a piece. With that said I’ve sort’ve been doing this “abstract” sort of music experimentation since about 2007, a few years after I got my first electric guitar.

Tonality: Enough about music, tis boring anyways, what are your favorite works of fiction? (movies/anime/literature)

Gowienczyk: I’m more of a classical era (of cinema) fan and find myself touting favorites such as Citizen Kane, Harvey, 12 Angry Men, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, The Big Sleep, Fail-Safe, The Hill, Seconds, and the like. Though I do love all eras of film in one way or another since I’m also a big fan of Der Untergang, Dead Man, Brazil, Once Upon a Time in America, Stalker, Network, Chinatown, etc. It’s really hard to pin down one thing with me in any sort of media. As for anime? Some of my favorites are Planetes, Steins Gate, Allison to Lillia, Monster, Samurai Champloo, Beck, Nana, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Black Lagoon, Madlax, Serial Experiments Lain, Last Exile, Lupin the 3rd – Castle of Cagilostro, Ergo Proxy, Jin-Roh – The Wolf Brigrade, Crest of the Stars, Azumanga Daioh, Mushi-shi, Gunslinger Girl, Baccano, Cowboy Bebop, and Infinite Ryvius. All with different styles, writing, and genres. As for literature I’m sort of an elitist at time (the majority of young adult is trash, a lot of pulp is trash) with my tastes being more reminiscent of “classical periods” ranging from authors like Walter Scott to authors like Bram Stoker, though I also have a soft spot for Fantasy and Science Fiction genre books. As far as my favorites go I’d say it’d look like this: Les Miserables, Ivanhoe, Macbeth, Don Quixote, 1984, 2001, The Count of Monte Cristo, Frankenstein, Far from the Madding Crowd, Lolita, The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, Dracula, Redwall, The Odyssey, The Silmaraillion, A Game of Thrones, The Eye of the World, Salem’s Lot, and Agnes Grey.

Tonality: You mentioned earlier about wanting to finish a book, can you give any insight on that project?

Gowienczyk: I have a loose outline of an adventure story based on some old stuff I did with friends between 2004-2007, but I’m not sure I have a whole lot to say on it. I’ve got 10,000 words on a pre-alpha draft and I’m still working out how to make a lot of it more cohesive. I’ve always loved writing and stories (I’m a member of several online role-playing communities for this reason) so it’s the biggest passion I have above all things.

Tonality: Anything you want to say about the current state of BEA.

Gowienczyk: I’m going to say I’ve been critical of this site and spoken to the right people of my own concerns, so it’s not something I exactly want to publicly go over. Drama is behind us, you know? Though I will say I want this place to be sort of mature, non-antagonistic, and still overtly passionate. I just fear of it devolving into cliques and /mu/-sort of mentalities. I’ve been on music forums for ten years so I really don’t feel comfortable of seeing a place turn “toxic” and familiar to those places I’ve experienced before. BEA is small, so it’s in the developmental stages as a message board so we need to remember that the personalities we demand and represent at this stage will influence its voice when it becomes a bigger community. We need to do-away with notions of “I was trolling you” and “I know best for you” that we’ve seen in the past, as adults it should be beneath us. Again I could go on for a bit longer but that’s probably the right amount of stuff I want to say.

Tonality: Last question, any awesome plans for the summer .

Gowienczyk: Sit around in my house and fall into my hobbies headfirst without care for the people around me. So a lot of music, writing, anime, film, and so forth if I can muster the drive for it. Maybe I’ll work on a novel draft.

[BrandonMiaow]

Silmarillion as a favourite but not LOTR or The Hobbit? Weird fellow you are. The Silmarillion is great, but The Hobbit is my favourite of Tolkien's.
I just started Game of Thrones. (beware there might be spoilers below, maybe, I wouldn't risk it) I have been watching the show with very conflicted feelings. Oftentimes I felt it was just misogynistic violent trash, but then again, I kinda wanna know what happens next. Plus, Tyrion <3
And it is so lame when it tries to get deep. It doesn't really grasp the subtleties of love and everyday life, it is all about power and hurting each other. It's like LOTR without the Hobbits and the Shire. (though it really isn't anything like LOTR, those comparisons are dumb). It is like it has denied romanticism so absolutely that is it is more grim than real life. XP However, Tyrion is pretty fucking amazing. He makes it worthwhile, honestly. I'm hoping the book will be a bit better in terms of understanding and representing interpersonal relationships and the truly lovely things in life, instead of just fucking power struggles and politics. Nice to read that Khal Drogo was more gentle and less forceful than was shown in the show, 'cause it weirded me out how in the show he basically raped Daenerys and she later ended up loving him. (I'm only about 100 or so pages into the book)
I'm being really negative though, there are plenty of things I like about the show, and now the book (though I do not understand the comparison to my favourite book of all time, The Once and Future King, on the back cover).

Oh, and...I like the interview ;P Sorry for grasping on one thing and starting an entire discussion from there. Detroit is pretty much known for being a shitty city, is it not as bad as people say or...?

[mickilennial]

[Patman360]

Great interview guys! Been awhile since I've seen one of these so I forgot just how great they are, thanks to both Tonality and Gowienczyk for the read.

[BrandonMiaow]

[RockyRaccoon]

Dude, Running With Scissors was my first Weird Al album and one of the first albums I ever bought. That and Poodle Hat.
_________________
Progressive Rock

Early Psychedelic Rock

Live Albums

[mickilennial]

Romanticism is great and has it's place; but this is not the type of book (or genre) for it. This is dark fantasy with themes of something more socio-political in a time where everything was about social politics. It reinforces the point that romantic fantasies will get crushed by the reality the characters living in (Sansa's fantasy about Joffrey and noble life in King's Landing for example). I love romanticism but I love politics and realism. If I want a romanticism sort of approach I'll read Jane Eyre. Tyrion is very much the author's voicebox though or at least that's how it comes off as me. Westeros and the world is grim, but clear with consequence of misery and hopelessness.

[BrandonMiaow]

[bongritsu]

[RepoMan]