[SquishypuffDave]

The shaman and I stared at each other for what seemed like centuries. I saw myself reflected in his eyes; my birth, my death, my most wicked sins and my most noble deeds. Finally he spoke.

"You know not what you ask. The one you call purple has died and been reborn countless times, his penis bigger and blacker with each incarnation. Is this truly a man with which you would choose to establish a psychic link?"

I nodded without hesitation. This had to be done, no matter the price.

The portal opened.

SquishypuffDave: So what's the deal with music?

Purple: This is a horrible question.

SquishypuffDave: I mean what potency does music possess? Could you kill someone using music? Or move a small object?

Purple: Music could definitely kill someone, if you turned it up loud enough. I'm banking it's possible to kickstart a heartache with some crazy loud bass drums. If you were to stand next to a jet as it broke the sound barrier, you'd die from the force of moving air, though I suppose that is just a sound. And yes to moving objects, if you can get a loud enough sound to move the air forcefully enough.

As far as its cerebral effects, music is incredibly potent. If you think about it, music is the only non-visual artform (that I can think of right meow at least). Film, traditional art, and tv are obvious, but even literature makes you visualize something, or at least guides a visualization. Music with lyrics tends to guide visualization too, but music itself leaves any visualization, if any, to the listener (in the rest of this, when I say 'music', I mean 'instrumental music'). And often times it's simply impossible, at least for me, to visualize anything with some music. With music I usually visualize landscapes, but I can't come up with shit for something like Oval's O (or most of Oval, actually), Bach's Cello Suites, etc. Music often forces the listener to enjoy the aesthetic on a completely different cerebral plane than other artform. And yet it still has the same emotive ability as those other artforms to make you cry, laugh, and everything in between. What's even crazier about what sets music apart from other artforms is the non-universality of it. Different cultures interpret color, images, words, ethical situations presented in literature, etc. differently, but ultimately we're all presented with the same thing in visual arts (including literature). Even if we see white in a certain context, we interpret it as life, but we can also understand it means death in some cultures and maintain multiple interpretations, for example; those interpretations may be equally emotive to us. Music doesn't translate across all cultures. If your average western listener is introduced to agbekor or javanese gamelan, their brain literally begins to hurt because they're hearing cacophony. The listener loses their sense of musical movement, will misinterpret the intended emotion of the music, and really has no understanding of the music. It's almost like brain development is affected by music. I suppose, like the visual artforms, you are ultimately presented with the same thing/sounds, and perhaps you could liken listening to something like javanese gamelan to trying to read a book in a language you don't know, but I definitely feel music is at least less universal than other artforms. Unlike seeing white, mentioned above, you can't even interpret it because you don't understand it. You could be told that you're listening to a west African dirge, but you'll likely never hear the sadness in it. And again, music still has the power to evoke the same emotions as other artforms (though those emotions aren't the same across all cultures). And we even understand music within our own culture poorly. What the hell is musical movement? Who decided notes go up and down? Why do harmonies and rhythms seem stagnant or dynamic?

I guess what I'm trying to say with all that bullshit up there is that music is as potent as other artforms, but its so fucking bizarre compared to other artforms. It's a totally different potency, which might make it more interesting to some minds.

SquishypuffDave: I heard a music once. Didn’t really understand the fuss. Just seemed like a pale imitation of silence.

Purple: There are excellent papers on whether or not 4'33" is music; Dave Davies ("John Cage's 4'33": Is it Music?") and Andrew Kania ("Silent Music") come to mind. People generally object because they believe silence cannot be music; usually it's labelled as performance art rather than music by these folk. I mean, are we listening to 4'33" all the time? The other side points out that 4'33" actually has a published score (usually considered the "work" in classical music, but that's another argument), that music is silence and sounds and that there are actually sounds in 4'33", and that John Cage intended it to be music. I have no idea what I think. I don't think listening to your surroundings has the same emotive range as traditional music, but perhaps that just means the ambient sounds of your surroundings are "bad" music. It's a conundrum.

SquishypuffDave: Has music ever changed your life or opened your mind to new vistas of reality?

Purple: I believe all artforms enrich or expand upon views already held, though perhaps latently, by a person if it's "done in a vacuum." If you are told how to interpret it, then it is possible it can change your life. For instance, I read the Metamorphoses, Iliad, Odyssey and all that jazz as a kid "for fun" (it was for myth competitions, but I wasn't being fed interpretations by a school teacher). I continued to reread them through young adulthood (?) until I was introduced to Levi-Strauss' structuralism a couple of years ago, particularly the concept of rites of passage and how they appear in the Metamorphoses and the Odyssey. Levi-Strauss interpretation of those works, his concept of rites of passage, has pervaded my thoughts since, but it wasn't the art that illuminated the concept that changed me, it was the interpretation of it by someone else. Anyways no, music has never changed my life. Ultimately, I may just be too daft to come up with genuine inspiration from art.

SquishypuffDave: What was it that compelled you to study philosophy of music? Has this education has helped you to access music in a new way?

Purple: I don't really study the philosophy of music. By the time my senior year in university came around, I had taken all but two geoscience courses offered (one of which I would take my last semester), and I had completed almost all of my general hours requirements as well as departmental hours requirements for the BS. So, I could pretty much take whatever I wanted (because you have to fulfill 12 hours to be a full time student), and The Philosophy of Music course happened to be offered. Some of the stuff I talk about on here that might be confused with philosophy of music is actually comparative musicology, which I got in another elective during university. The philosophy of music hasn't affected my day-to-day listening much, except I gained a lot of respect and interest in process music from Reich, Cage, (to some degree) Oval, Basinski, etc. It's really just fun to think about sometimes. Comparative musicology, and to some degree discussion of valuing and evaluating music (like the paper by Gracyk I recently posted in sp4cetiger's thread), has influenced my day-to-day listening much more. It kind of opened my mind to music cultures and subcultures, from some classical to some jazz to some folk musics of the world to even some subgenres of rock. After learning a little about comparative musicology, I realized there are some music cultures I simply won't understand, and that I might as well enjoy them at face value, take them for what I will, and realize that my interpretation is a poor one. This idea kind of trickled into music cultures that I feel comfortable with even, and I simply become more accepting of all music. Very slowly.

SquishypuffDave: What is your favourite song/album/artist as of right now?

Purple: My favorite musicians are far and away Joanna Newsom, Talk Talk, and Oval. Newsom is the only lyricist I would love to read on the page, and the only lyricist I've heard that I consider to be on the same level as great literature. No one else comes close. Talk Talk has the whole transition from 80s pop to post rock, both of which I love dearly. Simply put, Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden are both top 5 albums for me, and Lee Harris and Mark Hollis are among my favorite drummers and guitarists as well. Oval is a very recent addition, but he's very special to me because his music literally makes my brain tingle. His music is like if a stroke of genius, a moment of safety after being scared, feeling small in the midst of something large, or any other cognitive feeling was put to music. As far as musicians to watch, my eye is on Burial; I think he gets significantly better with each release.

So, yeah, about that chart. I think most people remember what was on it, generally. As far as albums that I've been really loving right now, there really aren't that many. My listening goes in phases and for about the past month or two I've largely been listening 80/90/modern pop singles and chillwave singles. That being said, I have been popping on Andy Stott's Luxury Problems, Jon Hopkins' Immunity, Rhye's Woman, Jeremiah Jae and Oliver the 2nd's Rawhyde, and De la Soul's 3 feet high and rising on about once a couple weeks each the past two months.

As far as songs, I've been addicted to Sleigh Bells "Rill Rill," Sky Ferreira's "Everything Is Embarrasing," Cameo's "Candy," Big Boi's "Tangerine," Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison," Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn," Meredith Brooks' "Bitch," Madona's "Holiday," and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" lately. All old favorites that I've regained interest in, with some all-time favorites.

SquishypuffDave: You’ve been on BEA for ages. Why did you join and what has kept you around for so long?

Purple: When I found BEA, I was looking for punk rock charts, since I was religiously listening to that at the time. I don't think I hit the site until like well past the tenth page on a google search. Checked it out, and I seriously have no idea why I signed up. If I reason it out, I was probably drawn here because I could make a chart easily, and there were probs some posts by bc1991, joannajewsom, johnnyrocketfingers, and others that I identified with. The primary reason I stuck around was CellarDoor's recs, but honestly the cycles of users that have come through here are great. And the site really did help shape my musical taste and expand my musical knowledge. These days I'm mostly just getting recs from lethal (that man is a fucking encyclopedia), but I guess coming here has just become habit.

SquishypuffDave: Why are you such an asshole?

Purple: I don't think I come off that way in person. On BEA, I think I come off that way because you can't choose who you associate with on an online forum. I think that, naturally, people clash with others in that environment when strong opinions are being thrown around. I got into a little conflict with Romanelli about a month ago and just had to realize we were never going to see eye-to-eye on our view of a certain facet of music culture. Another part of it is because in the past couple years, I'd jump on BEA hungover and just want to troll the shit out of people. And then another facet is because intonation simply doesn't come across in type; my humor in real life is often acerbic, both to others and myself, but my intonation and the person's familiarity with me helps seal the joke. That can't happen here, usually. That being said, this is the most quiescent period I've seen on BEA since I've joined (2009), and I'm enjoying it.

SquishypuffDave: It is well known that you are a budding geoglophist. Tell me more! About. That?

Purple: Most of my life I was interested in greco-roman literature and american literature. Then right before university I stumbled upon these tapes by two volcanologists (Katia and Maurice Krafft) that really fascinated me. I decided after watching more volcanology videos that I loved it, and went into university knowing I wanted to major in geology. When I got there, I realized quickly that volcanology isn't about playing with lava but is in fact mostly geochemistry, and I fucking hate chemistry. Anyways, eventually I took a course more or less about using river and marine terraces as indicators for underlying tectonic activity. This course was the most interesting thing I had ever been a part of, and from that point on my love for rivers grew.

Almost every natural landscape you see, outside of glacial landscapes, is formed by rivers. I've stood in creek beds (creeks, not rivers) that harbor flash floods on decadal to centennial time scales that are capable of carrying blocks of rock as large as mansions. Rivers are an essential part of agriculture; we farm their terraces and alluvial valleys often are excellent sources for potable water. Large rivers are essential to the economy for transportation; smaller rivers can be helpful to industry by indicating salt domes. Rivers are often destinations for recreation like tubing, kayaking, rafting, fishing, boating, etc. Floods are the most costly natural disaster. And, most interesting to me, rivers can be excellent indicators of tectonics via their terraces and waterfalls. Rivers are central to life in many areas, and I suppose I respect that and want to learn as much as I can about them.

SquishypuffDave: Many forum members may not know this, but you used to be fat. You were a fat man. Corpulent, if you will. How did being fat influence your consumption of music?

Purple: Yeah, I got fat again just over this year, though not as fat as growing up. Hoping the move to Austin will lighten up my life, motivate me to get fit again. Anyways, I actually think being fat through ages like 9-17 might have increased my music consumption. I was self-conscious about it, so I was introverted and angsty and passed the time listening to music. It didn't really increase the diversity of what I listened to, but it increased the time I listened to it, fostering my connection to music.

SquishypuffDave: Can you say “I’m a little fat girl”?

Purple: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0Kr2UI7ZDc9

SquishypuffDave: What importance do you place on lyrics?

Purple: It all depends. If it's supposed to be a "serious" musician dealing with "serious" concepts that getting "serious" hubub from critics then I expect superb lyrics, and the lyrics almost always fail my criteria. If it's just some people rockin' out and making some music, then I'm just looking for something clever, and this happens at some point for a lot of musicians; Doug Marsch, Fiona Apple, Isaac Brock, Stephen Malkmus, and that guy from Interpol (at least on the first album) strike me as clever lyricists without a preconceived image of gravity. If it's radio pop, I'm just looking for a strong chorus I can sing along to that's preferably sexy, and this is almost always the case. And those examples are just points on a large spectrum.

SquishypuffDave: Why do you like shitty radio pop?

Purple: Different music serves different purposes. Frankly, I don't feel like listening to Slint or My Bloody Valentine at a party, and neither do other people. Pop music is special in that it's a social music. Everyone knows the singles, and those singles are associated with fun times. That's another way pop music is special, it's a singles culture. Yeah, people buy the albums (because "Backstabber" really is the best track on Animal, and it's not a single), but the consistency of the album is often sacrificed for the release of a few fantastic singles. I think that's why pop music gets a bad rap from music critics and elitists, because they're so focused on the album as a work, and it's really an insular way of thinking. I mean, if y'all remember my favorite albums, it's all "serious" stuff, but if you were to ask me my favorite songs, I'd start listing Madonna's "Holiday," Cameo's "Candy," Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," Britney Spears' "Toxic" etc. up top with all the serious stuff. I'm totally cool with people not liking pop too, but often they don't even give it a fair chance and dismiss it upon pretense. But really, who can deny a solid four-on-the-floor bassbeat?

SquishypuffDave: Are there any genres that do nothing for you?

Purple: I'm wary to generalize so much, but I often don't want to listen to opera or operatic subgenres, like rock opera or operatic metal. I think that's the only one.

SquishypuffDave: What's the difference between music that is dope and music that is wack?

Purple: Dope I like, wack I don't, I suppose. I used to have a lot of biases until a few months ago, and now the only music I can say is wack is "Bohemian Rhapsody," and largely because of its status and the proclivity of listeners to break out into voice-cracking falsetto song. Either way, I think the valuing and evaluation of music is often largely personal. As long as people are respectful of music and others' musical journeys, I don't care.

SquishypuffDave: What are your favourite musical qualities?

Purple: Emotiveness, in music and lyrics. Nothing else.

SquishypuffDave: Why do you hate Illinois?

Purple: Here comes a long story. So when I graduated university, I was one of the best, if not the best student in my own year and the year before me, and all of the professors in the department unanimously say those two classes were their favorites since they had been there (some up to 30 years). I had also completed an undergrad thesis, and on top of that I came up with the hypothesis and methods completely on my own, rather than being handed a project by my advisor. Coming out of undergrad, I was grad school bound and I felt highly competitive. I applied to six advisors (I'll list their names to see if Patman recognizes them), and got rejected by each: one (Pazzaglia) rejected me for funding issues; one (Crosby) rejected me because he would be on sabbatical when I would be defending my thesis; two (Whipple and Cosby) rejected me because they were out of my league and really only looking for PhD students; and then two (Johnson and Gasparini) rejected me for whatever their reasons were. So that was a big blow to me. Shortly afterwards, my advisor mentions that one of his old friends is desperately looking for a student, and would provide me with an RA. Instead of being smart and strengthening my CV in other ways for a year, I went for this desperate rebound and wound up in southern Illinois.

Almost immediately issues popped up and they kept coming. I was pretty much handed a project that included no field work and was largely political, and have pretty much always either hated or been ambivalent towards my research here. Usually an RA conducts research for the advisor that will also be used in the student's thesis; my RA work was totally different from my thesis, and I simply couldn't balance time to keep up with classes, a 20hr/week job, and research demands. My advisor is also so detached from data collection, filtering, and prcessing now that he has no sense of how long tasks take, and often has ridiculous deadlines. My advisor is also simply not a fun person to be around; this sounds dumb, but if I were to meet this guy under any other circumstances, I would avoid him. This is not just me either; of all the students that I met or heard about that have worked with him, over half have left the program or switched advisors. That's pretty much what was going on on campus.

More personally, I felt I was (am, I guess) friendly with many people yet have no friends. A large part of this is because the university draws from rural America, well over 75% of the people I met are married, and go home to their family rather than hang out after the day is done. I went to more baby showers than parties while I was here. Anyways, I got lonely, and then I got depressed, and then I delved into legit alcoholism, and then I got fat, and then the vicious cycle kept/keeps on going. As I'm typing this, it's been five days since I drank and I'm pretty sure that's a record for this past year. I've been handcuffed twice; arrested once; nearly convicted of a felony; and had a handful of legit near-death experiences. All because of alcohol. All within this past year. I really felt just a few months ago that I had one foot in the grave.

Anyways, I recognize that I have a problem and I recognize I can't deal with it alone in Illinois, and to an extent the atmosphere of Illinois is aggravating it. I'm moving to Austin because I have a network of friends and family in the San Antonio-Austin area, and it's simply a great city for music, food, and fitness. I just want to be happy again, and that's not gonna happen in southern Illinois.

SquishypuffDave: What sort of music did your family listen to as you were growing up?

Purple: My dad listened to, and continues to listen to, Stevie Nicks, yacht rock, and some classic smooth rock singles like Beach Boys' "Kokomo" and Icehouse's "Electric Blue." My eldest sister listened to, and continues to listen to, whatever's on the radio, but I remember she really liked Garth Brooks growing up. Next sister down was a Beatles maniac and also into late '80s/early '90s alternative like Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Jane's Addiction, etc. (with some metal); she's now a total metalhead, and loves Pantera, Cannibal Corpse, Goatwhore, 36 Crazyfists, and stuff like that. Next sister down was also into '80s/'90s alternative but extending farther into the '90s like No Doubt and shit, and was mostly into pop/skate punk like Lagwagon, Lit, Pennywise, NOFX, Offspring, Propaghandi, etc.; now her taste is all over the place, but she mostly plays '80s pop and new singles (she's lovin' Lana Del Ray right now). And my youngest sister listened to reggae, late'80s/early '90s alterntive, and some metal; I'm not sure what she listens to now. At one point or another, I've been obsessed with all of the genres my sisters and dad were characterized by (except metal and Garth Brooks), so what they listened to definitely had an impact on me eventually.

SquishypuffDave: What songs are the most nostalgic for you? What songs have you cried to?

Purple: The most nostalgic song for me might be Beach Boys' "Kokomo." Like I mentioned previously, my dad played it all the time, but so did my mom. There was this street called Kokomo in the neighborhood I grew up in. I never really got to know my mom, but the one musical memory I have of her is that she'd always have "Kokomo" playing when we passed the street in the car as I was growing up. I don't even remember what music she liked, but we would always sing that song together. "Kokomo" is also the first song I remember.

I haven't cried to music until just this past year. I guess I cried mostly to some slowcore albums and individual songs like Sarah June's "Cowboy," a few songs off Astral Weeks, some Interpol, etc. to set the mood for when I already wanted to cry. I've cried more this past year than I remember crying the rest of my life, and music has helped me release. I cry most to Joanna Newsom, because her songs remind me of a lot of things I've botched and people I still care for.

SquishypuffDave: What have been the saddest and happiest moments in your life?

Purple: I'd have to say the saddest was the death of my grandmother on my mother's side. After my mom died, I spent as much time with my grandmother and sisters as I did my dad, and I was with my grandmother almost every weekend. She was a saint. She saw only the good in people, even methed-out kleptos. Nothing but love in her heart. Quite suddenly she got bone cancer. She refused treatment, and even pain medication most of the time, and the cancer spread through her entire body within weeks. The last time I saw her, she was so delirious that she wasn't responsive to most of the people in the room, but she muttered my name among a couple others. I'm still not sure what to make of it.

The happiest moments are with my ex-girlfriend. Not really a specific moment, just being able to hold someone and talk about anything. She also had this cute, cross-eyed look on her face whenever I said something funny but we were too close for her to focus. And then she had these huge boobs which were always nice to lay my head down on. Just moments like those were utter security and serenity.

SquishypuffDave: What are you about? What does your existence mean? What constructs do you plan to carve into the fabric of reality before you cease to be a component of it?

Purple: Anyone who caught my thoughts on nihilism know that I don't think our perception is reality, and I'm not sure what reality is. My existence means little to me, and I don't think it will have any impact on the world. I live for my happiness, and happiness to me is largely a relationship, friends and family, and my own health. I'm not very ambitious.

SquishypuffDave: If you could give one piece of advice to a large group of people, what would it be?

Purple: Don't settle. I'm not saying you can work your way up to the top like Bill Gates or Scarface, but if you're in a bad place, or in a bad relationship, or in any situation that makes you want out of (even if it's not bad, just meh), you can get out. It's almost never easy, but always worth it.

[Wombi]

[19loveless91]

This has to be my favourite interview so far. It's funny, it's thoughtful, sincere... I really liked that the questions weren't related just to music. Well done to both

[Facetious]

Even more interesting than Squishy's previous interview. Purple's definitely a better fellow than I might've thought him to be before.

[Guest]

An absolutely fantastic read, purple's answer to the question about Illinois was genuinely touching and brilliant to read (though not in any sort of pleasurable way, obviously). I think this every time a new interview is posted, but this really is the best one yet. Squishy's questions were perfect, a nice mix of the serious and jovial, and always leaving plenty of room for the answers to breathe. Genuinely lol'd a couple of times, genuinely had to sit and take in what was being said a couple of times, genuinely felt by the end that I'd gotten to know purple better, despite already knowing him to some extent outside of his forum posts. This proves what these interviews are capable of. Loved it. Cheers for the read, both of you.

[Patman360]

Amazing read!

As for the advisors you applied to, I'm familiar with a few of them, most notably some work by Pazzaglia and Whipple. I'm interested now though, must look into their stuff more. I'm still learning the trade (In my 3rd year of a 4 year degree), but I reckon I'd like to do something involving structural geology in the long run, I've developed a soft for stereonets over time.
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[AlexZangari]

This one takes the cake. Spot on with every question, Squishy. Especially the one about nostalgic songs (that one got me thinking about what my own would be) and the one about happiest/saddest moment (I love it when interviews get personal). Looks like a very fun interview, if that makes sense.
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kill yr idols

[meccalecca]

love how Squishy didn't fuck around and immediately went with the tough questions.
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http://jonnyleather.com

[ButterThumbz]

Haughty, hilarious and heartfelt.

[Guest]