ON
CRITICS AND MUSIC WRITERS (US!) - "IT'S JUST IDEAS"
AKM: It's interesting
comparing those two different worlds. The way I see it, at least, there
are critics and artists: people who dissect art and explain what it
means, and then there are people who just make it, and don't really
think about what it really means as they're making it. They just make
it, and the meaning comes out of it afterwards and is put into words by
the critics.
I'm interested in getting
your perspective on critics and that 'other side' of the whole musical
world. What do you think about critics, reviews, and people trying to
explain and justify your work?
AWK: I used to be a lot more
affected by things that people said about me, and what I'd done. But
then I realized they weren't talking about me and what I'd done; they
were talking about themselves and what they had done. Well now, I don't
really think about them at all. It's just one person's point of view on
one particular experience they had.
From my own experience, most
music that I love the most, I didn't much like at first. Sometimes I
hated it at first. So it's hard to take any opinion, even from someone
who's supposedly an expert or a critic - and that's of no disrespect to
any of them - it's just hard to take it for anything more than a thought
they had at that moment that they wrote down.
But that's the great thing.
All our thoughts are valuable. Everyone's opinions are valuable. But
unfortunately, no-one's opinion is really more valuable than anyone
else's. They're just different. And we can decide which ones are more
important to us, but they still all exist in the realm of opinion.
Talking about something has nothing to do with the actual experience of
listening to it, or reading it, or seeing it, or feeling it yourself.
So just remember that when
reading anything - including what I'm saying - this has nothing to do
with anything either. It's not that one's more important than the other.
It's just that they are separate. And I think that out of respect, we
should remember that. But it's powerful. Some people have a lot of power
in their words. And I would just ask and try my best to use them to
create good feelings rather than bad feelings.
I think bad reviews are just
as good as good reviews. As long as people are reviewing it, that's
really all that matters. You don't really learn anything about the item
being reviewed. All you learn about is that reviewer: how they look at
the world, how they think about music, how they look at this movie, how
they think about reading... how they think about anything. Trying to
think that they are a definite source of anything is crazy. Because
there's no definitive authority anywhere - let alone of one person. But
we can decide who we want to listen to and whose opinions we value. But
I think it's so important to remember that it just has nothing to do
with anything. It's just ideas.
other
topics:
HIS UPCOMING INSTRUMENTAL PIANO ALBUM, '55
CADILLAC
FINDING NEW SENSATIONS IN DESOLATE
PARTS OF CANADA
GHOSTS N' STUFF
"GETTING
A BIG FEELING OUT" - MORE THAN MUSIC
"SOME OF THE
GREATEST PEOPLE THAT EXIST"
COVERS,
AND "SOME ESSENTIAL ALBUMS"
"WHERE YOU FROM"
interview
conducted by Andrew Kai-Yin MacKenzie
June 2009
published July 11, 2009
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ANDREW W.K. ONLINE |
ANDREW W.K. ON
MYSPACE |