Interview: Daedelus
We were wondering what had brought on your desire to use the Winsor McCay drawings for your album cover, featured in our last issue? Winsor McCay is an artist terribly close to my heart, his mix of unbridled imagination, wonderment and fantasy is something I strive for in music. Also with a title like "Denies the Day's Demise" the metaphor is easy with Little Nemo... Regarding your previous album ‘Exquisite Corpse’, did you decide for this title with the Surrealists writing technique in mind? I knew that I wanted to have a lot of guests on the record. But I didn't know how to approach the task of having the different styles of each extra musician mesh. So I decided like a explosives expert to disarm the bomb entirely, and make the project a sort of homage to Surrealism (and the Cadavre Exquis), but on the surface about death for those who didn't want to think about 20th century art movements... Why choose Daedelus for your stage name? Daedelus is I hope quite an apt name for what I try for. I'm obsessed with the idea of invention, impossible things, and fatalism (among other constant fancies). Daedelus (usually spelled Daedalus) was the infamous father of Icarus, great inventor of many ancient machines, but failed famously for his son. Take that however you'd like with myself and my music... Would you say your style of mixing and composition was inspired by anyone in particlar? Not anyone or anything in particular, I feel it important to have wide ears in listening. I guess I'm in awe of a lot of early 90's Rave music, they combined the emotional melodramatic with breaks and beats. But by the same token I love the film composers of the 50s and 60s, people like John Barry and Michael LeGrand sing to me like no other. Then again the jazz greats like Mingus, Monk, Coltrane; you know I think I could go on forever... Are there any artists you would like to collaborate with at the moment? Absolutely! I want to work with more talented people, and it seems like the easiest way is thru remixes nowadays. But on future records I plan to keep having guests and trying new combinations. It is certainly what keeps the disorder ordered! How important to your music is the use of the human voice? You may notice on most recordings if you turn the volume very low, almost unhearable, you can often still hear the voice, the human ear responds incredibly to the human voice, it makes sense really, so it is always a powerful instrument to have at hand... How did you get into music/performing and producing? I have been trying both since I was quite young, but terribly fearful of the stage. It actually was years later when I was in a surf-punk band that I began to have less stage fright and more joy on stage. It is wonderful to share your passion with others. When will you be coming to Europe again? I'll be performing in September and October all over Europe! Please keep open ears, you never know when or where, I certainly don't. This issue is about women's role in modern society - Being the son of a artist (Ruth Weisberg), my mother suffered a lot of strange hardship in the 60s and 70s, you'd think that during the women's movement of that period, especially in the growing modern art scene in America, there would be a open dialog about equal opportunities for female arts? But quite the opposite was true for a time. Something begun far earlier and there still is lengths to go. Every voice has something to say and I lament the lack of women in electronic music today, don't get me wrong there are many, but I think people would like to hear those voices more often. But instead of complaining I'll share a short list of women you may want to look out for. Milese, Hecate, Georgia Anne Muldrow, New Buffalo, Chiaki Nishimori. That's a good start, plenty of good music to keep you busy! www.myspace.com/daedelusdarling
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