Chuck Johnson interview in Pitchfork
I’m a big fan of maybe 10-15 musicians, and Chuck is one of them. A big part of why I moved to the Triangle in 1995 was Spatula’s “Radio Helmet” 7”. So getting to read this P4k interview was pretty cool. A lot of the music theory stuff is way over my head, but i really liked this bit:
Pitchfork: Why is knowing how and why Your electronics work important and appealing?
CJ: I think it’s different for everyone. It’s just a way of knowing your instrument. If you play an acoustic instrument, you might not necessarily be a luthier. But chances are you’ve learned how to do some repair and at least you understand the physics of your instrument in some way. With electronics, it gets abstract pretty quickly because there’s so much happening under the hood.
and this:
the acceptance of, “This is what I do” was important. The performance part of it is a major part, and I think some people are still working that out: Am I a composer? Am I going to be composing electroacoustic music in the studio? Am I going to be doing it live? What are the options here? For me, I came with the idea of, “Well, I know what it is that I do and what it is that I’m good at.” It allowed me to bear down on things that really drive me and things that I’m really passionate about.
and this:
CJ: In the past, it’s been really hard— in a way, kind of frustrating. A lot of times I’ve been jealous of people who just have the one thing that they do. For me, it’s been hard to have the time to do well all the things I’m interested in. Some people would say the pragmatic thing to do is to give up some of those things and really focus on the one thing if you want to get it done really well. I guess I’ve just never managed to do that.
You can sample some of his stuff at http://www.cirrusoxide.com/
