I really can’t recall when I posted these questions, if ever, so I figured I’d do that now. These were done over myspace probably around the middle of the decade. Text file metadata says 2006. So it’s been quite a while. I think this was during my time of being interested in having a music review column + featuring artists I knew of and loved. Anyways, to the interview.

1. What are your thoughts on mainstream music and the current state of the music industry?

I think it’s pretty dismal and have stopped paying attention. There’s just too much great stuff going on in the fringes to have much of ones consumptive energy
left for the stuff whatever mind numbing drivel they’re cramming down our ears these days. A few of my favorites: Happy Rhodes, Eric Metzgar, Emily Bezar, Sufjan Stephens, Faun Fables.

2. How do you feel about the internet as a means of distribution and promotion? Obviously times have changed and there is less need for the big industry machine.

It’s pretty extraordinary… I have been fairly much camped out underground for the past couple of years, working on a new album, not out touring or playing shows, and yet people continue to somehow find the website, take a listen, maybe order a record or two… It’s nice that one can remain somehow present even during a period of relative hermitage…

And I’ve found at least one of my favorite artist by stumbling upon her on the web. The internet blows my mind. It’s like this vast virtual meadow, and you just accidentally turn over some rock, and there’s this person with a whole life and existence, a whole reality, thousands of miles from your own, and they’re playing you the latest song they wrote, or telling you what they ate for breakfast. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of the collective unconscious, some giant soup pot of knowledge and wisdom that we’re all throwing vegetables into. And what’s so funny is that within our lifetime, with the rise of the internet, with the internet we now have an actual quasi physical model of it.

3. What do you hope to accomplish with the music that you make?

I guess there are probably some things I’m trying to figure out in music, some persistent questions I keep circling around again and again. I don’t know if I get closer to answering them. About love… Trees… Minutes and hours. Falling asleep. Waking up. Getting older. At the same time, I don’t know that I’m always the one asking the questions. I feel more like I’m just the one writing things down. Music keeps me connected to something; I’d never want to pin it down in mind or in word by trying to say what. I’d like to make something beautiful…Just a bit of beauty amidst all of the warcries and television screens… Something I could go to like a stream and drink from, something merciful, something clear and trickling along the ground. All I really know is what’s beautiful to me, what I hold dear… I never know if it’s going to communicate or not. And it changes…

4 What’s in the works at the moment for projects or albums?(For future and current fans).

The next thing I plan to release is an album of songs which is a hairs breadth away from completion,(unfortunately, sometimes that last hair’s breadth can take way too long. But yes, it’s close.)

My other project is a concept album which I started writing in the wilderness last year and which is still developing. I’m learning the cello in hopes that I will be able to play in its little orchestra when it comes time to perform it. That’s been a pleasure. The cello is an absolutely gorgeously untamed beast of an instrument and I’m completely in love with it. I’m not quite at the point technically where I can write very effectively on it, but I hope to be taking it out of the house soon.

Well, I have to go… The cats are wailing for their breakfast.

be well ~ nv

You can find her site here: NoeVenable.com