Partnering with Sailor City Promotions, Toronto-based graphic artist Christ Tompkins is designing the art for rock shows at the Foggy Goggle. Last week we posted his design for Carey Beck’s rockabilly show. This week brings two more. The first presents Tommy Green Jr. (of Halifax’s Telfer) and Mike Bochoff with opening guest David Mudge on Friday, May 7. The following night features Moncton rocker Marco Rocca with Jason Haywood. Check out their music online at their respective MySpace profiles (hyperlinked on their name) and hit up the shows this Friday and Saturday. Life is better with live music.
As we said on Friday, Joan had recently submitted two sets of her photoshopped portraits. We ran the first set on Friday and here after a few days of waiting is the thrilling conclusion…well to this set, Joan will be submitting more down the road for sure. Fellow Unfiltered Smoke contributor Chris Tompkins is seen in the first pic, reading Hank Moody’s God Hates us All. Enjoy!
Joan Reid, who contributed photoshop portraits near the beginning of Unfiltered Smoke is back with two sets. The first one (below) shows her use of watercolour style and other elements. The second set will be up either this weekend or on Monday. She’s a great talent and has a wonderful eye for manipulating photographs. A couple of the photos below picture Unfiltered Smoke photographer Laurel Green!
I took a pill. It was a zinger.
But, I don’t care… I’m Marla Singer.
I’ll flick my ciggy in your face
And sell your clothes––to your disgrace.
I’ll screw your boyfriend until he’s dead.
I’ll drink poison and chew on lead.
I’ll wake at night to the sound of rain.
I’ll pretend my TB is causing pain.
I’ll suck my smoke until it bleeds.
I’ll suck your (beep) because I need.
I’ll never wash and never brush.
But, I’m still a sexy (beep)ing slut.
So, kiss me once, kiss me twice.
Then ignore that I’m your vice.
Carry on with your double life…
Perhaps I’ll stab you with a knife?
In a dream when you’re not looking
When the soap you are cooking.
I’ll stick it in––right through your mud.
Then, perhaps, I’ll lick the blood?
So, when you’re finished bashing heads,
I’ll be thrashing ‘round your bed.
With the other half who makes you you.
I’m Marla Singer. It’s what I do.
If you haven’t heard of David Myles, fear not; now you have heard of him and you no longer have to worry about missing out on one of the most gifted songwriters Canada has to offer.
Myles’ list of musical accomplishments is incredible and well earned. Here’s a small sample of what David Myles has been up to:
- His albums “Things Have Changed” (2006) and “On The Line” (2008) have brought him to national attention including a radio hit with “When It Comes My Turn”, a song about growing old with a little grace and a smile on your face.
- Yesterday (April 20th 2010) saw the release of Myles’ fourth album “Turn Time Off”. The album was produced by Joel Plaskett (!) of Thrush Hermit and Joel Plaskett Emergency fame.
- He won the 2009 International songwriting competition. The judges for this competition included Tom Waits (!!) and Brian Wilson (!!!), both of whom know a thing or two about quality songwriting (Take that, Simon Cowell!).
- He was selected to represent New Brunswick (he’s originally from Fredericton) in CBC Radio’s Great Canadian Song Quest, where he was asked to write and record a song about the popular tourist destination the Hopewell Rocks.
- He was nominated for Male Entertainer of the Year and won Folk Recording of the Year at the 2009 East Coast Music Awards for “On The Line”. He also won the Folk/Roots Recording of the Year for Music Nova Scotia in 2007.
- He joined Nova Scotia Rapper Classified onstage at the Much Music Video Awards last year, playing trumpets on Class’ hit track “Anybody Listening” (He told me that he met the Jonas Brother’s, who were hosting the show, and was surprised how nice they were. “They didn’t come off like cheese heads at all” he told me).
- On April 16th , 2010 he had the honour of playing a gig with Symphony Nova Scotia.
His accomplishments sound like those of someone twice his age who’s carreer might be wrapping up, but Myles is just getting started.
Myles’ sound is a seamless mixture of jazz, folk and blues with heartfelt and honest lyrics that pinpoint the hard-to-articulate pressure points of the human condition. Seriously he’s that good, but the thing that impressed me the most about David Myles (who was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to chat with me last November while in the middle of recording “Turn Time Off”) is that he is without a stitch of pretence. He’s soft spoken, kind, funny and thoughtful, and his ego seems to be non existent. It was a pleasure to be able to pick his brain about his craft, his success and his views on music.
If you haven’t heard of David Myles before you are in for a treat. He’s a great interview, full of interesting anecdotes and practical advice for all you artists out there. He’s a man who’s found success on his own terms without letting it get to his head, and that’s all any artist should be after.
Unfiltered Smoke: You’re living the dream a lot of artists are striving for. You’re a professional musician with no day job. I think a lot of our readers would like to know how you’ve accomplished that.
David Myles: I was lucky. Basically when I decided I was going to go for it I had about 5000 bucks saved up. I made a record and then moved out west. I started to play all the time and once my savings dwindled I moved to Halifax and worked a few temp jobs, then I made another record and then started touring again. I took some time off work, and eventually things started to happen. In the last three and a half years I haven’t worked [a day job] at all
US: That’s an amazing feat.
DM: It’s great because as it develops you get further away from it making sense to get a job. I’m starting to realize I have a couple of years where music is going to be my career.
US: That’s what every musician wants to do
DM: That’s it, and that’s what you have to keep perspective on. For me the big thing is to always realize that this is what I want, that my goal in life is to make music. It’s seemed ambitious enough and it seemed kind of crazy enough that I figured if I could make a living at it then I’m like the luckiest dude ever. But each year that goes by I feel like ‘when is this going to run out?’
US: It seems to me that you’re on the cusp of getting a lot more exposure. I’ve been hearing more and more about you from places like CBC radio.
DM: It’s definitely getting busier. That’s the other thing though, it takes time. I mean it depends on the type of music you play, but I suspect that the type of music I play, or at least how I kind of built my career, I’m hoping it is going to be a long career that slowly builds. Like a 40 year thing hopefully
US: Well your music doesn’t ride any fads or trends.
DM: That’s right, and it’s not going to become really popular over night.
US: People who like it are going to like it because it’s really good not because of some sort of flavour of the month type deal.
DM: Yeah, hopefully. I mean I think there’s a lot of really good music that was only popular for like a couple years. I think music I was into when I was 17 wasn’t the same stuff I was into when I was 25. When I was 17 I cared so much about certain bands that might not be popular right now, but they had some big years. That kind of career you have to capitalize on and it’s like how do you take advantage of that little time? I’m sure there’s a little bit of that in every career but my whole thing has always been not to spend very much money so I can always float by. So I’m never finding myself making big compromises or doing something just to make money.
US: You don’t strike me as that kind of musician.
DM: I keep hoping that the records I have made will grow and people will go back and listen to them and maybe they’ll become really popular in ten years, you don’t know. But that’s how I’ve tried to focus on it and stay positive about everything. I focus on the record and make sure it’s really good and people will eventually come around if they want to come around.
The weird thing is that it kind of happens that way. Because I’ve never had huge commercial success, so it basically means that each of my records slowly builds, like I’ll get an email from somebody who’s just picked up a record that I made five years ago. It’s slowly getting around and I end up selling more copies of that first record that I did four or five years ago, and that’s pretty cool, you know what I mean? Because it means your back catalogue still works for you. It’s not like it’s over as soon as you put it out, like one shot at banging a number one hit and if it doesn’t happen it’s over. I think there’s a little bit of that protection too for people who might not be in the music industry. When I first got in I was like ‘Ok, I’m gonna make a record and it’s either going to be something really popular or I’m not going to have a career’ and it’s just not really like that. You just slowly build. Sometimes early records are better. Everybody has a band they love the old stuff. The early stuff wasn’t as popular but you come to it later.
US: I know, personally, when I discover a band it’s only a matter of time before I go back and comb through their back catalogue.
DM: That’s how I hope it goes but it seems that each record gets a little bigger. I mean I’m lucky, man. I have a cool life, I get to do a lot of cool things. I don’t tour all the time, but I do fun tours that I want to do. I feel lucky because I don’t have too many pressures in terms of what I do. I really don’t have that
US: So there’s no one breathing down your back saying “Put more hooks in this song and gives us more singles”?
DM: Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m making the new record right now with Joel Plaskett and I basically paid Joel to be that guy who says ‘lets put this hook in here’ but it’s great because I totally trust him. This is the first time I’ve paid a producer to produce the record and be part of the process. I’ve only worked with Chuck (Hoffman) before and that’s been amazing, but it was way more chill. He’s like, lets just try everything out and see how it goes. And I take a pretty strong production role in that kind of relationship.
With the new record it’s been like ‘ok, Joel I want you to produce this record, I’m gonna play you my songs and you tell me what you think.’ It’s cool. I’ve definitely learned to step back and say ‘go with it, what do you think?’ and he’ll say ‘why don’t you do this, this or this’ and we really end up with some cool stuff. But the reason I think he’s such a great person for this kind of thing is that he’s a pretty good model of exactly what we’re talking about. Just kind of doing your own thing over a long period of time and have it pay off. It’s pretty friggin’ amazing to see his career develop and it’s pretty friggin’ well deserved. Working with him I realized just how hard he works. It’s pretty impressive. I’ve known him for a few years but now working with him closely it’s like he operates on a pretty high level. He can stay focused for so long, and listens so carefully and has great ideas. It’s pretty inspiring.
Joel and I have the same management and that’s kind of how we met. I knew him a little before but we started spending more time together because of our manager, and we’re both lucky because our manager isn’t the type of manager who says you should do this or that. She’s really supportive, she’s a really, really good manager
I feel lucky too because I don’t have a label. My albums are released on my own label.
US: How did you get started with that?
DM: I just decided I wanted to put a logo on my first record. That was before I had distribution but I figured why not have a little novelty logo? I come up with a logo, came up with a name of my company and eventually the record got distribution. Just like any independent record it took a long time. I’d been selling it off the stage while touring. Once I’d done enough touring and sold enough copies of my record off stage and over the internet I made a pitch to a couple distribution companies. I said ‘listen, I’ve sold this many records, I’ve toured across the country and I want my record in stores.’ They really couldn’t ignore what I had done. It’s pretty ideal. I mean the only advantage that a label provides is that everything is in the same place; publishing and distribution. I don’t want to borrow money from a label, it’s not my style, I don’t like going into debt. I’m not a debt kind of dude [laughs] and basically it’s something they can hold over your head and I don’t want that. I’d rather spend less money or save money for along time or put it all on my visa cards. At lest it’s on my own terms and I’m not making hundred-thousand dollar records. If I needed that kind of dough I’d need a label but that’s not the kind of records I’m making
US: Your records still sound great regardless of the money behind them.
DM: Yeah, thanks, well you can make a good sounding record for cheap these days if you focus on what you’re doing. They do get more expensive as you go but they’re doable. As for a publicist you can basically hire a publicist yourself without having a label publish it and again, I like that because I get to choose instead of having it published by the label.
US: So you started as a one man show.
DM: It’s pretty cool. The management helps. It keeps everything together, and that’s the biggest step. I had a distributer and a publicist. Publicists are more a matter of if you wanna send them money you can get them. Distribution is harder to access. Once you start touring it becomes a lot easier to access though. Management is a big step. They can put me in touch with agents, someone who would work out well with what I was after.
Everything is in place and everyone is working on stuff but my business isn’t floating their boat. How I like to work is invest in the long term. Build your team and get people close to you. So my records might not be making them a lot of money right now but the thinking is if it grows, eventually everything will pay off. As an artist you have to grow.
US: Doing an album with someone as famous as Joel Plaskett must come with certain expectations, do you feel like there are higher expectations out there for the new album?
DM: There was quite a bit of expectation in the last record because the record before was a big jump, it’s what helped me build a team and get some attention. This time there is more expectation because all the team behind it were in place before I started recording. This record will be done recording by about Christmas and we’re releasing it in April. So it gets done and there’s 4 months to release it, which is awesome, but I’ve never been this organized before [laughs]. It’s always been like the day before release and I’m going through the boxes to make sure the right records are inside.
This time I feel if there’s more expectation it’s because everything is in place to make it work. Joel is a great guy to work with because he focuses on the important stuff.
US: If there is added pressure it doesn’t seem to be getting under your skin.
DM: I guess I’ve just been more chill in general. I wrote a lot before this record. I had a really chill winter last year so I just wrote and wrote and wrote and got a whole bunch of stuff. I’ve been playing with the band more, developing the songs, so I feel good about it. To be totally honest I always hope for the best and expect the worst
I focus on making a great record and that’s all I focus on. It’s the other factors you can’t worry too much about. Like there’s so many records you hear and you think ‘this is going to be a huge record’ and it’s not and there’s another record you don’t think anything of and it becomes huge. There are x factors in the business that I’ve come to realize I have no control over. All I can do is put out the best record I can and I think this is going to be a really good record. I’m really excited about it. I’ve had more time to focus on the important things.
A huge part of my career is playing live. I put a lot of pressure on my records but I realize if I’m going to have a career, a 40 year career, I have to be a great live entertainer.
I love playing live too. I write songs to be played live. I love the fact that when you play a song live it exist in only that moment. I love records but there’s something unique about playing live.
That’s the other thing, I know it’s not the records that build my career. Ideally they will help and this new one is the best so far, but the live show is what reaches the most people. I mean what are the chances I’m going to be played on commercial radio? There’s like ten artists that get commercial radio time. Either it becomes super hip for young people, which doesn’t seem likely, or I have one song that sticks. That did happen to me a little bit with “When It Comes My Turn”. That song has done well. It’s been a huge part of building my career and I’ll always have that. I don’t mind the idea of playing that song night after night, year after year. That sounds great to me.
US: “When it Comes My Turn” is a great song and I’ve noticed when you play it now it has evolved a lot from the recorded version, it almost has a different feel now.
DM: Yeah I went back and listened to it and I didn’t even realize how much it had changed, but that’s what happens with records. After time you play with it and change it until certain phrases are totally different.
US: Your lyrics are astounding to me. They are so simple and direct and evoke the desired emotion so well that it floors me. One of my favourites is a line from “Cape Breton” that goes “We’ll kiss like we kissed when we kissed the first time, with our minds on our hearts and our hearts on the line”.
DM: It’s funny you mention that because I’ll get little lines in my head and… not a lot of people have told me they like that one but I really like that one, that’s where the title of that record “On the Line” came from.
US: You have a gift for being sincere and emotionally profound while keeping it simple.
DM: Yeah, well I’ve always loved guys like John Prine, people who are easy to understand…Don’t get me wrong, I love Bob Dylan, but a lot of his songs require multiple listens and some of them I don’t think even he knows what they’re about [laughs], I love his music but I knew from the get go that I wasn’t going to be that kind of lyricist. In high school you couldn’t pay me money to write a poem or write fiction because I was so embarrassed. As a writer I didn’t think I was good enough. I wasn’t poetic in a traditional sense, I wasn’t confident that I had that ability, so when I decided to write lyrics I knew I would write exactly how I talk or how I think.
It’s funny because I got into music by way of instrumental music, I never listened to lyrics. I don’t think I knew the lyrics to any songs until I was about grade twelve. Even all my favourite songs, like when I was super into Metallica and Guns n’ Roses, I could sing every guitar solo and every drum fill on every record, but I couldn’t tell you the lyrics. I just wasn’t a lyric guy. And even when I started playing music I decided I like to sing and if I’m going to sing I have to write lyrics so I slowly got into it. Now I’m so into it. I realize how important it is. I used to think if the melody is good enough you can say anything and a lot of people get away with saying a lot of foolish things but they often sound ok. It’s a really weird thing, sometimes the meaning of something is hard to understand but the sound is great. I think there’s a lot of choosing sounds. There’s nothing worse than hearing a singer use some word that sounds so stupid. Like no one ever uses it in speech. That’s one thing about Dylan he has so many awesome sounding words that’s just him riffing. It hardly makes sense but the words he’s chosen sound great. I like being more direct.
US: Another song of yours with great lyrics is “When it Comes My Turn”.
With lines like: “I worry about my money. I got bills that I can’t pay. I swear I’m more like my father everyday”
and the chorus: “I’m getting old, but I’m not old yet. I’m already worried that I might forget, how to laugh, how to love. How to live, how to learn. I wanna die with a smile when it comes my turn”.
It speaks about something a lot of people can relate to. When you came up with those lines did you realize that you really had something profound that people would understand from their gut? Did you set out to write a song about growing old and coming to terms with it, or was it happenstance?
DM: It comes from weird places, you play and hum a melody and from humming syllables comes words. I didn’t say to myself ‘I’m going to write a song about getting old’, I had the melody and was humming it to myself on the bus one day and all of a sudden it came, “I’m getting old but I’m not old yet.”
US: Like you work hard to facilitate that kind of thinking and then one day your muse just shits on your head with a formed idea?
DM: Exactly [laughs] the muse shits on your head. Those moments are a magical thing when it just comes to you. I wrote the entire chorus to that song on a bus trip. Once I have the chorus I can build the rest. It might take awhile but the song is kind of happening.
I feel lucky, It’s good to have a song that will be remembered even if I die now. I’m glad that’s the song people really like because it’s a totally positive song with a positive message. It’s something I thought about all the time. Everyone thinks about that, I always think about aging. I totally wrote that song thinking it would be a song that my generation would relate to, that quarter life crisis where you’re about to get a real job, you’re out of university and now you’re becoming an adult, trying to become the adult you want to be. But it’s totally had a different impact and the people who are drawn to that song are the people who have retired, people my parents age, 65 or older. That’s the funny thing, everybody can relate to it. Because the older you get the more your idea changes of what old is. When you’re a teenager people in their thirties seem ancient. I’m glad that’s taken place and most of the notes and feedback I’ve gotten regarding that song are from people in their 60’s. Like “I’m just going into retirement and trying to figure out how to retire in style and not get too bored with no job and stay feeling young.” People get used to going to a job every day and it’s a shock when they don’t have that. The Kids are gone, the house is empty and they don’t know how to fill their day. The song has totally become a song for senior fitness groups.
A cool thing happened the last time I was playing in P.E.I., a woman about my parent’s age came up to me after the show and said “I want to thank you for sending me the song and lyrics (for “When it Comes My Turn) because my whole family now performs it together at our reunions.”
I said “oh I remember that email you sent me. That’s very nice.”
She said “Yeah, we all get together in Saskatchewan and play it. My niece, Feist, plays guitar on it.”
I said “Oh cool, your niece is named Feist, that’s a cool name.”
She says “Yeah, Leslie Feist.”
I’m like “You’re kidding, Leslie Feist plays “When it Comes My Turn” on guitar at family reunions?!”
That was the coolest thing, such a fun coincidence. The song has become a bit of a folk song and a lot of people are playing their own versions, which I love.
US: Not a lot of music is that universal
DM: Yeah, I kind of feel, if anything, that young people don’t listen to my music, but a lot of older people come around. You can’t choose your audience, it just kind of happens. I’ve been at shows where people come up to me and the audience is mostly over 50, you don’t choose, but I like playing for anyone, I’m glad to. They are a wicked audience because there aren’t a lot of bands playing music that people that age, so they really get into it and I love that. That’s not my only audience but specifically because of that song there was a certain point where my main audience was older. It kind of spreads slowly and you have to have faith that it will.
US: There’s a lot going on in your records, but the songs themselves remain fairly simple standard structures, which I’m a big fan of, It’s hard to get much better than 3 or 4 chords and a lot of heart.
DM: I get such a kick out of that. One of the reasons I like writing songs so much is I love hearing other people play them or play on them. It’s so exciting when another guitar player comes up with a solo to one of my songs. I like writing songs that are easy to play, especially lately. I really dig an idea of 3 or 4 chord songs. It is hard to get better than that as long as the other elements are in place, the rhythm section is so important for that.
I picked up a guitar in my 3rd year university so I’m still pretty new to it. I used to play trumpet but once I moved to guitar and I learned my first two chords I wrote a song. I don’t do fancy finger work up the neck, I leave that to my lead guitar players. I mean John Prine consistently blows my mind with 3 chords over and over. Neil young is a great example too, because he does play solos but they are so ramshackle. Seeing him last year, I realized how amazing he is at guitar. He is such a visceral player.
Ultimately it’s all about finding your own voice. You can’t just ape someone else’s sound. It takes time to find out what kind of writer you are, what you want to write about and how you want to go about writing it. At this point, now that I’ve worked at it so long, I don’t think I could sound any different. I sound like me and that’s what I want.
When I start to write a song I sit down and I get obsessed with different types of music so I tend to jump around a lot with styles, which is probably a weakness. I have to learn to reel that in a bit. Most of my influences aren’t modern. I base my music on older forms. I’ll write a blues song or a jazz song or a three chord folk song because that’s the world I exist in. From song to song sometimes it’s hard for me to pull it together with different styles and make the songs sound consistent, but that’s where finding the right band comes in
US: Have you always played with the same group of guys?
DM: I’ve always had the same bass player and drummer and then gotten different players to fill out each song. This time there is five of us and Joel.
US: Do you like having a fixed group as your band?
DM: I like it for this record. If I had gotten a different rhythm section the songs would be too different. The rhythm parts on the last record are insane. I’m lucky to play with good players and Halifax is filled with great players.
US: There’s some great Youtube videos you’ve put out where it’s you and one or two people playing in your living room or back yard. That’s about as real as any performance gets.
DM: I love Youtube videos because everyone knows how awesome it feels to jam in your living room, but how can you translate that? You can record from your living room but there’s a certain aspect to the performance that is missing and Youtube is a cool way to watch music because there’s no distance. you see it as it is, if someone makes a mistake it stays there and that adds an intimacy. I love it. I want to do that for all my songs on the new record.
US: I wanted to get your opinion on spontaneity. Do you feel as an artist that it’s important to take your time and labour over the fine details or is it better to keep the freshness and emotion of the song intact by recording it when it’s still fresh?
DM: As the creator of the music you can get really bogged down by what you’re hearing as opposed to what the world is hearing. I listen to so much music from the 50s where they laid it down, they got one take. These guys were so good, they played every night and when they recorded it was exactly what they sound like and they were good enough to pull that off. There’s less mystery to that kind of recording. I mean there’s mystery like how are they so good and how are they doing whatever the hell they’re doing but the recordings are so real, there’s no mystery as to what they actually sound like, it’s all right there. I wanted the band to get there.
We practiced a lot before we went into the studio and that was different. There isn’t as much questioning, there is a lot of stuff that changes but I don’t go over the mixes for months and months. Right now, there are two tracks on the album that we recorded live which was amazing. Joel’s studio is cool, it’s like a suped-up garage. It’s not all that big but the sound is great. And we were nailing it on the first take, it was a great feeling. The rehearsing helps. We’ve been able to move quickly. We haven’t had much choice because Joel is a busy dude but when he’s there he’s entirely there, no distractions.
This record is all on tape. Joel doesn’t use computers to record. Besides the advantage of how it sounds, the real advantage is the working method. You can’t fret about it too much, you cant drop it in or fix mistakes. if your in the middle of the phrase you cant do it, you can only over dub in certain sections or physically record over the tape. I like that element of it. It’s almost is starting to sound like Fleetwood Mac to me [laughs]. It sounds like the 70s. I thought it would sound more like the 50s but it sounds like the 70s. I think the fidelity of recording on tape has something to do with that. I’m having a really good time with it.
US: What happens after recording is done?
DM: We fly to Arizona to mix it and then back to Halifax to master it with Jay Lapoint.
US: Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to me, most of our readers are artists and I’m sure they will find your story as inspiring as it is fascinating.
DM: I love conversations like this. I think it’s cool that your site is so free form and inclusive. It helps too that you know the music and know what you’re talking about. You’ve actually listened to my records. I’m used to sitting down for an interview and the guy goes “Okay, so tell me, what do you sound like?” [Laughs] That’s the worst.
Originating in Persian mythology, the phoenix is said to be a fire spirit that exists in the form of a large colourful bird. After a life span of 1000 years the bird builds itself a final resting place; a nest of twigs which ignites into flames. The bird dies in the resulting fire, reduced to ashes. This strange act of self immolation is not as it appears. It’s not an act of destruction but an act of rebirth. When the smoke clears a new phoenix arises, reborn, a brighter reflection of its former self.
This became the perfect metaphor for an idea floating around the head of Derrick Dixon, a Halifax based artist and student of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. For his NSCAD Independent Study he wanted to create a dress that he could transform using fire.
“I had an image in my head, or a thought, about transforming a dress through fire. I thought it was a powerful image. It wasn’t about destroying a dress through fire, more of transformation. Once I had the idea I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
After the initial conception in December 2009, Dixon dedicated practically every waking moment to the execution and completion of the dress. He discovered that wool would be the best material to make the bulk of the dress with since it wouldn’t burn. He worked on the dress using wool and silk, donated to him by generous teachers and fellow students. The dress was designed with a cream and beige coloured wool outer layer laced with strings of sewing pattern paper. Derrick’s vision was to ignite the paper thus removing the stitches, the wool would drop away to reveal a new dress made of brightly colored silk. All of this would take place while the dress was being worn by a model.
Dixon was eager to work in the field of fashion even though his previous experiences were more in the realm of sculpture and visual art. Dixon saw the potential of fashion as an art after he discovered the phenomenal mixture of performance art and fashion by American artist Nick Cave (no, not the singer).
“I don’t really follow fashion. I’ve always been interested in fashoion but I never really followed it. I started reading a lot about it since I was making a dress and I’ve always thought there was something more that could happen in fashion. I’m interested in pushing it into the realms of art. That’s what interests me.”
By April 10th, 2010, Derrick had designed and fashioned the piece and the ambitious Phoenix Dress project ready to go. Dixon assembled a crew of approximately 20 volunteers made up of colleagues and friends and brought them all to Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia. The artistic experiment was conducted in a scenic, wooded area loaded with atmosphere. The landscape was strewn with new growth poking through deadfall trees, a perfect location to push the phoenix imagery even further.
Dixon had the event planned out much more than a simple fashion shoot, he wanted it to be a visual feast, a true work of art. Every element of the project was carefully selected to have meaning and enhance the concept as a whole, Dixon conceived an earth tone/natural motif that he and his style crew were able to run with. Stylist Gary Markle Designed accessories by combining jewelry with natural plant life materials found on site. Model Haley Thomas’s makeup was designed by Michelle Alerie to compliment the earthy tones of the dress with touches of color alluding to the dress’ fiery transformation.
Dixon wanted his model’s hair to consist of many tight braids and bangs that needed to stay firm. Hairspray couldn’t be used as it is an accelerant, so Hairstylist Rosslyn Mackay improvised, using egg whites to keep the model’s hair in place (a trick famously used by punk rockers to keep their Mohawks perky).
Dixon made very clear that health and safety was priority number one. He was well aware that the use of fire on a dress being worn by a live model brought up certain safety concerns and he had assembled a five person health and safety team to ensure everything went smoothly. He had carefully planned every step and knew that the wool base of the dress made it safe to be worn but still took every conceivable precaution.
Once Thomas’ hair and makeup were finished, Dixon and Markle dressed her and she was taken to the shoot’s location. The moment Dixon had been waiting five months for was now at hand. There was an excitement in the air as Thomas entered the location to thunderous applause. Dixon had worked so hard to realize the Pheonix Dress and there was a sense of awe and interest in the faces of everyone involved. The dress looked dazzling, the model radiant and the location perfect. The weather was dark and overcast, threatening to rain at any moment. Thomas was a trooper, posing for photos in the dress while everyone around her was bundled up in winter jackets and mittens. After a few preliminary photos Thomas was given a blanket to warm up while the final preparations were made.
The Phoenix Dress was finally going to go up in flames.
The health and safety team watched on, extinguishing tools in hand, as Dixon lit each strand of paper. Orange and yellow flame consumed the paper releasing selected sections of the dress. Every strand was lit until at last the phoenix had risen. A vibrant rainbow of silk emerged to the cheers of everyone in attendance. And as soon as the phoenix had risen the rain began to fall.
Derrick Dixon will be displaying the Phoenix Dress live tomorrow night (April 21st 2010) at NSCAD’s 20th annual Wearable Arts Show. The show will be at Halifax’s Olympic community Centre (2304 Hunter street). Doors open at 7:30, show starts at 8:00. Tickets are 15$ in advance and can be purchased at Venus Envy and the NSCAD supply store or $20 at the door. The show is a benefit for people living with AIDS in Nova Scotia.
Watch the burning of the Phoenix Dress with music by Tomcat Combat’s Kevin Mombourquette.
Brent Braaten (BFA 2004 University of Regina) is a comic artist/filmmaker from Regina, Saskatchewan. His work explores the absurdities that dwell within our imaginations; bizarre thoughts that we sometimes shamefully bury rather than celebrate.
He has contributed several comics to the site and we will be running them weekly for your enjoyment. Click the image below to enlarge.
The sparrow of humility in the hand of a painter is worth more than any flock of honking geese flying over head.
I’ve been racking my brain, attempting to forage for some kind of dating advice for you all you gents out there. I-as they say-got nothin’. My tastes border on the absurd and unconventional at the best of times. I think Ted Danson in the most magnificent new HBO series Bored to Death is hot as hell. In his own way, of course. Then again, the cute little writer guy on the same show certainly holds his own in the hot department…and now that you mention it-the illustrator has a certain je ne sais quoi…
Ok. Wait. I have a crush on most guys. I am a true lover of men, not in terms of promiscuity, rather in terms of admiration. So, gentleman, just keep doing what you are doing and I will quietly (or not) observe from some distant corner somewhere. I can’t help myself, let alone all your lady friends out there. Enough said.
In other news…
It is time to get back to the world of all that is artistic (much to the relief of the editors of this site, I am sure). I am more or less a stay-at-home mom these days and have been for most of the time that I have been a parent, minus a stint here or there. I, at the moment, am not earning a steady paycheck. What I do is rely on the sales of my artwork and my writing and that wonderful little element in my life called husband. Without him, I would be the very definition of a starving artist. With him? I have lots to eat. Thankfully.
I, however, am the type of gal who gets a real kick out of earning my own quid so eventually, I will go back to work full time, when my daughter is a little older. Or, maybe, just maybe, within a few years I will be able to make a full time living selling my art and my writing on a regular basis (oh, to sleep perchance to dream). Actually, this is my dream, my goal. If it all falls through, and it may, I’ll probably end up at a call centre somewhere.
One thing I have been focusing on lately, is marketing. I have heard it said that a good artist should not necessarily study art, rather a good dose of business education is more important because, after all, selling what you make is a form of entrepreneurship. Artists must know how to market themselves. It is within this category in the life of an artist that I fall flat. Marketing myself makes me nauseous. I try it, but I never feel like I am much good at it.
In these modern times, we are rather lucky. Gone are the days where we have to sit in front of a television while commercial after commercial after commercial blasts its filthy face into our existence. Talk about offensive? The stuff written in Dear Asshole is risqué, for sure-but nobody is forcing anybody to read it. I remember when I was a kid though, fully immersed in an episode of Voltron and then some stupid commercial about some stupendous laundry detergent ripped me out of my animated reverie (I had a huge crush on the guy with the white hair in that show… What?!). Now that, my friends, is offensive. The commercial, not the crush. So, lest I come across as my own pathetic attempt at commercialism, I abhor the art of the self-promotion.
And then there are the types…Oh, we all know them. Probably by name if we are honest. You know what I am talking about, here. The type of people that incessantly talk about themselves and how spectacular what they are making/doing is compared to the rest of the blasé masses. There are artists out there that are so in your face about how special they are that it makes me (at least) want to literally vomit in the worst possible way. Am I like that? I sincerely hope not (if you see me getting mighty, if you see me getting high, knock me down. I’m not bigger than life).
These in your face types remind me of a guy I dated briefly in high school. Well, I was in high school, he (ahem) was not. When I first met this guy he did nothing but talk, talk, talk about his prowess with the ladies. I, being recently jilted by my boyfriend at the time, decided this guy might have something I needed. Well, as it turned out, all that talking covered up a few facts. For one, the guy lied like an oriental rug on an overdose of valium and two, his prowess was about as enigmatic as a box of kleenex. I was naive at the time, but I did learn this: those that talk the most about who and what they are, usually, aren’t much at all in the end and this guy was an idiot.
What self-admiration and swagger does is alienate people. At first, out of sincere curiosity, folks might be won over by this particular brand of charm, sure. In the end, when artists constantly talk about their process and what it all means to present day society and yada yada, I think it ends up alienating people. If the art cannot speak for itself, then it’s time to head back to the drawing board. A simple artist’s statement is all anyone ever really wants or needs in the end.
I worry the most about the fledgling artist/writer/musician who maybe just attempted their first serious piece. In the face of so much bluster, their courage may fall dead in its tracks. Nothing is as daunting as trying to make your mark as an artist in the shadow of some other artist who is determined to stay in the limelight come hell or high water. It should not be this way. Ultimately, this kind of behavior ends up killing more art than it generates and if that is the case then we all lose in the end.
On the flip side of this, I’ve met artists who have so much talent that it makes me want to cry in the best possible way, but when the gallery doors are closed or the stage lights are off, you would never know it. Some of the most humble people in the world would knock your socks off in the ability department. I am not too sure where I fit in in all of this, somewhere comfortably close to the humble side of things, I hope. Art should not be an elitist side-show. It should be completely accessible. Come one, come all.
As for marketing. Is it a necessary evil? Unfortunately, yes. It is. Everybody and their dog seems to being doing it these days simply because we can. A Facebook account is free, a blog is free, selling your work on various commerce sites like Etsy (for example) costs next to nothing. So, why not market yourself? There is a way to do it and then there is a way to do it, though. I say go ahead, give it your best shot. We are all very small fish swimming in a vast ocean. Why should the advertising giants have all the fun? All I am saying is, be careful. There are a lot of seedling, baby artists out there with just as much talent as you (and me). Talk about your art, sure. But gently and with a dose of humility and kindness. Any truly successful artist has worked extremely hard to get where they are today and those are the ones that nary utter a sound. As for the bragger types? Move out of the limelight you self-inflating arses. Let the rest of the world catch a ray or two for a change. Wait a minute… That was mean wasn’t it? Yup. Truth hurts. I can’t help it. That is how I feel.
You are never too old to learn. It’s really true. What is missing from the phrase is the part about it being easier said (to learn when you get older) than done. When we are young, our minds are as new as a garden waiting to be planted. There is nothing there to occupy our thoughts other than the basics and then our interpretation of those basics. That is not too say children are simple minded. Rather, they are like a chest full of golden coins not yet spent.
As we age, we take in more information, we process it and store it and compartmentalize it and also, it is necessary to take into account the substance intake that will invariably (for good or bad) alter our brain chemistry and mix things up within the conscious and unconscious mind. Whether it is an aspirin or the fattest joint you have ever seen in your life, what goes in will definitely effect what comes out. To a degree. I think.
There is nothing more daunting than trying something new. I know this to be true from experience and also from observing this in others. The first day at a new job is a prime example of the case in point. You arrive at the office, you find your new desk, you strike up your computer. By this time (about five minutes into Monday morning) your nerves are shot. You just keep moving ahead anyway.
If you are lucky, somebody next to you will help you out a little. If you are unlucky, your boss will bark a question at you in front of an entire room of onlookers that you may or may not be able to answer. But, you pick your way through the day. You just do it because you need to. You want that pay check at the end of the week so, for the most part, you just do it.
It is not so with art of whatever kind. There is, especially at first, no incentive, no immediate payoff, save one. That one is to simply make yourself happy. That is the only immediate payoff to sitting down at your kitchen table to try out your new set of water colors or the little box of sketch pencils you bought yourself at the dollar store.
Drawing your first-ever rendition of the half-eaten piece of toast that is sitting on a plate on your kitchen table, for anybody who has never drawn anything seriously in their life, will be a daunting task. Sure, it sounds simple. But, try it. It’s not simple at all. Therein lies the eye of the needle, educationally speaking.
That little nuance of difference in your mind between something sounding easy to the ear but translating down to be very complicated to the mind is where most artists seem to fall on the path toward their personal artistic triumphs. It’s a left brain, right brain kind of thing. I think.
I have encountered people who say they cannot draw after one ridiculous, wet-rag attempt at a really stupid looking happy face (for example), rife with expression that reflects the beleaguered attempt from their maker. It’s sad. It’s pathetic. I have to hold my hands behind my back to stop from slapping the person who made such a sorry little face. I don’t mean to be mean (at least I don‘t think I do) but who ever said drawing or painting was easy? That you could do anything of real significance the first time out?
Is playing the piano easy? For some, it probably is. But for most of us, it seems complicated. It has to be broken down into bits of information. It has to be taken one small step at a time. It is the same when you draw. Here. Let me show you.
Take the above drawings of a piece of toast (the remains of my son’s breakfast). They are not the best drawings of a piece of toast in the entire world. Indeed, they are my first (ever) drawings of a piece of toast. I, just now, drew toast for the first time. What did I notice? I noticed that a drawing of toast requires a lot of necessary detail in order to make it look real. I am not so sure I captured all that detail in these drawings but now, I know, the next time I want to draw realistic looking toast, or impressionistic looking toast, I need to add a few details like crumbs around the edges and lots of differently sized holes throughout the bread. Those details are what toast is about. That is what I observed. I learned that toast is full of crumbs and numerous holes and it is actually a very complicated little thing. In summation: Observe. Recreate. Observe. Recreate. Observe. Create. Create. Observe. See. Recreate. Create…Catch the groove. Get going.
Below is a comic by Adam Atherton from Woodstock, New Brunswick. He resides in Toronto, Ontario and recently won a comic design contest at zudacomics.com for his creation Lily of the Valley. He will be producing a full run at that website and I encourage anyone to check it out. It starts on October 9 and continues every Friday.
So, was my first installment dramatic enough for you? I hope so. Today, however, we must move on.
It truly seemed, once upon a time, that in order to paint, write or be creative in general, I had to hurt myself or someone else to do it. Lately though, the times are a changin’ in this girl’s life and changing in a very big way.
I am dancing to the beat of a different drum, these days. I have put down the knife, as it where, and picked up a good book; Tom Robbins for nemesis, Anaïs Nin for pain. I find myself in a strange place, a place where I seek the approval of only myself, offering an apologetic shrug to anybody who might expect more. They won’t be getting it…
I decided a while ago it was time to get healthy, to wipe the slate clean. All that snapping, darting, hurting and birthing leaves a girl feeling like she’s missing something on the internal plain; on the inside.
There has been far too much give and not enough take in my life. The well of my soul had run dry, dry as desert with no hope of rain. It was only when I went to take a drink and there was no drink to be had that I realized things had to change.
The time had arrived for a refill. This time around I came to the conclusion that the precious waters of my particular well shall from henceforth be dispersed a little more conservatively and a lot less destructively. More importantly, the time had come for me to simply relax.
I suppose creative types, at one time or another, fill the void with lots of interesting things, things that cause the mind to peel back layers of reality like the skin off a grape. Drugs, sex, booze…whatever your poison, it’s all the same trick in different hats. And that’s all very well and good, if you enjoy technicolor flashbacks and three-day hangovers. I don’t happen to like either of those negative side-effects.
My drug of choice has always been the exquisitely painful torrent of love. Or hate. Or any other similar emotional dregs. As long as it was painful, it did the trick. It generated plenty of inspiration to slash some paint across a canvas. I have been in love at least 26 times in the last 31 years, to illustrate my point. The continuum of an initial hurt was carried on via my penchant (my addiction) to emotional turmoil.
The thing is, I know about as much about being an artist as a monkey knows about being a burlesque on Broadway. The motions are there, for sure. Maybe that monkey could even pull off a fancy little ass-shaking dance now and then, maybe that dance could fool one or two folks who have had too much of the aforementioned substance intake. Who knows?
I don’t know where the world-class artists get their start, perhaps within the halls of academia. Perhaps from a master painter who has blazed a gloriously artistic trail and is now accepting minions. As for me, I started painting because I felt like I missed the boat a long time ago when all my friends where up and at’em, heading off to college or whatever escape from the everyday small town bullshit (pardon the farm reference) they might have desired.
I should have been on that boat too. But I wasn’t. I was back at port, so mired in the figurative muck of one form or another that I couldn’t seem to make it to the dock, let alone actually get on the damn boat.
I will tell you, feeling like you’ve missed out when you’re just a kid is the worst feeling in the world. It really is. It skews your view. It alters your sense of possibilty. I faced that type of despair daily, hourly and by the minute. For years.
Not one to be deterred I used that pain caused by life’s events (which I won’t describe here) to push myself to overcome whatever boundary it seemed to represent. So far, every single wall has fallen down. Flat.
Determination is a wonderful thing. It really is.
Listen, folks…Let me take the mystery out of art for you once and for all. The way I see it, we are all created beings, therefore it stands to reason that we are all creative beings as well. It is a gift, for sure and I think everybody has it in them. The only difference between Van Gogh and you may very well be the fact that he was not afraid to try. I am not afraid to try, either. I get up everyday and think about what I can create. Then, I simply try. It is that easy. I do it because it is what I want to do. To hell with anyone who says I can’t.
I have learned that shit happens and the success of your life and your happiness depends on what you do with the pain it causes. Are you going to use it or are you going to let it overtake you? I decided to use it. I used it to teach myself how to paint, how to write, to draw and how to do a million different things. Eventually a formula unfolded. My options became endless once I discovered my own personal formula required to teach myself the things I wanted to know. Find your formula and then apply it to your life. Doors will open and the world takes on a whole new meaning.
I wanted to prove to myself when I started to paint six years ago that there are other boats, canoes, rafts and various other forms of nautical travel to catch and guess what? It worked. It continues to work. I am just a lot happier doing it now. Tearing myself to pieces, emotionally speaking, has lost its charms and the nemesis, though useful for a while, has been put to rest.
Use pain to overcome even while it holds you back and then, let it go and stop taking yourself and art so seriously. As Tom Robbins so easily puts it; “Peeple of zee wurl, relax.”
Joan is 26, originally from Centerville NB but now living in Fredericton NB. She is self taught in the realm of photoshop, starting by experimenting with the program 5 years ago. She says she finds that some form of creativity in her life is vital, even if its just for fun. She finds inspiration for her pictures everywhere, from Archie comics to Magritte. This year some of her work was on display at the Dooryard Arts Festival in Woodstock, New Brunswick. Some of which is on display here below. She takes photographs of her friends and with photoshops turns them into paint-like portraits.
I would argue that art is as crucial as mathematics and sciences in our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. In other words, it isn’t merely important, it’s necessary. It’s how we wrestle our intangible experiences and emotions (hate, love, anger, joy, longing, fear et al.) to the ground and share them.
Scientists could write (and probably have written) a million peer reviewed studies about love, but could they ever convey the magnitude of the experience as profoundly as William Shakespeare did when he sat down and wrote Romeo and Juliet?
Think about your favourite band or musician. The one you’ve spent hours alone listening to, studying every lyric, and worshiping every note. There is an exchange going on there. Whether they like it or not, the artist is sharing every hope or fear they’ve ever had. They are giving you a glimpse of their soul, all its faults and virtues. They might not say it in plain terms, and a casual listener might no pick up on it, but it’s there. It lives and breathes in the groves of the record (or these days in the digital code of the mp3… I feel wrong just typing that.).
I’ve been an avid fan of music for so long that I’ve built up an ever-growing arsenal and armoury. It’s better than a therapist, it’s better than a diary. Whatever the experience good or bad, there’s a song that will help me express that feeling. More than that, it will help me compartmentalize the feeling and relate it to another human being. That’s where the exchange comes in. When you listen to an album or (especially) when you see a musician at a live show, you and the artist are relating to each other. You’re reporting the reality of the human condition to each other. I’m sure you can think of a million times a simple three-minute-long-ditty has changed the way you carry yourself, the way you think and the way you interact with the world.
This same magic works for all art forms. That’s the beauty of expression. Art is healing. It’s a teacher, an entertainer, a confidant, a security blanket. It can mean anything to anyone. Everyone benefits from it, we’re wired to create it, we’re wired to appreciate it, and we’ve done it for as long as we’ve been around. It can challenge our minds and our belief systems, It can make (and has made) real change in our society.
The River Valley Arts Alliance is a collection of New Brunswick artists with heaps of talent, passion and vision. They recently put together an amazing arts festival, the first of its kind in Woodstock New Brunswick. It was a great success and it looks like the Dooryard Arts Festival is going to be an annual event. I was lucky enough to take part in the festival, singing a few songs with my dad’s rock and roll band The Debarker Boys.
I’m posting our rendition of “New Orleans is Sinking” by The Tragically Hip, a band who has always meant a lot to me. I had a blast playing that song and I’m already planning a way to weasel into next years Dooryard Festival.
