phasmid
by goat
411>
name: kell simon
age: 32
height: 5'8"
hometown: birmingham, al
fav SNL cast member: ana gasteyer
most embarrasing moment: being naked at school during recess when i was in the fourth grade
(or was it just a dream . . .)
ideal romantic evening: monster trucks and barbecue
who are you, what do you do and why?
I am a civil rights lawyer, a potter, and an avid reader of the works of Lynda Barry and John Casey. I have two amazing little kids and sometimes i write and record songs using electronic instruments for fun and relaxation. I do all of this because i am me and i wouldn't be me if i didn't.
discuss yr current set up and why it works for you.
i have an old roland synth (juno 1) and a moog rogue, a yamaha qy70 sequencer (the little box with the button piano keyboard, 500 sounds and 16 tracks), a boss ddr-660 drum machine and guitars and stuff. i record them all onto a roland digital studio workstation which has loads of internal effects. this set up works really well for me because i can bring the qy70 anywhere so when I'm waiting to get my tires balanced or my shoes shined i can just put the headphones on and make up songs. the workstation is also good because it's small enough to bring with me to work and i can plug it in and play during lunchtime.
what was the first techno song that you recogized as techno, and how did you view it?
rave alarm by praga kahn. I'd gone to my local record store to find some acid house records (this must have been 1989 or so) and the guy at the store put it on. I liked it a lot. I've never been much of a techno fan, though i do still listen to my old altern-8 cd singles. Oh no not more bass.
your output thus far has had the good fortune of betraying any allegence to a set genre. is this intentional?
no i don't think so. when i start a song, it just sort of develops almost on its own, but i don't ever really sit down and say "now i think I'm going to write a dancey song" or "let's do one with lots of funny bell sounds". i listen to lots of different kinds of music and I'm sure whatever I'm listening to around that time has something do with what I'm playing. sometimes i worry that the lack of consistency from song to song will make me unidentifiable but i think that the more tracks i do the more you will be able to see the certain threads running through all of them.
if yr head were a ballon, what might the air to helium ratio be?
definitely 100% helium.
if u were asked to play live at a "rave" event, would you:
a)play yr current material
b)scrap yr current material for more dunce floor friendly "vibes"
c)tell them to take a hike
hmmmmm i would never want to turn down the chance to really annoy people, so I'd probably play my current material. i have never been to a rave, but i don't imagine that my tracks would go over very well at one.
what is the least satisfying aspect of making great music?
not having enough time to do it. (and who says i make great music anyway?)
who stands out, in yr mind, as the premier figure in popular music, today?
the beatles
when people use the term "searing sensation" what, if possible, doesn't come to mind?
ouch.
has acid music had any sort of influence on you? can it ever die? what music, in yr opinion, should die?
i don't think i know what that is. the music that should most definitely die is the beeping versions of children's songs and "fur elise" that they put on children's toys where you press a button and it plays the melody over and over again until you are ready to get out your sledgehammer.
tattos are all the rage with independant types. you see them everywhere now a days. would you be a] flattered, or b] outraged, if someone tattoed your moniker on themselves?
frightened most likely. it would probably depend on the body part.
do you have a media room? if so, what are its advantages over a more common living room setup?
normally we try to discourage reporters coming to the house, especially since the idm thing has broken so big recently, but when they do show up, we have a nice room for them in the back of the house right over the little pond area where we keep our alligators, and there is this special lever that we can pull when there get to be too many of them back there and they get too loud and wake the kids. this definitely beats having them all sitting in the living room eating our hershey's miniatures.
you've noted (perhaps with a noticable glee?) you dont use computers. is there any reason for that? if somebody paid you, would you compromise and use one for music???
i think I'm scared to get involved with computers for music, partly because there's so much to learn with new software but also there's just something weird about making music on a machine that has no inherent music making apparatus (keys or pads or strings or something). also i sit at a computer most of the day working, and it's nice to get away from it when i leave work. now if you meant paid me like paid me to quit my job and make computer music all day long? that might be another story . . .
i was 10 the last time my folks spanked me for misbehaving, how old were you the last time u were spanked? (if this sounds overtly innuendo-ish please disregard)
how can you ask a grownup this question without it sounding innuendo-ish? i think i was probably six (though there was this one time...no nevermind.)
other then being able to continue making music, what are your life long goals? where do u see yrself in 50 years?
what other lifelong goal could i need? well, I'd like to see my pottery in museum collections, but I'll probably never really be good enough at it. in 50 years I'll probably be dead, but if I'm not I'd like to be living on a nice big farm in massachusetts, or maybe in spain, kids grown, pottery and music studios in adjoining sun rooms, having all day long to play.
at the moment, what label does it for you?
i don't too much go by labels - though i suppose in electronic music it's unavoidable to know what labels are releasing who. recent favorites are morr and suction records. also hefty is nice.
football (aka soccer to us yanks) is recognized as the worlds sport. why is that?
American football outfits look too silly and the rules of cricket are too hard to understand.
fantasy scenario #1: yr the person that marketed the video game donkey kong. i dont see any donkeys. please to explain it.
the donkeys are invisible. (no sorry that's a stupid answer. i don't think I've ever played donkey kong so I'm probably the wrong person to ask this question to). Sorry sorry.
fantasy scenario #2: describe the positive aspects of being a fashion victim.
I would imagine that eventually you wouldn't have to go clothes shopping anymore and someone would just bring you stuff to wear instead. That is my fantasy, at least. And then after you've been victimized by it for a while, maybe you could sue fashion and get a settlement big enough to retire on.
music sometimes makes its master happy. would knowing yr music is making others happy make you exponentialy happier?
absolutely.
at what point might an artist concider themselve established?
when they can stop sending out demos.
what are you listening to right now?
right now like right now this very second? I'm listening to my daughter play with her dolls. music that i have been listening to over the past few weeks is funkstorung, ckid's demo, figurine, fennesz, mr. projectile, telefon tel aviv, thug, gillian welch, the delgados, shelleyan orphan, steve reich, the beatles, ralph stanley, the residents, miles davis, "verklarte nacht" by schoenberg and lots of bach cantatas.
what are some web sites you enjoy visiting?
www.klondesign.dk (he designed the phasmid site - absolutely brilliant) nytimes.com (i know that is so pedestrian.) Marlysmagazine.com (lynda barry comix)
are americans who dont make extra trips the mall to support the US economy unamerican??
No. They are hoping if the economy gets a bit worse everyone will get unhappy and we will get a new president with a brain next time.
is there any reason people shouldn't buy yr records and worship you and so forth?
right now the only reason is that i don't have any records yet so they couldn't buy them even if they wanted to. anyone who wants to is welcome to worship me, though, but they need to keep their distance.