I don’t know if
it’s any different than it’s always been. I think a lot of their point of
view is, when you’re alive on the planet you’ve got a certain number of
hours to fill up, and you find things that interest you to fill up that
time. And so they just keep filling up their time.
The Residents
at some point became an active touring unit, presenting their work in
elaborately staged events. What’s on the agenda for the Talking Light
show?
The Talking
Light show approaches the concept of telling stories set against abstract
music. It’s something they really hadn’t done particularly in a live
situation; the touring shows have generally been compositional. The
stories can change from show to show, and there’s a lot more
improvisation that goes on, and calculated surprises, to keep the music
from becoming too stale and predictable –– for them.
“Randy’s
Ghost Stories” are performed on the Talking Light tour. Apparently these
have something to do with TV culture and commercials, among other vaguely
delineated things. There are many different kinds of ghosts, of course.
The Residents
don’t even know for sure if ghosts exist. “Randy’s Ghost Stories” has a
lot to do with the concept of aging and death, and how aging and death
affects perceptions. We’re haunted.
The new album
Lonely Teenager,
which grew out of ideas germinated on the Talking Light tour, reveals the
music growing more subtly complex –– and beautiful, and scary, too. “The
mirror has two sides” is a sample lyric. “I threw the ring and the baby’s
skeleton into the hole, and I went home.” “I tried to convince myself it
was a dream.” What is going on here? Maybe it doesn’t matter.
I don’t actually
know. But it has something to do with a loss of innocence, and completing
the cycle of life to death. Everything about it really points to those
elements in some way or another. It’s something they’re concerned with; I
mean, you don’t get to be doing your 40th anniversary without
getting pretty old yourself in the process.
As people age, they stop recognizing themselves when they
look in the mirror. There’s a two-sided mirror in the show, one side
reflecting Randy and the other reflecting the audience. The audience has
to face the mirrors just like the performers do –– just like your death,
each person has to deal with that at a very individual level.
The Residents
don’t take a political or moral stance as such. But do they feel that
their art posits moral imperatives?
I feel
reasonably certain not, because I don’t know that they think anything
really exists. No, they don’t really take much of a stand on anything.
They’re much more in the position of other people taking stands. I don’t
think that they really have an agenda, as far as a political or social
agenda goes, but they’re aware that other people do and sometimes they
incorporate that in what they do.
How about
musical/artistic imperatives? Is there a kind of music that can and
should be pushed, to edify, to better entertain?
No, because when
you’re dealing with sound you’re dealing with an abstract thing, and it’s
sort of like dealing with color. It has a lot to do with one side saying,
“This is what I like,” and then you’ve got the other side saying, “Well,
I agree with you, I like that too,” or “That’s not what I like.” The reality
is, there are many different ways of seeing things, different ways of
thinking, some of which you understand and enjoyed or those you don’t
understand and you don’t enjoy. There’s really no right or wrong in
music.
Are the Residents affected at all by things of a
topical nature? Spurred to create music by current social or political
phenomena, natural disasters, assassinations, etc., etc.?
Usually not, but
I know that they were on tour in Europe when 9/11 happened, and so very
impacted with that uncertainty of not knowing what was going to happen
next, whether there would be war or attacks all over the place or
whatever it might be. And the big concern was whether they’d be able to
get back home, because planes had stopped flying and there was just no sense
of what was going to happen. Well, there were two more weeks of the tour,
and all they could do really was just to keep touring, because that was
the reality that they had. And they were the family that they had; it
made them very tight and just made them want to keep doing those shows.
I’m hearing
some really incredible guitar playing on Lonely Teenager. Is this a musician
who can be named ?
Bob. It’s Bob.
Oh, Bob. Everybody knows Bob.
It’s Bob.
The Residents have maintained a policy of strict
anonymity for 40 years, as if in rebuke to celebrity, though perhaps it’s
just a practical stance.
Well, this is
interesting: They’re not
anonymous now. They’re now Randy, Chuck and Bob, that’s the new version
of the Residents. Of course, when you get down to it, Randy, Chuck and
Bob are just names like everybody has, it doesn’t give information about
who the people are, all it does is give them names. They could be John,
Paul George and Ringo just as easily and it still wouldn’t give any
information about who the people are.
Everyone’s anonymous if all you know is their names. But the
Residents are different because you know not only that their names are
Randy, Chuck and Bob, but you also have 40 years of seeing what they’ve
done. So you know much more about Randy. Chuck and Bob than
anyone who would actually be anonymous.
Okay, now strictly musically speaking, what sort of
aesthetic do the Residents pursue? I’m still struck by how their music grows ever more just plain beautiful. It is, of course, as dark
as ever, if not darker, even. Is this what they call a deliberate
juxtaposition?
Their view of
the world is that it’s both beautiful and dark, and you know, they’re not
even really two different things. Life is complicated, and that’s why there’s
always an element of dark humor in what they do as well, because they see
that too as a part of the world, a part of humanity. So they sort of feel
like it’s important to attach a lot of contrasting emotions next to each
other, because it heightens the impact of each of them.
The Residents
have influenced the culture, but who might’ve influenced the Residents?
Did they find an affinity with Beefheart and Zappa, for example?
There’s a
similar attitude of not feeling like you have to conform. The Residents
appreciated the fact that Beefheart and Zappa had a vision that they
pushed forward, and that it wasn’t a vision based upon what other people
were doing. The Residents knew that anyone can do weird music, but
respected people who represent a vision, even though it may be a popular
vision.
Such as the
Residents' skewed interpretations of the Rolling Stones.
Like Beefheart,
they were a blues band, and the Residents always loved blues music. The
Rolling Stones were interpreting an American form into a British form
that changed what it was. They thought it made sense to try and change it
back into an American form. It’s like translating Spanish back to English
again, how it changes the meaning of things.
Would the
Residents accord similar respect to Lady Gaga?
They’ve seen her
on television and were very touched with her very strong sense of
visuals. But they would point out that she could be anonymous, too: If it
says “Lady Gaga” on it…[laughs]
The Residents
have pursued their alternative-to-all-alternatives music and art for 40
years, weathered the storms from late-‘60s hippie counterculture through
‘70s-‘80s-‘90s DIY counter-countercultures right on up into the Internet
digital free-for-all 2000s. So how do they keep up? How do they stay
savvy, trendy and very, very popular?
The Residents
work and think by observing, so they feel like they have to be tuned into
where the culture is. Even if they’re not trying to imitate what’s
current musically, they’re always influenced by what’s going on musically,
as well as any other art form. And they’re always very interested in
technology, and they keep on top of it –– What is this? What’s the impact
on the culture? How does it change who we are?
The Residents
have done a series of podcasts called River of Crime. That seems like a natural medium for the
group.
That’s an area
they’re exploring, providing the story by music: How do you combine them
and get interesting new ideas that work? And they’re very impressed by
the iPad; they’re trying to figure out how that can be turned into an
instrument for supplying media, just like a radio. Ultimately, the
Residents want to create a whole new medium itself, and that’s what
they’re looking for down the road.
Who are the
Residents for?
In every school
across the world you’ll find those pockets of people who don’t really
relate to mainstream culture and who want something –– who need something –– different. Because they are
different. And those are your lonely teenagers.
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