FUEL INVENTIONS

Viele sind von den psychedelischen Songmonumenten von Max Turnbull alias Slim Twig überfordert. Im O-Ton-Interview erklärt der Kanadier, warum das genau so sein muss.

Interview: Lasse Nehren

uMag: Max, although many people might just now become aware of "A Hound at the Hem", it's actually a Re-Release which you initially put out in 2012 on your own label, Calico Corp. Now it's coming out again, this time via DFA Record - how come?
Max Turnbull: Well, the decision wasn't entirely mine. When the initial release came out I didn't think I'd get the opportunity to put the record out in a larger capacity, and I started to resign myself to that. But then DFA got in touch with me. They really liked the album, and it was kind of organicly, as an idea. We both thought the album was good enough to try and reach out to a larger audience. So they've been gracious enough to attempt that.

uMag: A newspaper review of "A Hound at the Hem" was referencing artists all the way from The Zombies to Lee Perry whereas my first associations were Frank Zappa as well as Ariel Pink. Still I really struggled to single out any dominant influences ...
Turnbull: You're not the only person who has that experience: feeling like they can hear different ideas that might sound familiar but several of them merging into one thing. With my influences it's a continuous evolution. A large motor to my process is discovering new music, and a large part of why I'm unable to musically stay in one place for too long is my enthusiasm for discovering new musical ideas. I've always tried to have an open mind about music, and if people who hear my music share that quality, that openmindedness and throw the idea out of the window that music has to conform to any specific rules, then they might gain appreciation for what I'm trying to do. I don't have a rigid attitude about having a song sound specificly only like a post punk song, for example, which is something a lot of bands do. I just find the sort of music making which is recreating something that already exists not really interesting to listen to - or to make it, personally.

uMag: The record was inspired by Nabokov's novel "Lolita" - could you elaborate in which way?
Turnbull: Well, the book really made an impact on me when I read it at 16 or 17. It really appealed to me that a piece of art could contain so many conflicting themes and feelings, just the complexity of it. That something could be so dark and so funny at the same time, the idea of a man who is both very depraved and also very eloquent at the same time. That lined up with the sort of writing that I was doing at that point: songs in the first person from similar kinds of personas. So it made sense as a starting point, to spark my imagination. I think potent works of art can really help you, and we should all be using that stuff as fuel, as jumping off points for new work.

uMag: It was interesting to learn that "Lolita" had been an inspiration because whereas Nabokov is writing excessively precise, your music is rather confusing in structure ...
Turnbull: Yeah, it really was a spark in a narrative sense. I had the ambition of making an album that had a story connecting the whole thing. I had that idea before knowing what the story would be which is sort of an intimidating ambition to have. So having a narrative fragment that alrealy existed was really helpful. It served as a kind of a scaffolding that I could build my own creations around.

uMag: Do you think people still take the time to get a hold of conceptual art like that?
Turnbull: No. It's a frustration. My music is a tough sell for a lot of people because it doesn't reward on first listen. My favourite albums were those I didn't get the first time. It challenged me to engage with them, try to work them out like they were a riddle. And even though the majority of the people don't consume culture in that way any more it's the kind of work I'd like to create.

uMag: So basically, you're not suitable for the era of Spotify.
Turnbull: It's too bad that there is a bias against things that are a little more complex. If you make somethings highly specific, a little darker and a little more complex, the reaction is: Sorry, we don't have room for more than one Scott Walker. As much as the internet has made a democracy, giving people the opportunity to get their voice out there, I think it also makes people gravitate towards the same things. There is a compression about it that I don't think is entirely benefitial to the actual art form itself.