CF: What is ‘Waste This Year’ about as a song?
‘Waste this Year’ is a radical call-to-action song disguised as a drinking song.I imagine it sung by miners on a distant moon, who can’t openly chant down the system for fear of arrest, so they hide their revolution behind a pub song. It’s apocalyptic and hopeful, nihilistic and communal, all of which resonate in this new year.
The chorus was recorded in a hotel room in Australia at 3am, with Reggie Watts leading the pirate miner crew. I played with Nigerian/UK/Brooklyn artist, Wunmi at the Big Day Out festival, with hundreds of bands in nine cities. One night after the after-after party a bunch of us descended on one microphone and recorded the chorus for Waste this Year. The mood was perfect. Stephen Carpenter from the Deftones captured the session on his phone, bless his heart!!!
CF: What is the concept behind the music video?
The “Official Video” came about through a ridiculous day of New York City coincidences. Bob the Pastor asked me to do an interview about dreams in the morning with a Serbian film director, and then Bob the Girl texted me that I should come and see Vaskakas, a Hungarian puppet troupe that she was stage managing that evening. So I asked the crew for the dreams interview to come film me jamming with the puppets. And unbelievably, the crew showed up at 9pm after the puppet theater, and the puppets stayed, I brought lots of dumplings from chinatown and some whiskey in a flask, and by midnight the shoot was done.
CF: What are your plans for 2015 in terms of touring and new music?
In 2015 I’m looking forward to a few things. Most immediately, I’m sharing a bill with Catherine Feeny this Saturday Night at the Living Room in Williamsburg. She’s a fabulous songwriter and I’m honored that she asked me join her. Her set is at 9:30, mine is at 10:30.
In May, I’ll be in Scotland at Knockengorroch, an eclectic festival in a beautiful setting. So I’m working on booking some other dates around that.
Sometime this year I’ll put out two more videos for my debut album on Tummy Touch, Jeremy Mage & The Magi, one for ‘I Am My Own’, animated by Eric Funk, and one for ‘Next Again’, animated by Tona Wilson. You can see my previous collaboration with Tona here. It originally played on 4 large screens in a shop front in Seattle and deals with the social history of the Pacific Northwest.
I’m also recording my next album, tentatively titled “10 Pretty Songs about Death” this year. ‘Cause we all gotta do it.
