Speaking of staying busy, you’re also well-known as a fashion photographer. How did you enter into that field?
“I think it came about just from taking pictures of my girlfriends and friends. I really liked dressing them up and doing different shit with them. It really just evolved from there.”
Being a visual artist as well as a musician, how do you see those two sides influencing each other?
“They go hand-in-hand. I was just having this conversation the other day because my friend had asked me when I hear music, if I remember it really well? I realized that I don’t remember it very well….for one thing, I only have hearing in one ear… and the other thing is that most people have a visual learning experience and that’s how I am. If I hear something, like people’s names, I have a really hard time remembering it. That’s why the visual element is so important to me, why I like being involved in the graphic end of things, with the photography and video components. Otherwise, music just makes no sense to me. The only time I can relate to a song is when I have some kind of cinematic scene going on with it.”
Do you see some of your songs as scenes?
“Definitely. My hearing is so bad that when I was younger I developed this thing where I see colors as sound, which is called synesthesia. I wasn’t born with it but I always thought everyone had this, seeing colors as numbers. And when people talk, I always see colors and shapes. So I have that with my music, with everyone’s music. I think my brain just developed this when I lost some of my hearing. ”
“I’m not very good at supporting things that are already finished because I have a desire to be working on new stuff all the time.”
Your live performances are known for being very animated and visually interesting. When you plan a show, what’s going through your head with what you want to project to the audience?
“Mostly a sense of mystery, something extremely erratic. Something someone can dance to instead of sit there and want to watch. Getting the sound right is also important and I’m working on some really intense visuals for my set right now. Normally when you go to a show and someone’s projecting something, it’s not very synchronized to the music. It’s hard to find someone who is really good at that. That’s what I’m working on now, visuals that are completely synchronized so that it won’t just be background. I’ve figured out a really nice way to do it for this tour starting soon.”
What are your plans after the tour?
“I’m actually really anxious to be done with the tour. I love playing live, but I want to get back to this film I was working on before I left Detroit. I want to finish that up. I’m not very good at supporting things that are already finished because I have a desire to be working on new stuff all the time.”
What’s the film about?
“It’s basically about a celibacy club and a journey of a girl in incredible trouble. It’s a very mysterious film. I’m a fan of the films of people like David Lynch and Kenneth Anger. I’m doing everything on it, writing and directing. There’s a lot of tension and seduction around this celibacy club, but nothing sexual. I wrote it after I was certified as a hypnotherapist so the entire film so the entire film is written in hypnotic language. The narration and the voices are actually speaking to your subconscious. It’s a neuro-linguistic programming technique when I don’t think anyone has done before in a film. The other interesting thing is that all of the actors and actresses are hypnotized during filming, so I can give them suggestions to help their performance. It’s a very in-depth process but I think its making the process that much better.”
Keith Pishnery
Pingback: Jimmy Edgar sets off on world tour – FACT magazine: music and art