FunkinEven mix : Sydney warehouse party : music journalism

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I recently did a Q&A with FunkinEven for The Orange Press which you can find here.

The last Q&A I did for this blog was with Dr DonDon – I had intended to do more before life got in the way. Prior to that I don't think I'd done a Q&A in at least four years.

The FunkinEeven Q&A is great, mostly because he was gracious enough to spend some time thoughtfully answering the questions I emailed him and, just as important, he answered the questions honestly; you can hear his voice, enthusiasm, whatever else in the answers. It makes me think his gigs in Australia are going to be great. I've always felt as though the best DJs are the most honest, able to take their own, and other people's music, to express their personality... It's a clever ability to be able to weave the artistic output of others into an expression of your own creative juices – DJing is certainly no less creative than producing music when it's done the way it should be done.

funkineven


I didn't know a whole lot about FunkinEeven before I started putting together the questions but it got me thinking abou some of the reasons I lost enthusiasm for music journalism and eventually stopped.

One of the reasons was Q&As. As email became a common tool, more and more interviews were done via email. The journalist (or whatever they would like to call themselves) would put together some questions, email them to the artist or, even worse, artist's management, and wait for the response.

From the artist point of view it makes sense, especially underground artists who could be DJing anywhere in the world at any given time (because that's where the real income is), so phone calls are difficult to arrange – especially with Australian press. The artist doesn't have to deal with any of the predominantly ignorant teenagers employed by street press or various other media giving space to underground electronic artists and they could avoid talking about themselves honestly or, at least, avoid the inevitable fact they're shy and feel even more uncomfortable than the interviewer talking about themselves for 20 minute slots over a whole day.

So, yeah, email interviews were more practical. They're almost always a poor excuse for an interview and, realistically, born out of the need to please advertisers promoting said artist's tour... The time taken to do real interviews was spent on 'real' artists.

The problem with an email Q&A is it doesn't allow the interviewer and the artist to explore the answers that may arise from any pre-determined questions.

It took me long time to become ok at phone interviews but the most important lesson I learnt was the best thing to do, as an interviewer, was listen. Listen and respond to the answers. Strangely, listening rather than talking tends to make better people in ordinary life too.

Unfortunately the email Q&A discards this. I would never have ended up talking to the Beastie Boys' Ad Rock about techno and roller bladers if I'd done a Q&A and it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting... So eventually, I just read the bio, wrote some questions the artist, their management or the record label wouldn't complain about, correct their typos (for the most part), and not worry about it. The job I loved became a chore and the general public reading the Q&As were the real losers.

Music artist Q&As are the norm now – even for Rolling Stone, in amongst the one or two real features. It's a shame.

I say this all because I was actually happy with the FunkinEven Q&A because – even though it may not seem like it – I spent a lot of time thinking about the questions but probably because he gave great answers... So many artists don't care and don't want to.

You can buy tickets to FunkinEeven's Sydney warehouse party here.

Here are some DJ mixes to promote the FunkinEven warehouse party, which you should go to.

FunkinEven's Boobs Oz Tour Mix


Here's Henry Compton's most recent mix, Welcome to the Water Dragon



And Edseven live in the mix at HaHa UTR#014 (held at a great warehouse space!)