The Impossible Shapes |
|
In early February of 2005, I traded emails with Mr. Chris Barth, the "songwriter/singer/guitarist/polemicist" of The Impossible Shapes (Secretly Canadian). The band recently released Horus, their fifth full-length album since 2000. I received these electronic transmissions from a computer somewhere in Bloomington, IN.
· · · · · · ·
Chris Barth: Hey, I'm at a computer now. It's 5:30 here. Are we on the same time?
Nick D. Meiers: Hey man, no it's 4:30pm here, but it's cool. So, I was forwarded some information today about a Will Oldham tribute that The Impossible Shapes are on. How did that come about? What song did you do and why?
CB: We heard about it through Secretly Canadian. The guy who put it out asked them to ask all their bands and we (especially Aaron Deer and myself) are huge Will Oldham fans. We chose the song "Rider" from the album Joya. I always liked that song because of the lyrics -- he's singing about being high all night with bugged out eyes, and I guess I just relate to that.
NDM: Is Bloomington really going smoke free? I wouldn't mind living there for a little while, but that might mean it's going to have to be in my "kids 'n' clean living" phase.
CB: Bloomington really is smoke free now, since January first. I don't smoke cigarettes, but lots of my friends do, so they're upset. It doesn't seem to have had much impact on the bar/club scene, though I enjoy going out more and not smelling like smoke the next day since I hate changing clothes.
NDM: I got a promo copy of Horus. On first listen I had thoughts of Destroyer ("Bombs"), Animal Collective ("Demon Child"), and The Shipping News (because of a specific guitar tone later in the record). It's just personal referencing on my part. I guess the question is... do you like and/or listen to any of those bands?
CB: I really like Destroyer. We played with them a couple of times, though I only really listen to the album Streethawk: A Seduction as that's the only one I own. Animal Collective and Shipping News I have only heard a little bit of, but I liked what I heard.
NDM: Man, you really must have caught me off guard because I forgot my standard issue first question. Have you seen any good movies lately?
CB: Yeah, actually I just saw this cool movie called Gothic by Ken Russell. I was into it since it had to do with Percy and Mary Shelley and Lord Byron. I love the romantic poets and watching movies about them drinking a bunch of laudanum and smoking opium. This one had some tripped-out scenes.
NDM: Keeping up with current celebrity deaths, do you have a favorite Johnny Carson memory?
CB: Honestly, I never watched him at all, really, but I want to use this question to tell a weird story about the day he died. I was sitting in the "bakehouse" where I work downtown with my friend Dennis. He had a new tie on and he showed me the tie, which he had just found somewhere and it was a Johnny Carson-brand tie. And then we looked up at the big flat-screen ultra modern television set in the bakehouse to see a breaking news story -- Johnny Carson had died!
NDM: When I go to Bloomington while school is in session, I'm amazed at how it seems the "townies" have carved out their existence completely separate, relatively speaking, from the swarms of fake-ID college kids. Do you see it like that? Where are your favorite places to hang out in Bloomington?
CB: i think we're all in this together, but because some of the population of Bloomington is only here for a small portion of their lives, it becomes difficult to get them to care about the place and what it will be like in ten or fifty years. I love it here and want to stay here and get more involved with helping to make this a great community to live in. I think about (and sing about) being in a love affair with Bloomington. There are lots of great places to hang out here -- I have some secret spots that I won't tell you about so as not to spoil them... but certainly I hang out at the library, the Burmese Gems, the woods, the variety of colorful spaces my friends live in and create and perform in.
NDM: If you were on Celebrity Death Match with another Secretly Canadian band, who would you like it to be against? Who would you pick for a battle of the bands?
CB: I would like to battle the Magnolia Electric Company because, as we share members, it would be a pretty weird battle of the bands, and it would be winner take all...
NDM: Finally, is there a question you wish you'd been asked? If so, please answer it.
CB: I guess I would want to be asked what I'm reading right now. The answer: The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune.
NDM: Thanks.
-- Nick D. Meiers
| 
