Interviews Galleries

"Notes Na 6 Tygodni" (Poland) Interviews Steve Elkins : This interview appeared in the Polish contemporary art magazine "Notes Na 6 Tygodni" in October 2011. It is an excerpt. The full interview, conducted by Przemysław Gulda, can be found in the magazine.

"Notes Na 6 Tygodni" (Poland) Interviews Steve Elkins

This interview appeared in the Polish contemporary art magazine "Notes ...

Updated: Sep 25, 2011 1:24pm PST

CERN Interviews Steve Elkins At The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland : CERN's interview with Steve Elkins can be read here: http://alicematters.web.cern.ch/steveelkins CERN published this article in their newsletter "ALICE Matters" during production of Steve Elkins' second feature film at the Large Hadron Collider in January 2012.

CERN Interviews Steve Elkins At The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland

CERN's interview with Steve Elkins can be read here: http://alicematt ...

Updated: Jan 24, 2012 4:32pm PST

FIXE Magazine Interviews Steve Elkins :

FIXE Magazine Interviews Steve Elkins

Updated: Sep 11, 2012 4:50pm PST

"The Smalls Street Sounds" Interviews Steve Elkins : Listen to "The Smalls Street Sounds" interview with Steve Elkins here: http://www.thesmalls.com/streetsounds/?title=Interview%20with%20Steve%20Elkins&soundID=614

"The Smalls Street Sounds" Interviews Steve Elkins

Listen to "The Smalls Street Sounds" interview with Steve Elkins here: ...

Updated: Oct 09, 2011 11:01pm PST

The Fertile Mistake: Steve Elkins Interviews Norton Wisdom : Using large backlit sheets of clear plastic stretched across wooden posts on a stage as his canvas, Santa Monica lifeguard and shark-wrestler, Norton Wisdom, performs live improvised painting onstage with musicians, interpreting the music being improvised during the performance in real time. His paint is dilluted to stay malleable, so his paintings remain in continual motion, through Wisdom's use of paintbrushes, windshield wipers, sponges, and his own hands. Unlike most painting, his live work does not aim for a finished image, but celebrates the process of fluid metamorphosis: a cornucopia of images emerging unpredictably from one another: clouds become bodies, bodies become musical instruments, buildings become rockets, and dinner plates become crowns worn by monarchs, in a labrynth of unexpected paths. The live experience of his work continually challenges your perception of what you think you are seeing, and your ability to predict how forms and shapes relate to each other. A local gem of Los Angeles, Wisdom has been invited to paint all over the world, including Bali, Turkey, and Morocco. The venues for his painting performances range from punk clubs, to prestigious concert halls, to the Berlin Wall upon which he made guerilla paintings prior to its demolition. Wisdom performs regularly with Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Mike Watt (Minutemen), and Nels Cline (Geraldine Fibbers/Wilco/etc.), under the moniker, Banyan; however, he has also performed with a wide range of artists as diverse as the National Bamboo Orchestra of Bali, Beck, and my own band, The Autumns. I conducted this interview with Norton Wisdom at his home in 2003, and took the accompanying photographs of Wisdom in 2003 and 2004.

The Fertile Mistake: Steve Elkins Interviews Norton Wisdom

Using large backlit sheets of clear plastic stretched across wooden po ...

Updated: Jul 21, 2008 1:24am PST

The Mantle Of Authority: Steve Elkins Interviews A Member Of The Yes Men :

The Mantle Of Authority: Steve Elkins Interviews A Member Of The Yes Men

Updated: Dec 28, 2012 6:42pm PST

Steve Elkins Interviews Kaffe Matthews : I met up with Kaffe Matthews in April 2011 while she was in California consulting with shark scientists on how to make music from hammerhead sharks' ability to read shifts in the magnetic field of the earth. After talking a bit about her background in the 80s as a street musician in Nottingham, an activist in the UK Women's Peace Movement, getting a degree in zoology, traveling to Senegal to be taught native percussion practices by West African tribes, cutting beats in the early days of acid house studios, and as she put it "singing badly in bands" ranging from The Fabulous Dirt Sisters to The Gluts (with Hayley Newman and Gina Birch of The Raincoats), we got around to talking about her more recent work, including the making of sonic clothes and furniture.

Steve Elkins Interviews Kaffe Matthews

I met up with Kaffe Matthews in April 2011 while she was in California ...

Updated: Dec 28, 2012 8:24pm PST

Then Tell Me Jerusalem: Steve Elkins Interviews James Magee : Jim Magee is one of the most incredible people I've ever known. When I set out to interview him in fall 2008, I knew it would not be easy. He had carved a life for himself that was essentially off the map in every imaginable way. Our mutual friend Bob Ostertag told me that if I wanted a chance at meeting Jim, I would need to write him a hand-written letter, sent to a P.O. Box that was almost never checked. And that if I was lucky enough that Jim found it, I would have to be even luckier for Jim to reach me, since he did not use phones or email. I nevertheless included my phone number in the letter, and a month or two later Jim called me from a pay phone somewhere in or around El Paso. He invited me to meet him at his home and workshop as long as we did not speak about his work in the interview. I am happy that since then, Jim has become a dear friend. When the time is ripe, I will post portions of that interview. For now, I have posted Bob Ostertag's incredible reflection on Jim's life and work. And a video of Jim, which I edited for him (at the bottom of this page). -Steve Elkins

Then Tell Me Jerusalem: Steve Elkins Interviews James Magee

Jim Magee is one of the most incredible people I've ever known. When ...

Updated: Dec 11, 2012 7:14pm PST

These Hands: Steve Elkins Interviews Richard Board : Although Richard Board does not appear in the final version of "The Reach Of Resonance," his recount of the harrowing experiences he endured with Bob Ostertag in the war torn Balkans, in hope of establishing a dialogue with the people of the region through music just after the NATO bombings in the late 1990s, is worthy of a documentary itself, and posted here for those interested in knowing more about this chapter of the film. I conducted the following interview with Richard Board in San Francisco, California, in April 2008. -Steve Elkins

These Hands: Steve Elkins Interviews Richard Board

Although Richard Board does not appear in the final version of "The Re ...

Updated: Jul 21, 2008 1:41am PST

Freedom In Fragments: Steve Elkins Interviews Fred Frith :

Freedom In Fragments: Steve Elkins Interviews Fred Frith

Updated: Jan 10, 2013 7:46pm PST

Steve Elkins Interviews Filmmaker Len Kamerling :

Steve Elkins Interviews Filmmaker Len Kamerling

Updated: Jan 27, 2013 7:41pm PST

Steve Elkins Interviews Pauline Oliveros & David Cope :

Steve Elkins Interviews Pauline Oliveros & David Cope

Updated: Feb 20, 2013 11:46am PST

Phantom Orchard: Steve Elkins Interviews Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori : Phantom Orchard is Zeena Parkins (acoustic and electric harps) and Ikue Mori (laptop computer). In August 2002, I drove from Los Angeles to Calgary, Canada, to film them recording their first record in the home studio of the fascinating David Kean, founder of The Audities Foundation, an organization committed to the preservation of rare electronic instruments. http://www.audities.org/ Zeena Parkins, a multi-instrumentalist known as the inventor and performer of electric harp, had recently returned from an international tour with Bjork, who had recruited Zeena as her harpist and multi-instrumentalist for the "Vespertine" album and tour. Parkins is a composer and improvisor who has collaborated with John Zorn, Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, Jim O' Rourke, Nels Cline, and Kaffe Matthews, amongst many others. Among her many compositions is a piece for 16 feet and a cello; and MOUTH=MAUL=BETRAYER, a piece based around Rotwelsch, a Yiddish-based gangster language used by thieves in Germany from the 14th century to the 19th century as a code utilizing altered meanings of familiar Yiddish words for use in the subterranean world. Ikue Mori is known to many as the drummer of No-Wave band DNA, who later rooted her work in laptop computers as her primary instrument for live improvisation. Her compositions include "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon," a piece based on the woodblock prints of the last master of Japanese Ukiyoe, Yoshitoshi, and a film which animates paintings from the Kertha Gosa temple ceiling in Bali, to depict the journey of the soul from hell to heaven, partially scored using her laptop electronics.

Phantom Orchard: Steve Elkins Interviews Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori

Phantom Orchard is Zeena Parkins (acoustic and electric harps) and Iku ...

Updated: Aug 27, 2008 11:25pm PST