Nite Hnatow

Tomorrow is finally just a few hours away, so that means the Nite Jewel/Eric Hnatow/Triangle Forest show is too. You can still get your tickets in advance at the Smith Campus Center for $3 from 11AM-2PM tomorrow, or you can wait til the show, but you'll have to pay $5. Doors at 7PM, show's supposed to start at 7:30. I managed to get in touch with Eric via email while he was on the road and got a bit of an interview whose text you can read below. Speaking of which, check out the end of his tour blog here and I suppose it wouldn't hurt to click here and read my article from today's paper, which is essentially the interview + a little blurb on Nite Jewel.

Interview

Friendship Bracelet: With regards to the recent tour, how necessary is it for an artist to walk out of their comfort zone – zone meaning either a geographical area or style?

Eric Hnatow: I have never done an official tour before. A few of the shows were a bit strange, but for the most part I had an awesome time playing most of the places I went to. At one show I played to about six people all sitting on bar stools in a huge room and all of them bought every piece of [merchandise] I had. At other shows I would play for 60 people and sell nothing at all. It really helps drive home the notion that you should do what you are doing as best as you can all the time, no matter who is watching.

FB: You must be absorbing a whole lot of stimuli traveling around and getting lots of feedback. How are your shows abroad going to inform your upcoming shows in the area?

EH: How well I am received is always different. The show in Atlanta was particularly awesome due to the fact that my pal, Witt, who used to go to Hampshire [College], set it up. He started a killer community arts space down there called WonderRoot, so he put together a really great show for me. I guess that is a huge part of the success of any show – attention to detail from both the performers as well as the person curating the event. That said, I did roll up into an impromptu show in Asheville, N.C., and drop two songs, like a six-minute assault. That was great. I brought this light jacket on tour with me that I have been using in my set for a bit around here. That night I ended up jumping up on the bar with the light jacket going and people totally lost it. I didn’t pay for any drinks after that stunt.

FB: There’s always people getting into your sets around here, though I’m always suspicious that it’s because you play so much it’s like people know you and humans love what they’re familiar and comfortable with. While this may be true, my fascination with your shows is how unfamiliar each set truly is, since it is forever changing and moving beyond what I saw and heard the last time. What’s the philosophy behind it all?

EH: Yeah, I am always suspicious of any success I have with my music. I don’t really have a specific musical idea of what I am doing. I don’t make music to fulfill any sort of musical goals I have. It is more to move people to think differently about stuff. When I make music to be performed in a live setting, the first thought I have is usually: ‘How will people react to this?’ I enjoy embracing the effect that other people have on the process of creation. This is why I say the music I make is for you, not me. Of course, I am getting some stupid ego trip from the whole thing, but I am not one of those folks who say things like ‘I do this for me, and don’t care what you think about it.’ I totally care what you think. Maybe that is why people are so reactive to what I have been doing lately. It is familiar to them because, in a way, they helped make it.

FB: I’d like to know how you feel your evolution as an artist has gone, whether it’s encapsulated within your music strictly, or whether it stretched further back into, say, visual mediums.

EH: I don’t really separate it all that much. To me all the stuff that I do links back to sound. That is just the language I began speaking through. Whether it is fliers, album artwork, movement, food or whatever, I always start with sound ... even if the sound is silence. I took lots of art classes in high school and stuff, but still don’t really consider myself an ‘artist.’ I just work on stuff, that’s all. I think of it all as work, not art.

FB: Surely you started playing house shows, or something similar to that, and now you’re playing named venues with more well-known artists. What’s that shift like?

EH: Playing with bigger names is always cool, mostly because I get to be in a show that I would otherwise probably be at anyway. As far as the venues go, I don’t really think there are any true music venues around this area, especially in Northampton. Aside from The Elevens and Sierra Grille, there are no other venues that care about the most important thing – music! Unfortunately, they all care about the other word that starts with ‘M.’ I actually much prefer to perform in alternative venues like houses, cafés, art spaces, warehouses and, of course, colleges. The college shows around here are my absolute favorite shows at the moment. Talk to me after Flywheel opens again and I might change my tune on that.

FB: Who’s your favorite band or artist you’ve played with this tour?

EH: My favorite band that I have played with on tour would probably be this band called Maple Kitten, from Philly. They are an all-Casio-keyboard band who make video projections and play on the floor.

FB: Who’s your favorite artist you’ve ever performed with? Anyone you’d be eying to play with in the future?

EH: Best yet ... Crush Cloud. Future ... Pink Floyd.

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Unrelated:


I mentioned Lil' Wayne's not-so-new-anymore mixtape The Hottest Nigga Under the Sun recently and, up until a couple days ago, I still couldn't get enough of the very first, minute-long track titled "My Name Is." Now it doesn't matter whether I can get enough of it or not, cos a full version is available on Drake's new mixtape So Far Gone which dropped Feb 13. The track's called "Unstoppable" here, and features an opening verse from Drake (who is actually Toronto's Aubrey Drake Graham, who played Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation), the same verse from Weezy, and that super-catchy vocal hook in the chorus, which turns out is Santogold. This track doesn't stop getting play around here (hence the song title - download it here via RCRDLBL), and the rest of the mixtape is worth listening to as well with all the guest spots, including another from Wayne, Bun B, Trey Songz, and a little promo from #3 Chris Paul.

Drake - So Far Gone Mixtape

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Also:

What a combo.