One of the reasons I started posting here was to tell the stories I wanted to tell, not what a newspaper or magazine wants me to say, but what I want, and how. It's just a little personal blog but it's making me love writing again (I forgot this part -- where I'd rather cuddle up with my laptop on a Saturday night than... well, okay, almost) and inspiring me to develop other creative skills like acting, filmmaking, and a few other tricks I have up my sleeve!
Point is, more ways to tell the story = more entry points for people to connect to it. Even this book I'm writing has a documentary film on the side (like fries) and it just feels like the right way to do it, you know? Amazingly, this DIY sentiment was echoed by two Montreal-bred women I happened to interview this week: Melissa Auf der Maur (formerly of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, now a multi-platform solo artist with a new release) and Valérie Jodoin Keaton (formerly of the Dears, now of For Those About to Love and a music photographer with a new book out featuring -- ahem -- Paul McCartney).
The world really has changed, the way we tell and absorb stories has changed, and I don't think we have to choose just one creative form. Since it can take a long time, decades, to become really good at something, I think the early thirties are a typically good age to start "adding stuff in" if we've been working hard, and it seems it's also when we start to understand (after a few years watching others do it well and really badly) how to maintain control over the business stuff, too.
Like Melissa and Valérie, I think that's the challenge: to be in charge of the way our stuff is thrown into existence. This basically means developing new distribution networks that fit into today's world and suit the work itself, rather than selling our stuff to big companies who change it to fit old-fashioned models and their own agendas.
So to succeed, it seems creative types need artistic genius and the marketing skills to reach a lot of the right people -- and damn, that idea had better be pretty amazing, right? The *thing* has to be amazing and the way you market the thing, ingenious and authentic. As Melissa told me, I'm paraphrasing here, anyone can start an indie label or a blog, but it takes hard work to stand out from the herd.
Hmmm.
Here's what these two had to say about it all. Enjoy. Take a moment to reflect. I'm packing to get on a plane tomorrow, and then going out for a double.
Photos of Rufus Wainwright and M.I.A. courtesy of Valerie Jodoin Keaton, from her book Backstage
MELISSA AUF DER MAUR IS OUT OF HER MIND (From Spinner.ca, written by moi)
There are many ways to tell a story -- words, music, film, paint -- and artists no longer have to choose just one. Case in point, the "multi-dimensional" indie release 'Out of Our Minds' by Melissa Auf der Maur, who grew up in Montreal before '90s rock stardom swept her away to play bass for Hole and Smashing Pumpkins.
Three years in the making, there's an 'OOOM' song, forthcoming album, comic book, website and 28-minute fantasy film that premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival (albeit with a soundtrack composed by L.A. band Entrance).
"'OOOM' started as a song," Auf der Maur tells Spinner from her upstate New York home the morning after a late-night studio session laying down French vocals for a new album track. "Then, as the music industry collapsed, the song became the forefront of a new creative survivalism in my life. I wanted to take this idea as far as possible and connect with humans on many different levels. Give me a space and I will bring you 'Out of Our Minds,' be it the screen of a computer, a live rock show or a dark cinema. I wanted to create an experience that people could find their own ways into."
Thematically, 'OOOM' urges us to explore the feminine, intuitive, emotional and mystical aspects of life. Archetypes like vikings, witches, even time travel abound.
"I've never believed that time is linear. It's not past and future -- it is all here and now. I remember a night in my prepubescent years as I gazed at the stars contemplating infinity, I understood that our tiny universe's existence is just a blink of an eye in the big picture," says the 37-year old, who also goes by the moniker MAdM.
"That perspective fuels my search, my hunt and my quest to connect with other humans via music and art," she continues. "'Out of Our Minds' is a call to travel out of our minds -- and all rigid time zones that grid our lives -- and into the parallel worlds that run along us. We all have access to a Viking or a car crash if we only close our eyes and let go."
A few years ago, legal battles with her former major label prevented Auf der Maur from releasing her second record. Rather than sign with another label, she waited, buckled down and did it on her own. She now owns that unreleased material, much of which is on the OOOM album. Part of this quest has been developing an artist-run multimedia model she hopes will inspire other creative types to also take the reins of the wagon that brings their art into the world.
"I needed this time to connect all the parts," she says. "The 21st century is here and I'm not going to play into the old business model. I've worked hard on the creative stuff, but I've worked just as hard at becoming a strong, grown-up woman and self-responsible business person. But the root is still a three-and-a-half-minute song. If there wasn't the song, there wouldn't be this project. And the song is rooted in wanting to connect."
Melissa Auf der Maur is showcasing at M for Montreal this Saturday, Nov. 21 at Cabaret. 'OOOM''s lead single, '*Out Of Our Minds*' is available at xmadmx.com (free, for now).The film is screening at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts until Feb. 7, 2010 as part of the Waterhouse exhibit.
BACKSTAGE ACCESS (from DazedDigital.com, written by me)
Valérie Jodoin Keaton's new book of portraits gets you up close and personal with musicians backstage
Ever wanted to spy on your favourite rock stars in those precious minutes before or after they perform? An intimate new photography book, "Backstage" by Valérie Jodoin Keaton does just that, capturing Beck, Rufus Wainwright, Smashing Pumpkins, the Dandy Warhols, M.I.A., Jack White - who, says Keaton, was more "tan" than than she expected - and dozens more. Some portraits from the book are also part of "Who Shot Rock & Roll", a photo exhibit showing at the Brooklyn Museum through January 31st, 2010.
One of Keaton’s favourite shots is of Paul McCartney. “Two days before his show in Quebec City last year, I sent his manager my presentation letter with samples of my photographs,” says the 35-year-old Montrealer, who's also a musician. (Until a couple of years ago, she was a member of the Dears along with husband Martin Pelland, with whom she now has a band called For Those About To Love - and a year old son.) “He answered back and said no, but I guess he liked my work because he asked, ‘Do you do live photography?’ and hired me to shoot McCartney’s show and asked me to use the same camera.”
Keaton's calling card is a classic 1975 Hasselblad, loaded with black-and-white film for an old-school, truthful documentary feel. When McCartney hired her again to shoot his Halifax, NS show, she dined with the former Beatle and his friends. “We spent some time talking about my work, and finally he accepted to pose for my project.”
As a touring musician and now, photographer (she’s also done album covers and press shots for the likes of Strokes’ alumnus Albert Hammond Jr.) walking the walk, so to speak, helped Keaton gain access to her Backstage subjects, as well as their trust. They know she understands what it’s all really like. In fact, spending so much time backstage herself is how she became fascinated with capturing those fleeting, human moments that unravel there when nobody’s watching. “The backstage is a timeless space of isolation. Right before performing the subject is so focused on himself that his authenticity shines through... You can see into their souls a little bit,” she explains.
After preparing a demo book as a sort of “passport,” Keaton used her personal contacts to slip backstage before concerts, when no media is normally allowed, and simply asked her subjects to pose. “I like to get up close, capture the moment. Not action shots. I just wanted their gaze.” (Of course, getting permission to later publish all these portraits took three years of legal legwork and red-tape. But she did it.)
An avid observer of people, she says it was humbling to go from being the rock star herself to experiencing, at first, a "weird, intruding feeling every time I photograph.” She would wonder, “Why am I doing this to myself? But every time, the picture is the answer.”
Published by Éditions Varia, Backstage launches in Quebec November 20 at the M for Montreal festival, and is available internationally at www.valeriejodoinkeaton.com. For Keaton’s band and new album, visit www.ftatl.com.
