I sat down with Woven Bones Band leader Andy Burr (vocals/guitar) to discus moving to New York, jail, touring, and the creative mind melt of art school. CS: Hello sir, how’s this tour been? AB: Really great, we’ve been really fortunate this time being our first legit stint on the west coast. CS: What art movement inspires you the most? AB: Oh man, when I was in art school a friend of mine led me to this book called Society of the Spectacle and it introduced me to Guy Debord and the Situationist International. They were centered mostly in France..
I sat down with Woven Bones Band leader Andy Burr (vocals/guitar) to discus moving to New York, jail, touring, and the creative mind melt of art school.
CS: Hello sir, how’s this tour been?
AB: Really great, we’ve been really fortunate this time being our first legit stint on the west coast.
CS: What art movement inspires you the most?
AB: Oh man, when I was in art school a friend of mine led me to this book called Society of the Spectacle and it introduced me to Guy Debord and the Situationist International. They were centered mostly in France in the 60′s. It was a pretty far out art movement based on the accumulation and effects of the modern industrial world on society at large. They tried to show how it can change and alienate pure human existence from itself by it’s own means of productivity. It was really against the commercialization of art. The art that was produced by the Situationists tried to negate any current modern trend or theme that was deemed acceptable or proper for high art. It was a definite “one up” to me on some of the anti-art ideas originally brought forth by the Dada movement.
CS: You were telling me about being inspired by their work and moving to NY with no plan, almost as a Situationist art piece. How did that go?
AB: Well I kinda found myself seriously tripped out by their ideas of spontaneity and trying to “live free” of the spectacle of the modern world. Not to promote this to anyone or to try this experience themselves, but I was experimenting with LSD at the time. I was reading the Society of the Spectacle. That book was like a hard Zen Wit trip into a serious realization or dare I say a bit of enlightenment. I took off in my truck on this far out trip to go and move to NY on a whim and try and use the city as a playground for spontaneous interactions, actions, and encounters. Thing is, that shit didn’t fly. I just lost my mind to all these wild drug fueled ideas and delusions of utopia. I wondered around the city and its’ outskirts for days without sleep, communication, and eventually no money. The whole thing just came to crashing to a halt and I pawned my guitar for gas money and took my ass back to my apartment in Gainesville, Fl. This whole thing had just turned against me, I was doing drugs and letting myself believe way retarded shit. I just took one aspect of the philosophy of the Situationists and totally blew it out for all that it was worth.
CS: Have you ever been to jail? What was that like? What did you do in there?
AB: Yes Corey, I have actually, and you know this because I told you last night, ha-ha.
I went to jail around the same time as all that NY shit, shortly after I got back to Florida. I had a previous trespass charge for skateboarding on the UF campus and I was still regularly “breaking the law” and going skateboarding during my wild trips on LSD, Robitussin, or whatever I could get my hands on. I got busted for the last time and they dropped my ass off in jail. I had no cell phone or anyone’s phone numbers and the only person I could call was my mom. She was like, “Fuck that! Bail your dumb, drug-doing ass outta jail for doing something so stupid as skateboarding at the age of 25? No way, you sit through it and learn something.” I sat in jail for 50 days. I missed my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas sitting in that place. You could play basketball all day from 9am till 6pm and I seriously got my high school Larry Bird skills back in days. Other inmates would play pick-up games or “around the world” and bet their food trays on it. I would only play the around the world games and would win every time with my ace shot. I’d never take their lunch trays though because I felt bad. Food is scarce and really shitty in jail.
The rest of the time in jail I spent making art.
You get 5 sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper, envelopes, and a pen to write letters with. I saved these to draw or a make collages on. Every other week you got to go to the jail library and get stuff to read. I would go straight to the old busted National Geographic magazine and rip them up and make collages with jail toothpaste as glue. I was totally sobered up in only a few days being in jail. These pieces were some of the most intensely concentrated works I had ever done. I had nothing else to do to kill the time you know? I learned my lesson from the time spent, and I’d never wanna go back again, even if I got some serious “work” done in there. I take those days as pretty “crazed” times and I just left those pieces in a box at my folks house. They may be good but bring up bad memories.
Here’s a few of Andy’s Jail collage artwork.
CS: To me your music sounds very stripped down but there’s still so much momentum and power for a three piece. Is this minimalist gear set up part of the charm?
AB: Yeah, I could orchestrate something with more, but I believe the basics can be used to maximum effect and be more charming or powerful.
CS: What inspired the decision to deconstruct the whole drum kit situation and just have Colin standing there with two drums?
AB: A Mo Tucker quote where she stated she liked constant beats that “drove” a song along and kept the heart beat pumping. She felt that extreme fills and symbol usage broke that constant heart beat up. All that early VU stuff really keeps pushing you know.
CS: Is there a general theme you’re trying to express with Woven Bones music?
AB: Not really, what you hear or see is what is just a blatant expression of everything I dig all accumulated into one collage of audio and some visual experience. Matty and I have been jamming together the longest and we truly see eye to eye on what I want to do with the band. I rarely learn cover songs or anything, I just kinda have a method of how I play guitar and write music. I just let all the shit I like infect me enough that it comes out on its own terms when I write.
CS: What are some other bands you’re into that you could recommend to our readers that you’re into. Not necessarily influences, but contemporary bands out there?
AB: Oh definitely Dum Dum Girls, The Fresh and Only’s, Jacuzzi Boys, Crocodiles, Frankie Rose, Reading Rainbow and The Spits.
CS: How/where did you sleep last night?
AB: Out back in the art containers at the Comune office, in your little cult compound.
CS: You were telling me briefly about your experience in art school and how it affected your creativity. Was it a positive or negative experience? Give me the story on that.
AB: Ah, I went to a school that pounded the conceptual side of things into your brain until you reach an epiphany, I reached that epiphany with all kinds skills in creativity and I kinda was all over the place and just spread myself thin. After I got passed all the drug craziness I started working on Woven Bones. My new concept is reality and I can just write the music I want and make the art exactly like I like and give people the whole package in one concentrated effort. It is what it is and you can take it or leave it, if someone doesn’t like it they can eat a bag of dicks. This is what I’m putting on the table for you to consume or not consume. Art school freed me to believe in myself and what I wanna do and be proud of it.
CS: You’re a very talented graphic designer. Is creating album art for the band equally as important to you as creating the music?
AB: Yeah, when I’m working on my own stuff I can do whatever the hell I want. That means so much more to me than doing something that someone else wants. I make money doing design, but I really dig using design skills as a form of free artistic expression.
CS: Do you have artwork in mind to compliment the music when you’re writing it?
AB: Not always, but sometimes I do. If I’m singing about bad luck and a big black cat and you see that on an album cover, then sure, there is a prime example.
CS: I feel like there’s a dark mysterious overtone to Woven Bones Music. What inspires you?
AB: All kinds of shit I’ve been through or see everyday, mostly real stuff that anyone who knows me could relate to. There is darkness everywhere you know, the world these days is a fucked up place if you really dig in and take a look at it. I don’t let that consume me though; I just draw on it from time to time. The day-to-day life is definitely valid for content to me.
CS: What do you believe in?
AB: KARMA. GRATITUDE. APOLOGY. FORGIVENESS. HARD WORK.
CS: What are you scared of?
AB: Being so broke for soooooo long that I couldn’t keep a rad girl for more than a couple dates.
Check out more about Woven Bones at
www.myspace.com/wovenbones
woven bones | yr sorcery from oswald james on Vimeo.
-Corey
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Saw Woven bones when they playing at the knitting factory in brooklyn. Was sold when they did a cover of sex beat!
The best can be Justin Bieber, he’s so cute!
He’s basically so adorable!
Have you ever thought of adding video to your posts to keep the readers more entertained? I just read the entire article and it was quite good…thanks for the share
Cheers mate, bom post!