Artist Spotlight: Radio Nowhere
This is what Radio Nowhere does with his songs: he sets up a projector in your skull and plays movies on the back of your eye lids. He takes you places and you lose yourself there. You meet his characters and you fall in love with them. What we mean is that the guy knows how to write a lyric. Let's talk to him.
I love the songs Spyboy and Sister Rosa. If these two characters met, what would they have to talk about?
It’d be an interesting get together, because each character comes from such a wildly different source. The common thread between the two songs, though? Satan! Seriously, though - the devil, who’s present in an alarming number of my songs, makes an appearance in both of these. Maybe Spyboy and Sister Rosa could talk about soul selling, midnight meetings at the crossroads, etc…
Bruce Springsteen has a song called Radio Nowhere, but you thought of it first. What does “Radio Nowhere” mean to you?
To me, Radio Nowhere is the sound of the only radio station that you can get (or used to be able to get) when you’re out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing for miles around. I try to write and play the kind of songs that I’d want to hear under those circumstances.
I also like to go song hunting a couple of times a year by driving out to places with names like the Funeral Mountains, or the Ruby Range, or the Great Salt Desert, pointing my car into the emptiness and just seeing what kind of music and lyrics take shape. I’ve written dozens of songs on an ancient Casio keyboard bungee-corded to the passenger seat. This is not safe. Last summer, I got pulled over doing 80 in a 45 because I was so cranked about this chorus I was writing (Casio rock rhythm no.6 is very inspiring!). Then I almost drove off a mountain.
Why do we tell stories?
I think we tell stories because that’s the only way we understand things. Seriously, (almost) everything is a story, from an actual novel all the way to your utility bill - I don’t know about you, but our electricity bill is framed in terms of how it compares to the average bill, the lowest, the highest, etc. It’s like a (really boring) story. Hopefully we’re telling stories that are more interesting than our electric bills.
And why do we go to Bear Music Fest? =)
I think people are going to BMF because they’re sensing the opportunity for a unique & special experience, a chance to spend 48 hours in a little world apart from reality where the only things that matter are music, nature, and community. We get to hang out with our friends, see cool & interesting bands that have been hand-picked for us by a thoughtful bunch of music lovers, and slow down and settle into the world of trees, blue skies and granite mountains around us. Plus, we all get to party for the weekend, which is nice.
Excited yet?
Us too! We can’t wait to see Radio Nowhere– and you - at the festival!