The Obelisk Questionnaire: Brenna Leath of Crystal Spiders & Lightning Born
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Brenna Leath of Crystal Spiders & Lightning Born
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
These days, I sing and play the bass. I try to make music that some people want to listen to. But mostly I just make it because it’s like a pressure valve; if I wasn’t making something, I’d explode. I don’t think I really came to do it as much as it was just instinct. I have been singing and writing as long as I can remember. Most of my desire to play instruments comes from a need to force out the noise my brain is always generating. It’s how I imagine children must feel about adopting a language – it’s less about being interested in language, and more being desperate to figure out how to express all your thoughts so that you can just… get them out. And ideally, someone listens and responds. The quote “ideas are like slippery fish” has always stuck with me, because that’s how I feel about the way songs present themselves – like they emerge from some murky depth, thrash around near the surface for a few minutes, and I just desperately try to catch them before they escape and I never see them again. I assume it’s the whole id, ego, super-ego, iceberg kind of thing at work. Maybe it’s a creative urge that comes from an inner self entity coming out. Or maybe not. Anyway…
Describe your first musical memory.
My mom was always listening to “oldies” in the car (the irony being that “oldies” when I was little in the 1990s were not what are defined as “oldies” now). Stuff like Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson. We spent a ton of time in the car; my parents were divorced and usually lived a couple of hours away from each other, so road trips were like an every weekend thing. I remember singing in the car and my mom being surprised that I had a knack for remembering the lyrics to a lot of the songs and being able to pitch match them. I also specifically remember I used to think those were the only songs that existed (besides Christmas songs and Happy Birthday) because the station she set the radio to would just play the same songs over and over in the same rotation. Not that the current radio situation is much different, sadly. At least there’s the internet!
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I have a handful of highlights; when The Hell No got to open for Ace Frehley and when Lightning Born was invited by Dennis McNett to play House of Vans Chicago for his HalloWolfBat show are two of the most notable ones. While I love to play festivals, I also have a fantastic time just going as a spectator – I’ve made some of my very best friends and memories watching bands and goofing off at music festivals. Motörhead’s Motörboat was one of my all-time favorite musical experiences, but I’ve also had some amazing times at Muddy Roots, Maryland Doom Fest, 70,000 Tons of Metal, Roadburn, Psycho Las Vegas, and Maryland Death Fest. I have a lot of other fests on my bucket list that I hope to attend (and play!)
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
At first read, I thought this was a difficult question and couldn’t think of an answer, but actually, I feel like my beliefs get tested all the time. I used to think that just because you had musical chemistry with someone, that meant you’d make good bandmates – or vice versa; if you had good interpersonal chemistry with someone and were both good musicians, that you could make good music together. But sometimes, the music is right and the relationship is wrong, or the relationship is right but the music is wrong, or maybe both things are right, but the timing is what kills it. Turns out, it’s pretty tough to find bandmates that you click with on a creative level and can also click on everything else (scheduling, priorities, goals, and the methods to achieve those goals). Making good music with other people takes team building, communication, dedication, commitment, practice, and more. I have heard a lot of analogies over the years – a band is like a gang, a band is like a marriage, a band is like a tribe. I think it boils down to while sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle, sometimes you gotta spend a lot of time together and agree on a lot of different elements to truly hone the kind of music and the kind of performance you want to evoke.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I think my goal has always been “make the thing that comes out sound like the thing I heard in my head.” I get insanely frustrated when I can’t translate my vision into what I can actually emit… that’s when art is not fun, since usually, I feel like it’s because I’m just not good enough and I suck at art. Realistically, I know that it just takes a ton of time and practice to get synergy between the idea and the reality of the art… which gets back to what I was saying in my previous answer – art has to take enough priority (which means, hours and hours of time) to get there, which are hours and hours you’re taking away from something else… usually sleep, family, or friends, since I still gotta work to pay the bills. Someday I’d like to put out an album where I write and play everything myself, and when I listen at the end, I think to myself “yes – that sounds like exactly what I wanted to say.” It’d be cool to make that magnum opus artists chase. Sometimes I think I am getting closer; over the pandemic, I spent more time learning how to self record and self mix demos in Ableton at the house. But, I need to put a lot of time in (Hours!! Weeks!! Months!! Years!!) if I want to make something like that.
How do you define success?
That’s been a moving goalpost over the years. That said, I think if you’re setting goals and achieving them, you’re successful. Or if you just eschew goals altogether and find perfect peace and contentment… that’s pretty successful. If you can do that, teach me how. Or maybe that’s what Office Space was about. Clearly, I learned nothing.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
People being ugly to other people based on stupid bullshit. I see way too much of that and really wish I didn’t. I could dwell on some negative memories and spell out some sad stories… but don’t we see too much of that? I’d rather answer something like “what is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen” but that’d probably get too many American Beauty plastic bag jokes.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I want to make a darkwave record one of these days. Or maybe an extremely depressing country record. Whatever I make will probably end up in the “sad girl folk doom” category but I’m gonna try to keep it edgy and un-cliché. Keyword… try.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Gosh, that’s a tough one. My first instinctual answer was “escapism” but I think some of the best art forces the audience to confront some difficult truths about themselves, human nature, and society, and that’s probably more essential. I guess I’d probably try an umbrella answer like “taking the audience one step closer to levity or enlightenment, whichever the artist intends.” Is that a cop-out?
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
The end of the pandemic? Ha, but really. My grandmother (who is 92 in January – Happy Birthday, Queen Josephine!!!) has this awesome habit of saying “This is the best ___ I’ve ever had!” – and, insert whatever she’s having – lunch, dinner, etc. She has a very cute British accent, which really makes it pop (think Mary Poppins). Just this week she came over, had a glass of Prosecco, and said “What brand is this? This is the best Prosecco I’ve ever had!” She paused, thought for a second, and followed that up with, “Then again, every drink is the best drink I’ve ever had.” And you know what… I said, “If every drink and every meal is the best one you’ve ever had, then life is pretty (insert expletive I wouldn’t have said in front of my grandma) awesome.” So I’m trying to take a lesson from that. I’m looking forward to literally everything being the best thing I’ve ever had or the best thing I’ve ever done. I’m gonna live like it’s just getting better all the time.
[Photo above by Jay Beadnell]
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