The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jamie Yeats of Wizzerd
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: Jamie Yeats of Wizzerd
—
How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
What I do is express myself through music with my best friends, bring it to as many people as I can, and have as much fun as I can with it along the way. I don’t think I came to it so much as it came to me. It feels as much a necessity as it does a desire.
Describe your first musical memory.
I don’t have a specific first musical memory, but I do have a few songs that stand out as being the first songs that I remember hearing. Those would be: “Reelin’ in the Years” – Steely Dan, “Free Ride” – Edgar Winter Group, “In the Mood” – Glenn Miller. I also remember as a small child I would enjoy singing “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC in the backseat much to my mother’s dismay.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I think it would have to be Wizzerd’s first show in Berlin. We played in the basement area of a venue called Zukunft, which looked and felt almost exactly like the DIY space in our hometown that we have played so many times, Old School Records. I had met the promoter about a month before while driving for Year of the Cobra, so I knew he was going to put on a good show. What happened was beyond expectations — a totally packed house! And in the middle of the tour, our playing was about as on fire as it can get. To top it all off we had friends from all over the world there. Good friends from Northern Ireland, a newer friend from Australia, a relative of a bandmate who moved to Berlin, and of course our brothers and tourmates Kal-El were all there sharing drinks and stories. All these things together made for a very special night. We made a primitive recording of the whole show and released a few songs from it on our Bandcamp page if anyone is that interested!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I’ve always felt like when things get shaky, everything will sort of work itself out in one way or another. This was tested at the end of our aforementioned European tour. The tour was an expensive outing — lots of days off and touring with 10 people was not exactly profitable. By the end of the run we had eaten through all our funds. We were on our way to be dropped off in Amsterdam, where we were flying home from. The catch was that we had two more nights there before our flight with nowhere to stay and no money.
We had foreseen this for a few days and when the time finally came things seemed pretty bleak. We started planning sleeping shifts at the train station when I remembered that many years ago someone had messaged us on Facebook saying that if we were ever in Amsterdam we should meet up for a beer. I found the message and responded stating our situation. It turned out that the guy puts bands up all the time and just had a band cancel, so he offered to put us up for those two nights, and he even was able to get us a paying gig in place of the band who was going to stay with him! Everything worked out excellently and we owe Kees a massive thanks for life. I guess this was a time when the belief was tested — and it passed.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Honesty.
How do you define success?
Happiness.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I don’t know if there is anything. I don’t really wish anything was different in regards to what I have seen. It kind of seems fleeting to reach into the past and wish for something to change.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
A music video. Wizzerd has always stayed fairly self produced, recording all of our own material so far, mixing our first two records, doing some of our own photoshoots, stuff like that. We have gear to make a music video but have never really carved out the time to focus our efforts there for whatever reason. For the next album I think it’s a necessity! It would be fun to do it on our own or to collaborate. Music video makers get at me‽
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To invoke feeling. Any feeling in anyone. Whether it be the artist themselves feeling proud of their work, or disappointed in it while throwing it in the garbage. And on the flip side of the coin that goes for anyone consuming the art. I think someone confusedly saying “what the fuck is the point of that? I don’t get it.” is just as valid of a response as someone being moved to cry, for example. Any of these are some form of feeling invoked, and if any of them occur it means that the art has done its job.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
The next Dune movie. I’m a fan of the book and the first part which was just released was awesome!!
https://www.facebook.com/wizzerddoom
https://www.instagram.com/wizzerddoom/
https://wizzerd.bandcamp.com/
http://www.fuzzoramarecords.com/
http://www.facebook.com/Fuzzorama
