The Obelisk Questionnaire: Joe E. Allen of Kurokuma
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: Joe E. Allen of Kurokuma
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I play drums in Kurokuma and handle a lot of what happens aside from the music.
Jake and I met at a show here in Sheffield a while back. It was my old band playing and he asked if I wanted to play drums in a project he was thinking of starting. I couldn’t at the time but we stayed in touch and eventually ended up living pretty close to each other. We used to meet up, eat space cakes and listen to Electric Wizard and watch Akira. Around then I think we both felt the time was right to start something heavy that included other influences, basically encompassing the music we both enjoyed at the time.
Describe your first musical memory.
I remember my mum took me to a play group just down the road from where we lived. We’d all sit around on a big mat in some lady’s living room and take turns on various instruments. I guess they were mainly percussion instruments, as I can’t imagine we’d have been much good on anything else.
I haven’t thought about this memory for a long time.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
What springs to mind is seeing Dengue Dengue Dengue in Manchester after I’d just smoked some bud called Blue Venom. DDD are from Peru and we only found out they were playing after we’d played a gig in Manchester ourselves. It was serendipitous.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Something I was thinking about the other day that seems related…
Moving to Japan during the third year of my Japanese language course at uni. I thought I knew how to speak the language to an extent, but being faced with the reality of raw Japanese, unlike the stuff I’d learned in the classroom, showed me how little I truly did know. It was a shock, a very steep learning curve and one of the best years of my life. Fortunately, by the end of it I’d picked up a lot, so the year had served its purpose.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I feel what you’re enjoying at the time tends to dictate your path – your changing inspiration. But as you go on, you refine and tune your output so it’s more streamlined and ergonomic – you learn how to say more with less, or at least be more direct with what you write, but I think something is probably lost in this process too. Like how band’s debuts are often their most popular material.
I think the machinations of being involved in a scene, or the music industry, or wanting to evolve from a certain scene, are a force to be reckoned with. I think for some bands this can easily lead to a more mainstream sound. I don’t necessarily hold that against people, but I have the utmost respect for anyone who can maintain a genuineness and integrity throughout their career. I think it becomes harder and harder as you go on.
It’s an ever-changing journey until you want to get off.
How do you define success?
For me it’s about mastering a talent or field during our short time on earth, living contentedly and doing it all without losing your integrity.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I remember I once saw a receipt from a sex shop in our house growing up, that I can only assume belonged to one of my parents.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
For quite a while I wanted to start a project that feels something like “The Pink Room” from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Dirty, dark, atmospheric alt-country type stuff. I had brief discussions with Matt from Under, as he’s written a load of similar songs, but it never got off the ground. Then this very blog introduced me to Olson, Van Cleef, Williams, which wasn’t a million miles away from what I had in mind. Maybe I’ll get around to it one day. I feel this is a band I could do even after getting old so there’s probably no rush.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
It’s got to be different for every person, but for me it would probably be related to expansion of the mind/transporting you to another point of view, or to another dimension, maybe away from mundane reality. I like the idea that many realities and multiple levels of consciousness exist, you’ve just got to get there somehow, and I think art is a pretty direct vehicle for it, accessible by many.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I just moved house after a trying few months, so I’m looking forward to getting to know the local area and its history, and going for plenty of walks in nature.
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