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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jonas Munk of Causa Sui, El Paraiso Records, Etc.

Jonas Munk of Causa Sui

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: Jonas Munk of Causa Sui, El Paraiso Records, Etc.

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Not sure how to define it. I guess the shortest answer is that I’m a musician. I play guitar, I play keyboards, I record sounds – my own sounds, as well as other people’s sounds – I mix sounds, I master sounds and eventually sell them. So basically I’m involved in the entire process of making albums, from setting up microphones in the studio, to putting vinyl in cardboard boxes and driving them to the post office. Some Obelisk readers might be familiar with the band that I’m in, Causa Sui, but I’ve been involved in lots of other stuff as well. I run a label with Causa Sui drummer Jakob Skøtt, called El Paraiso Records, which specializes in all things instrumental and psychedelic. I’ve also worked with a number of bands and artists over the years as producer and collaborator, – Papir, Mythic Sunship, Kanaan, Brian Ellis to name a few.

Describe your first musical memory.

I remember jumping on the couch while listening to The Police on my parents’ stereo when I was 3-4 years old. The first real concert I remember was Santana in 1989, when I was eight years old.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

We (Causa Sui) saw Colour Haze for the first time in Copenhagen back in the early summer of 2004. They played a regular set as part of a small festival, but the following day they played an extended set at a local underground venue (Dragens Hule) run by some of the guys from Øresund Space Collective – a wonderful venue that sadly isn’t in existence anymore. A totally illicit establishment with cheap beer and strong cocktails! Colour Haze played a mindblowing two-and-a-half hour set – on the floor, all backline, with maybe 60-70 people in the audience. That shit was truly inspiring – Colour Haze showed us there were new exciting possibilities with stoner rock. Later that year we started Causa Sui.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

The last six years have been strange, on a personal level as well as on a broader political level. There’s been a few tough ones to swallow.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

It leads to humility. 15-20 years ago, when I first started producing music somewhat seriously, I was overly confident, I was kinda under the illusion that I was almost some kind of genius with a special insight and brilliant capabilities. After a while there was a gradual realization that this actually wasn’t the case, at all. And thus began the long, slow trek to actually become decent at what I do – to really put in the hours, and learn how to put songs together that doesn’t sound super awkward, how to play guitar in a way that doesn’t just fill up empty space just for the sake of filling it up, how to record a drum kit so it actually sounds pretty good… and so on.

So, after two decades of doing it I’m now at a point where I think I’m decent at what I do – I’m fairly competent at certain things, still lacking at others – but I’m still nowhere near as brilliant as I thought I was 17 years ago! It’s a much more humble position. The funny thing is I hear of people working in other areas share a similar pattern of development. If there’s anything positive to say about that youthful overestimation, it’s that it gave me a tremendous amount of energy to channel into music.

Being under that illusion somehow persuaded me that this was something I should do. Had my mind been fully adjusted to reality, and had I been aware how far there was to go, I’d probably have found something else to spend my time and energy on. These days I try to be somewhat realistic, and keep raising the bar accordingly, but you shouldn’t lose faith in what you do either, so perhaps I still rely a little bit on illusions to fuel things. Axl and the boys were right: use your illusion!

How do you define success?

That word, success, tastes a little bit weird in my mouth. For some reason I feel like it’s the kind of word that applies better to business and sports – two things I don’t care much about.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Certain images and stories from the war in Ukraine has haunted me for weeks. Even after 40 years on this planet I still find it genuinely puzzling how humans from one country can torture innocent civilians in a neighbouring country because their boss told them to do so. But I can’t say I wish I hadn’t seen that stuff, cause it conveys truth, and truth should be known so we can act on it. Truth leads to change.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’ve come close a few times but I still haven’t made the perfect hummus.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I think the question presupposes the idea that art is supposed to have a function in a similar sense to the function of a piece of technology, or so – as something to bring about a goal of some sort, something that’s good for something else. I don’t believe that to be true. I believe aesthetic experience has value and importance in itself, even if it might also have other kinds of value. The philosopher Theodor Adorno once described this with a paradox: that the function of art is its functionlessness. If we can learn something from aesthetic experience, he believed – it’s first and foremost that not everything that has value in this world has value because it’s good for something else. Great art invites us to see things from a different perspective. Personally I always feel like art loses some of that which makes it valuable if it’s overly political, or functional, or if it’s trying to tell me something in a very direct and clear way.

Brian Eno once stated that humans not only has the need to control our surroundings – that is: nature, people, things – to our own ends (which is broadly the role of science as technology), but that we also have the need to surrender to the world – to let go of that control and release ourselves into the stream of life and flow with it. In other words, it’s fundamental for humans not only to perceive the world as something to be constantly dominated towards our own ends, but also to let go and simply resonate with it once in a while.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Right now I’m looking forward to going to Berlin with my wife and kids next week. Something of a summer tradition. Besides that I don’t have much planned and that’s kinda how I like it. We’ll see what comes up…

https://www.facebook.com/causasuiband
https://www.instagram.com/causasuis/

https://www.facebook.com/elparaisorecords
https://www.instagram.com/elparaisorecords/
https://soundcloud.com/elparaiso
https://elparaisorecords.com/

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