The Obelisk Questionnaire: Drew Mack of Astrometer
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: Drew Mack of Astrometer, Cleanteeth, ex-Hull, ex-Somnuri, etc.
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I define my artist identity as a Songwriter. I play guitar but have never been very interested in shredding the hardest or coming up with the craziest solos to play, I have always been more interested in the structure of a song and I’m consistently drawn to the rhythm section of a band.
I grew up in a small town in Wyoming that, to this day, is extremely behind the times as far as music goes. I was fortunate enough to land a gig DJing on a local FM radio station toward the end of high school, during the same time that the internet was blossoming, and this lead to an exhilarating discovery of bands all over the country playing types of music (mostly metal) I had never even dreamed of. So began my bloodlust toward finding ALL of these bands and driving five hours each way to Salt Lake City, Utah, to see any heavy band play in the live setting.
I eventually thought that maybe I could be a musician, since I felt so passionate about music, and I decided I wanted to be a drummer. I don’t know why it came as such a surprise to me that buying a set of drums was so damn expensive, but I lucked out when I found that a friend of mine had an old kit sitting in his garage. We set this thing up and I have to be honest, it was the worst drum set I have ever seen! The cymbals were so old that if you hit the crash or ride, they would invert like an umbrella in a windstorm, and even the mechanism that powers the movement of the kick pedal was made of LEATHER! I tried to make that work for a couple of garage bands that I started with my dudes, but didn’t get much satisfaction out of trying to make that kit sound even remotely decent.
So I did what I think a lot of people in that situation would do: I decided that the singer of a band is the one that gets the most attention, and since I could scream better than most of my friends, I transitioned into that role. More mediocrity ensued with my bands, until my 18th birthday came around and my step-sister handed me a guitar! I honestly looked at her like she was a crazy person and said, “what the hell is this for?” She thought I may enjoy playing it and SHE WAS CORRECT! As soon as I started learning how to play that guitar (still have and play that piece of shit ‘X-Cort’ to this day) I was hooked!
Describe your first musical memory.
The first musical experience that I really wish I had a clearer memory of was being taken to my first real show to see Lynyrd Skynyrd (one of the members happened to live in my home town in Wyoming). In this day and age, it would be pretty cool to be able to say ‘yeah I sang along to freebird when I was a kid at my first show’, but I really don’t recall much of the show, aside from the general good vibes in the crowd. My first real musical memory would be from hanging out with my mom(also responsible for the Skynyrd show). We would ride around in her car and she would just BLAST classic rock and sing her ass off and rock the fuck out and then would turn the music down real quick and ask my sister and I if we could name the artist.
It was a fantastic game and I fully appreciate that she acclimated my ears to the volume my future self would require. I also remember quite vividly any time I said I want-want-wanted a toy or something, she would sit me down in our living room and play ‘You can’t always get what you want’ by the Rolling Stones, which somehow eased the pain of not getting that silly toy or whathaveyou. Parents, please carry on the torch of this tradition!!
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I would have to say the best musical memory to date would be my collective experience performing in Hull over eight years. That was the band I first got to go out on the road with (my happy place) and through very thick and very thin, every single issue or struggle or problem in the world would melt away when my brothers and I got on that stage and did our thing. It really was an awakening experience of how you can achieve something so much bigger than success or fame or just having fun or partying, but a deep connection within the mind and spirit of my brothers in arms that, even though Hull didn’t last the test of time, we will all have this heightened experience engrained in us for the rest of our time on earth.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Well, New York City will absolutely chew you up and spit you out and then be like “WHAT, FOOL?! DEAL WITH IT!” and I was no exception. I have lived in NYC for 18-plus years now and have been homeless for some of them, living out of my practice space, working my bones into a powder, and trying not to succumb to the idea that I had made a huge mistake in moving to NYC to follow my passion in music. In the lowest of those times, I absolutely questioned everything, but today I can confidently say that I did make the right choice and all of those struggles only sweetened the horizon for me.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I believe that true artistic progression literally leads EVERYWHERE. I find it hard to believe that some people will listen to basically one band or one genre their entire life. To me, that sounds like a lack of curiosity and/or passion. I remember back in my ‘hardcore days’ we would tell an urban legend type of joke about someone’s roommate who used to be into grimy, gnarly noise rock and metal but then got a little older and now he only listens to Bjork. As if that would be too absurd for this world to handle! I like to remind myself of the tiny stereocilia in your ears that get tired after hearing certain frequencies too often- or the theory that plants and animals respond differently to various types of music. If that is not nature’s sign to follow your physiological responses towards new things, well I don’t know what is.
I also try to remind myself how slowly susceptible we can be to things we experience only for a moment or even once. Like the time I was first introduced to the band Isis. My friend put on SGNL>05 for me and I vividly remember ABSOLUTELY HATING it. I even told my pal, ‘this is so dumb! Why are they playing so slow?! This is so two dimensional!’ and I made him turn it off after only hearing a minute or so of the song. Fast forward to a week or two later and that minute of Isis that I had begrudgingly heard was LOOPING NON-STOP IN MY HEAD! So I went out and bought SGNL>05 and rocketed myself into DECADES of loving Isis with all of my being. (REST IN POWER!)
How do you define success?
As a musician and a fabricator who builds things in a woodshop, I define success as creating something that you personally feel proud of, regardless of the response from any other person. It is easy to get sucked into the consumerism of this modern world and to respond in kind by churning out art quickly and specifically for the masses, and yet I believe that without creating inside a place of individual freedom for the strict betterment of yourself and maybe the collaborators you have connected with, this assembly line art can have a much shorter shelf life. Over the years, in the multiple bands I have played in, the conversation has changed from striving for success, into a desire to create something timeless in this fleeting mortal coil.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
OOF there are many things I wish I had not seen in the past nearly two decades in NYC. Not to mention, growing up in Wyoming had its own special pitfalls, like having nine friends die throughout my years in school. One thing that really sticks with me was witnessing a very dear friend’s bandmate die in front of me in the hallways of my practice space in Brooklyn. I had to operate the freight elevator for the firefighters who had just performed CPR on this man for over 45 minutes and while we were in the elevator, I looked down upon his blue-grey body as they pulled out the manual resuscitator from his mouth and nose and blood spilled out of his face and I knew he was at death’s door. I was completely destroyed for my friends who played in a band with that man. I couldn’t even begin to imagine losing one of my brothers in arms like that and at such a young age!!
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I have been dreaming for a long time of the day when I have the tools and the collaborators to create a truly magical audio/visual performance. I think if I ever feel too old to climb up on a stage and perform, I would love to have developed some sort of film scoring/soundtrack writing career by then.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
I believe the most essential function of art is to connect humans with each other. Even on the smallest scale, such as an art enthusiast feeling moved by a painting, there is a connection there even though the artist is not physically present. Critiquing such art can get messy, since we are all individuals and experience everything at least slightly differently, which is why I prefer the musical medium. Standing in a crowd and enjoying the same set of frequency waves washing over everyone equally and feeling so harmoniously as one organism is really so extremely magical. I love feeling all of society’s pigeonholed and compartmentalized ideas of individuality just melt away!
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
As a father of a six-year-old boy, I am very excited to watch him grow up, knowing he may or may not be a musician, he may or may not love heavy metal like I do, he may or may not grow out his hair and a beard, he may or may not become a cop!! Who the fuck knows?! And that is exciting…
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