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: Taylor Iversen of Abrams

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

Well… I’m a bass player and singer in a heavy rock ‘n’ roll band. I’ve been that thing for roughly fifteen years now, which is almost half my life. Though, I’d be remiss to call myself a professional musician, because the god honest truth is I have no fucking idea what I’m doing.

My older brother gave me his busted ass Yamaha bass guitar when he left home for college around the same time a dear friend gave me Sleep’s Dopesmoker (Then known as Jerusalem) along with a couple of Monster Magnet records, and I was like, “yeah, I wanna do that.” So I bought a shitty Crate combo amp off another bass player buddy of mine, and started learning riffs. First thing I got was that “Seven Nation Army” lick, then Sabbath’s “The Wizard” and “Supernaut” riffs. Once I got to the “Funeralopolis” intro from E-Wiz’s Dopethrone, I was like, “alright, big strings make good, big sound, I’ll figure this all out soon enough…”

When I went to college in Colorado, I met some folks and played in several bands. Just jamming and putting songs together. Playing shows, touring etc. Interestingly, Abrams consists of folks from most of those early projects. Then I was just hooked. Still haven’t learned how to play my instrument though. Maybe one day…

Until then, I big. Play big string. Make good big sound.

Shake that booty.

Describe your first musical memory.

It’s my understanding that in this community these days, liking The Beatles is a death sentence. So if you don’t mind, I’ll plead the fifth here.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Oh sweet Jesus H. Cronenberg, what a question.

Is it… All the moshpits I circled in with friends at shows in my youth living in suburban Minneapolis? Maybe the first time I saw Sunn O)); they were on tour with Boris for Altar and played at the Walker Art Museum, I was 16 and remember my body coming apart into drifting particles. Maybe it’s when I got to see Sleep for the first time, and Al was using my very own amplifier onstage. Does it have anything, anything at all to do with Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, or Rubber Soul? Maybe. Or perhaps listening to Godspeed! You Black Emperor for the first time? The first time I saw Soundgarden? “So, bleeeeEEEEEEEEEEDDDD your heart!, OUT!” Ooh! Or the only time I saw Portishead, when the bass drum during “Machine Gun,” moved me a whole foot backward in the crowd. Or when John Garcia from Kyuss joined my band onstage to sing a song once… that was cool. Or when I opened up for Dillinger Escape Plan at a tiny dive bar, but the only reason I got to do that was because Chris Cornell had just died so it kinda sucked? Or when Michael Akerfeldt of Opeth told a young me, after a firm, yet supple handshake, that I looked just like Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon? Could it be that time at Maryland Deathfest when I swore I was going to lose my eye after a nasty hit in the Black Breath pit, but then it didn’t even bruise? Or this one time, a few years ago, when I sat with my legs in a pool at Psycho Las Vegas; a joint in one hand, a beer in the other, cradling a plate of fried chicken in my lap. Fu Manchu was ripping through “King Of The Road…” I remember wondering if there had ever been a better moment? Or many years before, my first time playing Seattle, when I sat on the stoop of The Black Lodge with a pug in my lap wondering the same? I remember seeing Torche with a bunch of friends during a particularly heavy bout of Post-Tour Depression, and I swear that show saved my life. My first time being on tour, maybe?

Any moment of being on tour, really… Shitting my pants and almost dying from diarrhea in Philly… Any of the countless, joyous, frightening memories from those great adventures… Playing a helluva show with some of the best friends my life will ever give me…

Or just enjoying music with any permutation of the same. I mean, there’s just too many moments to pick. Music IS memory, my dude.

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

I’m ‘starting to think’ that this whole capitalist system is unsustainable, and unable to be fixed. I remember even just a few years ago being like, “nah it’s cool… we’ll figure it out.” and now I’m like, “Oh shit… Well, the whole point of the system is to not figure it out…Because the people at the top have it all figured out for themselves, already.”

Now, I know this pig’s gotta bleed.

Also, I really thought, for a time, that David Gilmour was the best part of Pink Floyd. And then I saw Live At Pompeii and realized that Nick Mason… that guy is the star of that band.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Left.

How do you define success?

My wiiiife.

But seriously,

Whatever floats your boat man. If you’re happy, doing what you’re doing, who’s to tell you you’re not successful? Happiness, I think: That’s success. Content with one’s achievements? Maybe, not necessarily, but that’s what I used to think of when I thought of success…

But now, the more I hear, it seems to be more about the journey than the destination.

So why not just enjoy doing what you’re doing, if doing what you’re doing makes you happy, even if you’re not done. Even if it’s not, “Complete.”

Maybe it’s about following through to some level, but it can’t all be about the end.

Cuz at the end, you’ll be dead, and then who gives a fuck?

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

The other day I ‘accidentally’ stumbled onto a video of a guy being obliterated by an industrial lathe. See, I thought it was a different video of a guy being obliterated by an industrial lathe, one that I’d seen before. But this one was way worse.

I frequent some channels pertaining to morbid curiosity now and again. Mostly true crime stuff, and awful, crimes against humanity stuff… Podcasts, documentaries, internet pages… I’m courted by what Dan Carlin of Hardcore History calls a, “fascination with the extremes of humanity,” but watch-people-die stuff really fucks with me… Painfotainment as he called it. Check that episode out. It kind of obviously used to be quite a regular thing with people.

Sometimes, these days, you just fly too close to that old, old flame. Usually for me it surges around 9/11, deep diving into that whole tragedy …shit.

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

Ah, fuck.

I want to die with a robust catalog of artistic creation. Whether it be music, or writing, or any kind of creativity. I feel like I have a lot of interesting ideas and I really want to get them out there before I’m not here anymore. (See, do I gotta wait that long for ‘success’?) Ever since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to be a rockstar, and I’ve always wanted to be a novelist. And I’m really, desperately attempting to realize that latter dream right now. And have been for the last, like, seven years, and probably, hopefully, for the rest of my life. I’ve got two manuscripts in the can, a 400 page horror (about being in a band), and a 600 page sci-fi… Currently I’m editing and editing and editing the sci-fi, cuz in 2019, in the middle of an editing slog with the horror, which I’d been working on for 5 years by then, I got a wild hare up my ass to just start something new. Now, I’ve gotten better at this part, and am almost done editing ~150 of its 600 pages, enough for friends to read so they can, you know, tell me I’m wasting my time. In which case, I probably won’t listen, because I have, like, dozens of book ideas in my head and this emergent, needling compulsion to get them out. Like a whole interwoven universe of worlds and stories. Bare fiction, fantasy, horror, short stories, screen-plays… I really like writing… And I write a lot… (perhaps not so well.) Can you tell?

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

Fuckin, like…  Engaging the mind dawg. Blowin’ your mind, duuuude.. “ What’s that all about, maaaan?”  “What’s the deal with that?” Fuggin, like makes ya’ think, bro.

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

What the hell in this world is non-musical?

I could say “Fall; I fucking love autumn.” But, what, you’re gonna tell me that Fall is not musical?

Maybe I could say, “Getting my garden, just right…” but that’s super fucking musical too, isn’t it?

“The third Person-I Get-To-Be-The-Uncle-Of, being born?” C’mon.

“The two cats that hate each other, currently living in my house, learning to get along?” Meow.

It’s all fuckin’ music, man. And I’m excited for it all.

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Abrams, In the Dark (2022)

Tags: Abrams, Abrams In the Dark, Colorado, Denver, In the Dark, Small Stone Records

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2022 at 8:41 am and is filed under Questionnaire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.