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: Keegan Kjeldsen of Slumbering Sun and Destroyer of Light

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

I think of art as the transformation of our incommunicable emotional states into a form that emotionally moves others. I had the dream of being a touring musician for a long time, and first realized this goal in 2012 with my other band, Destroyer of Light. I’ve kept up touring since then in spite of the mental and emotional (and financial) toll it has taken because traveling around performing live music is perhaps the best feeling I have experienced on this earth.

Describe your first musical memory.

My dad is also a musician, and when I was a very small child, he helped me compose my then-magnum-opus, entitled, “You Can Drink Hot Cocoa”. We sang and played it together, him on guitar, and me adding the percussive elements.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Seeing Sunn O))) perform live forever changed my life and my perception of what music can be or do to an audience. It transcended the purely auditory; it was like an interruption in normal reality, as though the outside world was dissolved and some metaphysical truth were being revealed.

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

The few times in my life that I’ve managed to perform in front of a thousand people challenged my deep-seated cynicism and self-doubt. I usually expect that every effort will end in disappointment. I suppose this is another reason why I love playing music, because it has expanded my horizons of what is possible.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Hopefully it follows with someone’s personal and psychological development. I am not the same person I was in 2012, or 2015, or 2018, so why would I write the same music? The underlying emotional reality being conveyed is differently so one’s art should manifest in a different way as they grow as a person.

How do you define success?

The ability to feed myself and pay the rent with my art would be nice. This is the success that most of us are looking for, but admittedly that few of us get – so you have to be at peace with never succeeding in this way. Which, I suppose in a Daoist way or something like that, is its own form of success. Whatever it is, over the years I’ve come to appreciate this other form of success more: how the unique experiences and memories, friendships, great performances, and adventures out on the road are themselves the reward for following one’s dreams.

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

A lot of gore got shared around on the early internet and it probably scarred me as a child.

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

I’ve always dreamed of having a series of videos that create a storyline to accompany a concept album with related lyrics, one for every song, so that it’s a film alongside the album. Hopefully a double LP that can play for an hour and a half. The only problem with this is that it’s prohibitively expensive.

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

Art is our greatest weapon in humanity’s ongoing war against reality.

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

Christmas with my family, up in the forests of Colorado. We’re doing a reunion this year, so the whole extended family should be there. Usually it snows, and there’s nothing like being at the foot of the Rockies, sitting around the fireplace with your loved ones, on a snowy night.

https://www.facebook.com/slumberingsun
https://instagram.com/slumbering_sun
https://slumberingsun.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/destroyeroflight/
http://www.instagram.com/destroyeroflightofficial/
http://destroyeroflight.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/heavyfriendsbooking/
https://www.instagram.com/heavyfriendsrecords/
https://heavyfriendsrecords.bigcartel.com/

Slumbering Sun, The Ever-Living Fire (2023)

Destroyer of Light, Panic (2022)

Tags: Austin, Destroyer of Light, Destroyer of Light Panic, Heavy Friends Records, Panic, Slumbering Sun, Slumbering Sun The Ever-Living Fire, Texas, The Ever-Living Fire

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 8th, 2023 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Questionnaire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.