The Obelisk Questionnaire: Martin Garner of Vitskär Süden
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: Martin Garner of Vitskär Süden
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I receive transmissions of unknown origin and make attempts to capture, process and export them in whatever medium seems appropriate. I’ve always had melodies, stories or images spinning in my head since as far back as I can remember. When I’m lucky, I’m able to transcribe bits and pieces. When I’m really lucky, I’m improvising music with my bandmates in Vitskär Süden and all of us happen to be tuned into that same staticky signal far off in the distance.
Describe your first musical memory.
I remember falling in love with playing records from a really young age. My parents weren’t super music afficionados and because of that weren’t overly precious with their vinyl. So as a kid I was putting their albums on the family turntable as often as I could get away with it. They owned a lot of Neil Diamond, some movie soundtracks – nothing I’m super connected to now other than for nostalgia’s sake. The first time I was allowed to walk into a record store with my own money I was probably nine. It was at the mall in our tiny Missouri town and was dark and smoky, filled with lava lamps and black light posters. I bought the 45 of Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”. A few months later I bought my first full length, Queen’s The Game. I was hooked.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Soundgarden was playing our favorite little dive bar concert venue in St. Louis on the Louder Than Love tour. My friends and I were smashed up against the stage, the band sounding phenomenal, and Chris Cornell lobbed his mic up through the lighting grid hanging from the club’s low ceiling. As it looped through and swung back, he grabbed it again, doubling up the cable, and Tarzan-swung out over the crowd as Kim Thayil wailed an epic guitar solo. The music, the emotion, the energy… It was rock and roll. It was glorious.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
When I started playing bass as a teenager I thought playing more notes meant you were creating more music. At some point – I don’t remember the exact moment but it was way too far in to have not figured it out already – it finally dawned on me that the moments you choose not to play can be much more powerful, initiating the push and pull that fundamentally creates rhythm. At least that’s the way I started looking at it. Like sculpting in a way – selectively removing material with a chisel to breathe life into a block of stone. So a lot of times these days I’m trying to find ways to keep my playing simple, put some air into my bass parts, and just have an evolving conversation with our drummer, Christopher.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Hopefully to artistic freedom. The more tools you have in your kit, the more opportunity exists to execute your ideas and evolve. I constantly hear things in my head that I can’t articulate yet musically, but the thrill of the chase is what keeps it exciting.
How do you define success?
Knowing the music we’ve created has had an impact on someone else is really gratifying. I think we’d be making music whether anyone else listened or not, but putting it out into the world and getting a positive reaction is the best kind of success we could hope for. Our new album The Faceless King received a review where the writer conveyed that listening to the record for the first time made him feel 14 again, like he was discovering something cool that was going to open up a whole new world of music to teenage him. That’s success to me.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
When I was in junior high I was helping out at a TV station and the older guys who worked there thought it would be amusing to show me some raw footage they had of a politician blowing his brains out at a live press conference. This was pre-internet, played back on videotape from some satellite feed they’d captured, and the footage of the aftermath seemed to go on forever. I couldn’t shake the images for a very long time.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
The score to an animated film. I love the old Rankin/Bass Hobbit and Return of the King films, the Brothers Quay stop motion shorts… Recently the rotoscope-animated The Spine of Night was a huge favorite.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To evoke emotion.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Reading the next short story collection from Laird Barron. I’m a huge fan of his writing and it’s provided a lot of vibe-inspiration for my 25% of Vitskär Süden. Laird is a cosmic horror icon and we’ve had a cool back and forth going for a few years sharing appreciation for each others’ work. He makes a cameo in the RPG module we released with our album and also contributed a bit of text, which was really cool.
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