The Obelisk Questionnaire: Adam Alexander of Die Like Gentlemen
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: Adam Alexander of Die Like Gentlemen
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Heh. I write and perform songs that move and interest me based on my diverse musical tastes and my desire to avoid writing the same song twice. Ever since I became interested in playing music in my early teens, my main motivation was to write a wide variety of songs and never adhere to a single genre. Since most musicians aren’t natural songwriters, that often meant I was the main tunesmith in the group. That said, I do tend to gravitate to heavy metal, my first real musical love.
Describe your first musical memory.
Hard to say! Sesame Street or the Muppet Show? My mother listening to Neil Diamond or John Denver? Nothing specific comes to mind.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
It must be a toss-up between discovering Black Sabbath when I was 15 (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath) and the release show for Die Like Gentlemen’s acoustic album (Stories) just before the pandemic hit.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I’m a life-long atheist, but I’ve never been confronted with anything that made me question that belief. (And I’ve looked.) I don’t have too many other firmly held beliefs, because I believe one should always question everything, including one’s own beliefs, because if your beliefs can’t stand scrutiny and criticism, they’re not very good beliefs, are they?
That said, my childhood taught me that marriage was a foolish outdated notion and not one I’d ever participate in, and I strongly believed that for many years. Then I met the woman of my dreams and we’ve been married for over 15 years.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
As an individual, one’s art mirrors one’s life. Usually, our early years are the most idealistic and unrefined, leading to art that is bold but lacking nuance. For most, our later years bring greater stability of one sort or another, and while more decades of experience with one’s talent can bring more refinement, often the passion that inspired unbridled creativity in youth is lost. Popular music has no shortage of examples of those who were geniuses in their early years but produced only humdrum material when they became a legacy artist. It’s the rare musician who still produces some of their best work after their heyday.
That said, having had no heyday, I like to think I’m still producing some of my best songs, and my voice and guitar playing are the strongest they’ve ever been. I still feel the same desire as in my youth to avoid writing the same song twice, and with any project I’m always wondering how it can evolve. I have nothing to lose and no one to please except myself (and my bandmates).
But hey, maybe Elton John and Alice in Chains and Peter Gabriel all really think their recent work is among their best. Maybe I’m just as deluded. Who can say for sure?
How do you define success?
Being happy with what you’ve produced. It’s also great when a good amount of other people really like it as well, but it’s not as important as self-satisfaction.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Video of Phil Collins performing in the last several years. He could no longer sing, he could no longer even stand, and without offering anything new, he went out there to deliver weak renditions of his classic hits to cater to an undiscriminating audience. It was just painful to watch.
I tried to think of something vile, disgusting or upsetting that I’ve witnessed that I would erase from my memory if I could, but nothing comes to mind. Maybe I’ve led too charmed a life.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
These are thoughtful questions! I don’t generally think up “wish” projects that go unfulfilled. Instead, I think about what I’m doing now and where I want to go next, then do it. Additionally, it depends on the friends that I’m playing with and what they feel like producing. It’s why Die Like Gentlemen transitioned from our earlier days of “progressive sludge” into a more up-tempo prog/classic metal sound, as well as why also have an entire other life as an acoustic band: we got an inkling to do something a bit different and we followed it.
That said, I sometimes think about what I might want to do musically when I’m old and grey, and the two ideas that keep coming to mind are an old school death metal band and/or playing piano in a bar. Both sound rewarding.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
For me, art’s most essential function is teaching us that some of the most important things in life need not have any essential function at all. Beauty can exist for its own sake and provide value that is unquantifiable.
Personally, as a relatively unemotional person, music (and art in general) lets me access sensations and gratification that I can’t otherwise experience. Onstage I’m one of my best selves, and hopefully anyone enjoying us is also accessing something in themselves they may not have experienced otherwise.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to.
The destruction and/or transformation of American society! We seem to be on the cusp of a breaking point, and I’m curious to see which way it breaks.
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