The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jonas Nilsson from Signo Rojo
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: Jonas Nilsson from Signo Rojo
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I try to do the best I can with what I’ve got. Noisy music and weirdo art. I was a quiet guy for such a long time so that when it was time to get loud, it just came naturally to me.
Describe your first musical memory.
Probably singing along to my dad’s Beatles records or hammering my fists on one of those toy pianos that it seems like we all had at some point in our childhoods.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I got to see Roger Waters perform the Wall two times when he toured that album again a couple of years back. The Wall has been one of my favorite albums since I was a kid so that was huge for me.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Constantly, I’m a pretty stubborn person which leads to firmly holding onto beliefs that turn out to be pretty stupid. It’s good to get checked every now and then especially if you’re pig-headed by nature. Change is good, it’s tough to deal with but always worth it in the end.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I think the fact that you can’t really know where it leads is the exciting part, if you end up surprising yourself you’re doing it right and that is a whole lot easier when you work with other people.
It’s easy to get stuck on writing songs in “your” style if you do it alone and then it just feels repetitive and stale. To me at least.
But when it’s a collaborative effort the result will end up being greater than the sum of its parts and that’s when the really great stuff comes out.
So I guess you can say that artistic progression leads to more social interactions, which is nice for an aging introvert like myself.
How do you define success?
I would define it as something to aspire to but not something one should achieve. There’s a finality to that term that makes it kind of weird.
In pretty much all biographies or documentaries of famous people, the stage where the subject “makes it” is always the point where things start to go south in one way or another. True success , in my opinion, is to have the stamina and passion to keep improving and always have another branch to reach for.
Set small attainable goals and celebrate milestones, not some mythical endpoint that’s difficult to reach and potentially soul crushing if you do.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I wish I had never seen “Rocky horror picture show” so I could see it for the first time again! Don’t know if it’d hit the same way when you’re pushing 40 though.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I recently got back into traditional hand drawn 2D-animation on our two latest videos and I would love to do a short film or something in that style. Just for fun. I’ve been playing around with a few ideas but it’s a time consuming process and there’s only so many hours in the day.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To express things that can’t really be expressed any other way, I guess it is hiding behind abstraction to some degree but for me at least it’s about expressing ideas and feelings that I can’t express in a more direct way.
That’s why I feel the best art is spontaneous, if you’re trying to convey a fleeting idea and it goes through 200 iterations something will inevitably be lost in the process. The first couple of stabs at a song/artpiece is often the best even if it is a bit rough around the edges. I am also aware of the irony of that statement coming from a dude in a band that takes over three years to release an album.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
In the spirit of setting attainable goals I’m looking forward to getting off work and goofing around with my dog.
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