The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions inteded 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: Tim Otis of High Noon Kahuna

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

Make sounds with the intention of accentuating, enhancing, or supporting other sounds around me. It all happened very organically. In high school I played guitar… a lot. Then I became very interested in drumming and started jamming on drums about 5 years later. It was a very organic transition from drumming by myself, to free-form jamming (mostly with Matt LeGrow and our brothers), then those free-form jams evolved into Admiral Browning.

About nine years ago I got back into guitar big time. Revisiting old riffs I had, learning new stuff. Exploring tones, pedals, amps, different pickups and stuff like that. Started jamming on guitar with a neighbor who drummed, shortly Paul joined us on Wednesday nights to jam. It was also very organic, we never “constructed” a song as much as we honed free-form jams into songs.

Describe your first musical memory.

My zeroth musical memory is piano lessons as a young kid, I remember not liking my piano teacher at all. Hahah! Beyond that, mom and dad played guitar, bass, banjo, piano and sang at church, so I had early access to instruments, PA systems and microphones. I have several memories of playing with this stuff, learning about it, and singing in musicals as a young person in church. However my favorite thing to do in those days was to hear Rick Dees weekly top forty. I would rush to the radio on Sunday nights when it
aired. It was the highlight of my week as a young kid. Not only tracking where my favorite artists were on the charts (Duran Duran) but I was equally fascinated by some of the side stories Rick would share when introducing a song or band.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

This is a recent one! Our latest High Noon Kahuna recording with Kevin Bernstein at Developing Nations! We went in with about 80% of the songs fully-baked, done, and dusted. We had sketches and rough drafts of the other 20 percent with enough time booked to fully explore and experiment in the studio. It was liberating and wonderful! Out of this freedom we created what I think is one of the coolest tracks on the new album, “Tumbleweed Nightmare.”

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

Drumming showed me my limits were mental. When I was at my physical limit, the riffs and music drove me to push past those limits. I can run or workout with weights or kickbox or kayak or ride uphill on a bike, but nothing on earth pushes me to my limit and enables me to break past my limits like drumming and more importantly, being a collaborator in the musical sounds of the band.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Betterment! With any form of art, it starts small, and sometimes it starts bad. As we learn and grow while practicing, our art becomes better. Every time we practice our art is a chance to improve.

How do you define success?

Success, to me, is being happy with yourself, your surroundings, the people in your life, and your work. Society always dangles the carrot in front of us, there will always be something we don’t have. Being motivated and driven enough to keep working hard every single day and on days when the motivation isn’t there, having resiliency to push through the items that need doing, that’s how I’m able to feel successful at the end of the day.

As far as a band setting goes, there are thousands of micro-to-macro successes. Celebrating each one of those can manifest more. Things like, inventing a new part for a song, having a good practice jam, playing a fun show, a successful recording session. Each of these are rewarding and should be seen as successes.

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

The bathroom at the Springwater Supper Club & Lounge in Nashville Tennessee. Love that place, many of my good friends have worked there and booked shows there. Have played several amazing shows there and attended some awesome parties and shows there. But, wow that bathroom was bad! All the things you’d expect from a punk-rock bathroom. Few rival it, however the bathroom at the Meatlocker in Montclair New Jersey and the bathroom at the Milestone in Charlotte North Carolina were contenders.

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

I think everyone who is a true music fan/nerd has developing tastes. I’m thankful that I’ve never reached the end of my musical journey as a fan of music. I’m also thankful for my friends over the years who have showed me new music. As my tastes and preferences evolve I’m thankful that new ideas emerge regularly that challenge my own musical abilities and push me beyond my limits.

As far as non-musical creations, I’ve been getting back into drawing, lettering and calligraphy. There are a few ideas here that I’m working on creating.

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

Expression. Art allows us to convey our attitudes and emotions on different levels. Art can be beautiful, art can be brutal, art can be beautifully brutal or brutally beautiful. I’m thankful for the ability to express these emotions in ways that resonate in ways beyond just talking about them.

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

I’ve been watching every werewolf movie I can find since last Halloween, there are roughly 70 on my list. I look forward to seeing them all. (Suggestions and recommendations welcome!) Some upcoming tattoo work I’m getting. Spending some fun summer time with my wife, hounds, and mother nature.

https://linktr.ee/highnoonkahuna
https://highnoonkahuna.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/highnoonkahuna/
https://www.facebook.com/HighNoonKahuna/

https://linktr.ee/crucial_blast
http://www.crucialblast.bandcamp.com
http://www.crucialblast.net
http://www.facebook.com/CrucialBlast
https://www.instagram.com/crucial_blast/

High Noon Kahuna, This Place is Haunted (2024)

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: Joey Toscano of Iota

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

In order of priority, I live a life and then I write songs about it. Art comes out of living, so I don’t put music above everything else, or try to live by some fixed identity like, “I’m a musician”. I observe my own living and mindstream within this absurd world — experiencing the suffering and the joy just like everyone else — doing my best to fully experience, equally, the mundane and the extraordinary, though I don’t claim to be exceptionally good at that part. And then out of that, at the very bottom of the funnel, there just happens to be a preference for communicating and sharing it via music/sound. It’s all play and pretend.

I’ve come to it in different ways between 10yo, 20yo, and so on. Very recently, I’ve come to do what I’m doing now because a friend asked me to play the leads on a record he wrote. I wasn’t very active at that point, but found motivation in wanting to help a friend realize his musical vision. That in turn lead me to being inspired to finish an album that’d been sitting on the shelf for a few years. Then that lead to inspiration for writing another album. Interconnectivity and an infinite web of new starting
points.

Describe your first musical memory.

Probably about 5 years old, I’d pretend our vacuum cleaner was a microphone—singing along to mom’s Journey and Michael Jackson records. I’d also spend hours just flipping through the records, soaking in the cover art. Lots of CCR, Beatles, Elton John, Neil Young. That’s what I remember being in her collection.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I’ll go with the first record I ever connected with on a level that had me obsessed with listening to it all day, every day. That moment when you’re a kid and you get your first Walkman. Just completely absorbed in the music and your own emotional world. Pissing off your parents because you can’t hear anything they’re saying. That seems to be where everything has sprung from.

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

Great question. I’d say it’s usually when I put my head on the pillow at night. Not every night, but that’s the typical scenario. It’s when the realization hits hardest that something I was clinging to or arguing about so intensely doesn’t really matter at all. All the plans I was making, all the mundane things I thought I wanted to align myself with. All of it just vapor. I used to firmly believe that life is just a straight line, but over the last 10 years or so, I’ve experienced some things that have shaken that belief and I realize now that it’s something much different than that. I have faith that most of our beliefs are bullshit.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Well, if done with the right intention, I think perhaps enlightenment? Or at least towards a clearer, more positive understanding of one’s perceived self and their place in the world. An understanding of how your chosen craft can be of benefit to others is critical. I like that Japanese term, Shokunin. Such a great concept for artist progression. Whether you’re a mechanic, electrician, chef, writer, accountant or musician. You have a responsibility to master your craft. And in turn, you benefit someone else with that mastery. I could be misinterpreting it, but that’s how I understand it. If you put the mastery of your craft into that perspective, then the ego will eventually dissipate.

How do you define success?

A relative state of being where one has stabilized in genuine peace of mind and happiness, regardless of their situation.

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

Seeing my dog get run over.

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

I fantasize about doing movie soundtracks, though everyone I know who’s done it tells me it’s usually an excruciating process.

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

Essential function is to teach us about ourselves. That doesn’t make the artist the teacher, though. How we perceive art says more about us than it does the creator. If something disgusts us, we should ask ourselves why. Same goes for when something elates us. This is why the same piece of art can have so many different meanings.

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

It will sound really boring but I look forward to doing absolutely nothing and being completely content about it

https://www.facebook.com/iotaslc
https://www.instagram.com/iotaslc
https://www.iotaslc.com

https://www.facebook.com/smallstonerecords
https://www.instagram.com/smallstonerecords
https://smallstone.bandcamp.com/
https://smallstone.com

Iota, Pentasomnia (2024)

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: Matt Harvey of Exhumed, Gruesome, Pounder, etc.

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

I guess I define what I do as making shit – or taking things from my mind and working them into something other people can also check out – whether that’s a piece of music, writing, drawing or whatever it might be. So yeah, making shit.

Describe your first musical memory.

That’s a tough one. My earliest musical memories are tangled up in other stuff – I remember the theme song and all of the musical score pieces for the Spider-Man cartoon from the late 60s very vividly from my childhood, but there was also music from Star Wars, Chariots of Fire, Raiders of the Lost Ark and tons of stuff from my Dad’s record collection – stuff I love like Hendrix, Cream, the Beatles, the Allman Brothers, the Kinks, the Who, the soundtrack to The Big Chill, which had a ton of old Motown tracks on it – and stuff that kinda bugs me like Janis Joplin, Emerson Lake and Palmer and stuff like that. That was all of the stuff floating around my house circa 1979-1981, which are really the first memories I can sort of conjure in the corner of my eye. When I try to really wrap my perception around them or see them clearly, they recede, but they’re definitely there. I remember humming all the time as a kid while I drew – I loved to draw as a little kid, mostly comic book stuff – and my mom asking me what I was humming and I had no idea, it was just whatever little tune was running through my head, so I guess that’s always been there. I feel very lucky that little tune has never stopped, it’s just mutated and spiraled and branched into a tangle of streams and floods and tributaries of consciousness.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

As an audience member, I think my favorite moment came while watching S&M II in San Francisco where Metallica played with the symphony. There was a fantastic contrabass player who did an incredible arrangement of Anesthesia – Pulling Teeth that was incredibly moving. Knowing what that might have meant to Cliff had he lived to see it just filled me with an unexpected surge of emotion that brought me to the brink of tears. As a songwriter or a player, I don’t know that there’s a “best moment” really. I love the feeling of each tiny, incremental epiphany that comes from finally making sense of some aspect of music theory or coming up with a sick riff or seeing your idea work in ways you didn’t even anticipate. Every time is amazing, and it happens all the time. That’s what keeps me interested (okay, maybe obsessed) with writing music pretty much all the time.

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

Over the years, I’ve come to be more objective about my own perspectives, or at least I’ve tried to become more objective. One shift that was significant to me was that I realized that I grew up thinking that the most important things in my music were the music itself and (most importantly) why I was making that music. In learning from / working with others, I’ve come to realize that the presentation and execution of the idea is as important (sometimes more important) than the idea itself. I always saw that as secondary, and shied away from it by trying to call it vanity or pretension, but I realize now spending time on the presentation and execution (whether it be the instruments and gear used to execute the idea or the production values, etc) enriches the idea itself and helps people understand the “why” behind it. That’s a truth that took far too long for me to consider, and even longer for me to admit and subsequently embrace.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

It can lead pretty much anywhere – which is what’s so exciting about it. But for me, I try to make sure it’s not a linear path. I don’t want to progress into a “final form,” because that implies that the journey has an endpoint. I know it’s cliché, but the point is the journey itself, following each tangent into something new and interesting – even if it leads to frustration or “failure,” there’s value in the journey and in the seeking of something. It’s like knowing yourself – a thing that’s never fully possible, but it’s 100% valuable to pursue. I’d say progression leads away from stagnation, away from ideological death and towards something vital and something real.

How do you define success?

Satisfaction with your work – fulfillment from your work, both artistically (the first priority) and materially. Also muscle cars, hookers and cocaine. Kidding (sort of).

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

I remember being really intoxicated in San Francisco years and years ago and somehow my girlfriend and I were hanging out with someone that worked in the morgue of a hospital. As we continued to imbibe, we left the bar and they ended up taking us on a walkthrough which was really interesting. They offered to show me the corpse of a Jane Doe that had washed up out of the bay and clearly they thought it would be cool if I wanted to check it out. I agreed, but upon seeing the body, bloated and discolored from being in the water, I instantly regretted it. I felt like I was intruding on something personal and sad and it wasn’t my business to see that. Whoever that person was, they deserved better than to be leered out by some drunk coked-out Death Metal guy.

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

A full-length, epic motion-picture soundtrack.

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

Communication – it’s a way of communicating things that you may not even understand about what you’re feeling to people who then not only connect with you and your feelings, but internalize that art and connect it to their own experiences and emotions. That’s a wonderful, wondrous thing to attempt.

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

Summer, also known as the best season!

https://mattharveymustbedestroyed.bandcamp.com/

Matt Harvey, Toward the Cold Light (2024)

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: Eduardo Camini of Locomotiva Elétrica

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

I define Music as an Art that makes me leave everyday reality and explore “mental spaces” that I can only access through it. The same music that brings me relief and makes my mind calmer to move forward.

Describe your first musical memory.

Music came into my life in the late 80s, through Rock bands that I started to enjoy because of my older sister. Playing the guitar came next, and the rest is history…

Describe your best musical memory to date.

The best musical memory is not just one, but every time I can go on stage and play, in addition to the shows I was able to see artists I like.

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

I believe it was in 2009 at the first Ozzy Osbourne concert I saw. The expectation was for a bad show due to Ozzy’s age but I went to see “the guy” who invented Heavy Metal. But the show was awesome and really changed my perception about career time/expectations.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I believe it leads to exploring chords, textures and sound experiences that at a given moment we didn’t imagine existed or that we believed wouldn’t fit into a certain song. Furthermore, I think there is a change in conception about a musical career.

How do you define success?

I think that success is something that is in everyone’s head, very particular. My success can be something everyday for someone else and vice versa, so I can only talk about my success. For me, it’s being in cool places, doing what I like with people who make me feel comfortable.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn´t?

Musically speaking, I’ve seen many fantastic bands ending up in limbo or artists leaving this life. This hurts because so much good music has been lost.

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

I have two musical dreams: having a studio and recording a vinyl.

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

Make people feel good about themselves.

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

Right now I long for an end to the clashes between different countries that I have seen on the news. This is all very wrong.

https://www.instagram.com/locomotivaeletrica/
https://locomotivaeletrica.bandcamp.com/

Locomotiva Elétrica, Os Animais Que Nos Habitam (2024)

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: Bill Kielty of O Zorn!

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

When I first heard the band Electric Wizard in like 2001/2002, I thought wow, this sounds amazing. I want to do something like that. The band I was in at the time was kinda rock, kinda emo. Just kinda lame. I was sick to death of it. When that band broke up, I formed a band called Who Rides The Tiger, and started exploring the darker sound. Tuned down. Got heavy. That band disbanded in 2008 or so. A couple years later, I formed O ZORN! and went even heavier with it. Not sure I can define exactly what we’re doing at the moment, but I feel like we’re progressing.

Describe your first musical memory.

My family went to some folk festival at the University of Riverside in California. I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. My memory of it is super spotty, but the picture in my head has stuck with me my entire life. The venue was called “The Barn” and throughout all my twenties and early thirties, it was THE local venue for all things punk, metal and hardcore. Saw a shitload of bands roll through there and took the stage myself a bunch. It’s still there. Place went soft years ago. Mostly cover and tribute bands these days.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

The Ramones and Murphys Law at the Palladium in 1989. It was the Pet Cemetery tour. I was really young. My best friend’s older brother drove us to Hollywood, which was a first. It was the loudest thing I’d ever heard. The pit was the scariest thing I’d ever seen. My ears were ringing for three days after. It was fuckin awesome.

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

For years, I firmly believed that I could control my drinking. Turns out, after years of trying, I cannot. I tried REALLY hard though.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

For me, artistic progression simply leads to and justifies me continuing to create.

How do you define success?

Seeing something through, no matter the task, as long as there’s some sense of accomplishment.

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

Many years ago, I spotted Kerry King (Slayer) buying a scented candle in Things Remembered at The Galleria Mall in Riverside. I’ve never looked at him the same since.

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

I’d like to start painting someday. Maybe a large oil painting. I feel like I’d be pretty good at it.

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

I think there’s many functions but for me, Art allows my brain some escape from my daily bullshit. Temporarily of course. Most of us don’t have enough of it weaved into our lives.

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

I’m looking forward to the day where the last of the boomers are out of office.

[Photo credit: @Twistedtripodphotography]

https://www.ozornrocks.com
https://www.facebook.com/ozornrocks
https://www.instagram.com/ozornrocks

https://www.seeingredrecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/seeingredrecords
https://www.instagram.com/seeing_red_records

O Zorn!, “Slow Mood” from Vermillion Haze (2024)

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: Dave Buschemeyer of Omen Astra

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

Hi. My name is Dave Buschemeyer. I am a musician, a printmaker/ artist and have been recently diving into performance art. I play guitar in Omen Astra and have spent time in New Day Rising, Spread The Disease, Die In The Light and a bunch more. I came to make music in the hardcore scene in the early 90’s. It quickly became a passion of mine after being introduced to punk (as a thrash metal head) in the late 80’s and going to see shows in the grimy punk scene in Toronto. Shortly after, I became interested in mixed-media art, went to University for Philosophy and ended up developing a love for print. I am currently back in University to finish a BFA in Print Media with an eye to transitioning to an MFA in either print or Interdisciplinary studies. Inside this very shortened timeline… I was a plumber by trade, which is a very long story.

Describe your first musical memory.

I’m unsure it can be considered the first, because memory is always being changed anytime you think of a thing, but I would say that one of the earliest memories I have is as a child watching my mom sing “Only The Lonely” by Roy Orbison in the kitchen. My mom really loved to sing and Orbison was one of her favorites. Years later, as a teen, my parents asked me to go and see him live in concert with them. I said no. I now recount that as one of those regrettable things you do as a young person that thinks they know some things. Of course, I am now a huge fan of Roy Orbison, and I wish I could go back in time and convince my younger self to stop saying No to everything.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Best is a tough thing to consider because I strive pretty hard to avoid summing up experiences in a pyramid. However… I will answer it this way… One of my most notable musical memories is seeing Faith No More in 1990 in Mississauga, Ontario. At this show, I got kicked out for stage diving and security wouldn’t let me back in, but by some luck someone affiliated with the band opened the door and motioned to Security to let the few of us standing out there to come back in. We promised profusely not to stage dive anymore… and then quickly made our way to the front to continue. This was probably the one event that set up my love for Faith No More and almost all things Mike Patton.

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

This is a big one for me… as a young adult man I had my ill-informed sense of atheism tested to the core via experiences developed in meditation. In particular, I had a couple “experiences” that made me see just how interconnected all of existence is. This was an incredibly profound shift in my own consciousness that informs who I am today and has sparked a whole printmaking path based on wanting to find ways to visually show something of this inner understanding. Quickly, I recognized that words, being finite packets of meaning, would never be able to show something of the depth of insight as Interconnectedness. So, art being the language of soul and the heart was the closest I could come to doing so. When it comes to music, I am always trying to write something cohesive and final, something closed, something that feels complete and whole. The closest I have come to that is the Omen Astra album. For me, it is a high water mark in my creative music making because it feels the most resolved and completed. I am very fond of that record.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Artistic progression either leads one of two ways. An artist is either singular-minded and decides to forge a path based on their ideological assumptions, or an artist is open to existence and allows the dizzying depths of it to inform them of their path. In this, I am describing stages of how I have approached making creative work. There was a point where I realized that performing an action ideologically, or for ideological reasons, was somehow less important or felt less meaningful than if I made work based on what is bubbling up in me in the moment. Without going into it too much, I am starting to find that art that is based on ideology is often boring and rarely gets me to ask more questions of the work. But art that comes from a sense of openness and free play, and originates from a place of curiosity is often art that has me looking deeper. The first kind of art, as I see it, is making statements about the world, and comes from a place of supposed knowing. The second kind is art that comes from a place of openness and wonder. It is this second kind that I am often drawn to. So, an ideologically driven person will make statements like “you cannot take the politics out of art”. A more nuanced and “open” artist may say “There are political ramifications in everything, but I choose not to engage in that because it only says something about the social realm… whereas I am attempting to talk about the feel of a snowflake on the tip of my tongue.”

How do you define success?

I have no specific definition of success, except that for me if it feels right, and everything is aligning after all of the effort, then it is successful.

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

I have witnessed a couple people die in front of me. And there have been times where I wish I was spared that somehow, but I’m honestly of a different mind now. I think those experiences have served to give me a much greater appreciation for people and life. I try to say Thank You, and to smile, and to be helpful as much as possible… all because I’ve seen just how short and tragic human existence can be. I guess the answer is… at this point in my progression there isn’t anything I wish I hadn’t seen/ witnessed.

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

I have this notion that at some point I will make some visual representation of my experiences in meditation that will be so compelling and so profoundly understood that I will no longer wish to keep creating because no better example is possible. Of course, I do realize that this will never happen, but at some point, this became heavy motivation for me to keep trying new things in my print practice in order to discover some new way of communicating it. In writing this out, I am struck by just how romantic this sounds… and also possibly how futile it really is.

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

Art is a mirror for the soul. It’s most essential function is to draw out those key qualities in human existence that transcend ephemerality…. At heart, I suppose I am a Platonist. For me, the reason why great art talks to us is because on some level it’s tickling at an understanding that is already within us. And so the role of art in this way is to show our deepest, truest selves to ourselves. It is very fashionable to talk about Ephemerality and to assume that change is the nature of the entirety of existence. But, for me, when you’re art is about a pre-ephemeral state of being, about something that stands resolutely outside of change and decay, I have to reject it as a fundamental, but keep working within it to show it’s opposite. Dont’ get me wrong… ephemerality is the playstuff of the artist. I lean into it without even recognizing it, but ultimately I am always striving to say something lasting. And perhaps it is the striving itself that outlasts. I am aware that these ideas fly in the face of post-modernism and I wrestle a lot with the contradiction and feel like I’m a man displaced out of his rightful time. LOL

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

I am looking forward to art openings, record releases and any other creative thing I can get my hands into. Thank you for this interview.

LINK TREE- https://linktr.ee/davebuschemeyer

WEBSITE- https://www.davebuschemeyer.com/

PERFORMANCE- https://vimeo.com/davebuschemeyer

INSTA MUSIC- https://www.instagram.com/davebuschemeyer_music/

INSTA ART- https://www.instagram.com/davebuschemeyer_artist/

PERSONAL BC- https://davebuschemeyer.bandcamp.com/

OMEN ASTRA BC- https://omenastra.bandcamp.com/

SPREAD THE DISEASE BC- https://spreadthedisease.bandcamp.com/

NEW DAY RISING BC- https://newdayrising-hardcoreband.bandcamp.com/

DIE IN THE LIGHT BC- https://dieinthelight.bandcamp.com/

THOUGHT WAVE BC- https://thoughtwave.bandcamp.com/

THE CHINA WHITE BC- https://thechinawhite.bandcamp.com/album/the-gun-of-the-enemy

THE ABANDONED HEARTS CLUB BC- https://theabandonedheartsclub1.bandcamp.com/

THE FORMLESS FORM BC- https://formlessform.bandcamp.com/album/stillest-embrace

WITHOUT LUNGS BC- https://withoutlungs.bandcamp.com/album/simpler-times-ep

http://linktr.ee/omenastra
http://www.instagram.com/omen_astra
http://www.facebook.com/omenastra

http://linktr.ee/hypaethralrecords
​​http://instagram.com/hypaethralrecords
http://www.facebook.com/hypaethralrecords

http://www.instagram.com/protaginc

http://www.instagram.com/momentofcollapserecords

Omen Astra, The End of Everything (2023)

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: Kamil Ziółkowski of Mountain of Misery, Spaceslug, O.D.R.A., Palm Desert, Etc.

—

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

When it comes to issues related to playing music, which is probably what the question is about, I define myself as, on the one hand, a drummer in several bands, but also a creator of music, and the creation of music, the creative process itself, is what I like the most. The symbiosis between several people functioning as a band is something wonderful and the resultant of their actions creating a common creation gives great satisfaction. The love for playing and creating music began when I was 16 years old and that’s when I started playing bass, a year later I switched to drums and it stayed that way, it’s what I identify with the most.

Describe your first musical memory.

It’s hard to single out any specific memory, music has basically always accompanied me. I was lucky that my father listened to broadly understood rock music, and this type of sounds accompanied me from childhood. Bands like Black Sabbath, TOTO, Marillion, Genesis and so on, they shaped me as a person and as a guy who would play music in the future. I started collecting music on physical media when I was 7, back then it was still cassette tapes, first it was… Roxette (!), then things like Def Leppard, and finally grunge, mainly Pearl Jam, then Soundgarden and this was the time I consider it “forming me” as a listener. I love and listen to these bands to this day.

Describe your best musical memory so far.

As a listener, it’s a concert by The Cure, which I love and was at in concert years ago. As a musician, it’s probably the entire period since 2008, when I finally managed to create good things, then the bands I was in were formed and their functioning gave me a lot of fun, I’m talking about Palm Desert and O.D.R.A, and a few years later Spaceslug appeared, the band from which I am probably best known on the broadly understood underground scene.

When was a strongly held belief tested?

You’re asking if I ever doubted playing music. If so, the years between 2006 and 2008 were such a dead period that I was seriously considering selling the drums and calling it quits. Then there was a big revival, as I mentioned above, from that moment on I can’t imagine the moment when I would stop doing it. I would feel an incredible emptiness inside myself if that happened.

Where do you think artistic progress is leading?

Progress can only be assessed from the perspective of time, 50 years ago everyone could also be surprised and announce the end of something when it turned out that progress contributed to something good. I think that artistic progress always goes in the right direction, after all, it is art, right?

How do you define success?

Success is doing something for a long time that gives you satisfaction.

If we evaluate it in hindsight and are satisfied with it, then we can say that we have achieved it.

The scale of success depends, of course, on our expectations and perspective, and is different for everyone.

Have you seen something you wish you hadn’t seen?

Yes, the internet is terrible. I won’t go into details, but I didn’t realize how far can go people to satisfy their sexual “needs” ;)

Describe something you haven’t created yet but would like to create.

Simple, something original enough to take your breath away… And on a more down-to-earth level, in strictly musical terms, I would like to create rock music supported by string instruments, specifically violins.

What do you think is the most important function of art?

Bringing beauty and happiness to everyone who wants to interact with it.

Something non-musical you’re looking forward to?

I can’t wait for my first trip to the United States in next month (January) . Although I’m going there to play a concert with Spaceslug, I also treat it as a journey to the big world, to the place from which I have drawn culture since I was a child, the world with which I was so fascinated, and finally, after many years, such an opportunity arose for the first time.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553104355582
https://mountainofmisery.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552988139323

https://www.facebook.com/spaceslugband/
https://www.instagram.com/spaceslug_pl/
https://spaceslug.bandcamp.com/music

Mountain of Misery, In Roundness (2023)

Mountain of Misery, Anthem of Sadness (2023)

Spaceslug, Memorial (2021)

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: Tyler Vaillant of Mountainwolf

—

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

I’ve created and maintained a very confined space in which I can create and express exactly what I want to do. A decade plus of diligently procrastinating but always moving the stone forward, assembling a team of the greatest and most patient people I know. We play with electricity. Finding new notes and sounds. Creating a song in the moment that can never be played note for note ever again. Screaming “WE’LL BE A BAND FOREVER” at the end of every show. I think I fell into it. I’ve had a band ever since middle school and I don’t know what I’d do without one, I’ve never pictured that scenario.

Describe your first musical memory.

Playing an open E on my mother’s classical guitar. I had just heard Nirvana on the radio. That’s the first time I made my own music (noise). Prior to that I had a cassette tape with a bunch of cowboy songs on it. My neighbor Mikey and I would wear our underwear and cowboy hats and re-create the songs for our mothers. I purchased Will Smith Big Willy Style and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid at a Sam Goody. I would ride a train to South Carolina to visit my grandparents and listen to those albums on compact disks. I was so confused how the solo to War Pigs had two guitars when there was only one guitar player. I heard Kashmir on the radio driving with my Dad to his business in a white pickup truck. It was heavy. My mother signed all of my cousins up for guitar lessons and I wanted nothing to do with it. I was 9. I regretted it 4 years later and signed up for my own. Been hooked ever since. I saw my cousins highs cool band when I was very young, blew me away. He taught me how to play Deliverance on the guitar, just the first couple notes, the “famous lick”. All these kind of mesh into one.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Seeing TOOL was pretty cool. Getting puddled at an Umphreys McGee show was not cool but very psychedelic at the same time. Playing our first sold out show was awesome. Having my grandmother see Mountainwolf live and saying, “That was very sexual darling” was wild. My Mom meeting Lorenza at one of our shows was wild. Playing our first shows in my living room in downtown Annapolis and seeing people crowd surf over my couches was insane. Playing The Whiskey on mushrooms and smashing a guitar was way too psychedelic. Bass amps and PA’s catching on fire was nuts. Losing my shoes and then sifting through a sea of them at an Odd Future show ruled. Almost losing my teeth at Trapped Under Ice sucked. Playing a residency once a week for a month in Baltimore was tite. Recording an entire improvised album and learning how to mix it was stressful but extremely rewarding. Looking over at Tom and Chris when we are dialed in is the best. Playing New Years Eve 2023 surrounded by my favorite people on the planet was electric.

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

We’ve always done everything ourselves. For a couple year period we transferred that power to other people. While we got a lot accomplished (and for that I’m ever grateful) a lot of bullshit came along and truly tested the three of ours relationship. Our bond was almost fucked. We’ve kept it contained ever since.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Towards something bigger than ourselves. Something that is constantly being worked on but never truly finished. Hopefully being improved upon and if not, thats’s ok, there’s always the next time. Eventually a sense of Zen where you look back and around and say, I’m proud of this, I hope it lasts as long as I do.

How do you define success?

When I look back and around and say, I’m proud of this, I hope it lasts as long as I do. This is a current feeling.

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

Pain Olympics. Gore.com. Goatse. Lemon Party. A video of a girl throwing puppies into a river. The early days of the internet were fucked up for a young boi. I hate seeing videos of bad things happen to animals. Beheading videos. Texts on people’s phones I shouldn’t have looked at. Waking up to a person that wasn’t the person I loved at the time. How much money was taken from this band. How much money I’ve spent on this band. An open casket funeral when I was 10. My grandfather shortly after he passed away. Lorenza’s (my fiance) father withering away. Shitty emails from a toxic boss. Dismantling my father’s business in my 20s. Waking up one morning to see our first YouTube channel deleted. Realizing I lost the first five years of content I created for Mountainwolf. The look of disappointment because of something I’ve done. Angry, dead eyes. Sinister, conniving eyes. But mainly that video of the girl with the puppies, absolutely dreadful. I think I lost my innocence that day.

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

All our future albums that live in my head. Graphic novels. I wrote a book that I’d like to see published. A youtube fishing channel (work in progress). A warehouse my best friends can come to and create everyday. A vinyl pressing plant. A cheap, shitty light beer that I can drink everyday. Children.

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

To get the anger out. To get the love out. To get the pain out. To create a cathartic experience that can be enjoyed over, and over, and over et al.

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

Getting married. The next fish I catch. Sleeping with my puppy. Beer that doesn’t make you hungover. Gambling on bowling with my bois. Getting together with family. The first snowfall in Maryland (if any). Buying my first home (if ever). Getting back into Texas Holdem. Seeing my puppy (Rudy) play with other dogs. Peace, love, and understanding.

http://facebook.com/mountainwolfmd
https://www.instagram.com/mountainwolfmusic
https://mountainwolf.bandcamp.com/
http://mountainwolfmusic.com/

Mountainwolf, Part 1: Thunder Honey (2023)