Thursday, April 12, 2012

Counterfeit i interviews Jim Combs/Sensitive Chaos


COUNTERFEIT I

A GLIMPSE, AN ECLIPSE

MUSICIAN INTERVIEW WITH JIM COMBS

Here is our interview with our friend Jim Combs from Sensitive Chaos. Check him out:
What do you think is your role as a musician today?
Jim: My role is to find new ways to open my ears and mind to new sounds and music, and hopefully influence other people's minds, too. Alot of my music is about slowing things down and letting original thoughts shine through the media barrage that is so much of our existence today.

How do you feel about today's popular music? How does it influence how people view your art?
Jim: Popular music hides the majority of great music that's available. I hear more genuinely good music on my iTunes library set to shuffle in an afternoon than I hear on the radio over a year. And my library has a ton of popular music on it (Ashlee Simpson and Jesse McCartney just popped up on my flight back from NYC this week). It's just that popular music is so narrowly programmed, it misses 99.9999% of all the great music available.

That said, most people who listen to popular music will recognize something interesting and familiar in my music. Synthesizers and drum machines are the norm.

Do you feel there is a justifiable distinction between your art and what is popular among the masses?
Jim: No, both are cultural expressions. My personal art just gets less exposure than mass artists, though I'm pretty lucky with radio airplay in comparison to many of my extremely talented peers. With the success of Trent Reznor's music in Academy Award-level films, and Laurie Spiegel's music now in The Hunger Games, electronic music continues to receive plenty of airtime. You'll rarely hear it on the radio anymore, however.

Do you think music as an art form is fading away?
Jim: No, the art form is strong, but the music itself is integrated into everything we do, so it has become ubiquitous and commoditized. The noise level of the mass market is high, and you have to be really clever to get noticed.

Why do you feel driven to be a musician?
I was just born with it. It's a blessing and a curse. I'm my most happiest when music is involved. One of those genes we carry around in our DNA must relate to music, and in my case, it is a primary trait. Just wish my hand coordination was better;^)

No comments: