Paraphrased Mark McGuire (of Emeralds) interview

So I recorded a Mark McGuire + Outer Space show, as well as interviewing Mark, and of course my hard-drive filled up twenty seconds after I began recording the interview. I wrote down everything I remembered and then I sort of reduced it to fairly preserve the gist of the conversation. 

First off, Skylab is probably the illest venue I can think of in Columbus. It's basically an apartment, on the fifth floor, and all kinds of novelty items, instruments, posters, machines, etc. And with a lot of cool people hanging out.  Bring some drinks along and any night there is well-spent. 

Is your music more an expression of something within yourself, or is it something you create as a means of emotionally affecting yourself?

He basically opted for the former. He said it came more from within and spoke of how second-nature and instinctual his approach is. 

Your shows involve building something out of individual parts. When you are writing music, do you ever find yourself forgetting the blueprint of a song?

He agreed for sure that this happens, but he said that this makes it cooler. He mentioned this as a reason for why it’s good to record everything. 

Is there a particular imagery you associate with your own sounds and music?

He said that he does associate his experience of imagery with his music, but also brought up that other people bring their own experiences and imagery.

There is a wide spectrum of artists who use repetition to different extents and for vastly different purposes. Still, people perceive a divide between repetitive music and non-repetitive music. Can you guess where this attitude towards music might stem from?

He could not guess, and said he doesn’t know why people think some things. He suggested that some people can “zone out” while others suffer from ADHD. 

I had a conversation with a friend of mine where we discussed whether the use of tapes is a purely formatting decision, or also a textural one, and even a compositional one. Do you see putting one group of songs onto “Side A,” and another onto “Side B,” as creating mini-suites?  

He agreed that this can occur, but more after the fact for him and not as a conscious or pre-meditated thing.

Does knowing whether music is improvised or not change your perspective of it?

He said that it does, as well as saying that if someone knows music is improvised, that it could be good to see an artist develop a fully-formed piece of music on the spot. 

Were you improvising tonight?

He said that he had a couple rough ideas.  

Do you associate the concept of looping music with spiritual concepts such as ritual?

No, he did not.