David Grubbs

The Exclaim! Questionnaire

BY None NonePublished Nov 17, 2016

Who are you?
David Grubbs

What are you up to?
New record, The Spectrum Between, on Drag City; touring in North America and Europe; currently have audio installation up at the Pompidou Center and appear on Pauline Oliveros's new Primordial/Lift.

Hometown and current HQ:
Louisville, KY and Brooklyn, NY

Current fixations:
A movie: Hou's Flowers of Shanghai; two recordings: Red Krayola forthcoming EP and Charlemagne Palestine's Jamaica Heinekens in Brooklyn; three books: Beckett's Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable; four Jamaican side dishes (equals dinner): rice and beans, carrots and cabbage, macaroni and cheese, plantains.

Mind altering work of art:
The New York subway system.

Most memorable/inspirational gig and why?
Among many contenders, Royal Trux playing for five minutes or less (Chicago, 1990?) and the Magnetic Fields playing for two hours or more (Chicago, 1997?) ? both more or less perfect shows.

What should everyone shut up about?
Having moved to NY within the last yesterday I'm still freaked out about how money is a part of every discussion.

Your greatest strength/weakness:
I like the way you separate those words with a slash. Whatever it is for me, it's likely to be one and the same, or rather one/the same.

Your vital daily ritual:
Coffee and newspaper before talking, please.

Guilty pleasures:
I try not to feel guilty about pleasure. That's the sort of adult I've always wanted to be.

If I wasn't playing music I would be…
If only I knew, if only I knew.

Your most memorable day job:
Academic.

Best/worst advice received:
Here the slash doesn't bind "one" and "the same." Best: something along the lines of "you'll do it when you're ready to do it"; worst: some sort of threat beginning "Someday when you get a real job..."

I would drop everything to play a benefit for…
Brooklyn Legal Services or Legal Aid. Any anti-death penalty organisation.

What makes you want to take it off and get it on?
That special someone.

What personal trait would make you kick someone out of your band and/or bed? And have you?
Calling me by my first name. No, I'm joking.

When I think of Canada I think…
of people in Saskatoon yelling "Learn how to tune yer guitar!"

Music and sex: Is there a difference? Why?
I sort of think that sex is a type of music, but not the reverse. (Higher opinion of sex than of music?)

Strangest brush with celebrity:
Gastr del Sol being interviewed by Janeane Garofalo... we were a bit nervous.

What does your mom wish you were doing instead?
Academia.

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