March 20, 2006: Wobbly
Some Assembly Required, Episode 93 is on the way - with a "negative" theme - all the tracks were focused on negativity in some way. I must have been having a bad week that week - I can't remember why - but it ended up being a pretty good episode, in spite of it! Stay tuned...
The SAR Q&A this week is with Jon Leidecker of
Wobbly. I've been a big fan of Wo
bbly since around 1998. I'm racking my brain trying to remember how we met. I believe we did some spontaneous reviewing of eachother's work back when I released my first cassette album, and he wrote to tell me that Don Joyce had mixed it into an episode of
Over the Edge, around 1998. From there, we've been keeping in touch about this crazy world of sound collage.
Wobbly has often collaborated with
Negativland's Don Joyce, on his radio program
Over the Edge, as well as in the performance group
The Chopping Channel (featuring the talents of Don Joyce, Jon Leidecker/Wobbly and
Peter Conheim). He's also a frequent collaborator with
People Like Us, which has resulted in at least a couple of collaborative releases with her. He's a very active recording artist with over 6 official releases (on labels such as Alku, GISI, Illegal Art, Ovenguard, Phthalo and Tigerbeat6) and has collaborated with at least a dozen other artists as well, including myself (
Escape Mechanism). Check out the
Minneapolis Summit website for more information about the 2002 Wobbly,
Tape-beatles,
Steev Hise, Escape Mechanism release. The photos here of Wobbly are from that CD, and its recording session.
He's featured on over three dozen releases, including Illegal Art's
Extracted Cellu
loid (1998), which is probably still my favorite track by
Wobbly. My other favorite Wobbly CD is "Wild Why" (2002). There are also over two dozen MP3-only releases, so do the math - that's an awful lot of output for one artist. My head is spinning, and it's not just from the rapid bursts of sound which have become Wobbly's trademark...
Check out the
Wobbly website for more information, including mp3s for downloading. Well worth the trip. Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Wobbly...
***
*Name: My name is Jon Leidecker and I record and release music under the project name Wobbly.
*Do you use a pseudonym? Though Wobbly originally began as a group project in Santa Barbara in the early 90's, I'm the only continuing member and the band name has become a bit of a pseudonym, something to live with.
*Members: Myself; up until 1995 there were frequent contributions from Jason Brown and Chris Ball, as well as anyone stopping by the studio that day.
*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Collage music might be a helpful descriptor but I don't plan on being limited to it.
*Location: Currently residing in San Francisco. Was born in Washington D.C., moved to Contra Costa County in 1983, college in Santa Barbara, moved to San Francisco in 1994.*What is your creative/artistic background: Wrote fiction until I was 13, then abandoned that suddenly for music shortly after moving to California.
*History: Solo cassette albums date from 1985. There have been other collaborations dating from the same time, notably Known In Bakersfield (with Tim Meany) which lasted from 1991 to 2000. I was also an active member of the group Sagan from 2003-2005.
*Motivations: It would take a great deal of effort to stop.*Philosophy: Finding harmonies between seemingly independent or irreconcilable voices.
*How would you like to be remembered: Someone helpful.
*Web address: http://www.detritus.net/wobbly***
Thanks to Jon Leidecker, for being the featured artist this week! Be sure to check out the
Wobbly website, and tune in to episode 93 -- three of the 18 sound collage tracks this week are by Wobbly. Stay tuned...
That's it for now... We'll be doing our first fundraiser next week, so I don't think we'll be doing an artist feature, but stay tuned for the SAR Q&A with
Donna Summer (Jason Forrest) the week after that. Please do consider supporting the program next week, as we muster up all of our courage and actually
ask for money. It wasn't easy, let me tell you, but the program has become a bit of a burden, financially, so I'm taking some good advice and doing a fundraiser - don't worry, there will be lots of music/audio art, so it won't be like your typical pledge drive. In fact, I hardly talk at all (as usual). Anyway - if you've got the means, please consider
supporting Some Assembly Required next week. It would mean an awful lot.
Until then, enjoy episode 93, which is uploading as I type. Don't be overwhelmed by the theme of negativity. Its just a concept, not a suggestion - don't
succumb! Choose to be positive and positive things are bound to happen. If you really believe. really...
Thanks for listening!
Jon Nelson
www.some-assembly-required.net
