Down a quiet lane somewhere in Bangkok, the sun begins to set, and an art monk recluse creates music in his living room studio. He performs for a canine audience of pets, the masters of the house he will inform you. The studio is tastefully decorated with paintings. A pleasant view of a vegetable garden adds to the relative peace. Visitors may be offered one of his poetry books and a glass of tea made with fruit salts. At the control desk, the self-proclaimed genius, art monk Boaz Zippor sits tapping on the frets of a guitar. I have not been invited here week after week to interview the world weary Israeli artist. When I follow the narrow path along the canal, pass the domiciles made of wood and corrugated steel and finally turn right after the violet-flowered tree, I lose my identity as Rock Philosopher, blogger on underground music in Bangkok... through the green gates... shoes off, open the door, pick up a matched pair of 5A hickory sticks and await instructions... as a drummer.
It is most ironic that after selling all of my drum gear (the profits of which quickly were converted into beer, food and visa runs) I would be recruited to play drums for modest compensation, enough to keep me alive and to keep Rock Philosophy chugging along, semi-operational. What a unique experience and opportunity to at once play music, get paid, and ruminate on the inner workings of a bonafide art monk recluse. And with gentle prodding, the pony-tailed, former marketing guru, gave into a Question & Answer. I would have preferred an audio podcast so you'd get the full effect but this was all he'd allow.
But before we embark on our journey or descent into the mind of Mr. Zippor let me first elaborate on the term “art monk recluse.” In the event, it is not entirely clear what an art monk recluse is exactly, let me illuminate my understanding.
- DC
And now, the art monk recluse will finally speak:
What were you doing before music?
There is no such thing as ‘before music’ as the life of creation is very fluid and the physical manifestations are almost irrelevant, it is all about the creation itself. There is very little difference between the mindset you need to cook a good meal and the mindset when recording a good jazz piece. It is all the same, writing, painting, taking photos, cooking, making music, making love…all just different manifestation of the power of creation, and frankly, all work on more or less the same equations and formulas.
To answer in a more mortal way, in my life so far I was a soldier, I was a farmer, I was a labor worker, I was an executive, I was an artist, I was a newspaper columnist, I was a poet, I was an amateur musician…. What I am today is defined by what I choose to do today, this minute and every day, every minute. Fluid. Free.
How long have you been playing music and what instruments do you play?
I started playing the guitar when I was a teenager but was in the three chord realm for the first twenty years or so, with the usual amateurish sophomoric attempts of playing some blues licks. Real livingroom guitar player, but the guitar was always there. Three years ago, as I became an official recluse and gave up on the dramas of the human race, I started getting more seriously and in depth, understanding the instrument and the music itself much better. As I gave up an extremely crowded social calendar I had hours over hours of undisturbed practice for a couple of years.
then I decided I need a bass guitar and taught myself to play the bass, but instead of being part of the rhythm section, the bass quickly took front row as I found out the wonderful versatile nature of the beast, and a cheap fretless bass that followed sealed the deal and the bass became a natural integral part of me.
I was looking for a keyboard or piano player to work with me on some tunes, but couldn’t find anyone who I wanted to work with and was not involve in some big projects so I started teaching myself piano, and with the great age of technology and endless variations of Hammond sounds and weird organs, I fell in love with the possibilities of the keyboard and started playing myself the piano parts on the recordings.
Now, there are half a dozen more instruments that are MIDI created in my Cubase, but also for these, be it a flute, and accordion or a brass section, you need to think like that instrument and act like that instrument so technically I can almost say I have reached my dream of playing the flute a-la Jetrhro Tull with the help of a good keyboard and gigasounds.
What genre does your music fall into? Or how would you describe your music?
I don’t really think in terms of genres, especially not as they are divided these days (who was the idiot that decided calling that post nineties whiny anorexic ball-less dribble “rock”? it’s an insult to real rock bands…)
I play music that I either enjoy playing, on the emotional level, or music that intrigues me and spurs my imagination and my inquisitive nature. I am not smart enough to play jazz but I do play a lot of “jazzy” pieces, which try to simplify the music to a less intellectual level but keep that jazz magic and feel. I am also far from being proficient enough to play classical music but I do steal ideas from classical composers and try to understand how they write in order to understand music itself better.
I have recorded things that range from poppy easy listening to psychedelic prog rock style journeys, from sad slow blues to semi shredded super fast rock, from acoustic to full effect electric guitars,all depending on what the song calls for and what is my feeling at that specific moment. Everything is possible and everything allowed as long as it is interesting and productive. Playing the same thing over and over is just not that much fun for me.
What is the message or purpose of your music?
Message? There is no message, as my orginal recluse art monk message to the world in general is go away. Lol. The purpose is another thing and that is obvious – it is musical therapy. I named one of my first recordings “making music make me want to kill people less” and I think that sums it all. When it comes to creation music is one of the fastest and most immediate of ‘fixes’. You pluck the string it makes a sound, you do it again you got music. Now play. You don’t have to wait for the results, you don’t even have to wait for the editing to be done, it is there, coming out of your fingertips, right now, and you can make it louder and you can make it faster and you can make it softer and you can make it slower and go round and round, and it appears out of thin air like magic. For someone who is addicted to creation, that is a very nice high. Musical therapy, because it just makes me happy to make music.
What do you think of music today?
The whole world is going through a sad process of getting more flat and uniformed under globalization’s heavy buy buy buy boot, with a full blow whorization process where marketing is king and production value is measured by how much glitter you put on the turd the public is going to buy.
It seems the music industry has managed to arrive to a point of flawless work process that makes even the most lifeless ballless of singers sound great. Put on some pyrotechnics and a nipple slip and you got a winner.
I haven’t heard really bad music in a long time. But not any good music either. It seems I have been hearing the same song for the past twenty years and it is catchy but quite nauseating.
There was always shitty music, it is not a new thing and the music industry was never about quality, nothing that has ‘industry’ after it is about quality. It is about the bottom line. And making shitty music is great business.
What I don’t like about the situation is that because of the whole general media brainwashing we get every waking hour of our lives, the machine has managed to convince the people that the shit is great just because we put a layer of computer generated lacquer and glitter on it, which brought the whole standard to a new formule’ low. (bit of a shame, as the production professionalism level has really been perfected in the last decades, think of what it could be like if applied to GOOD music…)
Combine that with the global laziness that has taken over the world, where everything is done with an app and a click and oh my gaaaaaaaad why are there so many options on this instagram filter? Three options to choose from? What am I, a rocket surgeon? That flat zero effort zero dedication zero sacrifice which is part of our blessed western culture, well how do you expect the musicians to sound like? The ones that are technically proficient are the jazz and the shredders, both playing almost obsolete niche music, the blues guys have no real present and are living in the past by wearing that silly hat all blues people must wear, and the ‘alternative’? Don’t get me started, alternative to good? Definitely. Other than that? Wankers. The lot of them. And if we are in the wanker crowd, that all nu-folk thing? Gimme a break, I know that growing a beard is easier than learning that fifth chord but c’mon, been there done that to death and you just look fucking ridiculous with your pre-worn two hundred dollars ‘authentic’ designer ‘epoca’ jeans overall…
No, I cant say I enjoy the music being made today. Give me Miles. Give me Mingus. Give me Bach. Give me Hendrix and Jeff bBeck, give me Leonard Cohen and Jaco Pastorius with a bit of Duke Ellington and Robert Fripp…give me someone who had the balls to do something real. Something interesting. Something unique. Something original. Something that will make the hair on my arm stand when I hear it for the first time…and this? I don’t really find these days.
One of the reason I started making music for myself is so I will have something I like to listen to. Someone asked me the other day what music do I listen to now and I said I don’t, if I have spare time I play music not listen to it. He said it was strange so I asked him, if you had the option to have sex or watch porn what would you do? Same thing, why should I listen to music when I can make it? (I do, because lets face it there is so much more I have to learn and it is all by listening to old masters but that is part of the work process.)
What is your goal with your music?
To make it. After I have done with it I don’t really care. I do it for the process. This is how I learn and every piece I record is just another exercise, another step forward. They say you need ten thousand hours to be good at something, well, I am halfway there at least. The goal? Keep on working, keep on playing, keep on learning, keep on creating something new.
Can you see yourself performing live any time soon or is it strictly about recording?
Sure. Only one condition. I will be happy to play live. In Woodstock. The original. If you manage to organize that I will go on stage. Not after Santana please, I mean, c’mon, that is suicide. Other than that? I don’t really see the point. I don’t enjoy performing. A lot of musicians I know live for the stage, they just have to perform to others, I don’t really have that social disease. If I will ever do a live concert it will probably be a one time thing for some big exposure, but I doubt I would enjoy that very much. I like my livingroom. My crowd are my dogs. Sometimes some birds come to the garden. An occasional snail. That is all the fame and groupies I really need.
Besides, recording in my livingroom means I play all the instruments (other than drums, played by David Crimaldi) and that ensures not only complete creative control but that I can be intuitive and play by feeling. If I have to start explaining to someone why I decided to put a diminished chord here instead of the chord that I was supposed to play…well, I wouldn’t get very far and music is sometimes like a joke – if you have to explain it, it doesn’t work. Play what you feel is right.
What is your creative process for making music?
My creative process? I press record. (sometimes you slap the drummer around a little before, just to make sure he is still conscious)
Seriously, the less planning the better the take. I will not be as nauseatingly new age to say I am just a conduit through which the music of the universe flows, but I do give in to the power of music once I start playing and am often amazed to where it takes me. The last years are all about trying to get to a point where you are fluent enough in that specific musical dialect to tell the story, and then the story reveals itself to you.
When I plan my exercises it is a different process as there is some method in the madness, like doing a waltz jazzy version of "Sweet Home Alabama," sounds insane but is a great exercise in fence jumping and thinking on your feet in a jam. I take from my experience as a teacher the tools I need to construct some educational plan for myself. After all I have absolutely no formal musical education, built several careers on being a very able autodidact so I take my studies seriously.
One a more profound level, everything I do is just some form of exercise, practice, almost a monk like daily work of music, there is a big plan but all the real creative process comes from within.
What are you working on at the moment? First CD in the works?*
I stopped believing in album formats. It just doesn’t make sense these days. People don’t have the patience and the attention span to sit and listen to “an album”. Concept albums are a thing of the past and as a normal album is just a collection of songs and we do not have the physical problem of how to deliver them to the public, what LPs were for, we can abandon the whole concept of “album”.
I make music. All the time. Each time it is a piece. Sometimes pieces go together. But it is all very fluid and the whole idea is to put the music out there when it is fresh out of the oven.
After all, this is just a learning experience for me and most of my music are just elaborate slightly wild exercises and experiments, I am not waiting for perfection as I know it is not lurking just behind the corner.
I really don’t see the point of the ‘album’ other than concentrating marketing efforts in one specific date, but as an ex marketing man I couldn’t care less about that and am more interested in building a solid body of work that develops with time and is perpetually expanded by my experiments and dreams.
As an artist, would you like exposure, critical acclaim, financial rewards? What is most important?
As an artist I would like a cheesecake but I am on a diet. I always find it kinda funny how this modern western culture is so fixated about what do you want, what do you like. like it really helps. I want a unicorn that farts rainbows, so I want. As an art monk I “want” a lot less these days.
The ego would be very pleased if people would come over and pat me on the back and tell me I am a fucking genius. Loved it in my other careers, it’s fun. The landlord would be happy to get the rent so financial reward would be nice thank you very much, but it usually seems the check has been eaten by that unicorn, oh well.
You know what is the difference between a pizza and a musician? A pizza can feed a family of three.
I am far too old and smart and experienced in the sad ways of this world to expect any financial reward for making my music. This is why I am always happy to give away my music for free.
Since I became a recluse art monk I do not need to live with the whims of an artist ego, and since an art monk doesn’t spend much I do not need the financial rewards. As for the critics, well, they are stupid anyway no? I mean, they like most of the music I don’t like. so what does it matter If I get good reviews or not?
See? Problem solved. I don’t need anything but to continue making my music.
And a cheesecake. I was serious about the cheesecake. Blueberry if possible.
Do you think home recording gear, the internet and music streaming sites have made it better or worse for musicians to make a living?
Musicians make a living? Is that a new thing?
I think the fact it is all easier means that the bar has dropped and the global level is the definition of mediocrity. There is ten million times more fluff. To the level people think the fluff is the real thing.
No, I don’t think the online music life is a viable sustainable model. Not only that I have got a couple of iTunes links from amateur musician acquaintances who lost the opportunity to share with me their latest creation because I don’t have iTunes and I don’t want to pay 99c for the privilege of listening to something that is half the level of good music I find on youtube for free.. Maybe twenty people would buy their new single, and I am being optimistic, so for 20$ they lost thousands who might have listened and loved the music and wanted to hear more. Counter productive to say the least. I have been a marketing guru for 14 years and I can tell you that It is a scam that works for no one but the online business investors.
As for the music production itself, Like a lot of things in this generation, the most amazing tools are being abused by idiots. Very few people say to themselves hey I got these tools to make music easily and comfortably so I will push the limits of these tools and see what I can explore with them. No, they say hey we got these tools that make music almost automatically for us, let’s go take another selfie.
And I know the internet makes it easier to connect with other amateurs and enthusiasts but I don’t really see it working for the benefit of working musician, maybe as a job board, but then we are talking about the ‘technical wonders’ we have seen twenty years ago.
Just to be clear, I have never been a working musician in my life, and would never choose that profession and life style if I needed to make a living off it. As an art monk I really have the privilege of not worrying too much about it. I spend little, I have everything I need to produce, life is simple.
Are you a trendsetter or an iconoclast?
I once had a business card saying iconoclast. But that was when I actually cared. These days? Giving up these mortal dramas is the best thing that happened to me. I don’t advise anyone to follow my bizarre lifestyle so I am definitely not a trendsetter, besides, good music is not a trend, a trend is something that passes, by definition. Besides, I really don’t have the time to think about these things too much. Got work to do. The next track is not going to record itself, now will it?
(Editor's note: Mr. Zippor reluctantly gave in to the request for CDs. Below you will find one CD 'album' of improvised musical 'sketch' jams recorded over last three months. There are several more in existence. Nine to be exact. Listen to more albums at http://boazzippor.bandcamp.com/ - DC)
It is most ironic that after selling all of my drum gear (the profits of which quickly were converted into beer, food and visa runs) I would be recruited to play drums for modest compensation, enough to keep me alive and to keep Rock Philosophy chugging along, semi-operational. What a unique experience and opportunity to at once play music, get paid, and ruminate on the inner workings of a bonafide art monk recluse. And with gentle prodding, the pony-tailed, former marketing guru, gave into a Question & Answer. I would have preferred an audio podcast so you'd get the full effect but this was all he'd allow.
But before we embark on our journey or descent into the mind of Mr. Zippor let me first elaborate on the term “art monk recluse.” In the event, it is not entirely clear what an art monk recluse is exactly, let me illuminate my understanding.
- Art – This one is pretty simple. Purposefully throw paint onto a canvas – that's art. Urinate into jar with a crucifix in it – that can be art too, but it might piss some people off.
- Monk – Think solitude. Quiet. You won't be meeting Mr. Zippor out at a party unless of course you have some musical gear he needs. This is not to say he can't socialize. There is great evidence that he had a normal-appearing life.
- Recluse – Obi-wan Kenobi was a recluse in the desert. He wore a flowing brown blanket and kept to himself, maybe he played with his lightsaber when no one was looking. And this never seemed strange to anyone.
- Put all of these ideas together and you have a Dude who just wants to be left alone to create things and stay far away from the rest of the world. It's not really an outrageous idea. It's beginning to make perfect sense....
- DC
And now, the art monk recluse will finally speak:
What were you doing before music?
There is no such thing as ‘before music’ as the life of creation is very fluid and the physical manifestations are almost irrelevant, it is all about the creation itself. There is very little difference between the mindset you need to cook a good meal and the mindset when recording a good jazz piece. It is all the same, writing, painting, taking photos, cooking, making music, making love…all just different manifestation of the power of creation, and frankly, all work on more or less the same equations and formulas.
To answer in a more mortal way, in my life so far I was a soldier, I was a farmer, I was a labor worker, I was an executive, I was an artist, I was a newspaper columnist, I was a poet, I was an amateur musician…. What I am today is defined by what I choose to do today, this minute and every day, every minute. Fluid. Free.
How long have you been playing music and what instruments do you play?
I started playing the guitar when I was a teenager but was in the three chord realm for the first twenty years or so, with the usual amateurish sophomoric attempts of playing some blues licks. Real livingroom guitar player, but the guitar was always there. Three years ago, as I became an official recluse and gave up on the dramas of the human race, I started getting more seriously and in depth, understanding the instrument and the music itself much better. As I gave up an extremely crowded social calendar I had hours over hours of undisturbed practice for a couple of years.
then I decided I need a bass guitar and taught myself to play the bass, but instead of being part of the rhythm section, the bass quickly took front row as I found out the wonderful versatile nature of the beast, and a cheap fretless bass that followed sealed the deal and the bass became a natural integral part of me.
I was looking for a keyboard or piano player to work with me on some tunes, but couldn’t find anyone who I wanted to work with and was not involve in some big projects so I started teaching myself piano, and with the great age of technology and endless variations of Hammond sounds and weird organs, I fell in love with the possibilities of the keyboard and started playing myself the piano parts on the recordings.
Now, there are half a dozen more instruments that are MIDI created in my Cubase, but also for these, be it a flute, and accordion or a brass section, you need to think like that instrument and act like that instrument so technically I can almost say I have reached my dream of playing the flute a-la Jetrhro Tull with the help of a good keyboard and gigasounds.
What genre does your music fall into? Or how would you describe your music?
I don’t really think in terms of genres, especially not as they are divided these days (who was the idiot that decided calling that post nineties whiny anorexic ball-less dribble “rock”? it’s an insult to real rock bands…)
I play music that I either enjoy playing, on the emotional level, or music that intrigues me and spurs my imagination and my inquisitive nature. I am not smart enough to play jazz but I do play a lot of “jazzy” pieces, which try to simplify the music to a less intellectual level but keep that jazz magic and feel. I am also far from being proficient enough to play classical music but I do steal ideas from classical composers and try to understand how they write in order to understand music itself better.
I have recorded things that range from poppy easy listening to psychedelic prog rock style journeys, from sad slow blues to semi shredded super fast rock, from acoustic to full effect electric guitars,all depending on what the song calls for and what is my feeling at that specific moment. Everything is possible and everything allowed as long as it is interesting and productive. Playing the same thing over and over is just not that much fun for me.
What is the message or purpose of your music?
Message? There is no message, as my orginal recluse art monk message to the world in general is go away. Lol. The purpose is another thing and that is obvious – it is musical therapy. I named one of my first recordings “making music make me want to kill people less” and I think that sums it all. When it comes to creation music is one of the fastest and most immediate of ‘fixes’. You pluck the string it makes a sound, you do it again you got music. Now play. You don’t have to wait for the results, you don’t even have to wait for the editing to be done, it is there, coming out of your fingertips, right now, and you can make it louder and you can make it faster and you can make it softer and you can make it slower and go round and round, and it appears out of thin air like magic. For someone who is addicted to creation, that is a very nice high. Musical therapy, because it just makes me happy to make music.
What do you think of music today?
The whole world is going through a sad process of getting more flat and uniformed under globalization’s heavy buy buy buy boot, with a full blow whorization process where marketing is king and production value is measured by how much glitter you put on the turd the public is going to buy.
It seems the music industry has managed to arrive to a point of flawless work process that makes even the most lifeless ballless of singers sound great. Put on some pyrotechnics and a nipple slip and you got a winner.
I haven’t heard really bad music in a long time. But not any good music either. It seems I have been hearing the same song for the past twenty years and it is catchy but quite nauseating.
There was always shitty music, it is not a new thing and the music industry was never about quality, nothing that has ‘industry’ after it is about quality. It is about the bottom line. And making shitty music is great business.
What I don’t like about the situation is that because of the whole general media brainwashing we get every waking hour of our lives, the machine has managed to convince the people that the shit is great just because we put a layer of computer generated lacquer and glitter on it, which brought the whole standard to a new formule’ low. (bit of a shame, as the production professionalism level has really been perfected in the last decades, think of what it could be like if applied to GOOD music…)
Combine that with the global laziness that has taken over the world, where everything is done with an app and a click and oh my gaaaaaaaad why are there so many options on this instagram filter? Three options to choose from? What am I, a rocket surgeon? That flat zero effort zero dedication zero sacrifice which is part of our blessed western culture, well how do you expect the musicians to sound like? The ones that are technically proficient are the jazz and the shredders, both playing almost obsolete niche music, the blues guys have no real present and are living in the past by wearing that silly hat all blues people must wear, and the ‘alternative’? Don’t get me started, alternative to good? Definitely. Other than that? Wankers. The lot of them. And if we are in the wanker crowd, that all nu-folk thing? Gimme a break, I know that growing a beard is easier than learning that fifth chord but c’mon, been there done that to death and you just look fucking ridiculous with your pre-worn two hundred dollars ‘authentic’ designer ‘epoca’ jeans overall…
No, I cant say I enjoy the music being made today. Give me Miles. Give me Mingus. Give me Bach. Give me Hendrix and Jeff bBeck, give me Leonard Cohen and Jaco Pastorius with a bit of Duke Ellington and Robert Fripp…give me someone who had the balls to do something real. Something interesting. Something unique. Something original. Something that will make the hair on my arm stand when I hear it for the first time…and this? I don’t really find these days.
One of the reason I started making music for myself is so I will have something I like to listen to. Someone asked me the other day what music do I listen to now and I said I don’t, if I have spare time I play music not listen to it. He said it was strange so I asked him, if you had the option to have sex or watch porn what would you do? Same thing, why should I listen to music when I can make it? (I do, because lets face it there is so much more I have to learn and it is all by listening to old masters but that is part of the work process.)
What is your goal with your music?
To make it. After I have done with it I don’t really care. I do it for the process. This is how I learn and every piece I record is just another exercise, another step forward. They say you need ten thousand hours to be good at something, well, I am halfway there at least. The goal? Keep on working, keep on playing, keep on learning, keep on creating something new.
Can you see yourself performing live any time soon or is it strictly about recording?
Sure. Only one condition. I will be happy to play live. In Woodstock. The original. If you manage to organize that I will go on stage. Not after Santana please, I mean, c’mon, that is suicide. Other than that? I don’t really see the point. I don’t enjoy performing. A lot of musicians I know live for the stage, they just have to perform to others, I don’t really have that social disease. If I will ever do a live concert it will probably be a one time thing for some big exposure, but I doubt I would enjoy that very much. I like my livingroom. My crowd are my dogs. Sometimes some birds come to the garden. An occasional snail. That is all the fame and groupies I really need.
Besides, recording in my livingroom means I play all the instruments (other than drums, played by David Crimaldi) and that ensures not only complete creative control but that I can be intuitive and play by feeling. If I have to start explaining to someone why I decided to put a diminished chord here instead of the chord that I was supposed to play…well, I wouldn’t get very far and music is sometimes like a joke – if you have to explain it, it doesn’t work. Play what you feel is right.
What is your creative process for making music?
My creative process? I press record. (sometimes you slap the drummer around a little before, just to make sure he is still conscious)
Seriously, the less planning the better the take. I will not be as nauseatingly new age to say I am just a conduit through which the music of the universe flows, but I do give in to the power of music once I start playing and am often amazed to where it takes me. The last years are all about trying to get to a point where you are fluent enough in that specific musical dialect to tell the story, and then the story reveals itself to you.
When I plan my exercises it is a different process as there is some method in the madness, like doing a waltz jazzy version of "Sweet Home Alabama," sounds insane but is a great exercise in fence jumping and thinking on your feet in a jam. I take from my experience as a teacher the tools I need to construct some educational plan for myself. After all I have absolutely no formal musical education, built several careers on being a very able autodidact so I take my studies seriously.
One a more profound level, everything I do is just some form of exercise, practice, almost a monk like daily work of music, there is a big plan but all the real creative process comes from within.
What are you working on at the moment? First CD in the works?*
I stopped believing in album formats. It just doesn’t make sense these days. People don’t have the patience and the attention span to sit and listen to “an album”. Concept albums are a thing of the past and as a normal album is just a collection of songs and we do not have the physical problem of how to deliver them to the public, what LPs were for, we can abandon the whole concept of “album”.
I make music. All the time. Each time it is a piece. Sometimes pieces go together. But it is all very fluid and the whole idea is to put the music out there when it is fresh out of the oven.
After all, this is just a learning experience for me and most of my music are just elaborate slightly wild exercises and experiments, I am not waiting for perfection as I know it is not lurking just behind the corner.
I really don’t see the point of the ‘album’ other than concentrating marketing efforts in one specific date, but as an ex marketing man I couldn’t care less about that and am more interested in building a solid body of work that develops with time and is perpetually expanded by my experiments and dreams.
As an artist, would you like exposure, critical acclaim, financial rewards? What is most important?
As an artist I would like a cheesecake but I am on a diet. I always find it kinda funny how this modern western culture is so fixated about what do you want, what do you like. like it really helps. I want a unicorn that farts rainbows, so I want. As an art monk I “want” a lot less these days.
The ego would be very pleased if people would come over and pat me on the back and tell me I am a fucking genius. Loved it in my other careers, it’s fun. The landlord would be happy to get the rent so financial reward would be nice thank you very much, but it usually seems the check has been eaten by that unicorn, oh well.
You know what is the difference between a pizza and a musician? A pizza can feed a family of three.
I am far too old and smart and experienced in the sad ways of this world to expect any financial reward for making my music. This is why I am always happy to give away my music for free.
Since I became a recluse art monk I do not need to live with the whims of an artist ego, and since an art monk doesn’t spend much I do not need the financial rewards. As for the critics, well, they are stupid anyway no? I mean, they like most of the music I don’t like. so what does it matter If I get good reviews or not?
See? Problem solved. I don’t need anything but to continue making my music.
And a cheesecake. I was serious about the cheesecake. Blueberry if possible.
Do you think home recording gear, the internet and music streaming sites have made it better or worse for musicians to make a living?
Musicians make a living? Is that a new thing?
I think the fact it is all easier means that the bar has dropped and the global level is the definition of mediocrity. There is ten million times more fluff. To the level people think the fluff is the real thing.
No, I don’t think the online music life is a viable sustainable model. Not only that I have got a couple of iTunes links from amateur musician acquaintances who lost the opportunity to share with me their latest creation because I don’t have iTunes and I don’t want to pay 99c for the privilege of listening to something that is half the level of good music I find on youtube for free.. Maybe twenty people would buy their new single, and I am being optimistic, so for 20$ they lost thousands who might have listened and loved the music and wanted to hear more. Counter productive to say the least. I have been a marketing guru for 14 years and I can tell you that It is a scam that works for no one but the online business investors.
As for the music production itself, Like a lot of things in this generation, the most amazing tools are being abused by idiots. Very few people say to themselves hey I got these tools to make music easily and comfortably so I will push the limits of these tools and see what I can explore with them. No, they say hey we got these tools that make music almost automatically for us, let’s go take another selfie.
And I know the internet makes it easier to connect with other amateurs and enthusiasts but I don’t really see it working for the benefit of working musician, maybe as a job board, but then we are talking about the ‘technical wonders’ we have seen twenty years ago.
Just to be clear, I have never been a working musician in my life, and would never choose that profession and life style if I needed to make a living off it. As an art monk I really have the privilege of not worrying too much about it. I spend little, I have everything I need to produce, life is simple.
Are you a trendsetter or an iconoclast?
I once had a business card saying iconoclast. But that was when I actually cared. These days? Giving up these mortal dramas is the best thing that happened to me. I don’t advise anyone to follow my bizarre lifestyle so I am definitely not a trendsetter, besides, good music is not a trend, a trend is something that passes, by definition. Besides, I really don’t have the time to think about these things too much. Got work to do. The next track is not going to record itself, now will it?
(Editor's note: Mr. Zippor reluctantly gave in to the request for CDs. Below you will find one CD 'album' of improvised musical 'sketch' jams recorded over last three months. There are several more in existence. Nine to be exact. Listen to more albums at http://boazzippor.bandcamp.com/ - DC)