the no-fi "magazine" interview
with
CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE
conducted by quin, february 2005; illustrations by chris beyond
I first talked to Owen from Casiotone For the Painfully Alone about a year ago. I was already a big fan of his music and told him about No-Fi "Magazine". He also expressed a lot of interest in doing an interview for us. This made me super excited. But, busy schedules over here on our end delayed any further talks of an interview...until now. Since he lives way up there and we're way down here, we decided to do the interview through e-mail. Not a preferred method of interviewing for us, but I was that happy to finally talk to the guy. Owen writes some of the prettiest, heartfelt lyrics and some of the coolest stripped down lo-fi tunes. Now hear him speak as I interrogate him with some "hard hitting questions" about mostly non music related stuff. What else would we do?
q = quin (no-fi "guy")
o = owen (the music guy)
q: you might be tired of answering this question, so i will get it out of the way immediately... can you tell us how casiotone for the painfully alone came about?
o: i got a $100,000 grant from the german government to create some very professional sounding dance music so i bought a gold plated 4 track.
q: were the germans happy knowing where their money went?
o: Dieses ist inacceptable! Wir wnschen unsere Geldrckseite! Ziehen Sie bitte in Erwgung die demtigende Verbrauchssteuer!
q: you started film school, what are your top 5 favorite films of all time?
o: night of the hunter.
q: i love that film...this band called young people does a great cover of the song from that movie. (sings) "dream, little one, dream..." what are 4 more favorite films of yours?
o: Hair Eaters 1, 2, 3 and 5...haven't seen 4.
q: what do you find disturbing?
o: baby opossums running across the road at night!!!
q: have you ever hit one?
o: no i don't drive at night.
q: if you were going to build a robot, what would the three main components consist of?
o: i believe the only thing robots will ever accomplish is "accidentally" murdering the people they were designed to serve. no thanks!
q: i agree with you actually. but, do you think a robot could ever be used for good?
o: Ein Roboter geht in einen Stab, aber er glaubt, da keine Schmerz fr ihn blo ein Roboter sind Dieser Witz bersetzt nicht gut!
q: what's a typical day like in the life of owen?
o: wake up brush teeth eat one egg call my bros drive fast drink a beer high five pick up chicks jump off a bridge drink a beer eat a pizza play a show count $$$$$$ pop champagne fall asleep on white leather couch.
q: who are some of your favorite local bands from where you live?
o: the papercuts and anything david enos.
q: what is the wildest thing you have ever done?
o: i jumped through the fire once.
q: (amazed) really? what fire?
o: the ring of fire.
q: ok, this is the part of the interview where i say the name of a band or artist and you say the first thing that comes to mind.
(ahem)
q: atom and his package
o: probably a nice guy.
q: this song is a mess, but so am i
o: freddy is the coolest dude ever. cooler than snoopy in sunglasses!!!
q: gravy train!!!
o: eating something with gravy on it.
q: elvis costello
o: "beyond belief" rips.
q: jay z
o: shawn carter's number was in paris hilton's cell phone. i wonder how often they talked. i'd like to think he tried to teach her some of his hardest learned life lessons, and tried his best to keep her out of trouble. bless you, shawn. i hope you donate all of those sneakers that you only wear once.
q: are there any plans for a new album in the near future?
o: fall 2005 title to be announced!!!!!!!!
q: what are some titles that you have been kicking around?
o: either "Stellen Sie eine dumme Frage, erhalten Sie eine dumme Antwort" or "Fevers and Mirrors pt 2".
q: any words of advice or things you think the readers should know?
o: try to read some books maybe.
q: thanks, owen.
Owen later told me that he wasn't really into my questions, as you may have guessed already. He was nice, but he expressed that he was put off by the questions that had little or nothing to do with his music. I respect this opinion. Not everyone feels comfortable answering questions that are maybe a little different and aren't so darn serious. Our interviews are designed more to get to know what the person behind the music is like. I mean, if you really want to read about someone's song writing process you could always read Spin or Rolling Stone. But, seriously, what's the point? We love Casiotone For the Painfully Alone and play his music on No-Fi "Radio". It's just too bad we weren't on the same page for this interview (although, as you can see here, we technically are).
quin is one of the first no-fi "magazine" writers and is the program director for no-fi "radio" as well.
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