Presenting: a conversation had amidst the haze of new-puppy-exhaustion.

In which: two collaborators learn they can converse as well as collaborate and, as such, converse about all sorts of creative and collaborative things, things including, but not limited to: the essential nature of bandname punctuation, the existential dread that Philip Glass's music inspires, the demoralizing hellscape of academic publishing, and, most importantly, doing the work.

And, a note: while Elizabeth's audio in our conversation - which is the most important part in an interview anyhow - sounds fine, mine is (more than) a bit on the quiet side (save for a notable exception; sorry ears). At the time of recording, I was still learning the mix/gain needs of my new condenser mic; by the time I recorded the intro / outro, I had a better handle on it. So, as Bill Murray said, I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

About Elizabeth:

Elizabeth Joan Kelly is a New Orleans-based electronic composer. She uses found sounds and MIDI to create lush soundscapes at the epicenter of synthpop, industrial, ambient, darkwave, and classical music.

Her newest album, as duo Orca, Attack! with David Rodriguez, is C.M.S.O., an educational album inspired by spoken word, library music, and the electronic works of Raymond Scott. C.M.S.O. is the inaugural release of Strategic Tape Reserve’s Learning by Listening, an instructive cassette series designed to bring the information of the world into your home and your brain.

Chapters:

Intro + puppy exhaustion caveat (0'00")
Philip Glass and existential dread / "This is death." (03'25")
Beauty v. pretty / "The economy of musical material" (05'44")
What makes for an ideal musical education? (08'21")
Mind the (reality) gap / Rediscovering artistic passion (11'20")
Imposter syndrome / Do the work / Reviewer Number Two (15'52")
Intro: Orca, Attack! (punctuation is key) / Listen: CMSO, Track Five, "Limitations." (20'27")
Strategic Tape Reserve / CMSO: Origins / "The shed shelf that your uncle had." (23'32")
On the benefits of shorter projects and collaborations between longer projects / "I hate writing short stories." (26'41")
On household movie data reportage and the surprises within (29'32")
Creative like-to-try / Recommendations / Connect (34'49")
Outro (37'34")

Linkage:

You can connect with Elizabeth via her website, elizabethjoankelly.com, support her music via Bandcamp, elizabethjoankelly.bandcamp.com, and share turtle GIFs with her on Twitter, @elizabethjelly.
Elizabeth's recommendations: A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS, by Yiyun Li; listening: Tank and the Bangas... Sexy Dex and the Fresh.
You can listen to our latest re/emergence collaboration here.
And read our original interview, from April 2020, here.

You can listen to previous episodes of THE SOCIALIZED RECLUSE here and subscribe to future installments via RSS here.