Sxip Shirey believes that there are no small lives, only intimate ones

Name: Sxip Shirey  

Hometown: Athens, OH

Job description: Composer, performer, musician, storyteller

Bio: "Sxip’s Hour of Charm" at Lincoln Center; composed for five George Melies' films for the re-opening of Museum of the Moving Image; composed for Theodora Skipitares at La MaMa; taught a sound and composition workshop to students at Harvard; as a member of Luminescent Orchestrii, collaborated with the Carolina Chocolate Drops via Nonesuch (“the EP went to #3 on the bluegrass charts, though it wasn't bluegrass.”); played a set with hero, Ned Rothenberg (Zorn’s clarinetist); toured with Gentlemen and Assassins (which includes Elyas Khan of Nervous Cabaret and Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls) in Europe
Upcoming projects: Birthday party at Joe’s Pub (May 14th)
Select links: Interview with Nonsense NYC; "Opinionator: 'Brooklyn Bridge Song'" (NY Times); Sxip Shirey's Magic Journey: Sonic New York" (Huffington Post); Wikipedia; SxipShirey.com 

What brought you to New York?

It's hard for a person who rolls marbles in bowls and puts harmonicas through pitch-shifters not to end up in NYC eventually.

If you didn't live in New York, where would you live?

Austin, Texas maybe, or some place in France so I could eat the cheese.

What's the best and worst thing about making music?

Making music is a job like another job: what is the best thing about being a plumber? Or a teacher? Or a writer? I love it when the job is done, and it's glorious. I'm glad I don't have to run off to work at 8am. Worst thing? Being around a culture of alcohol constantly; it's hard to resist.

How would you describe the kind of music that you make? 

I believe that everyone’s intimate life is epic to them. No one lives a small life. My music is about the epic nature of internal things.  It is populist, experimental, avant-garde, folk, and overly serious, novelty music.

What inspires the kind of objects you use to make music? 

If you cook with good ingredients you will make good food. I try to make sure each sound is delicious on it's own. Then it's hard to go wrong.

How did you start making music?

Apparently when I was very young, I would sit at the piano, get a rhythm going with my left hand, and then make up something with the top. But I did [make music].

I was a bad drummer in school. I never practiced…it was hard for me to read sheet music. But then I learned that if I composed it myself, then it would always be right.

What was your childhood like?

I was clueless, very intelligent. I couldn't lie very well. I grew up in the country. My father was an intense math professor, my mother the director of the Red Cross. We had goats, chickens, [and] a HUGE garden. My brother and I did a lot of physical labor all the while having fascinating and silly conversations with my dad. I really liked looking at astronomy books at night, and eating cheddar cheese on crackers while listening to the Beatles. The Beatles taught me a lot, then I discovered Devo and well…

What's the key to good storytelling?

Understanding [that] you’re having a seductive conversation with the audience.

What's your concept of happiness?

Love, good food, good sex, and swimming in a lake under the moon. 

What's the most difficult thing you've ever had to do? 

I went to another country for love. 

What's your philosophy on love?

Love is the act of seeing. When you truly see someone and they see you, that is love. 

What's funny to you?

SpongeBob SquarePants.

What’s tragic?

Fracking is tragic.

What are your thoughts on loneliness?

Working on art when you are lonely will lead you to the best art of your life.

What's overrated?

All the boring as shit indie rock that was the norm for ten years. But now that is changing with the next generation of kids, like Tune Yards. The kids are shaking it up again. Irony, unless it's used as a weapon, leads to the most boring art on the planet.

Underrated?

Terry Dame is one of the most interesting band leaders in NYC.

What's the greatest lesson you've learned?

Be thankful.

What qualities do you admire most and least in a person? 

Kindness.

Least favorite? People who do art really to be [at the] top of a perceived social structure. People who are imitating high school in the adult world. Lack of empathy.

What are you most curious about?

Nature, physics, and quantum mechanics.

How does you what you do relate to community?

Folk art is the art that ones makes for their immediate community.

By nature, are you tightwad or spender?

Spender.

If you could have more of something, what would it be?

Money.

What's your greatest fear?

That I will get prostate cancer like my father before I figure out health care.

How would you like to be remembered?

I want to be remembered as someone who wasn't afraid...

And how old are you?

I saw Trent Reznor's band before Nine Inch Nails played at Spring Fest in Athens, Ohio in high school. Old enough to understand you don't live forever, and a little bit of what that means.