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Virtual
Rock Star
An
Interview with Father Time
Times they are a'changin'. In just the last few years music technology
and internet access have skyrocketed. Musicians now have access
to affordable recording and mixing sytems that allow for more flexibility
than ever before. MP3's are traveling the net in record numbers.
The outlets and possiblities for artists are now endless.
Gone are the days of banging on record company doors in order
to get mass exposure. A new breed of artists have emerged. The "Virtual
Rock Star". I've recently had the chance to interview an active
virtual musician, who in some circles is known as the "Last Rock
Hope".
As we begin this interview, virtual rock artist Father Time is burning up the Rock
Guitar charts at MP3.com. His
latest song, "The Rustlin' of the Trees" is currently #13 with a
bullet.
The interview was held on the bulletin board at VSPlanet.com, which is a user group for owners
of Roland VS Digital Audio Workstations.
Dan Richards: Father Time, I'm looking for a way to kick
this off. Could you tell us a little about how you wound up posting
your music to MP3.com? And what have been your experiences with
the site?
Father Time: Well, the first part of that question is easy.
My first CD was released in February of 99, and I really decided
to tackle the whole online music thing. I think it was mid January
I posted some songs on mp3.com, IUMA, Ultimate Band List, and Riffage.com.
I actually researched a lot more sites and possibilities than that,
but those 4 were non-exclusive and had some momentum at the time.
The second part of your question could be answered as a epic novel
the size of War and Peace. I love mp3.com, the whole concept of
it, because, well, speaking of war, if one broke out tomorrow I
could have a song about it on my page within 48 hours pretty easily,
and that includes writing and recording it, prolific motherfucker
that I am. Immediacy, and a massive potential audience. mp3.com
is an institution, and it's actually quite responsible for this
being probably the most memorable year of my life. I've met some
truly unforgettable people, and in a pure business sense, more people
probably know of me than would have ever known of my music 10 years
ago even if Rolling Stone, Creem or Circus posted a review of Father
Time back then.
But mp3.com is a business, and there are plenty of built in frustrations,
not the least of which is that there are so many manipulations going
on with the charts and the Pay For Play concept. But what they've
tried to do is impossible to pull off without corruption, because
using your computer to download free music is not a tangible product.
Today's online artists are so motivated by the charts and Pay For
Play that they lose sight of the fact that they actually want people
to like their music, and they come to settle for being happy if
somebody turns their computer on in the morning and streams their
whole page with the volume turned down. I know what I'm talking
about because in a lot of ways I've lost the sense of purity I had
about all this when I first came into the situation. But I think
the reason I am much more resilient than most about the frustration
factor is that I worked on my music for years without needing to
even play it for anyone, so I will always be in tune with the fact
that it exists outside of the marketplace.
But that's a whole big can of worms, the problems with OMD (Online
Music Distribution). More interesting are various things I've been
a part of while there. One of my most famous moments, the one I
sort of cut my teeth with, was the now infamous hip hop protest.
It still really infuriates me what came down in that situation because
if the honchos at mp3.com had shown sufficient vision, that, I still
believe (and others agree) could have been the moment when internet
music made its first giant splash on the big music world, which
has really yet to happen.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I staged a hip hop protest,
which was basically just a statement on behalf of rockers that I
was tired of gangsta rappers saying that rock is dead. I always
thought hip hop music was really lacking in musical elements, that
much of it was just the same drone, and I made my case on the mp3.com
bbs and mainly by releasing my song Rock for the Sake of Rock in
the hip hop category. My point being that Kid Rock could use that
beat on many of his songs and call himself Rock, I wanted to be
allowed to crossover as well. Fair is fucking fair. Anyway, mp3.com
has never seen anything like what transpired, and it was all so
relevant to the culture of music that we must now exist in. My rock
anthem was up to # 12 on the hip hop charts with 2 arrows. The whole
bb was filled with hateful stuff about me by Father Time clone names.
I got death threats. Guitar World Magazine had some interest in
the story. Imagine, rock taking a stand . . . today ! Yes, it was
wild and just starting to really erupt, but the whole thing got
snuffed by the mp3.com administrator Rod Underhill, who took the
song off my page to appease the hip hoppers who were complaining.
I might also add that many of the rockers didn't want to do the
rah rah for rock either, even though they all would've benefited
in a promo sense. They mostly came to hate me for it, because for
one, most of them are humorless and couldn't possibly find any levity
in an old time rock and roll demonstration. But I guess they just
can't see that while they may be quite open to all genres of music,
there is a huge rap/hip hop crowd that would only have a Led Zeppelin
song in their household if Puffy was doin' it. Someone needs to
be proud to be a rocker in this era, so I was elected, no recount
needed.
mp3.com dropped the ball though, should have allowed the scene
to happen and let it go national, but the crybabies prevailed, as
they often do.
Audience Member "JMP": Father Time's hip hop protest was
at once the funniest and most eye-opening event I've ever seen on
the internet. Sheer pandemonium. Words can't do it justice, really.
And at the center of it all was Father Time, virtually standing
there alone, guitar in hand, with the whole on-line cast of incensed
idiots arrayed against him. It had more than a touch of mythic elements
about it.
DR: So, you've had some censorship problems with MP3.com?
Didn't I also see not too long ago, that you were censored for a
song title?
 FT:
I've had a lot of problems with censorship, and not because of adult-oriented
material or threats of violence or anything extreme, just for speaking
the truth and not backing down in situations where people didn't
want to hear it. And in these cases, new precedents were always
created. It is amazing to me that I've probably witnessed this kind
of repressive thinking more from so-called artists than in any other
arena of my life.
Let's see, in the last year, in order, I had my screen name blocked
at the VS Planet, I had my
song removed from mp3.com at the height of my hip hop protest, I
had massive amounts of people using clone names to try to obscure
my voice, I had threats of violence and invasions of privacy with
direct reference to "You better shut up", I had people using spam
attacks on me, which is inserting almost infinite image files into
my threads so people for practical purposes alone had to stop reading,
I was threatened with libel lawsuits by various people FOR telling
the truth, I had a fairly benign sexual discussion forum with Zeeza
deleted from the mp3.com bb, caused by the same complaining guy
who tried to get my song Miss Wills Frustration removed from mp3.com
cause I intimated to him that this was my teacher's real name and
he claimed to be worried that her kids may get upset by the song
should they find this out, a petition was started by Crack Emcee
to remove me from mp3.com, I had my domain site hacked - attached
to a demand that I give private information on myself, I had posts
deleted on the new mp3.com bb, I had my name blocked at listensmart.com,
I was banned from one artist bb and it got to a point where they
wouldn't even allow my name to be spoken so every other thread (since
nearly half were about me!) would have XX inserted where people
mentioned the name Father Time, I was unindexed (which makes you
ineligible for any charts) by mp3.com for a bad drawing of a hand
giving the finger that was approximately one inch square on my page
(even though some of the gangsta rappers use the same basic image
on their page), an Email campaign was started to write letters to
my web server to complain about me (this came when the hacking did
not make me back down), my newsletter website was hacked and the
counter tampered with, . . . and my screen name was banned from
Homerecording.com.
I'm against censorship, very much. Almost all these situations
were fed by lies and the kind of rumor-based reputation that a girl
might get in high school even though she never even kissed a boy,
it was a bandwagon kind of thing. There are a lot of people out
there who, no questions asked, follow the consensus (I often refer
to them as sheep), and people by a certain point were blowing so
many things out of proportion, it did cross my mind in a humorous
way that maybe the aliens had made me the subject of this study
on truth and adversity.
DR: One thing I want to add here for the readers, Father
Time, is that you are quite adept at not only promoting yourself
on the web, but you have the all-important ability to stick up for
yourself. I have never seen anyone who can flame back an attacker
as skillfully as you do. I've seen you in action many times. You
are relentless. What's your secret?
FT: Now, anybody familiar with my writing knows that although
I use the word fuck a lot, I'm not a threatening sort of person,
but people hate to be responsible for their own words. And I might
also add that most of my venom when it comes out is in the process
of defending myself against some really mean-spirited shit. My god,
the amount of words spent by everyone in this last year dealing
with Father Time. And I'm just basically doing my thing, sometimes
I'm happy, sometimes I'm down, sometimes I get mad, but I do roll
with the punches, you gotta give me that. One dude has bragged that
he has catalogued all my controversial posts at mp3.com and will
release them in book form someday. He occasionally throws some out
at me, and there have been times where I thought "Shit, did I say
that ?" but almost every time, that thought is overwhelmed by just
how damn entertaining I am. ha ha I'd like to read that guy if he
was letting it all hang out for everyone to see. So funny, some
of the most damaging past posts in this archivist's collection I
was honestly thrilled to see "exposed", because to me they had been
lost forever. Parts made me cringe a little, but damn, that guy
is colorful, and I said those things, I'll live with them just fine.
Others don't want to do the same though, so when they are forced
to face up, they not only want to censor me, they want to tell the
world that I'm a liar. And for some, it became their mission in
life.
DR: 48 hours from idea to finished master published on
the web is quite an accomplishment, and you're a very prolific writer.
Where do ideas for songs come from? What and who do you consider
to be some of your most important influences?
FT: The ideas for my songs come from the here and now,
mainly. I'm very in tune with the here and now. The song I just
uploaded today I've had around for maybe 10 years, called "Is it
somethin' I said ?" but it became really worth recording when I
wrote some lyrics that applied to a lot of the things that have
been going on with me. I think almost everyone who has had any kind
of a gripe with me will feel like I'm singing to them in this song,
and I am. "I've been waiting for that day, oh the day that you admit
you're wrong" My last song, "rustlin' of the trees" I wrote this
summer about a girl I really care about. I sent her the song lyrics
the night I wrote them and kind of regretted it afterwards, cause
it was just too much info. But that's what happens with me sometimes,
I let it out. "Virtual Star", my god, that could be the theme song
from my life for the past few months, it's getting so complicated.
That song will always be special too me because it got out everything
right then. I was naked to the world for that moment, and although
surely the lyrics leave a lot of room for speculation about me,
if you want to know my state of mind in the latter part of the year
2000, there it is. The songs come various ways - "rustlin" was just
lyrics at first, but I've been doin' this so long they find their
way to me from different angles and how they get there it just doesn't
matter.
My musical influences, well, in the long run, the Beatles, Neil
Young, the Beatles and Neil Young again, Led Zep, the Stones, the
Who, the Sex Pistols, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Al Green, Carole King,
Springsteen, Dylan, psychodelic music, soul music. Nothing current
excites me at all except the next Neil record, or Plant and Page
maybe.
But the biggest artistic influence I've ever had is my friend
and the one I have much infatuation for (to use her words), the
mp3.com icon known as Zeeza.
She has taught me to let it happen. I had all these pretenses when
I first decided to unleash my music on the world, but now I just
want to let the river flow. She is undescribably in touch with the
muse and my nickname for her is the Mojo Magnet. Father Time's life
has taken such a different path since I was lucky enough to get
to know her, not that getting to know her is ever really obtainable,
ha ha. I have come to understand that had I not learned some very
valuable lessons just from watching her in action, I would surely
by now be boxed in by my ego and my stubbornness. By 2002 she will
probably have 200 songs on her page. Zeeza loves what she does and
does it all for the right reasons. She lives her life and her art
reflects it. Her songs come out like flowers growing from her soul,
and then it's time to record another one.
DR: Could you tell us a little more about Zeeza and your
relationship? She's doing quite well, with over $3000 in Playback
earnings and was chosen as one of mp3.com's Best acts of 1999.
FT: Zeeza . . . well, Dan, that relationship question is
hard to answer cause I'd have to know how she feels and that information
is not available, ha ha. I can tell you this, there is no doubt
in my mind that we were destined to hook up in some way, cause we
were kindred spirits, both letting our individual spirits soar free
in the midst of a lot of people moving along with the flow. Both
of us had to endure a lot of outside pressure about our association.
Zeeza was pleaded with by many people who had convoluted motives
to stop associating with me, and people have used my feelings for
her as a way of going after me, as well. The idea of 2 individuals
like Zeeza and FT being in cahoots caused some of the joiners to
feel threatened, and she and I both had a lot of fun at various
points of the turmoil when you might have expected that we would
be hurt if we were the least bit sensitive to the obvious hatred
surrounding us then.
I might add, she's the only person I've ever met in my lifetime
whose very presence in a crowd causes more of a stir than yours
truly. And she does have quite a following that has remained strong
through so many attempts to drag her name through the mud. Funny
thing is, I hadn't really listened to her music, even when we started
to banter a good deal on the bbs. That whole thing opened up for
me after hearing the song she wrote with some lyrics I Emailed her,
"This is my First Time". The song blew me away, still does, and
subsequently I have found her music to be so insidious, like the
records you might have bought back when a lot of good ones were
being made. It took me about 7 times listening to Dark Side of the
Moon before it kicked in for me. Zeeza's has a similar reaction
time, its power comes with more familiarity. I believe she is the
greatest living female artist. You take the 20 + timeless songs
on a station I created for her called Zeezamania
, and just realize, these were all recorded in the last year ! Add
to that her writings and her artwork which inspired me to call her
the Andy Warhol of photoshop, and do you think Alanis or Jewel or
Sarah M. or Sheryl Crow or any of these ladies can touch her ? NO
WAY. In a couple years everybody's gonna be sayin', "Scott, you
were so right."
DR You're not only prolific with your music, but you write
a lot on the web as well. How about a bit of background on your
publication, The
Times . How did you start it, and what's the main purpose?
FT The Times, well, we just did our 10th issue and it has
been viewed more than any other issue up til this point. That sort
of came about when I wrote this long piece about all the hassles
I was having, and it was just too good to just be a thread on a
bulletin board. Also, it was a good way to answer back to the people
who maintained a bulletin board which seemed to completely exist
to attack FT and Zeeza. Zeeza wrote a rant too, after she read mine
and the Times was born. I actually spent a lot of time writing a
newsletter a few years back I was gonna distribute to record stores,
but some other project got me off the track, so it's something I
always wanted to do. I don't know if some folks know this, I did
post about it on occasion, but my college degree was actually centered
on my desires to become a film and music critic. A special program
at my college was created within the Communications dept. to help
me achieve this goal. So . . . I am a trained critic. By the time
I got my degree though, a screenwriting course had taken my interests
elsewhere, and I moved to LA to pursue that after graduation. Then
I bought an acoustic guitar that actually sounded good, and from
that point forward, music has been the thing. Add to that, I eventually
sold my baseball cards for $1000 and bought my Strat, and then I
knew what was in my blood - rock became my purpose. Funny I should
start writing and being a sort of critic again now, for free. But
the Times is a lot of fun. My friend Bill Wright was added to the
staff, so now our publication is created in full by the 3 people
named on a petition to be banned from mp3.com, ha ha. And I've actually
had the pleasure of reading some of Zeeza's rants directly as they
were being written on ICQ, watching the angst pour out of her, and
those were very special moments in my life and are alone reason
enough to do the Times. But I have been pleasantly surprised that
I receive quite a bit of positive Email about the Times, and even
more surprised to see who some of the regular readers are.
Visit
Father Time's artist page
for Lo Fi Play (24 kbps), Hi Fi Play (128 kbps) and MP3 downloads
at MP3.com.
Part
2 of this interview will appear in the December 15 issue of Mindjack
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