"bias - 1995-2005" by mjb

 

Ladies and gentlemen, here follows a brief interview in support of the latest compilation album from internationally-regarded underground musician, Mike Bowman, a.k.a. MJB...

"The CD covers the period from 1995 to 2005. The early music has a light, poppy, almost naive feel, while the later music is darker and heavier in mood. Does the change in mood reflect the way your view of the world has changed over the period, or do you just have happy Mondays and gloomy Tuesdays?"

Actually some of the earliest recordings date from 1847. A secret combination of Martian celluloid and Venusian ferric oxide, combined with U.S. Department of U.F.O Studies electro-magnetic waves, produced an effect that tricked some listeners into thinking that there were real moods, created by a real artist, and that these moods had occurred as recently as 1995. Amazing isn't it?

"The opening track, 'Lo-Fi Superhighway', reads like a manifesto for the hometaping movement. Reference is made to the 'lost and disconnected souls/who make that home-made rock'n'roll'. What is your view on the state of hometaping now in comparison with when you recorded that song?"

Hometapers travel a proto-Deic channel somewhere between Nothingness and Eternity, so the track may or may not have been recorded "then" as opposed to "now"-- the view from here doesn't really include those two reference points.

"'Float Away' seems to be a snapshot of a perfect summer. Is the song an accurate record of reality, or is it an idealised view?"

Sometimes words are like notes-- they are there, and we hear them, and enjoy them, but beyond that they don't really "mean" anything.

"You've recorded 'Ten Thousand Things' on at least two occasions. What's the deal with the song? What spurred you to record a number of versions of the song?"

Ah, you haven't heard the other Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Eight versions, have you

"Why did you make the decision to move away from recording pop/rock songs as MJB and start recording more abstract, experimental pieces as Cloud? And why did you start recording as MJB again?"

Who is this MJB and why is he experimenting with pieces of a cloud?

"How has your recording set-up evolved over the years?"

Sometimes the "recording set-up" devolves, especially when the years are over.

"Your CD artwork is unique. What inspires you to design your artwork in that? And what are you doing, music-wise, nowadays?"

The music is not wise, but the artwork is work. Now a daze, that's for sure.

There you have it - the enigma that surely is MJB.