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Triptych Talk with Diptychs Josh and Gianna: AKA Josh Thoughts
117 Plays3 years ago
Get ready for your Tuesday to be a little brighter with one of the Artpop Tart’s favorite segments, Josh Thoughts! Josh and Gianna discuss the themes and musicality behind Dischordia's upcoming album “Triptych.” Gianna then shares a lillltle landscape theory, tied to historic narratives rooted in spirituality, religion, and nature when creating the cover art for the band!
For all of Artpop Talk's resources, click HERE.
For Dischordia's site and upcoming shows, click HERE.
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Transcript
Introduction to Art Pop Talk with Josh
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello, hello, and welcome to Art Pop Talk. I'm Gianna. And I'm Bianca. They think they can just kick me out of the band in this episode, don't they? Back by popular demand, this week we have another episode of Josh Thoughts. I'm so excited to use our Josh Thoughts audio this week, I cannot tell you.
Discordia's Album 'Shrimp Dick' Exploration
00:00:23
Speaker
Josh and Gianna discuss the themes and musicality behind Discordia's upcoming album, Shrimp Dick. Gianna then shares a little landscaped theory tied to historic narratives, rooted in spirituality, religion, and nature when creating the cover art, hello, for the band. Well, you're not hardcore unless you live hardcore, Bianca. And with that, let's art pop talk.
00:00:55
Speaker
No, you're not hardcore. Unless you live hardcore. Unless you live hardcore. But the legend is true. And the rent was way hardcore. And then a thin layer of bark.
00:01:12
Speaker
Oh, I'm going to watch that now. I love that movie. What a fantastic movie that has really, I think, stood the test of time. Oh, iconic movie. Love it. And the actress who played the cello, you've got a bass girl. She comes up on my TikTok now all the time. Yes. Oh, I forgot what her name is. I don't know. She's really cute, though. I like her a lot. She's got good vibes. Yeah.
00:01:42
Speaker
But speaking of good vibes, I mean, Josh thoughts. I'm so excited for another Josh thoughts.
00:01:51
Speaker
So if you're new to the podcast, hello new listeners. I just I love our stats going up every week. I just need to say I'm super excited about it.
Insights on Art by Josh Turner
00:01:59
Speaker
If you are new to APT, Josh Turner is our brother-in-law. He is also the lead vocalist in the band Discordia and he just has a lot of
00:02:14
Speaker
lovely, funny, hilarious opinions about art and music. And he's really taught us a lot about the connections between the visual and the audio over the course of the past year. I mean, he always does.
00:02:29
Speaker
If you want to go and check out our previous episodes, we have a Josh thoughts episode on chromatica. And then we also have Josh thoughts featured in the episode, what is in your flux kit. And we can link those for you as well. So you can get a little more Josh in your week.
Bianca's Art Adventures in Detroit
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah, um, I make jokes about it a lot But we did miss you for Josh thoughts because it would have been perfect with the three of us for our triptych theme For the day, but you were in Detroit and you went to some art museum So before we get into our segment for today, I wanted to talk about that Yes, so I was in Detroit over the past week
00:03:13
Speaker
for a wedding. It was a Chaldean Italian wedding and it was maybe the most fun wedding I've ever been to. It was
00:03:22
Speaker
It was just awesome. So congratulations to the happy couple. I was invited as a Andrews plus one. So I got to tag along, but I was just not only so impressed with the city of Detroit, it's just filled with art and murals. And, you know, Andrew and I were kind of talking about this. It made us really sad that Detroit has this
00:03:48
Speaker
perception from the rest of kind of, you know, white America. It's like, it's not a safe city. It's like, doesn't have a lot of tourist opportunities. But I just need to say we had so much fun. And first of all, it was also very lovely going back to a type of Midwestern city. I just needed to say that I felt very comfortable.
00:04:09
Speaker
Everyone was just so friendly. It was honestly wild. Like after spending the, you know, year on the East Coast, like returning to like this Milwaukee Chicago vibe. So I was like, wait, people are just talking to me on the street? Like that's nice. Hello. Hello strangers. And we got a free beer from a brew pub called Hop Cats. It was very nice. We talked to, you know, I don't know if he was an owner or manager, but he was very nice. Very fun to talk to. Very fun people all around.
00:04:40
Speaker
But Andrew and I went to the Detroit Institute of the Arts and Gianna, I was just floored by the collection.
00:04:52
Speaker
We, Andrew and I went to breakfast that morning and he was like, do you know like any of the pieces that we're going to see today? And I was like, you know, no, I didn't really like look it up. I didn't look at their website. I just like, let's just go. You know, of course the thing to do is go to the art museum when you're in a new place. Gianna, I was crying in the middle of the museum on multiple stops. I just, I feel like it was really nice.
00:05:16
Speaker
to go back to a museum space where I felt, I don't know, just, I got that kind of returning feeling of like why I love art in the first place, you know what I mean? I feel like when we're here on the podcast, we like to hate on art history and museums sometimes because it sucks a lot of the time and there are a lot of problems with it and we get frustrated by it and
00:05:43
Speaker
It just felt good to go back and stand in front of a piece of art that I really wasn't expecting to be there and just feel the power of the artwork itself and I was able to take a moment and disassociate those problems that art institutions have that you and I are constantly wrestling with.
00:06:07
Speaker
I just, turning every corner was so cool. I'm pulling Andrew along like, oh my God, look at this, look at this, look at this. And my first big moment was Bronzino's Elianora of Toledo. And I just, I can't, I just, I have dreams about this dress that she's wearing.
00:06:29
Speaker
I truly feel like that piece, I need to do some more research on how it got into the Detroit Museum, but I truly had no idea where that piece was. I would have thought it was somewhere in Italy. It's like that work that's on that iconic level.
00:06:48
Speaker
I love Bronzino in the first place and that dress, that work, it's just one of those iconic art historical pieces and I know that's a problem in itself with the canon where you associate works with value but it was so beautiful. I just can't describe, you talk about that work of art in class all the time but
00:07:12
Speaker
seeing it in person was unbelievable. I spent a good 20 or 30 minutes standing in front of it just looking at her dress. I could not stop looking at her dress, Joan. It was stunning and it looks so pristine. It's not one of those works that really looks crackled and old. It just looked
00:07:34
Speaker
It looked so perfect. It was like it was brand new and it was just insane. We also saw Fuselli's The Nightmare. I was not expecting that and I was quizzing Andrew. I was like, do you know what this painting is in? And I just remember like, if you know Twilight, you know, when she's Googling vampires, The Nightmare comes up. And I always thought that was just kind of funny because it's not really about, you know,
00:08:00
Speaker
vampires, but something that preys on women, I guess. And the big highlight, I have to say, we turn this down this corridor. And honestly, Gianna, I felt like I was back at the Louvre. It had the same color, that like deep red color, that the romantic hall, where like the Delacroix and Anchras are in the Louvre. It just had that deep red color. It's like this very grand, large hall.
00:08:29
Speaker
and the paintings are massive. And I'm looking over here on this one side and I see this beautiful Caravaggio. I'm looking at the card players. I'm looking at all these amazing works. And then I'm looking at this Caravaggio. And then I just happened to turn my head and I look on the opposite side of the wall. And I was literally just, Andrew and I were walking through the museum. We saw a work of Judith Beheading Hall of Fairneys. And I can't remember
00:08:59
Speaker
what the artist was, but I was like, oh, I haven't ever seen this rendition. I was telling him how my undergraduate thesis was on the story of Judith and Hall of Fairies. Maybe that's an episode we should do, actually. Yeah. Yeah. That would be a good one. We haven't done that yet. And I'm telling him about, oh, everyone's always going on about art amigias, and she's great, but my thesis was on Lavinia Fontanas. Iconic.
00:09:23
Speaker
And then in this hall we have, and I'm telling him about the comparison, you know, between Caravaggio's Judith and Artemisia's Judith, and then I'm looking over here at this Caravaggio to my left and then I just happen to turn and I see
00:09:37
Speaker
one of Artemisia's judith and hall
Diversity and Inclusion in Art Museums
00:09:41
Speaker
of fairies not the one that's like not the one that's the usual kind of comparison with the caravaggio but uh you know the one that's actually after the beheading where they're her judith and her maids from our kind of sneaking out of where they've just beheaded they have that they giana they have that and i
00:09:58
Speaker
I haven't had that feeling in an art museum in so long where I just, I saw it and it was huge. It was huge and it was gorgeous. And Andrew and I, I mean, I cannot make this up. We were just talking about my undergraduate thesis and I was telling him about Artemisia and then I just
00:10:21
Speaker
I was speechless, I was speechless, and I was just, thank God for the mask. Honestly, I am not ready to get rid of the mask because I cannot keep my looking shit together. And we're just standing there.
00:10:33
Speaker
You know, Andrew seems to cry a lot, but like we're in public. Crying in front of this piece, like trying so, like my chin was quivering, like you couldn't see it on the face, thank God. But I was just trying to keep it together. And I just, I couldn't help it. It was so, it was so beautiful. And
00:10:55
Speaker
I just I couldn't I couldn't also believe that all of these works were in the Detroit Institute of Art. I mean, it was not that not that they shouldn't have an amazing art collection. I just I didn't know how incredible this museum was. I mean, it was just it was just amazing. And the the the Judith was just like one of I don't know. I mean, everybody kind of has one of those paintings that just like you feel something, you know, you feel
00:11:23
Speaker
what the power of art actually does for you to be in the presence of Artemisia's work and just the lineage, the precedent that she sets for us, for art history, being this incredible painter, but also a woman painting in her time who's just surpassed so many of her male contemporaries. And it was just like,
00:11:49
Speaker
I don't know it was just it was amazing it was just it was so great and if you haven't experienced that before stumbling upon an artwork that you didn't know was at a certain place it's a different feeling to where you go to an art museum because you specifically want to see this piece versus just going and seeing what happens and then once something like that so exciting happens it really is such a
00:12:15
Speaker
exciting and also kind of like all inspiring experience.
Museums and Community Representation
00:12:20
Speaker
And I hope that one day everyone has those moments of finding something, even something new or an artist you didn't know or work of art that you just fall in love with and be able to experience it in the moment. It is such a feeling. And so one, you're so freaking cute. You're adorable. I almost wish we were recording this because you're like a grin is like giving me cute aggression vibes.
00:12:45
Speaker
But that is really fantastic. I also wanted to say that on top of just the fucking incredible collection they had, I just can't get over it. They also had a really fantastic contemporary space. We got to see some Kehinde Wiley, some Titus Kefir. And then I also wanted to point out that, you know, Andrew and I also went to the Detroit History Museum and that was really fantastic too.
00:13:13
Speaker
just learning about the black community in Detroit and I noticed that in the art museum they had all of these incredible pieces by you know quote-unquote master works or you know the old masters or whatever but a lot of their collection is by artists of this kind of like canonical caliber you know but they feature people of color so that was like also just a really
00:13:43
Speaker
fantastic and interesting element where if you think about you know something at the Met or these like very white art museums. They're not going to deter from what we think of what we think of the canon. Right and so what the Detroit Museum did was was kind of take these these masterwork pieces of art and then highlighted the people of color within these paintings and that was just like another really fantastic element that was
00:14:12
Speaker
It was so prevalent and it's unfortunately when you study the canon you're not getting people of color in those old masterworks and you're not talking about those pieces. But the Detroit Institute of Art made it a point and let that spearhead and guide how you view the rest of their collection. I also just wanted to say that it was
00:14:37
Speaker
It was so cool. It was just so cool. I think also why we feel so passionately about places like that that do make an effort to restructure and reshape the ways in which we should learn about things is because if we want others to follow suit or other academic environments to follow suit, that's going to start at these powerhouses.
00:14:59
Speaker
it's museum institution type settings. It clearly showed how a museum of that caliber can serve its community. It can be done. Sure enough, if you fucking work hard at it and you make a point to include people who look like the people who are visiting your museum,
00:15:23
Speaker
You know what?
APT Announcements and Future Plans
00:15:24
Speaker
You create an inclusive space and one hot damn. Imagine that, Gianna. Can you imagine? It was just... What have we been talking about on this podcast for this past year? You know... Beats me.
00:15:37
Speaker
It simply cannot be done. There are no women. There are no LGBTQ stories. There are no stories of people of color in the canon. Look at this. Look at this whole collection of masterworks that are up. And also, I mean, I couldn't help but think about it when we were in there. The value of that collection just has to be astronomical. I mean, I was just like, I couldn't help it, but I was also thinking like,
00:16:05
Speaker
It is interesting to think about, again, using that kind of language and that example, these really historic works of arts from these classic artists. You can't help but think about how that work was obtained. How were they able to get it in whatever institution it is? I always think about that. Even at a pristine, iconic, famous museum that houses all of the famous works that we all think about, I still think about how they got that art.
00:16:36
Speaker
No, I'm definitely, I would love to talk with someone. If anyone knows people at the Detroit Institute, I think we should try to get someone for an interview, Gianna. And I would love to know more about the provenance of their collection. I'm not insinuating anything. We joke a lot about how most of the art in museums are stolen. I'm not trying to insinuate that. No, it's just a true fascination for how do you obtain something so famous?
00:17:03
Speaker
Like, how does that come about in a legal OK sense? Right. And just, you know, like I was talking about before, too, I think that the rest of white America has this perception about the city of Detroit. And I would just be curious like how the institution was built. And I was also talking with people about
00:17:25
Speaker
the just the city in itself at the wedding and um it was just really cool to hear you know from locals about how much they love their city and all that stuff it was just it was really cool well that's that's really fantastic i'm glad you guys had a great time i know that we dropped photos of your time there on our instagram but later on we'll have to drop those photos in a post for sure
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, I can do a post this week on our Instagram for you all. I also visited the Heidelberg Project, and maybe, Gianna, that's something we can say for a longer episode about public art, but I have learned about the Heidelberg Project in my Art Since 1960 class in school, and it's this outdoor art environment in an urban area of Detroit
00:18:14
Speaker
Um, that now serves as like a community organization with, uh, I'm going to read a quote from the website with quote, a mission to improve the lives of people in the neighborhoods through art. So it was built in, um, 1988 by artist Tyree Guyton.
00:18:31
Speaker
And it is in a street, Heidelberg street. And that's where the artist is from. And then he came back and then kind of used this street and its surrounding environments to make this kind of art project about it. So I'll put that on our Instagram as well too. And I will also link their website for you all on our resources page. So just want to highlight, we got to see that as well. I love that the past two episodes, I feel like we've been on
00:18:58
Speaker
these kind of like art happening excursions. That's been really fun to highlight. So nice. It feels so nice. I mean, yeah, it does, which is crazy because in the beginning of all this, we really were not able to do it. So it's, it's really nice for us. It feels like this, this beginning and this return. So I hope you all are enjoying that as, as much as we are. Um, speaking of new beginnings, Gianna has an announcement.
00:19:27
Speaker
not to put pressure on you, but are you ready to share? Well, drum roll, please. So after talking and talking and talking about how I've been trying to get myself to Tulsa, I am happy to say that you won't have to listen to me drone on about that anymore, because I am indeed moving to
00:19:49
Speaker
Tulsa actually here in about a week so I am very excited to be in that area getting to work with a museum up there and just getting more tied into the local arts community in Tulsa just as a practicing artist because it really is a very tight-knit community up here. I would argue that Oklahoma City is as well but
00:20:13
Speaker
For sure, you know each community is just is so different, but they definitely have something really special happening So I will be up there and kind of so Danlin fam I told you girl let me buy that drink My I'm trying to force people to be friends with me and force their love on onto them so
00:20:38
Speaker
So anyways yes so in light of this adjustment that I am making Bianca and I are going to actually take the month of July off for recording but during that month we are going to be highlighting some of our old episodes that we think in light of some new conversation that we had is really good to
00:20:59
Speaker
kind of just go back to and is a good refresher. This is also in light of us having quite a few new followers and listeners, some little new art pop tarts, and then wanting to catch up on a lot of content, so this is a really good time for that to happen, but we'll still be very active on social media as well and still sharing with things week to week, and there'll also be a newsletter for July as well.
00:21:26
Speaker
Yes, so if you are a new art pop tart, we have a monthly newsletter. You can go to artpoptalk.com, sign up for our newsletter. We send it out at the beginning of every single month that we tell you what we're watching, what we're going to be talking about in the upcoming month, what other pop culture references or books or podcasts you might want to tune into to kind of pair along with our upcoming conversation. So for the month of July, we're still going to do that. We're still going to tell you what we're watching.
00:21:55
Speaker
Um, I know season two or part two of Lupin just came out, so I'm very excited about that. Oh my gosh. I know. So we will also in that newsletter, again, highlight for you some episodes that you might want to revisit, or if you're new, some things that we think are iconic to, you know, the APT brand overall. And with that, just a reminder, you can follow us on Instagram. Like Gianna said, we'll still be posting throughout the month of July.
00:22:25
Speaker
That's at Art Pop Talk. We're on Facebook. There's a Facebook group, Art Pop Tarts, that you can join. We're on Twitter.
00:22:33
Speaker
at artpop underscore talk, because a Lady Gaga fan account has the artpop talk handles, and I cannot, I cannot get a hold of it. And we're also on YouTube, so you can also go over to our YouTube channel and subscribe there. If you want during the month of July, you can also go back and watch some of our episodes, particularly the ones that we've done with Guess. We initially started doing all of our
00:23:00
Speaker
interviews in video format as well so you can you can go over there and watch those. We also have a lot behind the scenes that we're working on over the month of July while Gianna is moving and in flux.
Josh Thoughts: Discordia's Musical Journey
00:23:12
Speaker
APT is working on a lot of really exciting upcoming
00:23:18
Speaker
collaborations so just bear with us over the month of July and then when we come back in August I'm just I can't I can't wait to talk to you guys about everything that we have in the works and it's gonna be really cool I'm just really excited yeah yeah it's gonna be good yeah speaking of good things I think it is
00:23:41
Speaker
about that time to dig into Josh that's if this is your first time meeting Josh you will absolutely adore him just as much as we do all right everyone enjoy this episode of Josh that's our pop talk our pop talk our pop talk our pop talk
00:24:13
Speaker
All right. Hello everybody. And welcome back to art pop talk. We are here for another episode of Josh thoughts. All right. Hey, how are you doing?
00:24:23
Speaker
I'm good. How are you doing? I'm good. It's just the two of us this time. Wow. Our trio. In a dark weird room. We're in a dark weird room. We're in the music room. I'm not going to lie. I did take a little photo of the setup with a guitar background. Nice. I'm even missing one of my basses on the wall. It's going to be incomplete. I know. Okay. Well, now we're just going to have to rethink it over. Yeah. This time it'll be good to have you in the photo. I guess I suppose. All right. Yeah. Good empty chair.
00:24:49
Speaker
I'm kind of missing the trio today because we are talking about the triptych. Oh, yeah, it's true. So that feels like a really missed opportunity to me, but I'm going to do my best. All right. So everyone, this episode of Josh, as Bianca and I talked about earlier, will be about a lot of Discordia today. So Discordia, Josh's band in which he's the lead screamer for
00:25:14
Speaker
and the bassist, they're coming out with a new album called Triptych and they all have commissioned me to do the cover art for their album which is so exciting and we love a good APT Discordia collaboration so it was the perfect opportunity to talk about it today.
00:25:37
Speaker
So, first of all, we have talked about some of the albums, I think a little bit, or just some of the musicality that comes with Discordia, but what number album is this for you guys? This is our third full-length album we had. We've also had three EPs. We kind of always go back and forth on, we think probably a couple of those don't really count.
00:25:59
Speaker
We don't really consider them Discordia canon anymore, but... Not in the discography. Yeah, I mean, they're all out there in some form or another, but... Yeah, it's album number three. We're very excited. And... Yeah, we had our last... The thing we've liked the best so far is our previous EP, and I think our writing evolved quite a bit with that one, and...
00:26:26
Speaker
and it continues nicely into this new one, and now it's at full length.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's exciting. I feel like when you all were touring and also before COVID, you guys were always playing at bars locally and I wasn't 21 yet, so I wasn't able to ever see you guys. So I'm very invested in this album. Yeah. Yes, because of my involvement. But I'm really trying to get like an APT mosh pit going. That would be the best way to, I think, celebrate the pandemic being over once we come to that point is to be in a gross, dirty,
00:26:59
Speaker
Mosh
Future of Discordia: Tours and Themes
00:27:00
Speaker
pit. We do have a show in August booked. You do? In Oklahoma City, yeah. That's exciting. At what venue? 89th Street Collective. Okay. August 14th, I think is the date. And we'll be pushing that hard as it gets closer. So yeah, it's- Josh, you know what this means. It's finally there. This is a great opportunity for an APT meetup. Absolutely. And the venue is actually pretty nice. It used to be notorious for being
00:27:26
Speaker
filthy and disgusting and then it came into some new ownership a few years ago and they've spent a long time fixing it up and it's it's actually pretty nice now so yeah like the big thing about this venue used to be like the joke was you didn't go in the bathrooms did you like that kind of that kind of vibe right and even even bands that we played with you know in all the surrounding states they would they would remember
00:27:50
Speaker
You know, we'd say, yeah, we played this place locally in this. I don't remember. I don't know what that show or what venue that is. I might've played a show there. And then I mentioned the bathrooms and like, Oh, I know what venue that is. Yeah. Um, so, so they used to be bad and now they're good. So, and I guess it took like the whole shutdown to like fix it up and do it right. And, uh, so if there's a meetup there, it won't be disgusting. We will sound disgusting, but the surroundings will be fine.
00:28:17
Speaker
Okay, good. That seems like a good vibe for what we're looking for. Yeah. But, you know, sometimes, like, I was able to go back to, like, a local townie bar in Stillwater, and they had fixed up the bathrooms, and they were promising to fix them up for years, but pardon me, it was, like, sad. The bathrooms weren't the same. Yeah. It was, like, an experience, I don't know, which sounds uncomfortable, but so are townie bars. It's weird, but yeah, yeah. There's a weird character. There's some, uh...
00:28:42
Speaker
some history there, I guess. I don't know. There it is. A history of weird bodily fluids and gross things, but... And I mean, the history of bathrooms are gross, but great plug for our bathrooms episode that Beyoncé did about Kohler, so everything is connected. Yeah. And the way those bathrooms used to be was probably, in someone's eyes, also a work of art. So, you know.
00:29:06
Speaker
It all I feel like a little bit of preface this for the steps of two when I was writing out my thoughts for the show. I felt very much like everything has a meaning. Everything is connected as I'm like making my own assumptions about your album to mine art. I feel like
00:29:22
Speaker
if there are any new girl stans listening, that's a very like, Nick Miller quote, but that's my basic white girl moment that I'll provide for the segment. But let's get back to the album. So before we get into the nitty gritty of it, I did want to ask, it seems like you guys are really excited about this album. And I was just curious if anything really stood out differently from some of the other albums or the EPs thematically or conceptually, or do you feel like it's followed a nice trajectory for you guys?
00:29:52
Speaker
Well, yeah, like I was saying, you know, our, our, the thing we liked the most is the last EP we did. And it was the last EP was two songs. Both songs were over 11 minutes. So it was like, it was a very kind of thought heavy, top to bottom, thematically scripted, um, kind of like the most unified thing we've ever done. And we liked that a lot. So we wanted to have that same idea of let's start with an idea and then.
00:30:18
Speaker
Or even if we don't start with an idea and write to that idea, we find a way to link everything to either an idea or things that can be grouped together. And none of that may not come across the music at all for people who are just listening to it, but for us writing it
00:30:37
Speaker
it felt a lot more cohesive than any other full length we've had. Our first full length was just, it was kind of rushed and not really what we wanted it to be, which is why we don't really, just wouldn't even think about it anymore, honestly. And then our second full length, I think we have like, it was like half and half, like it was half of that, like really unified, we're all on the same page idea. And then half was still fine, just maybe a little, a little less cohesive. And to us, looking back on it feels maybe not as,
00:31:06
Speaker
I don't know, memorable. But then this album, finally, I think we have an idea of every song is exactly what we wanted it to be. The links that we have in our minds, like I said, might not come across to the listener, but it feels the most cohesive. So that's kind of the big difference about it. And when I think about this album, that it's
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, it feels better top to bottom as a unified product, which is really nice. Yeah, yeah. It's funny just because I know you, and even just when I think about some really stupid or trivial concepts like your social media posts, Josh is a really great storyteller.
00:31:47
Speaker
You really are and even in a really funny short humorous ways, but he has some really good like social media Segments especially going on tour with discord. Yeah. Yeah, just
00:32:00
Speaker
writing out scripts for how this chaotic road trip went for you guys. And I feel like even using that as an example, just because I can see how like your brain works and the musicality of it all involved in that, I'm just, I'm really here for it. Well, thank you. Yeah, those, like some of my best posts have been
00:32:22
Speaker
horribly awful events, like our van breaking down and almost not making a show, or a pipe bursting in our house and ruining half of it. And including us all in on it. Yes, yes. That's my coping mechanism, and it could be worse.
00:32:37
Speaker
No, but I I'm really here for it, but even with that too I I'm gonna strongly encourage everybody follow Discordia on Instagram if you have not But they just have really such a good vibe like I loved one of the latest videos of I think Kino Screaming or doing some kind of you know vocal stuff and then turning to the camera I think his son was maybe there and he was just like I
00:33:02
Speaker
Hey bud! Such a good, I don't know, such good dad vibes. I'm really here for it. Yeah, we are like probably the best dad metal band out there. I think so. And it's a new genre that we pioneered, dad metal. And just to give us, I think, a little taste of what we could expect for, you know, little APT exclusive content.
00:33:23
Speaker
didn't you tell me earlier there's kind of a funny easter egg as i like to call them of a dream that kino one of your bandmates had and has now worked into the album oh yeah the whole the whole third uh and we'll talk in a bit about like the
00:33:40
Speaker
the little sweets inside the album, S-U-I-T-E-S. There's nothing sweet about the sound of the album. It sounds awful. Is that cute? No, no, no. The whole third segment of the album is about Kino's dreams, and we'll get more on that later, but I will spoil it right now. I'll spoil one little bit of it right now, where one song is about where he turned into a cucumber in his dream.
00:34:09
Speaker
In his dream, he was, I think, in the ground. And I don't know if cucumbers, do cucumbers grow in the ground? I don't know how cucumbers grow. Now that I'm thinking about it. They grow in a little plant bush thing, because it's a squash. So think of a pumpkin as, it's not like a bush, but. So it's not a root. It's not a root. It's not like a carrot. So his dream was wrong to begin with, because he's in the ground. And I think he got pulled up, and he was worried about getting grilled. And all the other cucumbers were telling him, like, no, man, cucumbers don't get grilled. That's not a thing that people do.
00:34:37
Speaker
And he was like, yes, they do. We're gonna all get grilled, guys. And they were like, no. And so he somehow escaped and rolled down a hill and got stuck in a ditch as a cucumber, because he can't move. He's a cucumber. I don't know how he escaped, though. And then I think in the dream he just sort of was stuck in the ditch. He freed himself, but then he was stuck. And I think rotted in the sun.
00:35:04
Speaker
This is just my childhood trauma association, but the veggie tales of it all and with the triptych reference is making me feel like this is really just a veggie tales gone bad. Veggie tales coming, yeah. Veggie tale complex happening.
00:35:19
Speaker
But I'm kind of here for it. So with that little spoiler, this combo will be exciting for all the Discordia stans listening because I know the underground world of death metal also happens to coincide with a large portion of our listeners. Absolutely.
00:35:34
Speaker
but Josh is going to break down the concepts of the album because there is a lot of plot I feel like here at play and again that idea of a narrative and a story being told and I do want to talk about that and then after that kind of go into the cover art and the art of it all because I think it'll be important to break down that idea of the triptych before we do go into the visuals so
00:36:01
Speaker
Josh, if you'd be so kind to take us through the three sections of the album, they are titled Observer, and then The Chariot, and then The Escape. So do we want to start with the Observer? Yeah. So the album is nine tracks long, and it's called Triptych. And the
00:36:20
Speaker
It's basically these three different three-song suites. Earlier I mentioned how having a story or a unifying idea really helped us. We found that we liked that a lot in the writing process.
00:36:33
Speaker
So we just set out with like, all right, we're gonna have something cohesive and, you know, a unifying theme. The three suites aren't really related, but just like kind of being able to sort of compartmentalize as we wrote was very helpful and that's just what we like to do. So the first suite is the observer suite. And the idea with that one is we're talking to a friend of ours who's ridiculously smart. He has like 18 degrees from MIT and only two actually.
00:37:03
Speaker
Not 18, more to jump. But, and we're just kind of talking with him about some, you know, just, just interesting scientific stuff. And he was talking about, you know, the way we view reality and the way we kind of interact with, you know, or like how we possibly can function within reality and what our reality is versus what a, you know, quote unquote objective reality is and how there's no real, there can't be like a very, like a truly, uh,
00:37:32
Speaker
Uh, what's the word? Um, objective observer, because, you know, obviously our scope of what we see on the planet and what we can see in space and how far we can like, you know, study things away from us or even, even just how light gets to us. We just have no real way of seeing the quote unquote truly bigger picture. Um, but you know, the way that humans are, it seems like we, you know,
00:38:00
Speaker
we think we're the big picture and we have all these ideas and attach ourselves to whatever it may be that we think is the most important thing ever, but if you were to kind of put yourself, not that we actually can, but kind of view things from that hypothetical observer's viewpoint, then we're just like the tiniest little speck on the tiniest little speck imaginable.
Critique of Capitalism in 'Triptych'
00:38:26
Speaker
So that,
00:38:27
Speaker
And that kind of rambled on with that a little bit, but the first suite really deals with, if it's written from the perspective of the observer and the hypothetical observer who can see galaxies being torn apart over
00:38:42
Speaker
billions of years, and then we, and then, you know, looking at us and being like, oh, they're mad because, you know, their Xboxes won't turn on or something like that. Like, you know, we are just marbles being played with by aliens. Exactly. And not that we talk about Xboxes in the songs or anything like that, but so that's the idea of the first three suites. You know, our physical limitations are
00:39:06
Speaker
Just limitations of knowledge like how we we can't even possibly know what we don't know That you know stuff like that is kind of what we're going after with that with that first the first three songs and those ones are if I remember the names oh No Minds of dust bodies of ash and spirits of dirt and
00:39:33
Speaker
I struggle with that because we have, all nine songs were working titles for a long time. Stuff like Fudge, and Coffee, and Coffee Whiskey, and Tactical Whiskey, and I don't remember why any of those were named any of that, but the working titles are stuck in my head very firmly, so I got those. But even those we mix up sometimes too, so we're hopeless. Do you have a favorite in that first suite?
00:40:02
Speaker
I'm going to go with the first song. Okay, I do remember why this one, the working title for the first song was Happy. And it was given that working title because I wrote most of that one and it sounds like the most angry thing, the angriest thing I've ever written probably. So as a joke, gave it the working title, Happy.
00:40:22
Speaker
So it kicks out him off with like, just a kick to the teeth in my opinion. I like how it turned out and we all contributed parts to it and made it sound just, you know, pretty aggressive and nasty and all that. But that one is like, wait, hold on. Minds of Dust. Yes. Minds of Dust is the actual name. And that's, I think it's probably my favorite out of the first three.
00:40:45
Speaker
With that in mind, kind of talking about the components that each of you guys bring to the table, I wanted to kind of pinpoint on the fact that you guys identify as a progressive death metal band, and I was wondering if you could really quickly before you move on to that next week about what kind of sets you apart from just death metal in that broad scope. Yeah, so in our mind, you know, like there's,
00:41:14
Speaker
There's a lot of genre tags out there that sort of have a, and I apologize everyone if you can hear my son screaming in the background. It's all kind of pathetic. Exactly. So the genre tags like progressive or technical or things like that, they kind of, they get used to describe music and then they kind of like almost take on a whole thing of their own where like,
00:41:39
Speaker
You know, there's a whole genre of Prague, which, you know, because that grew out of a lot of bands being progressive. So I don't think we were exactly like a Prague metal band and we're not at all that. I think we just like the word progressive because it's a word that kind of means, you know, we're going to mix things up like.
00:42:00
Speaker
we're gonna, we don't even do this on purpose really, we just end up changing time signatures a lot in our music, and we don't really think about time, I don't even, when I write stuff, I don't even really think about time signatures, like I know everything after it's written out, or after I get the ideas out, but I don't think about like, okay, let's, you know, I'm gonna be in 4-4 here, and how's it going, like I'll just, I'll start with some kind of thing, and it ends up, it just happens to be in 7-4, or something like that, and then the next bar is in 6-8, or whatever, so, we kinda, that's the thing that we think about as being,
00:42:29
Speaker
progressive element like we try to mix things up a lot not just in time signatures but you know like really being trying to be as creative as we can with like the notes we use and not
00:42:41
Speaker
not being predictable, not being overly repeating stuff a ton and trying to be inventive in our song structure. It's not just like verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and we're done. It's a lot of different weird sections. So to us, we just sort of casually call that progressive. A bunch of metal nerds will argue to their death about what it actually means, but whatever. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, I just thought that was good to talk about. I know that we have
00:43:11
Speaker
Talked about in our last I think it was our last episode of Josh. That's when we talked about lingua at note Oh, yeah, and the I mean there is a stigma around death metal and I think we can all agree that it is very performative and it is very fluid but there is so much just like with any genre that does go into it and
00:43:33
Speaker
I think just, again, knowing you and also just your full scope of your musical background and your talent. You're a very well-rounded musician, I would say. Thank you.
00:43:45
Speaker
Yeah. Coming from your failed student, which I do apologize for, I do feel that slight need for your approval. Can't believe you didn't practice your bell kit more. It's so much fun. I found something else, so it all works out. But let's go into the chariot of it all. I think that's a really good
00:44:06
Speaker
I know you said that you know triptych that word works really well with fifth three and you know each section means something different but i'll get into the visuals of it but i think the chariot that concept works very nicely as something very tangible between the observer and the escape yeah yeah yeah the um i think i want to say we the the chariot um sweet was the first one that was like we recognized as hey
00:44:35
Speaker
This is an idea for a suite. Let's do this. And then later on we kind of solidify the outside suites. And so the idea with the Chariot is that there's the three songs there are called The Wheel, The Whip, and The Carriage. And the whole Chariot is basically a metaphor for
00:44:59
Speaker
you know, our wonderful, unique American brand, or like global brand of, you know, was essentially late stage capitalism, where the idea is that the 99%, the, you know, everyday people, the normal people, working class and, you know, like, however else you wanted to
00:45:20
Speaker
you know whatever categories we'll put into that are chained to the wheels of this enormous carriage and they're just going somewhere the destination is kind of unknown like it's just progressing forward this is this is this vehicle moving forward and these people are all chained to the wheel you know it's lightning, storming, thunder, dirt, mud
00:45:40
Speaker
you know, terrible things. And all the people on the wheel are like, you know, this is the only way we can go anywhere. It's like, we have to be on this wheel. We have to move. And then other people on the wheel are saying, no, the carriage is huge. We can all fit in the carriage if we go up there. Um, and then like, there's parts of the song where like, you know, if the people in the downward turn are like, we got to get into the carriage and people in the upward turn are like, no, shut up. It's my turn. I'm going to get to the door this time. And then, and of course they just go to the top and start going back down again. It's just a big cycle. Um, and that's, that's the wheel.
00:46:11
Speaker
And then in the whip, the, like the whipping, the sort of thing that's driving the carriage forward, that's moving the horses along, of course. And this one kind of, the theme was sort of inspired by a band I like called Pierron. They have a song called The Invisible Hand Holds a Whip, right? Like this idea of like, you know, people love to just, sorry.
00:46:40
Speaker
Here's my son having a bad time in the background. We can cut that out. So this song called The Invisible Hand Holds the Whip, or Holds a Whip, this idea of the, not everyone, but people of a certain mind say, oh, the invisible hand of the free market sorts everything out and just infuriating stuff like that. It's like, no, it does not. And so I like that idea of the visible hand holds a whip, so that's what's kind of
00:47:10
Speaker
essentially that song is sort of inspired by that title. And just kind of elaborates on that idea of like, this whip is driving everything forward, but who's holding the whip? Like, what's the driver of the carriage? Like, who is that? Like, who's driving this whole thing forward? Why is it, where are we going? Like, what's the idea of like, why we're all chained to this wheel and the mud? And like, so that's the idea with the second song. And then the third song, the carriage.
00:47:36
Speaker
That is the wealthy elite who are inside the carriage and all the comfort and there's just unimaginable amounts of room in it in our hypothetical carriage and it's nice and dark and comfortable and you can't really hear the screams and the whip from outside because it's all nice and everything inside.
00:47:58
Speaker
And they're discussing amongst themselves, like, you know, of course there's not enough room for everyone else up here. They have, like, it's, it's nice for us that we let them all ride on the wheel and we can all move forward this way. This is the only way we can do it. And so I was, that's, you know, that's, you know, maybe it's a bit clumsy, but that's a metaphor for, you know, um, you know, our,
00:48:18
Speaker
a lovely capitalist system, and yeah. Love it. Yeah. I'm actually very here for it. Just because this had just come out there was an article that I saw CBS, of course, report on, but it's pretty big news. I think it was like,
00:48:37
Speaker
magazine was able to get some info about basically our celebrity billionaires tax returns including our friend Jeff Bezos and and Warren Buffett but also Warren Buffett has been pretty transparent about the fact that he has not paid an exuberant amount of taxes and you know
00:48:57
Speaker
if Phoebe was here. He is more about his biggest fans, so I'm sure he would love to talk about that a little bit. But, you know, obviously that is not new conversation and not a ton of it is new news. It's just interesting that we do have the numbers now about how these millionaires have literally paid like zero taxes. And nothing will change. Everyone will be like, oh, look at that outrage and then
00:49:23
Speaker
It's just nothing happens and it is I mean just when you do have the numbers in front of you It is really interesting to think that
00:49:29
Speaker
I could have hypothetically paid more taxes this year than a billionaire because of going through loopholes and donations and investment banking is quite interesting. But I think also, I think what I like about it too, and I mean, we are talking about capitalism in an American context, but also how in so many ways like, you know, America, everything is so
00:49:53
Speaker
Western centric and American centric and like we're supposed to send this stupid example for everyone and we don't live up to our expectation and And then like shit like this keeps happening So that's also like that other aspect of like capitalism and the idea of like free will and like democracy That will just you know, I will constantly find fascinating but also really upsets me but again if Phoebe was here and
00:50:20
Speaker
he could talk your ear off about how no one has free will. Oh, yeah. I mean, and well, I was about to launch onto a whole thing about capitalism being, of course, permanently linked with imperialism. Sure. And, you know, that and then what the how that's affected countries across the world that, you know, probably a whole separate discussion on that. But yeah, so that that second suite is our is our, you know, nice little
00:50:47
Speaker
anti-capitalist and leftist death metal stuff. Leftist death metal. That's the brand. That is the brand. Yeah, it is. So the escape. What is that about? Are we getting taken to a better place or worse place? Oh no, of course not. Okay. Well, the whole escape thing was
00:51:05
Speaker
Like I mentioned earlier, it's Kino's Dreams, and he was on a, if I'm not mistaken, I think he was on a medication for a bit, for something or other that just gave him really weird dreams. It's interesting. And so the first one that he had that he wrote of the song was the one that was about him being a cucumber. And by the way, we had an entire tour on that song.
00:51:26
Speaker
and we didn't have a name for it. And we were like, what should we name this song? And every time we played it live, we were like, we would say, thanks everyone. This song is new, it's about cucumbers. And then we just launched into it. And it was kind of funny, but. I think you should really call it like Veggie Tail something, like Veggie Tail trauma. Yeah, yeah. Because I think that would be iconic. Yeah. And then he had another, and that's sort of like the, you know,
00:51:53
Speaker
the goofy moment of the album. It doesn't sound goofy and the lyrics don't reflect that at all because it's using coded creative language talking about the whole thing. It's a serious song.
00:52:08
Speaker
but that's the second one on there the first song on there is um is about another dream he had and it kind of got space orientated with that one too like uh i think the sun was the eye of saron and he was hiding but or maybe it was god's eye and he was hiding behind the moon or and kino was in space hiding behind a moon or something like that i'd have to
00:52:29
Speaker
Sorry Keena, I'm just butchering your dream. And then he watched the world get blown up and then float off into space. So yeah, it was that. So he had some weird dreams and then the third song is kind of an interesting story. I don't think it was like a personal dream of his, but he was exploring ideas of sleep paralysis where he's kind of taking that world of sleep paralysis
00:52:58
Speaker
into being like kind of a in between world sort of thing where, you know, the, uh, kind of the protagonist, if you will, in, in the, uh, in the song is exploring that world and, you know, trap there and meet say, uh,
00:53:16
Speaker
sort of like figure within that, that Kino named Somnus, and then like sort of like a power struggle between the protagonist and Somnus. And then I can't remember who wins the power struggle. Dang it. Again, Kino, I'm sorry, but. Leave us wanting more. Yeah, there it is.
Interconnected Themes in 'Triptych'
00:53:38
Speaker
That's what I'm doing here. So somehow or other, I think one of the characters is like left,
00:53:47
Speaker
Man, I'm really, I did the vocals for this and I screamed these words and I don't remember exactly what was happening. Well, I mean, and this could just mean...
00:53:57
Speaker
bullshitting with my over analytical like art historical brain so feel free to call me out on this like that's totally fine but I think everything speaks to this like constant struggle you know you have the constant idea of surveillance the constant presence of nature and how overwhelming that is the constant persistence of our system and capitalism and just ending with that
00:54:19
Speaker
constant struggle so you know in a way again that could be just again my I like that my brain but it seems like nothing really has that ending it's just as constant yeah yeah and I do I do know that the ending of that song isn't like really hopeful or anything like that it's it's kind of the last few words talking about how like
00:54:44
Speaker
Like the freedom of death that you could potentially have, you know, like for the escape, if you will, is sort of denied by, um, by, you know, like various things. But the, um, so the idea of the time of the world, the title of that last suite being the escape is that, um,
00:55:04
Speaker
You know, dreams and sleep is somewhat, is something of an escape, um, from whether it's just everyday life or, you know, or, or however else you want to define that. Um, but of course going into that escape, like we see all these, there's lots of problems, right? You're a cucumber who rolled down a hill and you're stuck rotting in the sun. Right. Um, or you're hiding behind the moon and you would just watch the planet get blown up. And a little bit of a path of no return. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever.
00:55:32
Speaker
option or whatever escape you choose to have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was the idea with that third one. And I think those songs are called, let me remember, Panopticon, the observing thing that you were talking about. I guess that sort of does link back to the observer suite a little bit. And then Purifying Flame is the cucumber one.
00:56:00
Speaker
La Petite Morte or probably more because it's French and you wouldn't say the last T. Like the little death is like what sleep is interpreted as sometimes. Cool. Well, before we get into the visuals of it all, is there anything else we should know about the musicality of the Triptych album? Sounds gross. Sounds gross. Yeah. Oh, I should also say that the progressive tag that we kind of talked about earlier, we also like to really
00:56:30
Speaker
lean into dissonance quite a bit like notes that really clash and just sort of like intentionally make things sound very jarring and very well just dissonant and a lot of our favorite bands do that really well and we just try to copy them the least bad we can.
The Art of 'Triptych': Cover Creation
00:56:49
Speaker
Okay everyone we are going to take a little break and when we come back we are going to talk about the album cover for Triptych.
00:57:26
Speaker
Okay, everyone. Welcome back. We're still with Josh. Get more thoughts. Don't worry. I do have some fun pop culture questions to ask at the end. I'm gonna know everything about all of them. I bet you will. Super pumped.
00:57:41
Speaker
But let's talk about the visuals of the album. So when we were first discussing Triptych coming out and the possibility of me doing the cover art, you were really excited about the idea of doing kind of a classic oil painting or just an oil painting of sorts.
00:57:59
Speaker
And now that we have discussed the concepts of the album, I think your original intention of doing an oil painting actually makes a lot of sense based off some of the imagery you were showing me in the concepts.
00:58:13
Speaker
and I think with my brain art historically speaking but before I kind of go into my reasonings why I think that's interesting I'm curious just what your thought process was behind the art concept and wanting to do something like that was rooted in a kind of classic painting. Yeah so our um I think some of my favorite
00:58:38
Speaker
metal album covers and you know we can do a whole episode of that sometime just you know not just our art but like trends and styles and things in in metal art in general and some of my favorite ones tend to be painting oriented ones um and and i think it just kind of conveys a mood really really well with like you know
00:59:01
Speaker
whether it's like foreboding landscapes or just like kind of a weird, just like, or architectural things, or even like, you know, like sort of a focus on a sort of person or central object. I think a lot of paintings I've seen, you can just kind of tailor it perfectly to just like almost no, especially metal bands, like no, almost exactly what the band's going to sound like just looking at the album. And so I like that idea. I like the idea of having a,
00:59:28
Speaker
You know, and maybe not everyone, maybe a non-metal listener wouldn't really have those distinctions just off the visuals, but I like the idea of that idea. Like you can like really, you know, not like just, not judge a book by its cover obviously, but really have a good idea of like our sound and that through the cover and I think paintings in metal anyway, like tends to convey that really well.
00:59:56
Speaker
Yeah, no, that is interesting. I mean, it just, visuals do set a tone for something and it kind of even goes back to that phrase, you know, don't judge a book by its cover, but a cover of a book is going to hopefully set the same tone as it would for what you're reading. Otherwise, like, I picked up this pretty pink book. I thought it was going to be so nice, but it ended up being like
01:00:20
Speaker
about ghost stories and shit. So there are associations that we make with visuals. And yeah, of course it's important. You had shared with me some references of other art and art styles that you guys were interested in. And it was all based in kind of what you were describing, very constructed. I hesitate using the word like steampunk, but just very kind of dark fantasy landscapes.
01:00:47
Speaker
One of the artists you referenced was Mariusz Lewandowski, who is a Polish artist, if I'm not mistaken. We had to look up the pronunciation of that name earlier. And I'm sure we were still wrong. And I'm sure we were still wrong. Do you apologize?
01:01:03
Speaker
That artist really ended up inspiring, I think, the figurative elements for me and the symbolism, especially in the escape visual narrative. He has a lot of really great creepy bodies, some of them kind of coming out of a mirror or a picture frame. So at the, I guess, far right end of the painting, I kind of have this
01:01:29
Speaker
almost like cave like staircase thing happening with very kind of creepy hands above it. But with everything that you guys were kind of wanting, going something into an oil painting, that was kind of the original idea. And then Josh has a lot of like really great graphic like metal shirts that
01:01:53
Speaker
you know, I'm always looking at because I think they are really cool. And he has his jacket with, was that from a band? Or was it... Yeah, Pierron, same band I mentioned earlier. Pierron, yeah, yeah. Really cool graphics and honestly has some really beautiful like bold color in it. But when I was doing the sketching for the cover art, it was
01:02:14
Speaker
very like mixed media, just watercolor, ink, graphic. And we felt like it set this really kind of cool, different graphic tone. So then when we went into the final draft of things, it ended up being more of a watercolor mixed media than it did a kind of traditional oil landscape, but very rooted in those same themes.
01:02:40
Speaker
I hope you guys still like it. Oh, yeah, no pressure. Yeah Yeah, no, it's it's it came out great. It came out like the the because the whole the whole
01:02:52
Speaker
scope of it's really hard to capture in just one image, right? Like the three suites and like their categories within the painting. I think it worked out great and you did an awesome job. And the, yeah, I think that the progression left to right is really great and that we
01:03:10
Speaker
I don't think, I don't know if you did this on purpose, but we sort of decided later that those hands in the, like that creepy kind of gateway sort of thing on the right, we were like, yeah, those are Sominus' hands, like in that character in the third song. And that kind of worked out nicely.
01:03:30
Speaker
And then, yeah, like the, the sort of eye visual for the observer. And I, you know, I think you took that cue from that piran artwork really nicely. It's like very visceral. And, you know, the colors in that, you know, being a nice stark contrast from the other side where it's the, the, the gateway and like in more of like a, you know,
01:03:51
Speaker
more of a moody atmosphere on that atmospheric vibe on that side, but then like the eye is very visceral and very, yeah. I kind of, I was feeling a little bit of like a psychedelic vibe a little bit, which is kind of what I got from the pure on graphics. But yeah, I think the hands and the escape
01:04:09
Speaker
I thought, you know, they just look good visually, but you have all these kind of other humanistic elements. You have the eye and then you have the kind of creepy like cloaked figure that you've got to throw in there. That was in the carriage. So it felt very natural to also have another kind of human-esque or recognizable figure development in, in each three sections. I think that tied in nicely. Um, kind of with everything we're talking about with oil paintings and the landscape,
01:04:38
Speaker
and especially with this idea of, I think, surveillance too. But this overwhelming, all-powerful, uncontrollable being that is nature is the source of our traditional landscape paintings from an art history perspective. We're talking before pictorialism with so much manipulation in the development of technology and documenting landscapes, even before American landscapes and that whole manifest destiny shit.
01:05:07
Speaker
And before Renaissance Impressionism, you know, we have this uncontrollable masterful and spiritual associations that are made with the land and they can really be traced back to sixth century Chinese or Eastern landscape paintings, primarily done
01:05:24
Speaker
with brush and ink and the style is also carried on in practice today. But I found this quote from an Artspur magazine about the style of this painting quote, Shanxi painting is not an open window for the viewer's eye.
01:05:43
Speaker
It is an object for the viewer's mind. Additionally, aspects of the landscape painting such as the color or subject likeness are insignificant. However, the spiritual requirements of a work to be considered Shanxi are extensive. However, they are primarily based around three essential elements, the path, the threshold and the heart. Firstly, the Shanxi path can never be straight. Our passing and nature such as rivers or that of the sun across the sky.
01:06:13
Speaker
Furthermore, the path must lead to a threshold, which welcomes you, for example, a mountain. Finally, the heart, which is the focal point of the painting that the other elements must lead to. And for me,
01:06:31
Speaker
This was kind of just a fun little art history nugget that I was keeping in the back of my brain as I was doing a little bit of personal refreshment on landscapes because so much about that
01:06:46
Speaker
there was just so much to play with when it comes to narrative and I think as much as maybe Bianca and I like to shit on or hate on landscapes just because visually it's not necessarily my favorite work of art to consume but the history of it is fascinating and I think even in something like taking the landscape in that narrative to the forefront and something performative like music or something graphic like this I think we are really able to
01:07:15
Speaker
accomplish something pretty interesting. And I think there are so many layers, obviously, within each song and each suite. But my hope was that those layers were also going to come through a little bit. But they're just also fun for me to talk about on the pot as well. Yeah. And that's all super interesting. And I don't know. I don't have the art historical background and the layers of complexity and thinking and approaching and, you know,
01:07:44
Speaker
seeing symbolism in landscapes or not even symbolism, just, you know, what the, just that kind of viewing approach that you just described in that quote. But I mean, I think there's a lot of that to be seen in your work for us and seeing, you know, like kind of going back to those Marius, Marius, we'll go with that. Marius Lewandowski paintings.
01:08:13
Speaker
where it is a very landscape based but very fantastical and very like you know it's not a your earth you know it's not your you know real landscape it's just it's just very right you know it's like something fictitious or something that was formulated and
01:08:31
Speaker
something like that I'm always gonna make a classic association to a da Vinci painting when I even if you even look at the background of the Mona Lisa it's very dark and creepy and fantastical and it is sometimes described in art historical writings as uh like a mars-like landscape um something not of this earth yeah
01:08:53
Speaker
And so those things exist in very highly classic examples of in that case, portraiture, but just painting. But I just found it so interesting. I think it goes to show that land is going to have this continual association over time and even with
01:09:09
Speaker
development and conquering of the land, you still created this narrative without having an art historical background and association to this time period or this idea of Taoism or Eastern philosophy. And yet I just, again, that's me. I'm going to have my Nick Miller moment. Everything is connected. Everything is together. Everything has meaning.
01:09:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. Maybe we totally did it on purpose and we were thinking about that the entire time for sure. One thing that was kind of intentional about the thread through that, and I don't know exactly how much this links to this discussion specifically, but the idea of the observer is this big, big,
01:09:52
Speaker
huge scope outside of our comprehension and then then the second suite zooms into you know like a very real you know even though it's a metaphor the whole second suite's a metaphor um but a very real kind of like physical like this is the daily grind of our lives kind of you know
01:10:09
Speaker
Rooted in very realism kind of thing then zooming in even farther to like, you know Like a single person's brain asleep and and then like even like you zoomed into that You know a tiny little point like it explodes into this whole other side of you know of that being an entirely new open world yeah, which kind of linked back to the the first suite with
01:10:33
Speaker
You know like the eye of Sauron being the sun or whatever in his in his dream or whatever the interpretation he had throughout that so Yeah, yeah, yeah the last thing I kind of wanted to really pinpoint on was Titling this album triptych and having all the things based in that concept because when we use that word We are by association making connections to Christianity however
01:11:00
Speaker
That style of visual narrative is just kind of like it's tied to the landscape. It has that progression of conscious and unconscious efforts of what has come before. When I think of a Renaissance landscape, there is a lack of depth or correct perspective. But what is being formed is this new kind of visual narrative.
01:11:22
Speaker
And I'll take one of my favorite paintings, a very classic example of again, Birth of Venus. We have the main subject in the middle flanked by two competing moments in time or two narratives. And that in itself has a very triptych-like or esque style. But as we can see, it does have this triptych-like style and it did associate at that time with something like mythology or polytheism.
01:11:48
Speaker
Going back to that quote from Arts Bar Magazine, Shanxi painting is not an open window for the viewer's eye, it is an object for the viewer's mind.
01:12:00
Speaker
this philosophical and spiritual way of documenting and understanding the earth or the land through something like Daoism is a basis for storytelling as is so many other different forms of religion. But again, that's just kind of me making those difference associations that I can't help but not to with something like such a loaded word like triptych. Yeah. And we, uh,
01:12:30
Speaker
thought about precisely none of that when we named the album Triptych and I love this stuff that you can put on to it later on and because I think like you said earlier you know well we're quoting earlier everything's connected so you can make these connections with everything and it was I love hearing all that and kind of seeing what we accidentally
01:12:54
Speaker
created kind of interestingly. I know and this is just kind of my own uncomfortable nature with people describing my own work back to me. I know like that can be a really kind of weird uncomfortable experience for an artist and I know
01:13:15
Speaker
no pun intended, that is a little bit of our cross to bear. I mean, everybody is going to have their own different interpretation, you know, based off what they bring to the table and how they can connect with it. So we know that there's always going to be that little aspect, but I know that I have felt that kind of unsettling nature when someone is kind of trying to explain their work back to you. It can be kind of weird.
01:13:38
Speaker
Yeah. And like I said, it was an accident, but I like hearing all this stuff. That's awesome. And really for us, it was just that, you know,
01:13:47
Speaker
the sort of the basic definition of triptych is these three, like basically sort of three panels that form one cohesive thing. For us it was just we had these three suites that made one cohesive album and it just, the name just sort of happened to work like that.
Artistic Inspirations and Processes
01:14:00
Speaker
And I think I sort of accidentally stumbled on that name too because I had remembered a band I like a lot called Crowless. They had released an album called Yig Her.
01:14:16
Speaker
That's my best attempt at the... Where are they from? They're from New York. Actually, the guitar player in Kralas is the guy who does Art, Mixing and Mastering, Colin Marston. He's a genius. Oh, dope. But he... We're huge fanboys. But he... I also know that they kind of have fun with their... They're just an amazing band and they do all kinds of just fascinating, amazing stuff, but they also kind of have fun with it. They've been...
01:14:46
Speaker
publicly said like oh yeah we made that name up like it doesn't mean anything like it's just there's some words we threw together sounded cool so i think that might know what they did here because the album title Yig Herr like i said Y-G-G space H-U-U-R so whatever anyway the cover for it is kind of uh it's kind of interesting um the it's like when you it's basically a zoomed in picture of
01:15:13
Speaker
Like it looks like a cloak sort of thing. It looks like maybe a statue, but you can see that right there. Fascinating for the listeners. Is it a drawing though? It looks very soft. It's a picture of a painting and the painting is a triptych.
01:15:32
Speaker
Um, it's zoomed in like right there. Oh, um, and it's then the, the painting is like, um, it's these outer panels that you pull that you can pull away. And then there's an interior panel, which is mixed, mixed with the third of the triptych. And it's, um, if you scroll up that a little bit and there's a, um, the, the painter was.
01:15:53
Speaker
Giovanni Celsius or scale see something like that. I can't remember exactly what the painter was Yeah, but I'll definitely link it for resource images. Yeah, and it's pretty cool And and you know, I think that album came out in 2015 I want to say so there wasn't like a fresh album right when we were writing this or anything but I remember just kind of thinking back to that and learning that the What the cover image was
01:16:22
Speaker
And not that the idea of a trip really plays into their album, but I just thought it was kind of cool and I think that kind of set our minds on this course of like a unifying thing and it's sort of, even though our cover art is very very different from that, the
01:16:37
Speaker
the idea of like okay let's go with this triptych idea and we can unify the cover art this way even if it's obviously very different from what what that is but that was uh you know but it is so interesting and i like not that i'm super familiar with this painting but is it is titled the exterior of triptych
01:16:56
Speaker
Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate, but I do think it's interesting to take something That almost looks like a statue with this Virgin's cloak. That is something. I thought it was a statue when I first saw the album cover. Yeah, like we're very familiar with the way a kind of sculpted cloak looks and it's gonna have that art reference and then Zooming in on that
01:17:20
Speaker
So not knowing exactly what it's associated with, but having, unlocking that visual memory in your head, I think is super interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'd be interested to know how they, you know, um, how they decided about like zooming in on that one specific part because it's so nondescript, but it almost has like a full, like a, when you see it by itself on the cover of this metal album, like it just, it's almost like a totally different, uh,
01:17:47
Speaker
It is, it's a whole different composition and image, it stands on its own. That is interesting. Wow, see this is why I love a Josh Sott's Discordia collab. All kinds of art crossover stuff. All kinds of art. I think we should really think about having Kino or Josh too.
01:18:07
Speaker
come on in the future. But we'll see how they... They will maybe know the words better than I do. The words that I am tasked with repeating loudly. We shall see how they feel about this episode and see if I can entice them to bring them on. But I am very excited for everybody to experience the album. When it does come out, we're definitely going to make sure that we put Josh's and Discordie's show on our calendar and our newsletter. You said for August.
01:18:37
Speaker
August 14th. Yeah, for sure. And I will share images of what the image looks now, what the image looks like now. Josh and I are still going to work through some cropping for it and a little bit of digital manipulation. So that'll be really fun. So that'll all be coming through. But right now is the classic image for what it is will stay the same. So I will share those images with you all. But before we go,
01:19:04
Speaker
Josh, it's time for your pop culture quiz. So some
Pop Culture Quiz Finale
01:19:09
Speaker
pretty iconic stuff has happened. So I'm just gonna take us through the big stuff. So I was getting a lot of FOMO from our last episode with Bianca and Alyssa because they discussed the friends reunion and I just, I need your hot takes.
01:19:27
Speaker
I learned about this maybe a day or two ago through some memes that were making fun of it.
01:19:35
Speaker
Oh no. Were they choogie memes? I reject that. I don't. I remember the episode where we all talked about what that word means, but I don't know what that word means. And I don't think there's ever a way I will know and understand what that means. I don't think so either, because you're definitely like a very on the other side of the spectrum from choogie. I hope that's true. Whatever that means, I hope it's true.
01:19:58
Speaker
Okay, well, since you're not a private shoe crew, I guess we can move on. But also Meghan Markle had her baby with Harry, so what do you think of the name? What's the name? Lilibet, Lily for short, and then Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. What the hell did you just say? Okay, so Lilibet, Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
01:20:27
Speaker
I thought they were trying to distance themselves with the royal family. It's like the royal ass baby name I can imagine. Name the kid like Jeff and then don't bug the world with it. But I guess my understanding is the lily part or the little bit.
01:20:48
Speaker
is the association or the name reference to Queen Elizabeth. So the name is supposed to pay homage or have a sort of dedication to the queen. We must always pay homage to the queen. She's our queen, Josh. What else are we supposed to do?
01:21:06
Speaker
Tear her head off. Imperialism is horrible. Guillotines? That's what we're supposed to do with queens. Oh god. Hot takes on the baby. Guillotine. I'll work it out. Royal baby moment. Okay, so our best and most terrifying question of all. Fucking Jeff Bezos is going to the moon.
01:21:31
Speaker
Have you heard about this? I need your hot take on this. I think I heard that he was going to space. I am deeply disturbed. Yeah, my first thought of him going to space was like, great, go launch your cell phone in the sun and die. And then just hearing a question now about going to the moon, I thought, great, go to the moon and die. Pick which pick wherever else you want to pick where you can go the farthest away from everybody.
01:21:58
Speaker
Hope a moon rock lands on you. I just didn't I'm I'm I literally have after the the story just came out with you know Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and all these other billionaires, you know escaping tax funds Bloomberg, you know that the gist but I just am imagining that
01:22:15
Speaker
Elon Musk on his terrifying spaceship flying him and Jeff Bezos to the moon and then like finding just another place to like hide their money yeah for attack like now we're gonna start like hiding money on Mars and that'll be like a tax-exempt like port thing. It's a tax haven on Mars yeah well they're probably gonna go to the moon and like somehow while only they are on the moon charge the working class for like moon occupancy
01:22:47
Speaker
but we're like, or no, no, what they're gonna do is they're on the moon and they're gonna charge the working class for looking at the moon. Cause like this moon is ours, you can't just look at it. We're on the wheel, man. So we're on the wheel. We're on the wheel. And so they're gonna be charged for looking at the moon. Like we're gonna have moon charges cause they're gonna be up there like on their flipping moon yacht. You wanna look at the moon tonight? No, man, I used my moon charge last weekend. My moon credits are out. It was in a clip, so yeah, I kinda.
01:23:16
Speaker
and they're gonna somehow know through the vaccines, of course, that we, when we look at the moon. Yes, because that's how they get us. And Bill Gates is gonna make sure, like, he's gonna know that we look at the moon through our microchips. Yeah, exactly. So that part was a joke, but I would not be surprised if they did some kind of chart, like, the moon is ours, you can't look at it, we're gonna charge you, or we're like, look at it, you know,
01:23:44
Speaker
I just, we all know how I feel about space. So I'll leave that at that. But this with my fear of billionaire white men is just really, everything is colliding. I'm not feeling too hot about it. What if like these billionaire white men
01:23:59
Speaker
they get launched into space, and they miss the moon, and they just keep going, and they're gone forever. Basically, the space is like our trash can for billionaire whiteness. It's the new guillotine. It's the new guillotine. Yes, okay. Yes. You know, it's hard because when it comes to harm and violence, I like to consider myself a pacifist, but, you know,
01:24:23
Speaker
The future's looking bright. I mean, like, okay, there's not a lot of harm and violence in, like, okay, you get launched into space. I think it's because they're willingly going into space and they're willing to take the risk. Like, I am not willing to go into space. Like, I will. You don't have to. I will die gladly. You can stay here, yeah. And, like, I don't want to look at the freaking moon. Like, I'll just stay down here. I'll just look at the dirt and the ashes reference in Discordia. Yeah, but you can stay here while they just get launched into space and never come back. Okay.
01:24:52
Speaker
but they still find somebody to charge us for it. As does Tryptic End. So does this episode of Art Pop Talk on this lovely note, but I think honestly that's some great content for some future.
01:25:06
Speaker
some future metal art, if I'm being honest. Well Josh, you know we love the good Josh thoughts, so I mean I think we've really, we've really just nailed it, I must say. Bianca doesn't know what she's missing. I hope she's getting as much FOMO in this episode as I did. So she's gonna ask her friends like,
01:25:24
Speaker
Oh, they were talking about Kralas and Piran. What do you guys think? Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, guys. Well, thanks for having me on. Of course, as always. And we'll make sure to drop all future Discord yet mentions in our newsletter for any music happenings, art happenings. And with that, we will talk to you all next Tuesday. Bye, everyone. See you.
01:25:50
Speaker
Art Pop Talk's executive producers are me, Bianca Martucci-Vinc. And me, Gianna Martucci-Vinc. Music and sounds are by Josh Turner and photography is by Adrian Turner. And our graphic designer is Sid Hammond.
01:26:22
Speaker
you