EZRA FURMAN

We're proud to announce our  interview with Ezra Furman talking of his brand new solo album "The Day Of The Dog" that  sees Furman progressing from the dark chamber-pop and gorgeous balladry of his solo debut and emerging  as a stylish, technicolor, pulse-quickening rock provocateur conjuring an intriguing selection of iconic vintage styles. This album will blow you minds, it’s all about the rock ‘n’ roll with some punk panache thrown in. 

So let's talk about “Day Of The Dog” , your second solo effort after “The Year Of No Returning”, how much do you feel changed as a man and a musician from that time to now?

I’m a changed man, certainly, but the newer record is pretty much a manifestation of the same concerns as the last one was. I see it as a sequel. But this time it’s higher energy. The biggest difference is that I have a real rock’n’roll band with me again, called The Boy-Friends. And I’ve become more confident, confident enough to deliver a record that is a real punch in the mouth (if you listen properly).

-There are a lot of themes in this album, but I'd like to focus on one in particular: religion. Are you a believer?

That’s a very Christian question. I’m not a Christian, if that’s what you mean. I am a Jew and I’m into God and Jewish practice. I think about a oneness that encompasses the totality of the universe very often, and how to do the right thing in the face of that oneness. And it comes out in the songs.

-What are your favourite bands, musicians and song? And what about books or movies?

 I like the Pixies and Neutral Milk Hotel. I like Howlin’ Wolf and I like Cat Power. My favorite song is “Little Star” by the Elegants. As for books, I recommend Saul Bellow. I hate movies.

-How do you see yourself in ten years from now?

I’ll be whatever you want me to be, baby.

-I think there's a substantial difference between the two albums, i felt a different mood coming out from your music; do you agree?

Yeah, it’s true. The last one was sadder, this one’s wilder. This was the first record that I ever made where I just thought about what kind of music I wished there was more of in the world and then made that music. Something to really rock’n’roll, and with a lot of ideas and elevated feelings crammed in.

-What about your “song-writing process”, it's just you with a pen and a guitar? Did you ever come across the so-called writer's block?

It is very difficult to write songs. It makes me sick to do it. I write a lot of bad songs and nothing feels worse than that. But I don’t show people the bad ones. The good ones trickle through at last. I am alone when I write them, because no one should see me in that debased state.

-What do you think about the music industry nowadays? 

They don’t like me, so I don’t like them. Though I’m not opposed to some kind of reconciliation being reached. I like the fans; they make me happy; it is to them that I owe my life. They are my area of focus.

-How much does the live element matter in your music? Your songs and your way of singing are full of emotion and struggle, do you think that these things emerge even more when you're on the stage?

Sometimes, yes, the emotions are more visible when the songs are performed onstage. Sometimes the emotions get smaller, though, and the pure joy of playing music becomes the focus. A lot of weird things can happen to a song performed in public. They behave differently every time. They’re odd little buggers, my songs, and they don’t much care to listen to what I tell them to do.

-Who do you think are the most relevant musicians nowadays and who are you listening to the most?

Krill, from Boston. Paul Baribeau. Tristen from Nashville. Bill Callahan. FIDLAR. Those are the ones I like (love). As for relevance, I don’t know much about that. Kanye West, I guess.

-How would you describe your own music? And why do you make it, what does music mean to you?

I listen to and make music because it changes my life. It changes the way I see things, if only for a few moments. It can make, for example, a mundane drive into a voyage of discovery, and that elevation of the mundane is what we all need in order to really be what we really are: mundane material organized into an elevated, an extraordinary, a holy being. Music and other art are one way to be made aware of the grandeur of being, the high stakes, the power and the glory that we all hold. To feel alive while we are alive, and to begin to wrap our heads around what that means.

I see my music as separate from music that doesn't enunciate, that doesn't grab me or shake me, music that calmly lets me be and does its own thing. That kind of music can be great but it is not what I do. Sam Cooke said, “You must make your audience feel what you feel. You have to stir up [their] emotions and literally lift them from their chairs.” I believe in going to a person and personally moving them yourself. It is work, and it is social work by nature. I am not inward. I am outward. I am antisocial not in the sense of a hermit, but in the sense of a public nudist or midnight screamer. I want to bother people. I want to be a pest.

And I also want to be beautiful, to make something beautiful.

Ezra once again has re-invented himself , this time as an angry young man ready to throw himself on the pyre in search of the redemption that will follow.