Around this time last year, I interviewed Ben Chasny, the sole permanent member of Six Organs of Admittance (and a Comet on Fire), for a different website about Six Organs’ new album Shelters from the Ash. But, being the dumbass I am, I lost the tape of the interview and never ended up publishing the interview, effectively wasting about an hour of Chasny’s valuable time and ending my short-lived career at that website. Ever since I screwed the wonderfully polite Chasny out of his press, I’ve felt super guilty about not doing my job properly and can’t really listen to Six Organs of Admittance without feeling like a real crap dude.
Recently, while digging through junk in the Sarlacc Pit that is my bedroom, I found the notebook I used for my Six Organs interview. Although my notes aren’t terribly detailed, I still have a couple of decent, albeit fairly outdated and out-of-context, tidbits of info from my “lost” Ben Chasny interview. So now, for your enjoyment and my absolution, I present to you some highlights from my shitty notes:
- Chasny first picked up acoustic guitar in defiance of punk and metal, which he saw as the two standard options for youthful musical rebellion.
- Shelter from the Ash was recorded entirely on a four-track with help from members of The Fucking Champs, Magik Markers, and guitar gun-for-hire Matt Sweeney.
- Despite constant comparisons between the two’s guitar styles, Chasny claims that John Fahey did not influence his music as nearly much as Bert Jansch or Leo Kottke; rather, Fahey’s “don’t give a shit” attitude affected Chasny’s artistic ambitions a great deal.
- According to Chasny, Current 93 mastermind David Tibet’s favorite movie is Zoolander and his favorite celebrity is Renee Zellweger. (I’m really, really glad I wrote this one down.)
There you have it! I remember having a much more interesting conversation than these notes reflect, but since I was recording the whole thing, I thought I could get away with pretty junky notetaking. So, remember this, all you budding young journalists: Always keep track of where in the hell you store your tapes, but take good notes just in case. Phew! Feels good to pass some morals onto the future!
If you’re anything like me, all these life lessons would sure go well with some good old fashioned fingerstyle guitar! You know who can help you out with that? Six Organs of Admittance! Hopefully you live in Europe though. Otherwise, I’m sure Chasny will tour the U.S. at some point in the near future, and when he does, you’ll hear about it from me, because I still have some atoning to do.
