William Lessard

“A Real Energizer Bunny of Dialogue”: An Interview with Vapor Vespers

August 20, 2021 No Comments

Vapor Vespers

At the same time everyone was pronouncing NYC dead, two local guys, separated by thousands of miles, were collaborating on a pair of singles that look for the square root of Captain Beefheart and the Ramones. With this follow-up to their buzzed-about 2020 debut, One Act Sonix, which got heavy airplay on WFMU, Vapor Vespers delivers the goods, right from your favorite late-night slice joint. Long-time Brooklyn Beat and now Hudson Valley scenester Sal Cataldi works the Robert Fripp guitars and Krautrock electronics; Bronx-born Mark Muro pines and opines on spoken word. I caught up with the pair last week via email, just as they were preparing to launch the new singles, complete with oddball videos comprised of found footage and various Ryan Trecartin-approved pixilations.

Essays

Sopranos Variations or: What I Have Been Streaming During COVID-19

July 15, 2020 No Comments

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art.
—Sontag

Streaming entertainment has reached new levels the past several months. According to a recent Nielsen report, the total number of hours spent was up 81% year-over-year, equating to an increase of nearly 4 billion hours of connected TV use per week. While many people watched—or claimed not to be watching—Tiger King and Black AF, others were dipping into older fare that reminded them of the days when George W. Bush was the worst of their problems.

Featured, Interviews, music

Seed Triangular: An Interview with Musician, Composer, and Producer Robbie Lee

February 24, 2020 No Comments

Robbie Lee

Robbie Lee is an artist who thrives on collaboration. Among his recent partners: Guitarist Mary Halvorson, who won a 2019 MacArthur “Genius Grant,” and composer Lea Bertucci, whose album Resonant Field, named a top Jazz album of 2019 by the New York Times, featured Lee on flute.

In the following exchange, which took place over several months via a shared Google document, the multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer weighs in on David Bowie, his love of duos, NYC’s experimental music scene of the 1990s, and what it means to be a contemporary composer most comfortable in that liminal space between genres.

Books, Featured, Interviews

Dream Delivery Service Comes to Brooklyn: An Interview with Mathias Svalina

July 24, 2018 No Comments

Since 2014, Mathias Svalina has risen well before dawn to hand-deliver poems to subscribers of his Dream Delivery Service. His journeys have taken him to Tucson, Marfa, San Diego, Austin, and, most recently, Buffalo, NY. From July 16th through August 16th, he will be two-wheeling the streets of Brooklyn with his literary goodness and mailing dreams to subscribers who live further away.