Perpetual Motion People the latest record from Chicago native and singer-songwriter Ezra Furman is his fifth release, and his first record since signing to Bella Union. It also happens to probably be my favourite record this year to date. It’s a wondrous mishmash of genres and styles, delivered urgently and overflowing with dazzling hooks, guitar riffs and sax.
I caught up with Furman to find out a little bit more about the background to the new album, whether we can expect to see him down in Australia anytime soon and more:
What was the inspiration/spark behind the new record? Where you looking to capture or explore a certain theme or idea?
There’s some kind of essential madness to my inner life that I wanted to really capture on a record. Most of what I’ve recorded is an attempt to encapsulate this headlong reeling quality that my life and mind take on when I’m really excited or upset. I think this one got nearer than any of my other attempts—though of course you can never really pin that thing down.
Perpetual Motion People is such a wonderful myriad of genres and styles all on one record, is this indicative of the music you were listening to at the time? or the music you’ve grown up listening to?
It’s indicative of the fact that I listen to tons of music, all the time, and try to learn from it. My bandmates the Boy-Friends have also been showing me new music every time we go on tour together. It all gets swirled in.
Making music is like dreaming, for me: you take in all this stuff all day and then your unconscious makes something strange and new out of it all, without asking your permission.
I’ve heard you say that Perpetual Motion People wasn’t necessarily the record you initially set out to make. At what point did this become clear? And what do you think was the reason for such different results?
I thought it was all going to be a lot more along the lines of the song “Lousy Connection.” Horns and deliberate orchestration and low backup vocals. We did that one first and it seemed like a great direction to take. But at the end of the day we couldn’t ignore the possibilities for different kinds of songs, such as “Tip of a Match.” We decided not to censor ourselves in the name of thematic purity; after all, the central theme of the record is probably a refusal to be categorized.
Perpetual Motion People is your fifth record, did you approach to the recording differ dramatically to those previous records? And how do you feel your sound/style has developed over the course of those records?
At this point, I’m a hundred times more confident and competent than when I made my early records. In the past, I would just wait and see what happened, and whatever it was, that would be the record. Now, I feel that I know what I’m doing.
It used to be like a see saw, but it’s a whole playground now. I’ve built a world for myself where I can just play, and do anything I want.
My confidence in the studio just keeps growing. And I have a band that I utterly trust with any of my songs. They’ve never failed me yet.
<B?Reading the introduction to the record that you penned, it strikes me that songwriting, and indeed the making of music in general has been and likely still is a cathartic experience; with a lot of your songs dealing with quite personal issues. What role do you see music as having in your life?
It’s certainly an outlet for my inner intensity. But it’s not like therapy.
It’s the fits and reveries of a space cadet, trying to wake himself.
In writing songs like “Body Is Made” and being so open and outspoken about your own gender fluidity and sexuality, you are inevitably going to be seen as by some as a role model. How do you feel about this?
With regard to all that, I don’t give a fuck what any straight person thinks about me. And if any queer people for some reason disapprove, I don’t give a damn either. My only goal with being so public with my queerness is to show some solidarity with all the LGBTQ people who are in trouble or in pain, and maybe bring a bit of comfort to them. They are the reason I talk so much about it and make myself so visible as a gender non-conforming queer. That, and the fact that it’d be too hard to hide.
You mentioned in a live session I saw that you only write protest songs, and that some of them are more obvious than others. For most people when they hear protest song they probably think Dylan or CSNY; how do you define the “protest song”?
I make music as an act of self-definition, and I find that almost always involves defining myself in opposition to things in the wider world that I don’t like. Being passionately who you are, taking the lampshade off your soul, is an act of protest against a culture that usually wants you to shut up and let it degrade you. So if you do it in song, that’s a protest song. Those are the songs we play.
You’ve been touring all around the UK and Europe recently, and have just headed back to the US for a run of shows; how has the tour gone? And how have the new songs gone over?
The tour was very good. It seems like a lot of people like our band, new songs and old. Some people like us a real lot. It’s one thing to know that from a distance, and it’s something else to get in a room with a bunch of those people. It’s intense and usually quite fun.
Are there any plans for an Australian tour in works?
We’re trying. Can’t say anything specific yet because we’re not sure when/if it will happen. But I’d really like to come say hello.
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Perpetual Motion People is available now on Bella Union/PIAS Australia
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