A Conversation with Prompter

prompter

I started listening to Prompter when I first joined T61.

I think the amazing thing about music and a site like T61, is that upon hearing a piece of music, the last thing that comes to mind is the age of the musician. It wasn't until around the time of the Michael Miller wake that I started to chat with him about his music. I was a bit surprised; though not entirely, that although I thought him young it never occurred to me that he wasn't studying music on at least a university level.

There is a lot of maturity influencing the themes of his music. Not a dark cynical, angst-driven type of maturity that people mistakenly assume is the badge of youth, but a willingness to explore all avenues of the medium with an openness that shows how very much at ease he is with himself and his art.

...but he explains himself far better than I ever could...

Prompter: My name's George Feledichuk. I was born in Victoria, BC, raised in an Edmonton suburb until suddenly we moved to Texas when I was 10.

Mom is a music teacher and singer and Dad enjoys music as well. Inevitably I got my appreciation for music from them. Around 8th grade I started writing some music, but didn't pursue it too intensely until recently, when my first album "away.from.the.source.of.life" was released on Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody, etc.

myktoronto: Do you have any close friends that have influenced your music and music appreciation?

Prompter: Definitely. my friend Taylor perral1 on T61. He's the one who introduced me to the site and was really the one who convinced me that my music was actually worth putting out there.

Taylor spotted me the money to put my album up on iTunes and Amazon through Tunecore, He's been the most encouraging person in this whole thing; although my mom and dad are both really supportive, too; which is definitely helpful.

myktoronto: What kind of outside stimulus seems to trigger your creativity? Do you go for walks or is it stimulating activity that makes thing happen?

Prompter: ... well, I don't know if this is the healthiest trigger, but my best songs have been written while either incredibly angry or incredibly depressed by some situation. I can sit and stare at my monitor for hours and put out maybe an 8-measure loop. But; if I'm inspired by something emotional I'll have a fully scored song out in maybe half an hour. Of course, normally when such a situation occurs, I'm nowhere near my computer. One of these days a laptop should solve that.

myktoronto: Do you constantly write or score tunes in your head ? (I had to ask because; I do that and I just don't know if it's common or normal *yikes*).

Prompter: Actually, I always find myself beatboxing or drumming on desks (to the point where people constantly tell me to shut up). What's ironic is that I can beatbox on the spot, but I have trouble writing drum parts because I can never get the sound I'm looking for. As far as full songs go, I've had occasions where something happens that just causes me to hear one; and I'm lucky when I can get one of those out. Fire's probably the best example of that.

Example: A kid was threatening my sister at school and the whole situation really upset me, but I heard about it sitting in front of my computer... so full songs, like with Fire, come occasionally, but not as often as I'd like.

myktoronto: Are you involved in any other artistic pursuits?

Prompter: That depends on when you read this. I'm tentatively starting a band with a few friends. The idea is to try and get different styles together and see the child of that musical union. The guitarist likes modern electro rock and industrial, the drummer in the style of Incubus and 311, a classically trained pianist in the group happens to love U2, and me on bass (another reason it's tentative) with my amalgamation of influences... so we'll see how it pans out...

myktoronto: How do you relax?

Prompter: Most of the time I listen to as much music as I can. I've got like; 34 days of straight music in my library and to be honest, I haven't heard near enough of it.

I'm obsessed with web-comics such as Questionable Content and Sam and Fuzzy, and I'm always anticipating updates. Plus, I'll go ahead and confess that I play role-playing games (the old kind where you roll dice... remember dice?) As well, I mooch off of my friends' riches and go over to their houses to marvel over the various available consoles. Other than that; I read (more than I should).

Actually I failed a class before because I was too busy reading. My favorite author is William Gibson. Oh, man, I wish I could write like that. There are plenty of others too.

My general literary interests are sci-fi, philosophy, and scientific non-fiction.

myktoronto: What musician living or dead would you most like/have liked to spend a day with?

Prompter: Aaahhh.... that question isn't fair. I'm going to finish the other ones and come back to ponder this one for hours....
...okay, I'm back.

You sure I can't just make a list?... got to choose one?... I'll make a list of candidates and throw a dart (seriously.)

...alright, looks like we're going with Brian Eno - man! He's a genius. It's like every album he even puts his name on becomes instantly that much better from the influence he has. I'm in awe of his work; the way he's helped produce so many pinnacles of what music today 'is'.

I was talking to KRay recently about the 'shape of sound' and how few people know it. Eno was the first person to come to mind. That's the best way to describe him. He knows the shape of sound. (thanks to KRay for the quote.)

Man, I wish I could go on about some more people, but alas, the dart has already chosen the fate of this interview.

*Some other incredible people are Scriabin, Boards of Canada, Armin van Buuren, Gabriel & Dresden, Mike Foyle, and Daft Punk.

myktoronto: Is there anything funny or odd that happened to you either in the school band or when you were performing? (or both)

Prompter: Well, I'm a percussionist; so hijinks abound (we're all crazy). Thinking of a specific incident...let's see; the biggest problem is the sheer amount of inside jokes that wouldn't make any sense to the readers. I'm trying to think of something that could be standalone.

I guess the day I tried out to play tenors. I hadn't come to any of the clinics and I had written the solo around 4:00 a.m. that morning (I always write required music a lot later than I probably should). I had put on my tryout sheet that tenors were my first preference, and I listed being in 'pit' (mallets and xylophones and such) as the very last thing I wanted to do. I'd say that tryout influenced me quite a bit, as my horrid failure led to my being placed in pit and realizing "hey, I don't have to carry heavy drums like those other poor guys! sweet!" and I stuck with it.

Next year will be my second year as pit captain, and I'm proud to say; I still don't have to carry those heavy drums.

myktoronto: If you could meet any artist on thesixtyone, who would it be?

Prompter: I'd have to say BEARBOT. I've maxbumped each song (on my listener account) and not only has it been incredible on the point payback, but I have enjoyed every track and played them all several times. Plus, the Daft Punk mixes are all brilliant. My favorite song is $m0k3 d4t cR4cK... go check it out if you haven't.

myktoronto: Thanks so much for sharing some of yourself with us, George. At the rate you're going, I think we on the outside, can all foresee a bright and productive musical career ahead of you.

You're an interesting individual that I am pleased to have had the opportunity to get to know better.

Visit Prompter on T61 and MySpace.

Prompter's music is available at Amazon.com and iTunes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Myk,
Great interview, I thought the introduction was fantastic and it kept me reading; your questions made the artist shine.
Looking forward to your next interview!