Secondary research

Phil Elverum News Artifact 1http://www.prefixmag.com/features/mount-eerie/mount-eerie-phil-elverum-is-analog-in-a-digital-wo/67068/

Summary: This is an interview a journalist did with Phil Elverum. The main subject of focus was how he recorded music and how he will continue to do so in the future. He says in the interview he learnt to record music in analogue rather than digital, not because he is a snob but because that’s how was taught and how he feels that it is a part of the music process, making it with your hands. But Phil is now experimenting with digital music, piecing some demos together and sending them to friends to get their opinions. Other things are also mentioned like how he looks back at his earlier work and views it now as apposed to back then and how he is embarrassed of some things but overall proud of most of what he has created.

Tags: Phil Elverum, Mount Eerie, Clear Moon, Analogue, Digital, Recording, Experimental, Project, Album, Tour, Computer, Tape, Layers, Sound, Characterize, Linked, Tour.

Quotes “Yeah. I don’t use computers. That’s all. I just don’t use computers. If you’re listening to a vinyl record, it has not been made digital

at any point. I record on tape. I mix down to the tape. I send the tape to people who cut it into a record, and they press records from that. Of course if you’re listening to mP3s, it was digitized at some point, but I don’t ever record with computers. That’s just the way my studio is set up.”- Phil Elverum

“I don’t waste tape. I knew what wasn’t going to make the cut, so I taped over it. Tape is so expensive- I use every bit that I can.”-Phil Elverum.

“So what I’m hearing is that you’re probably not going to be trying a digital album in the future?”-Interviewer

“Actually I have been exploring it a little bit. I made some demos of some of these songs to be able to send to friends to teach them how to play them live.”-Phil responding to the question.

“I look at my albums from ten years ago and there are things I would change or I’m embarrassed about this part or that part, butreally, I’m very happy with the things I’ve made.”- Phil Elverum

Further research: I could look into more of his music, picking out the different mentioned albums and listening to them, so I can really think about what the interviewer said about the 2 albums ‘clear moon’ and ‘oceans roar’ being so different. I could also research into how Phil creates his music, reading about the basics of creating music with tape rather than digitally, I think this would really help me to get an insight into what Phil goes through to create his music and how much effort and money he spends using tape. I could also do further research into other articles to collect more information about his creation process and about the things he prefers to create, adding more information about his journals, poetry and photography and how these all link with his music and how he has grown as an artist with using different media and subject matters. .

News Artifact 2http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16657-clear-moon/

Summary: This piece of writing is an album review of Clear Moon by Mount Eerie (aka Phil Elverum) written by Jayson Green on May 22nd 2012. This review starts off with a small red 8.3 with ‘best new music’ written next to it, so already you know that this is going to be positive. The writer starts off by introducing Phil, talking about where he is from and other music he has created, quoting the artist a couple of times. The second paragraph is Phils own review on the album in quotes, how he explains what the album is about. The journalist then goes on to giving their own opinion on it, trying to explain in the best possible way what the music sounds like using a lot of adjectives like hammering and encroaching which suit the sound of the album well. Then Jayson goes into some detail about their own favourite songs, like the ‘Lone Bell’ explanation.

Tags: Album, Review, Best new music, Hammering, Phil, Jayson Greene, Lone Bell, music, paragraph.

Quotes"I go on describing this place/ And the way it feels to live and die”-Phil Elverum summarizes his task on Clear Moon

“The album's sound, meanwhile has the misty-but-tactile feeling of a sense memory. Every sound echoes from side to side of the mix, and the effect isn't so much "panning" as it is a shimmering omnipresence.”-Jayson Greene

“he sings on "The Place I Live". It's a statement that can read as perversely comforting or profoundly depressing-- the universedoesn't disappear when I blink, on the one hand, and the universe wouldn't blink if I disappeared, on the other. Elverum'ssighed inflection cradles both of these meanings with equal gentleness.” –Jayson Greene

“"Lone Bell" is the moment where Elverum's existential quandaries suddenly sprout fangs and grow frightening: Sharp horn blats and insistently hammering guitars evoke fight-or-flight dread, danger, encroaching panic. The bassline keeps crawling up a modal minor scale in the center of the song, posing the same uneasy question, over and over.”-Jayson Greene

“Phil Elverum, the force behind the Microphones and Mount Eerie, lives in Anacortes, Wash., a small town of just under 20,000 people about 64 miles outside of Seattle.”-Jayson Greene

Further research: I could look into more reviews of this albums, ones from fans who are professional journalists, fans who are not and people who are not fans but do music reviews in their spare time. I could also look at more reviews from Jayson Greene where he has reviewed more of Phil’s work, like I know he has reviewed Winds Poems which is another of Phil’s albums. I could look at reviews that are done be being video recorded on youtube, then I could also look at reviews in the comments section of youtube, but also other networking sites like a blog site, tumblr for example, and also reviews on itunes or amazon where people write their own opinion of the music in the comments section.

News Artifact 3http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/mar/12/hidden-treasures-microphones-glow-pt-2?commentpage=1

Summary: this is an album review of Phil Elverum’s music. The reviewer who is called Dan Hancox starts with explaining about how this is Phil’s earlier project ‘The Microphones’ and is now called Mount Eerie. This album, “The Glow” pt.2 is by The Microphones and was released in 2001. Dan Hancox then goes on to trying to figure out the album and its concept, throwing around some ideas that they relate to the lyrics, quoting lyrics as he goes along. Dan also to trying to explain how the music sounds, using words that create a picture in your head. He then finishes the review with a final comment that sums up the album as ‘genuinely life affirming’, which gives a very positive feel about the music.

Tags: Phil Elverum, Dan Hancox, The Microphones, Life Affirming, The Glow, lyrics, 2001, words, picture.

Quotes“In 2001 Phil Elvrum and his shifting army of helpers, the Microphones (now Mt Eerie), recorded an album for K Records so

beguiling, so pastoral, and so strange, that it sat entirely outside of the indie rock paths that already had been opened up in Olympia, Washington”-Dan Hancox

“He was stuck on this suffocating emotional plateau because his redemptive force, "the glow", whatever it might have been (good mental health? Drugs? Love? Sex? Religion?), had disappeared. The Glow Pt 2 is his quest to rediscover that meaning, that solace.”-Dan Hancox

“he wails: "The glow is gone, my gliding body stopped/ I could not get through September without a battle." Elvrum's mood carries the aspect of a disaster survivor – after being so close to the edge, he finds no joy in the quotidian: he needs to feelagain. "I want to be buried in snow, I just want to be cold" he pleads at one point.”-Dan Hancox

“At the song's climax, his triumphant exclamation is "my blood flows harshly". The word blood is stretched out over 14 seconds; as if the longer he can hold the word in his mouth, the longer that blood will keep pumping.”-Dan Hancox

Further research: this could be done by looking at other The Glow pt 2 reviews by other people around the internet. I could look into Phil’s take on the album and how he feels about it now. I could look into the song meanings, research inspiration for the songs and look at how the fans see these songs. I could also research into the album artwork of the album, where the picture came from, who make it, what other art is included in the album sleeve.

News Artifact 4 Summary: this article is about Phil, facts about him and his work. It includes his photography as well as his music, mentioning about his picture books which are filled with photos and drawings. The article not only talks about Phil’s more well known work, but the less popular stuff as well, about the lo-fi music he recorded while out in Norway and living in a cabin on his own for a year. The article really goes into detail about where Phil is from, where he has lived and where he is going to live in the future. It also goes into detail about his work and what it consists of. This article comes off as more a fanzine type of writing, including personal information fans would be interested in. It also talks about Phil’s identity shift from the Microphones to Mount Eerie

Tags: Phil, The Microphones, Mount Eerie, Norway, drawings, article, information.

Quotes

“and maintains a website, Every Book in the House, which consists of photographs of his entire book collection as of December 11, 2007.”-Brandon Stosuy

“In 2008, Elverum released Lost Wisdom, a collaboration with the band Eric’s Trip’s Julie Doiron and Fred Squire, which brought to light Elverum’s interest in black metal via its reference to the Burzum song “Lost Wisdom.”-Brandon Stosuy

“(organs, pianos, fuzzed guitars, field recordings, distortion, booming drums, tape hiss). His work can be delicately spare or layered and noisy, often in the same song.”-Brandon Stosuy explaining instruments Phil uses

“Elverum kept and the drawings he scribbled in Norway were released as a 144-page hardcover book called Dawn. It included sixteen color photo cards and a CD of songs he wrote while living in the cabin.”-Brandon Stosuy.

Further research: To further research this I could go and research Phil Elverum’s home town and do some more research about his muse, the mt Eerie which is situated in his home-town of Annacortes. I could also research into his journals and photographic work, especially looking at the time he lived in Norway and created art there. I could also research into the place in Norway where he lived, see if I can find out what made him go live there and why he came back to his home town rather than just staying there forever.

VideoSummary: This video is a documentary made

about Phil Elverum. It is called ‘Wise Little Old Boy’ and it is an intimate portrait of Phil (the Microphones) and it also includes his friend Kyle Fields who is from another band, and it is about them going on their toursofsmall towns and unconventional venues. This documentary is made by Ryer Banta. It is unusual because of its close up and showing the musicians practicing their songs in their own spaces discussing how they are going to perform certain songs like a garden or kitchen. The camera used is a low quality and adds to the feeling of this being a compilation of home movies. In a lot of scenes at the start there will be a bit of Phil talking about his music and things relating to the depending part in the video. In other parts there is live music playing with scenes of travelling and country side passing by.

Quotes“When somebody is writing about the microphones, it’s like they’re writing about using a very limited… umm…

vocabulary, in compared to me writing about myself, they’re writing about what they know of me through just one album and these other articles and this one press release which is a really sort of limited weird public version of myself.”-Phil narrating at the start of the documentary.

“Being err extroverted like trying to connect with the audience and you know maintaining yourself and like being comfortable, and still doing your idea and it’s a matter of being able to do that in lots of different settings with all kind of distractions going on.”- Phil narrating and explaining why it’s difficult to do live performances.

“I think it’s really important that things can be identified as being handmade or .. Not handmade, but been made by a person, coming from a person, or through a person or whatever and the whole idea of cleaning things up and trying to get it perfect seems just like I don’t know, not that real, not that… it’s like a… trying to alter reality to suit you but not really ever being able to do that good of a job at it or a perfect job because it’s impossible.”- Phil narrating and talking about how he prefers to make his music through his hands rather than digitally.

Further research: I could look for more documentaries about Phil to see if there are any more. I could also research the film maker Ryer, to see if he has got anymore information about Phil or his work. I think that looking at Phils website to see if he has anymore information about this documentary. I could also look at comments from fans to see if they enjoyed the documentary, or to se if they would even class it as one, so I could get a wide array of opinions.

Mount Eerie by the Microphones album reviewhttp://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5267-mount-eerie/

Summary: Here is an album review of the album Mount Eerie by The Microphones. The first album on the left is a review by pitchfork, and the content of this review is pretty typical of this company, where they explain what the album sounds like and why they think it is good/bad (in this case good.) They also give additional background information, so if the reader has never listened to the album or has no idea about the artist, they can understand a lot more. The second section is a comment section on a website that encourages people to quickly review the album they just bought. The majority of these are simple and to the point, which would be helpful when buying an album.

Tags: Mount Eerie, The Microphones, pitchfork, explain, comment, quickly, review, simple, album.

Mount Eerie music video-The Place liveshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khrAhOrSZQc

“Well this was quite different than The Glow Pt. 2.”

“This video is perfect for what Phil's lyrics has been all about the last 5 years.”

“I was raised in the shadow of Mt Erie, raised my kids on the far end of Heart lake place under the mountain (I think where the for sale sign is at the beginning of the video). Now am in Idaho, heard today about your band on Radio Boise. This video captures my heart Thank you.”

Youtuber comments about the video.

Summary: This video is an official music video for the song The Place Lives by Mount Eerie. The video is very simple and picturesque, emulating the music perfectly. In the video the camera is just behind Phil, following him climbing through the forest. Then it shows him opening a gas stove and boiling a kettle. He then goes and digs up some earth with a shovel. He then fills a cup with the mud, pours the boiling water in it. Then he pours the muddy water into the hole he had dug earlier. The video is more about what the video looks like and what the music makes you feel, rather than a story line, or plot.

Mount Eerie live performance-House Shape, Galapagos sessions

“I honestly like this version better than on the record”

“Wow. Very well. Yes! I like it... The four stages of liking a song. (Subject only to one's own world view.)”

Youtuber comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3gPDi-Yu9I

Summary: Here in this video Phil is performing a live song. He is playing his song House Shape, which on his album Ocean Roar. He is playing this song as part of a set of 5 songs for Galapagos sessions. He is singing and playing acoustic guitar, there are no other extra distortions used, so it is very stripped back, compared to the album version, and is also a brave choice to do it so differently as some fans may not like this style.

Factual Artifact-Website

Summary: These are screenshots of factual artifact from Phil’s website, this piece of writing is facts written about himself that he has posted on his website as a sort-of autobiography, so the facts are clear and undisputable. In this autobiography Phil talks about himself, about his music, his interests, where he was born, how old he is, what kind of art he makes, talks about his lack of goals with his music, what he enjoys to read and other personal facts that fans would be interested in reading. Then the second to last paragraph is him talking about his new album, what it is going to sound like, the theme behind it and how he wants people to feel when listening to it. The last paragraph is him explaining how he came about making music and how much he enjoys it.

Tags: Phil, Music, goals, fans, theme, facts, autobiography, read, album.

http://pwelverumandsun.tumblr.com/

Factual Artifact-Website Quotes

“I am Phil Elverum of the band Mount Eerie. Here is my brief autobiography for journalists and other fact-seekers. (updated Aug. 31st, 2014)”-Phil introducing himself on his autobiography.

“I was born in 1978. I am from Anacortes, Washington and I still live there. I am a recording artist, interested in finding new worlds through recording sound, usually working alone. I’ve released albums since the pre-internet era under the names “the Microphones” (1997-2002) and “Mount Eerie” (2002-present). Aside from this music stuff, I make books of photographs and words, paintings, poem books, trinkets, art-jokes, etc., and also I run a pretend record label/publisher called P.W. Elverum & Sun (since 2004), primarily a portal for my own projects into the wider world. These are the facts.”-Phil explaining what he does in a summary paragraph.

“Whenever I stop moving for long enough to sit still and think, I realize that the fact that I am alive and thinking at all is crazy and what the hell? So I am curious about how my mind works and how the world outside it works and how those two realms interact and overlap. I am on a quest for meaning, to be trite”-Phil explaining how he thinks his mind works

“As for the economics, I realize that it might sound pretentious or misguided to be aiming for such big ideas but releasing them in the form of short pop-ish songs on cool vinyl LPs. I don’t know. I accidentally started doing it this way as a teenager and it has worked out economically.”-Phil talking about how he realised that his music could actually fund his lifestyle and that’s when he could call it his job.

Further research: I could look more into Phil’s website to see if he has anymore hidden information. If there was any more information that I needed but I couldn’t fins I could always email Phil and ask him questions that he hasn’t answered anywhere else.

Factual Artifact-Wikipedia Summary: This is a Wikipedia page which is all based on facts from the internet, which states its sources at the bottom of the page. It first starts off with where and when Phil was born, it then goes on to briefly explain about his music, which bands he has been in and where he has collaborated and contributed to. It then goes on to explaining his visual art, such as his photography and ‘fancy people adventures’ which is a comic book on the web. Then at the bottom there is a collection of his songs which is a discography all in chronological order.

Tags: Phil, music, art, fancy people adventures, comic book, bands, chronological order, sources.

Factual Artifact Wikipedia-Quotes

“Phil Elverum (born Philip Whitman Elvrum May 26, 1978) is an Anacortes, Washington-based songwriter, producer and visual artist, best known for his musical projects The Microphones and Mount Eerie. In the mid-2000s, Elvrum began to spell his surname "Elverum", after the Norwegian town of the same name.[1]”

“Elverum is best known for having written and recorded prolifically under the band-names The Microphones (1996-2003) and Mount Eerie (2003-present). He has also produced recordings by many artists linked to K Records and the wider Pacific Northwest music scene, including Mirah, Little Wings, Beat Happening, The Blow, and Thanksgiving. He uses mostly analog recording equipment and often works in his own studio spaces, where he has the time and freedom to experiment with sounds.[2] Most recently, he has recorded at a disused church called "The Unknown" in Anacortes.[3]”

“Visual Art, Elverum is also known for his painting and photography, designing his own album sleeves and elaborate packaging for his releases. Early in his career he produced limited-run fanzines and song booklets which would be sold during Microphones tours. In 2005, he created a 365-day comic calendar titled Fancy People Adventures”

Further research: to get further research I would look into the sources that Wikipedia has stated it had got all its informationfrom, I would also look at his visual art such as fancy people adventures

Interview-Primary Research

Questions to ask fans

1. Which album do you enjoy and feel relates to you the most and why?

2. Which piece of music do you think is Phil’s most experimental? And why?

3. What do you think about Phil’s movement in style from The Microphones to Mount Eerie? And which do you prefer?

4. Phil in the past has talked about his music creating pictures of nature (in his lyrics especially), do you feel in your experience of listening to the music that this is also true for you?

5. Has Phil’s music or photos etc inspired anything that you have done or created?

6. Describe his quintessential music style.

7. Do you feel like Phil’s raw, messy and improvised approach to his live shows is selfish and disappointing or do you think that it adds even more to the live experience?

Questions to send to Phil

1. I know you have created a multitude of music and albums, so if it’s possible to answer, which one did you enjoy making the most?

2. As you have grown older do you think that your music has become more experimental (in a digital, computer sense), and was this intentional?

3. Was there any reason for you changing the name from The Microphones to Mount Eerie?

4. How long have you been taking photographs for? And did you teach yourself to use film?

5. Is there anyone/anything in particular that has been your muse or inspiration? (not including Mt Eerie)

6. When performing live do you find it difficult to be extroverted and to involve the audience? Was it harder when you were younger as apposed to now?

Fan Interview 1David from Nashville

Fan interview 2

1. Which album do you enjoy and feel relates to you the most and why?

The Glow pt 2, because I feel it reflects my inner emotions and ermm and I like to listen to it during the winter, it also has an over-arching theme in melancholy and that makes me feel quite happy to listen to during the winter

2. Which piece of music do you think is Phil’s most experimental? And why?

I would say that the first song on the album mount eerrie by the Microphones, I think that because it’s like a 360 compared to the last album left off and it has an instant tonal shift because you have a lot more percussion rather than acoustic guitars.

3. What do you think about Phil’s movement in style from The Microphones to Mount Eerie? And which do you prefer?

I prefer his older stuff, but I think his movement in style, although he’s experimenting more and he’s got a wider sonic pallet I don’t think it matches the quality of his older material lyrically and musically, because he isn't as subtle and the more electronic parts don’t really fit the theme of nature.

4. Phil in the past has talked about his music creating pictures of nature (in his lyrics especially), do you feel in your experience of listening to the music that this is also true for you?

During some songs, but more of the time I’m sort of imagining the story behind the song is, it doesn’t really give me a picture in my head, it gives me more of a story and what the lyrics mean from Phil’s perspective and point of view, so what has lead up to the song and why he decided to make a song about it, rather than ‘oh this song reminds me of mountains and trees’.

5. Has Phil’s music or photos etc inspired anything that you have done or created?

Yes, well I like to play his songs on guitar, but also his production I have re-created some of his songs in my own time as I err.. As I find it fun to try and re-create it and create my own songs in his production style. A song in particular that has inspired me is ‘I want wind to blow’, mainly because it is simple but it has an edge of difficulty to it and towards the end the song becomes less of an acoustic song and more of a full song.

6. Describe his quintessential music style.

His music basically revolves around images of nature lyrically and also has themes of love, sadness err solitude and also self discovery and mixes lots of acoustic instruments and distorted electric guitar and heavy drums, ermm to sum it up I would basically say, it sounds like it was recorded in a log cabin.

7. Do you feel like Phil’s raw, messy and improvised approach to his live shows is selfish and disappointing or do you think that it adds even more to the live experience?

I’d say it adds more to the live experience because if you’re playing the same songs over and over again I think its selfish to expect a band or an artist to play a song as the exact same way as it is on the record because it’s kind of pointless to go and see a song being performed live if its exactly the same and it also encourages that evolution of an artist and pushes them to create more radical changes.

George from Manchester

Celebrity Interview 1. I know you have created a multitude of music and albums, so if it’s possible to answer, which one did you enjoy making the most?

I've been doing it for long enough that I've had a wide variety of recording experiences. It's hard to pick a favorite. I guess I'll say that, even though they aren't my favorite musically, the funnestones to make have been the ones recorded with more people all in the studio together. I have a record called "SINGERS" which is a compilation of these types of recordings. It's fun to record with a big singing group, playing a song that we barely know, riding the waves of accident and improvisation. It's not that fun to listen to, but fun to make.

2. As you have grown older do you think that your music has become more experimental (in a digital, computer sense), and was this intentional?

I'm not sure what you mean by the digital computer sense of experimental. Maybe you are referring to Pre-Human Ideas, which was me experimenting with a computer? In that case, yes. But I have been experimenting the whole time, since I started. The whole thing is one big experiment and the goal is to nudge myself into new unexpected ideas. Experimentation is the way to do this.

3. Was there any reason for you changing the name from The Microphones to Mount Eerie?

Not really.

4. How long have you been taking photographs for? And did you teach yourself to use film?

My first job (1994) was working in the dark room at a local camera shop, developing and printing peoples' family photos. I began taking pictures during this time. Film was the only option back then.

5. Is there anyone/anything in particular that has been your muse or inspiration? (not including Mt Eerie)

My favorite band was Eric's Trip for a long time, and associated projects. They are little known now but remain very formative for me. Other than that it's difficult to name any other single major sources, yet there are thousands of sources of idea and inspiration, all blending together.

6. When performing live do you find it difficult to be extroverted and to involve the audience? Was it harder when you were younger as apposed to now?

It is not my normal personality to be extroverted at all, so it took some adjusting when I first started playing shows. Now I think I have learned some regular habitual things to say or ways to act to involve a room full of strangers. I'm not exactly a showman with zany moves or anything, so I just try to act like an actual person and to say/sing my ideas as directly as possible, which, surprisingly, seems to be a rare technique on music stages.

Phil Elverum