WILL SARTAIN SAYS LET'S HANG OUT NAKED

as it appeared in slug magazine ....


203 Nov 2005: Will Sartain Says: Let’s Hang Out Naked
_POSTEDON Nov 03, 2005 - 01:52 PM by publisher

Subculture By Curtis Jensen

Will Sartain is the music that he plays; there is no separation between what he plays and who he is: DIY romps as the bass player for The Tremula, fragmented lyricisms as the drummer for The Buttery Muffins, or the simply put melodies of his solo project, all of these are Will. He is recently returned from a six-week tour with The Tremula that was marked by a drummer that quit, Hurricane Katrina, and difficult customs officials of the United Kingdom. As a solo artist, Will has toured extensively through North America and Europe. As a promoter, Will held the calendar for Kilby Court from Sept. 2003 to July 2005, and currently he promotes shows around Salt Lake City under his WS Presents moniker.



SLUG: How was the tour?

Will Sartain: It was good.

SLUG: Trials and tribulations?

WS: We were in Texas, and we were supposed to go to New Orleans, but the first hurricane came like two days before that, so we were stuck in this little college town, Nacogdoches. We missed two shows, one in Baton Rouge and one in New Orleans.

SLUG: Lindsay (Heath) quit. How’d everything go after that?

WS: John (Patterson) just started playing. It was ok, it worked. There were some parts I liked a lot more, some parts I didn’t like as much. She quit like six weeks in, and the thing was, none of us could get along with Lindsay. Once she was gone, immediately it was like, “Yes, we can say whatever the fuck we want.” With those three guys, I could see myself touring for a whole year straight. We did two more weeks after she left, and then we were going to go to the UK, but we were sent back.

SLUG: Wait, what?

WS: We just figured it’d be fine; we went in last time with the Will Sartain stuff the same way, and it was totally fine. The plan was to say we were coming in for one day, going to Amsterdam, then coming back and picking up our work permit at the harbor. Three of us got in, then Scott (Fetzer) got a guy that didn’t want to let him in. We were in, we were downstairs with our luggage, but he got stopped and we got sent back home.

SLUG: What is the current state of DIY music and culture?

WS: People still want to be liked. People want other people to like their band, I feel that a lot. For instance, even if people are doing something weird, these people are insecure people who want other people to say that what they are doing is cool. I’ve been thinking about the roots, you know, heavy boom-boom-boom (swings his fists, puffs his cheeks, bobs his head). Look at Vile Blue Shades. That is what is it right now, and it’s not even about the people who are doing it because I could say, “I want to play with you guys,” and they’d be like, “come on down.”

SLUG: It seems like in Salt Lake there’s been a shift back to some of those more primal emotions. A little less irony, a little less, I don’t know, love-songy ...

WS: Totally getting back to the ...

SLUG: Big ...

WS: Yeah. Perhaps it’s a way to connect with people on a broader level instead of writing this stupid-ass mopey song that applies to only these few people. I want to do something where everybody’s boomchicka-boomchicka (swings his fists again, puffs his cheeks again, bobs his head again).

SLUG: Do you look to make a living from music?

WS: I don’t even know anymore. The greatest benefit has been traveling; I don’t know if I want to make a living from it. Already I’m getting sick of it.

SLUG: Of traveling?

WS: No, not of traveling. Just the songs. I question whether they are really applicable to me, or what made them applicable to me. Maybe I’m changing how I feel. I don’t want to feel that way, I’m OK with it, but I don’t want to feel that way, just all sad. The music that has been dominating America for so long is just weak music; we don’t need to be scared or uncertain people right now. We are people that can do things. Why not? Why is it that we have to resort to, “I have to get a job at this place that I don’t want to work at?” Why don’t you start a company? That’s not even in our heads anymore. I think it fits in with that somehow, the music is, “I’m defeated, I can’t do anything, I’m weak.” I can do this, I can be a part of my community, I can contribute something.

Will Sartain’s palm was read for the first time by Annie Hawkins on October 16, 2005.

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- These are points of originality, your true talents. The things that make you different from other people.

CAPTIONS FOR DIAGRAM

- This is your heart. Your heart rules your life.

- Your lifeline is fucking huge; I’ve never seen one this long. You’ll have a long life, and you will have good luck at the end of your life.

- Love is oceans for you, it is huge.

- Your great love will peek its head in the next couple of years, when you are 27 or 28 years old.

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QUOTE BOXES

We don’t need to be scared or uncertain people right now