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12/03/09:

Another date for Feeding Fingers in The Netherlands has been added... Feeding Fingers will be playing at Get Rhythm in Ridderkerk (The Netherlands) on Wednesday, March 3with Cradle.

Also... http://www.feedingfingers.com is now active. Go there and enter into the contest for freebies.

11/01/09:

Steven Lapcevic is making an official Feeding Fingers: "Fireflies Make Us Sick" animated music video. The video is expected to debut in January, 2010.

So far... Feeding Fingers has 4 European show dates confirmed for 2010:

  • Friday, March 5, 2010 @ De Gonz in the cityof Gouda, The Netherlands - Feeding Fingers with Entertainment & Cradle
  • Saturday, March 6, 2010 - Rome, Italy - Ander the Moon Productions & Grinding Halt Concerti Present Feeding Fingers
  • Wednesday, March 10, 2010 @ Control Club - Bucharest, Romania with Pixels
  • Saturday, March 13, 2010 - Warsaw, Poland - Feeding Fingers & Entertainment @ Old Skull Party - The No Mercy Club

And the following dates for USA for 2009 - 2010:

  • Friday, January 15, 2010 @ Club TSI, Karmic Explosion II - Jacksonville, FL with ARS Phoenix, Girls on Film, Earth Empire, and others...
  • Saturday, January 16, 2010 - TBA in Miami, FL or Ft. Lauderdale, FL

The third Feeding Fingers album is currently in production and is about 75% finished. We are looking at a rough release date for late summer / early autumn 2010. The album will be a split-label release between Stickfigure Recordings and Tephramedia, however we are open for label support from more outlets - preferably in central and eastern Europe. Contact us if you are interested in demo material and might be interested in collaborating with the third release. Serious inquires only - please contact Gavin Frederick (info@stickfigureredistro.com) or Justin Curfman (justin@justincurfman.com) for demos and information.

 

 

 

08/15/09:

Yes, Feeding Fingers has a new bass player - Kris Anderson:

On Saturday, September 12 there will be a meet and greet and house party show for Kris at the Feeding Fingers / Can Can house. This show will be by invitation only, but if you are interested in coming just email me. We would love to see you.

Kris' first public performance will be at The Other Sound festival in Little 5 Points on Saturday, September 19. The time slots for each band are being finalized now. We will let you know the lineup as soon as it's released. Keep checking back at The Other Sound official website.

Also, Feeding Fingers & our label mates, Entertainment, will be touring Europe together during the first 2 weeks of March. We are looking at going from London eastward as far as Bucharest. We will be posting show dates and locations as they are confirmed. If you are a promoter, listener, band, or anything in-between in the UK, France, Germany, or The Czech Republic and might be interested in hosting a Feeding Fingers / Entertainment show, contact me.

This is the projected March 2010 Europe tour schedule:

  • Wednesday, March 3 - London (in progress - contact me if you would like to collaborate)
  • Thursday, March 4 - Paris (in progress - contact me if you would like to collaborate)
  • Friday, March 5 - Gouda, The Netherlands - Feeding Fingers, Entertainment, & Cradle @ De Gonz in Gouda, The Netherlands (confirmed)
  • Sarturday, March 6 - Bochum, Germany or Rome, Italy (in progress - contact me if you are in or around Bochum and would like to collaborate)
  • Sunday, March 7 - NO SHOW
  • Monday, March 8 - NO SHOW
  • Tuesday, March 9 - Prague, The Czech Republic (in progress - contact me to collaborate)
  • Wednesday, March 10 - Bucharest, Romania - Feeding Fingers @ Control Club in Bucharest, Romania (confirmed)
  • Thursday, March 11 - Berlin, Germany (in progress - contact me)
  • Friday, March 12 - Leipzig, Germany (in progress - contact me)
  • Saturday, March 13 - Warsaw, Poland - Feeding Fingers & Entertainment @ Old Skull in Warsaw, Poland (in progress... almost confirmed)

05/31/09:

Alone Music (Italy - May, 2009) - Interview with Justin available in English & Italian.

05/28/09:

Treffpunkt-Schwarz (Germany - May, 2009) - Interview with Justin at Treffpunkt-Schwarz Magazine (Germany) available in German and English.

5/13/09:

Darkroom Magazine (Italy - 2009) - In-depth interview with Justin about Feeding Fingers, Art, Literature, Politics, Europe, USA, and everything in-between. The English transcript can be found here.

5/11/09:

Feeding Fingers is in Mick Mercer's new book, "Music to Die For". Please take a look and place an order, if you're interested.

Mick has written about this scene more than anyone else in history. This is his 5th book on the subject.

MUSIC TO DIE FOR is 624 pages long, containing individual entries on 3,581 different bands, from 70 countries, with 183 photos. It covers bands from the beginning of these scenes to the present day and, wherever possible, contains full line-up details and discographies as well as unusual facts revealed by many of the bands. This is the biggest guide ever printed about the underground scenes in which Goth, Post-Punk and all things noir co-exist with equal splendour.

You can find this on Amazon, Barnes & Noble (etc) but if possible please use the link below to buy direct from the publisher, thereby supporting them for their trust in taking on such a project. They accept Paypal and for such a chunky book they’re doing a very cheap deal on postage. They are actually an independent record label and have released a fantastic series of Goth re-releases, so as they support the scene it would be nice if people acknowledged that by buying directly from them:


MUSIC TO DIE FOR by Mick Mercer (Cherry Red Records - UK)






Here is an interview with Mick:


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Make friends with "Music to Die For"
 

5/04/09:

The "Extreme Traumfänger" (Extreme Dreamcatcher) compilation CD series is compiled and released by Martin Sprissler of Gothic Magazine (Germany). "Extreme Traumfänger Vol. 8" was released a couple of weeks ago (April) - it includes a track from Feeding Fingers.

"... collects some of the most romantic recent releases from the scene..."

Take a look, and place an order, if you're interested here:
IndieDetective

The disc is also available at several other distributors for hard copy and download. Just do a Google search.



Also...

Copies of Gothic Magazine #63 (Germany) in which Feeding Fingers makes an appearance in the magazine and also has a track on an included compilation CD with the magazine are still available here:

Gothic Magazine (Germany)

5/01/09:

Feeding Fingers ranked #1 for April on the GGC (Global Gothic Chart) chart with the song, "Is Heaven All That You Hear", beating Depeche Mode, White Lies, Lacuna Coil, My Dying Bride, Diary of Dreams, and a slew of others.

"... Feeding Fingers are the biggest surprise of the year..."

Also...

Tonight (May 1st) there will be another radio special about Feeding Fingers broadcasting from Germany on DarkRadio (you can stream it). It will air at 2PM (EST - USA) which is 8PM in Germany. The show will be in German, but there will be an English transcript of the interview with Justin available soon afterward.

And... last night's radio show can be downloaded here:

Weak Wave Radio (Germany) 1+ Hour Radio Special Devoted to Feeding Fingers from April, 30, 2009. Included is a discussion, interview, anecdotes, etc. This show is in German - however, an English transcript of the interview with Justin Curfman can be found here.

4/25/09:

Thursday, April 30 at 11PM (Deutschland Time) there will be a Feeding Fingers radio special on Weak Wave Radio in Germany. Stream it here:

http://www.weakwave.com

4/8/09:


...................... ..

This is an interview, in its entirety - in English, with Justin Curfman of Feeding Fingers, conducted by Daniela Turss for Gothic Magazine - Germany (issue #63). This edition of the magazine also comes with a 2-disc compilation sampler, including the Feeding Fingers song, "Is Heaven All That You Hear" from the album, "Baby Teeth". Please visit the site and order a copy of the magazine and tell your newsstand to order it.


Could you please introduce yourself and FEEDING FINGERS to our readers? Who's who and who's responsible for what? ....

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I am Justin Curfman, front-man for Feeding Fingers. The group is a trio consisting of myself, Todd Caras, and Danny Hunt. Because we are a trio of multi-instrumentalists, the duties of one member to the next changes from song to song, when we perform live. Typically, I am responsible for vocals, guitar, bass, and keys. Todd is usually on bass, keys, and his custom lighting rig, while Danny is nearly always on percussion. ....

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Please try to describe what your music sounds like - or what you want it to sound like. Is there any genre you feel comfortable in?....

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For me, our music sounds like a musical illustration of my dreams and pre-occupations with everything from missing children, entomophagy, drowning, sex, and duality. I would like for our music to sound like an accurate soundtrack for my unconscious life. I am not a very subjective writer. I prefer to think and write about impossible lives and situations. This is the closest that I am able to get to living out my fantasies - excluding my animation work. ....

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I never attempted to seek a genre to sort of burrow into - I don't think that many people do. But, it seems that we've found a small place in the sort of post-punk/dark-wave/death-rock spectrum of the goth-alternative genre. ....

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Please describe the band's development up until today. (How did you meet? When did you finally have the current line-up? Any funny little stories / anecdotes from your past...)....

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The creation of Feeding Fingers developed around my psychological need to purge out of my mind a collection of music that I had been writing off and on since age 16 that I had originally intended to be used as the soundtrack for an animated film project that I had in mind as a teenager, which I eventually lost interest in and abandoned. ....

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In 2005 I began production on a different feature-length stop-motion puppet animated film titled "TICKS", which I am working on to this day, and found myself with nearly twenty pieces of complimentary music in my sketchbooks, on cassette-tapes and hard-drives spanning nearly ten years. ....

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I decided that "TICKS" was going to be a film unto itself, in which I was going to abandon all of my previous ideas and start from the ground up. I tucked this older music away in my studio and decided to never re-visit it. ....

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Several months later, I purchased a home in a suburb of ....Atlanta.., ..GA.... (....USA....) which had a large performance/studio space spanning the entire lower level of the house. The original intent of purchasing the house was to allow for me to have the space required to work on animation and music projects and I initially devoted most of my time to working on "TICKS". But, seeing the space and thinking about the abandoned music filled me with the desire to start a band and to perform this music for a live audience, just as a temporary experiment - so that I could get the urge out of my mind. ....

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I had never started a band. I had played with people through my teen years and have written music since I was a child, but this was a new and exciting beginning for me. ....

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I submitted advertisements in music papers, internet networking sites, etc., etc. calling for a bass player and a drummer interested in playing in a group similar to Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Echo & the Bunnymen, and on and on. A few days later, phone calls and emails started trickling in and everything fell into place very easily. ....

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The first phone call was from a bass player named Todd Caras. I was staying evenings at a hospice with my dying grandmother at the time of his call. I took the call on the back patio of the hospice. His voice was loud and confident. Todd knows his history and knew EXACTLY what I was looking for.....

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Todd asked that I make a CD for him with as much music that I had ready to perform and to pass it along to him right away. ....

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I made a disc with ten songs and we met at a bar near the hospice. Neither one of us had any idea of what the other looked like, but for some reason as soon as I walked into the bar he called my name, "Justin!" And we chatted for the next three hours. We've been joined at the hip ever since. ....

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Finding a drummer was a bit more difficult. I went through at least a dozen phone calls from very well-intentioned people, but they all had too many outside obligations to be able to take my seemingly temporary project as seriously as I would have liked. ....

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One afternoon I took a call from Danny and I asked when he would be available to come to my place for a try-out and he said, "How about tonight?" ....

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Danny is a veteran percussionist of any style that you can imagine. He offers to the group a certain finesse and professionalism through his experience that you don't often hear anymore. After learning a little about his history with the many national touring acts that he has performed with over many years, I was a little intimidated by him initially and was a little afraid to have him involved in the project, for fear of his just abandoning us eventually for someone with a little more experience and financial sway, but the man has found a comfortable home with Todd and I.....

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The three of us have been together and unchanged since 2006. The idea of a fourth member on keys has been discussed off and on for a year or so, but at the moment I think that there is a certain something from the group that would be lost if a fourth member were involved. ....

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Also, given the temperament of the three of us and the amount of time that we have spent together to be able to deal with one another's eccentricities, I do not think that I would feel comfortable subjecting a fourth person to dealing with the three of us. ....

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I have my own passive, nice-guy, workaholic, O.C.D., nature that my guys have to deal with from day to day. Todd has a legendary temper which is known both here in ....America.... and in the ....UK..... And Danny… he scares people. ....

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How did your music change during that time?....

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Our music has changed quite a bit since the beginning. In my mind, my only reference for the music that came to be known as Feeding Fingers, was that of my own. All of my writing and recording was done 100% on my own up until the group came together. At first, the music, when performed live, was rather subdued and a little too loyal to the sound of what you hear on "Wound in Wall". There was a certain sterility that I was not able to overcome at first, because I was used to playing this music a specific way that I had been playing and thinking about for years.....

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I always thought of my music on my own terms. When we first got together, I would show Todd and Danny the parts that I wanted them to play, and they would play them. It was not very collaborative. In the beginning, I felt as if I was almost like a singer-songwriter with a backing band, and I was their director. ....

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Eventually, as boredom crept in and as my ideas came slower, Todd and Danny started to get comfortable and offer their own interpretations and flavors into the music and it became much more dynamic and vicious live. In and out of the studio, we're nearly a different band altogether. ....

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What’s your personal connection to bands such as THE CURE and ECHO AND THE BUNNYMAN, which you call your main influences? What’s your motivation to write music that is rooted in their style and how do you react to people who might accuse you of being “stuck in the past”?....

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I am glad that you asked this question. I am usually "accused" of this before I can even give my position. Sometimes I wonder if I should even give some critics the satisfaction of a response. But, I think it's overdue… so here we are…....

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I was a loner, American teenager through the 1990s and I had no interest in what was contemporary corporate-radio pop music in those years. As a matter of fact, I didn't really listen to music at all as a child. I hated rock music. I thought it was very dull and imbecilic. My father was a blues man. My grandmother was a country musician, who regularly performed at the Grand Ole' Opry in ....Nashville.., ..Tennessee.... (....USA....) in her youth. So, of course, as a defiant kid, that didn't interest me either. ....

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I was always more interested in literature, film, and comic books. Yet, later on I think that I had devoured so much of those mediums in such a short amount of time, that I branched out into music. ....

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I remember reading, as every kid does - it seems, people like William S. Burroughs, Alfred Kubin, Georg Trakl, Bruno Schulz, and the like. These writers, among other artists, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, etc. all sort of pushed me into finally discovering music. ....

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I listened to "modern" composers like Shostokovich, Lutoslawski, Penderecki, John Cage, and the rest until some boredom sank in. Then, I moved on to the more original "industrial" music from groups like Einsturzende Neubauten, SPK, DAF, Cabaret Voltaire, and so on. I digested all of that and finally bought an analog four-track cassette recorder from a small amount of money which I was awarded at age fourteen as a result of a car accident followed by some cosmetic surgery, which has given me the prominent scar across my left cheek. ....

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With this recorder I would record EVERYTHING. I secretly recorded conversations with other people. I secretly recorded other people's conversations. I recorded television and radio broadcasts. I recorded sounds from animals and machines. I recorded words and poetry. I recorded everything and would mix much of it together into a sort of dissonant sound-salad. I still have at least one hundred or so cassette tapes in my studio over ten years old with all of this. I have no idea what I will do with these, but it would break my heart to see them in a wastebasket.....

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Over time, I lost interest in the random noise-scapes. I lost interest in mixing this. So, I wanted to start writing "proper" songs. I didn't know where to start. Initially I had more interest in manipulating sounds than I did with "sculpting" them into recognizable music structures. I knew that I wanted to write something closer to pop music, but I didn't really have a genre or school of though to sort of draw influence from. There wasn't really anything to my knowledge at that time that really inspired me. But I knew that it was something that I wanted to try. ....

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There are two major college-radio stations here where I live outside of ....Atlanta..... One of those stations did, and still does, broadcast a lot of noise/avant-garde/ambient music late at night. I used to listen to it nearly every night before going to bed. I remember not being able to sleep very well one night and staying awake past this noise show and there was a show calling itself "Dead Air". ....

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On this show they played a lot of Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, ....Japan...., and sometimes interspersed with music closer to things like Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk, Psychic TV, etc. and through all of this, I fell in love. I felt like I found this little corner of the music world that I was excited about exploring. In all of this, I found something that spoke to me, musically. I understood the arrangements and I identified with the philosophies and sometimes non-philosophies of all of these guys. There were elements of drama, performance, and non-literal ways of thought and expression that really excited me. This was music that was meant, on some levels, to be more interpreted than simply listened to. ....

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I would listen to this show and write down the names of the groups and artists which I liked the most, so that I could get my hands on their albums. ....

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I coaxed my father into driving me to some media stores around ....Atlanta.... to try to find some of these bands on store shelves, and was disappointed when I found that almost none of them were available, unless ordered. Somehow, this made it all a little more intriguing.....

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Of all of these groups, the only ones that ever had anything on store shelves were The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. For whatever reason, here in the States, these are really the only groups that sort of penetrated pop culture and stuck around for more than a few years. So, of course, as a fourteen year old kid, on the same day with a gift card from a relative, I picked up "Pornography"(The Cure), "Heaven Up Here" (Echo and the Bunnymen), "Juju" (Siouxsie and the Banshees) and "In the Flat Fields" (Bauhaus) from some retail franchise in a shopping center. It all seems so cliché now, but back then it felt good to sort of "discover" something and to dig a little deeper into this brief little music phenomenon that took place over two decades ago. I am not sure what it was about the collective consciousness at that time. Maybe the Cold War and the economic strife of western culture at the time ushered in this music. And, I think, in some ways, we are seeing a cyclic return to form because of the recent resurgence of problems with the ....Russian Federation.... and the current economic condition. ....

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We see these themes in literature occur in cycles through WWI, WWII, and returning again with a lot of people embracing escapist surrealist and non-representational, neo-expressionist literature and art. I think that when faced with conditions that we are not necessarily able to fully control, we retreat within ourselves to escape until the wave runs over us and we may be able to stick our necks out again once it passes. Maybe this is why when a lot of musicians that work in this "genre" pursue solo careers, it usually turns out to be a dull mess filled with sentiment. ....

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I don't think that I knowingly or purposefully write music in "their" style as much as I am just able to identify with the structures of what I feel are well-laid plans. Pop music has changed very little since the 1950s, really. The structures are still the same. The tones, the technology, and the ideas have taken on new identities, but there are a lot of things that have not changed. There are some things that just universally work. There is just something very seductive and beautiful to me about certain tones that people laid ground-work for years ago. I just hope to work within some of them and add something of our own and eventually maybe cut through. Who knows, maybe we'll burst out of a bubble and become a Flamenco band someday. ....

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I wouldn't say that we're "stuck in the past". To be honest with you, I don’t know that this type of music ever really penetrated the mainstream to become dated. This is why so much of it still sounds contemporary and relevant. If anything, I would say that what you hear on the radio is stuck in the past. ....

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Mainstream radio turned "punk" into breakfast cereal jingles. R&B is NOT R&B - it is just a group of handsome jocks crooning about how great they are and how many women (they think) want to have sex with them. Hip hop hasn't really been hip-hop for years. That really sort of died when Public Enemy disappeared. This singer-songwriter thing is tiresome. Indie rock that you hear on the radio is trite, I think. ....

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What you hear on the radio is stuck in the past because it is tried and true and will not upset or challenge the masses. And I do not blame the corporations for dumbing down and sterilizing mass media. It all sells because it is what the LISTENERS want. This is a sad truth about popular culture, but I don't know that it has ever been any different. I don't opine for the "good ole' days" because I think that things have always been this way. I think that we live in the best days so far. And to be honest with you, I think it's wonderful. Let them have theirs, and let us have ours. Do you really want your grandmother to be listening to "Adolescent Sex"? ....

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What else are your sources of inspiration?....

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I am not as inspired by music as I am by dreams, conversations, memories, confusion, and literature. In music I can find structures and patterns to help me lay foundations for something that I would like to communicate, but the subjects are never influenced by music. I enjoy not quite understanding what people say to me, and remembering things my own way. I love to fill in the dots. Music is sometimes, for me, one of those dots. ....

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Please tell me everything about your new album “Baby Teeth”? What was the creative process like on “Baby Teeth”?....

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"Baby Teeth" is the follow up to "Wound in Wall". I felt that "Baby Teeth" was a necessary step to take with Feeding Fingers as a proper band. "Wound in Wall" was more or less my own solo vanity project. With "Baby Teeth" I felt it important to involve Todd and Danny very closely as collaborators on this album to sort of give the listener and us a sense of what the group might sound like if I took a little bit more of a back seat and allow more of the their creative input and criticism. I felt that "Baby Teeth" needed to be shorter, tighter, and more a Feeding Fingers album rather than a Justin Curfman featuring Feeding Fingers album - if that makes sense.....

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I come out of an animation background, where I am used to controlling 100% of the creative process. That habit bled over into my music, and I have had to learn to let some of that go in order to give the listener a little bit more of an unpredictable experience from album to album, and to make sure that my mates don't get bored silly working with me. The process of creating "Baby Teeth" was very different than that of "Wound in Wall". ....

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We started to work on "Baby Teeth" in June of 2008 and finished it four months later in September. Stickfigure Records and my company, Tephramedia, released it officially at the beginning of this year. ....

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I typically write all Feeding Fingers songs on bass and drums first and then add slashes of keys and guitars, where appropriate. I then listen to the music hundreds of times, over and over again, and sing nonsense over it. Through this nonsense I find some recognizable pieces words and phrases and I translate them to myself phonetically until I find out what it is that I think that I am trying to say. I write lyrics in a trance. I later alter them through some alchemical process of association and eventually you have a song with lyrics that I intend for one to translate the same way that one might interpret a non-narrative painting or still image. I do not like literal language. I can't think lyrically like that. Thinking that way makes me feel like Robert Palmer must have felt. ....

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My mates listen to these song sketches and add their touches and suggestions and we fight a little until a happy medium is found between us. I have to do all of the engineering. I can't imagine working with a stranger in the room with us. The creative process, for me, is very personal. I can't work with someone not involved directly with Feeding Fingers in the studio. It gives me that feeling that you get when you are using the restroom at someone's house, you notice that the bathroom door is broken, and the whole family will be home at any minute. It is a terrible intrusion of privacy, and I can't do it. ....

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What’s behind the name “Baby Teeth”? Are the individual songs thematically interconnected?....

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I think that the album's name, "Baby Teeth", is both a reference to the lyrics of the title track:....

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"I would rather watch you up....

On a silent stage....

With baby teeth still in....

Still inside your....

Mouth…"....

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These lyrics were inspired by a dream that I had about a beautiful female singer singing to me on a stage. She finished her song, smiled, and I noticed that she still had her baby teeth, making her gums appear grotesquely enormous. And for some reason this sexually aroused me enormously. ....

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And I believe it is a reference to just the place of the album in its relation to Feeding Fingers', as of now, relatively short career. There are a lot of things brewing in the brain right now for the future. ....

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I believe that "Baby Teeth" is altogether thematically connected in some way. I think that this is the reason why it was decided to make this a 9 song album, rather than a 14 song marathon like "Wound in Wall" was. I like to think that the listener can put "Baby Teeth" in a CD player and listen to it in its entirety as one complimentary piece of music, which is why; admittedly, I don't think that there are nearly as many radio-friendly pieces on this one as was on "Wound in Wall". ....

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From those songs I already know, I got the impression that you concentrate on minimal compositions that combine influences from 80ies Minimal Electro and the more rock-based tunes. I feel that you allow each song to develop, and that you want your listeners to take some time to really “get” them. Do you agree with me on that? If yes, are you with your music trying to work against the trend of catchy, but often superficial rock-songs?....

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Yes. I agree. There has been something of a complaint about it "taking too long" for me to get to the singing on some of the songs. There are some songs where the lyrics don't appear until well into over a minute of music. People complain about this because they are used to the radio-format. I don't write music for the radio. I write music that I feel is right. I like to think of songs as little experiences unto themselves, where the artist has enough time to introduce himself to the listener and to usher them into an experience. I think that people that are appreciative of this "genre" understand this and are a bit more patient. In addition, radio is DEAD.....

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I don't know that I am actively working against the formula, but I can tell you that I am unable to write like that. It just feels stupid and wrong. I would feel like I would be insulting our listeners for me to assume that they have the attention span of a mosquito. Not only do I feel that it is my responsibility as an artist to escort our listeners into the songs, but I also have to write music the way that I do in order to put myself into that same state of mind, otherwise I feel like a fraud. ....

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What are the main themes of the lyrics on “Baby Teeth”?....

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Blurry language and vague sensuality, maybe. I am not sure. That's up to you, really. ....

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Is there anything special you want to express through your music and lyrics?....

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I want to put beautiful pieces of confusion in unassuming packages and have enough to go around for everyone to enjoy on the coldest winter mornings and evenings of the year. ....

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Is there, in your opinion, one song on the new album that contains the message of “Baby Teeth” in essence?....

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"She Hides Disease" and "Is Heaven All That You Hear", I feel compliment one another and embody the nature of the album like a pair of bookends. ....

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I just read an entry in your Myspace-Blog in which you thanked your fans who attended one of your concerts. How important is it for you to get personally in touch with those people who like your music and not only “collect” 50.000 “friends” on internet-platforms?....

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It is very important, I think, for us to connect with as many listeners on a personal level as possible. In this world of over-saturation in the entertainment industry, and this sort of idea that people should just abandon their daily necessities and obligations just to listen to you, is ludicrous. ....

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With the standard and the cost of living being so criminally high right now, paired with a global economy that has taken a nose-dive, I find it very flattering that anyone would spare a few minutes out of their day and sometimes a few dollars from their pocket to show their appreciation for the group, that it is important to let them know that they are appreciated. I am humbled to no end every day when I wake up and get to work on music, animation, literature, or whatever it is that I am working on that day and see that I have emails from all over the world from people just wanting to say hello or to thank me for offering some nugget of satisfaction to them in this world. ....

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To think that you are so great and so VERY talented that people should just fawn over you based on the fact that you have some talent and that they should just send you their praise and their hard-earned money just because of your very existence, is absurd. ....

.. ..

From working in this community of music and film, I hear these presumptuous conversations from "artists" all of the time about how no one understands them, and that the rest of the world is just too stupid to appreciate them, when the truth is that their talent really lies in that they put a lot more hours than your average person into learning how to use Pro Tools or some other such thing. Don't be presumptuous. Be honest, humble, and prolific. Be a decent human-being. There aren't many left. ....

.. ..

.. ..

.. ..

.. ..

What are future plans of FEEDING FINGERS?....

.. ..

We are working with Stickfigure Records (USA) and NetManagement Musik Verlag (....Germany....) on a lot of European promotion to help establish enough of a following for the group to leave the ....USA.... for a few European tour dates to promote both albums. There are a lot of CD release parties in ..Europe.. and ..Asia.. that are lasting from March through May to help build more awareness for Feeding Fingers there. ....

.. ..

The truth is that nearly 90% of our listeners live in ..Europe... ....America.... is something of a deaf ear for this genre right now. ..Europe.. is a different story for us. The restraining factor is finances to get the group overseas. But, we're working very closely and diligently to push our way into your backyard. ....

.. ..

I am working on a feature-length stop-motion animated film titled "TICKS" right now. But, there is a soundtrack being made along with it, which is a Feeding Fingers project. The film is due for release toward the end of 2010. "TICKS" will be toured through several film festival circuits and Feeding Fingers will tour with the film and will perform the soundtrack live as the film is screened. The soundtrack will be released ....

as an album unto itself on CD as well. ....

.. ..

Also, there will be a third non-soundtrack Feeding Fingers album which may come out at the same time as the "TICKS" soundtrack. I am not sure yet. I can tell you that the third album will be a little bit of a tonal departure from the previous two. ....  

3/29/09:

Two days ago (Fri., Mar. 27, 2009) we performed on NPR (National Public Radio) in Athens, GA on their show called "It's Friday", where they showcase a live performance from a different band every week.

We performed acoustic renditions of 8 of our songs from both albums in the set, including:

Your Name in a Stolen Book
Fireflies Make Us Sick
She Hides Disease
A Bag of Broken Hands
This Isn't Going to Hurt
Baby Teeth
I Can't Breathe
Swallow Me

Download the entire 40+ minute broadcast here:
Feeding Fingers Live on NPR (Acoustic Set)

Here is the direct file path:
http://www.justincurfman.com/feeding_fingers_npr_acoustic_2009.mp3

The show will air on television for the next couple of weeks. After that, the entire television broadcast will be available online. Just check in with us in three or four weeks.

In the meantime... here is a makeshift home-video from the acoustic show:






And...

We played at Go Bar in Athens, GA later on that same day with Misfortune 500 (and if you haven't listened to them... you should). Here is a video snippet from that show also:




See you FRIDAY, APRIL 10 at The Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, GA! We will be performing with Siberia My Sweet and Promise December. It will be an 18+ show... so come out and bring the kids:



If you want more live videos, music videos, and animated films from Feeding Fingers and Justin Curfman... visit the YouTube Channel and mark it:

Feeding Fingers & Justin Curfman YouTube Channel


 

3/21/09:

Last week Justin Curfman of Feeding Fingers was interviewed in Russian Music/Culture/Art magazine, Gothic Rock Russia. Here is a link to the original interview in both Russian and in English (Russian at the top / English translation is at the bottom):

Feeding Fingers & Justin Curfman interviewed at Gothic Rock Russia Magazine



Here is the interview in English. It is a lengthy interview. You might want to grab some coffee. (Feel free to read the interview here, but please visit the site also):


English Version:

• GothicRock.Ru (GR): Hello,
Justin! Thank you for accepting this interview request. Please
introduce yourself to our audience and say a few words about your
interests, world outlook in general.


Justin:
Hello. I am Justin Curfman, front-man for the group, Feeding Fingers.
Thank you for asking to do this. I have had a lot of correspondence
from listeners in your part of the world recently. There have been a
couple of other 'zines that operate near you in Russia that have
written to me in the recent past wanting to do this, but never really
worked out for one reason or another. It's nice to finally be able to
talk to you all.
During the day I animate and play with puppets,
day-dream, write and record music, read comic books, medical
malpractice and experimentation anecdotes, pretentious fiction from the
early 20th century, and dozens of other things, while at the same time
trying to earn a living managing my multi-media studio in Atlanta.

• GR: You
can be definitely called a man of art after acquaintance with your
music or visual / animation art experience. Before asking any concrete
things about your projects it’d be really interesting to know what is
art for you as a term – in a philosophical and abstract sense?


Justin:
Philosophically, I think, that art is a construct of man to help make
life a little more pleasant, bearable, and interesting. Otherwise,
living out Mother Nature's singular philosophy; "eat, fuck, shit, kill,
and die", would be the only function of man.
I don't know that art
is something very necessary, really. I believe that art satisfies our
desire make to make sense of, and compartmentalize what is, at times,
an illogical world.
I think of a work of art, in any medium, as
something like a relic or effigy which embodies an experience of man in
some fashion. The drive to create art is within us, I think, to fulfill
an instinctive desire of man's ego to be immortal in some way also, and
to encapsulate and summarize one experience to the next for further
generations to comprehend, process, and to be influenced by in their
own work, since our minds and bodies are not immortal... yet.
We
all have a compulsion to create something of a virus of thought and
idea to infect the consciousness of the masses, and hopefully spread
through enough people, and to infect them long enough to satisfy our
unconscious desire to be intrusive and feel as if there is something
important to say. Or to at least feel as if the hundreds upon hundreds
of hours that we spend in solitude, day-dreaming, and creating one
piece of work after another were not wasted just speaking to the wind.
The time spent internalizing and reflecting something always demands
some vindication.
We have so many mediums beyond body language,
hand gestures, and the spoken and written word because we all know that
there are some things that are poorly communicated in literal
languages.
I have always thought it an interesting commentary on
man that the seminal image of the first landing on the Moon is the
image of Neil Armstrong's footprint in the dust, which may never be
personally seen or discussed among anyone or anything at anytime in the
distant future, but there is this drive to attempt to make sure that
someone or something will know, understand, and care about our history
and accomplishments, regardless of our profession, or level of social
prestige. We think that it is important. I think that is a significant
observation of our nature. We all want to share something. We all want
to leave a gift for someone, whether they want it or not.
In an
abstract sense, I think that art is the only thing that really
distinguishes us from any large mammal grazing in a field or tempting
ants and termites out of a rotten log with a bamboo shoot.



• GR: Do
you consider art as something that expresses only your inner world or
it could be somehow connected with outside reality and other people?
What things inspire you to create and compose (literature, movies etc)?


Justin:
I think that art definitely expresses one's inner-world. But, I believe
that any expression of your inner world is a by-product of how your
nervous system devours, digests, and expels your experience back into
the nervous system of the few others who care about what it is that you
have to spew back at them.
What you experience from the output of
my inner-world is what my psyche interprets back to you as my own way
of trying to make sense of the world around me, and to hopefully offer
to you something which makes your daily experience a little more
tolerable - as it does mine.
And for myself, I have the
self-indulgent satisfaction in knowing that whatever it is that I have
been obsessing over, for whatever reason, can finally be digested,
given to you, and I can finally move on to the next project and not
have to think about things like parasites, bird feeders, fencing masks,
light-bulbs filled with water, and children waiting to have their
fingers eaten by a man between walls.
I am inspired by everything
- this is sometimes a problem. I am sometimes hyper-sensitive to
everything, but I tend to embellish the world around me, so that the
world isn't so mundane an experience for me.
I like
mis-understanding people. I like not quite hearing what someone has to
say. I like forgetting things and then piecing conversations and events
back together from the fragments that I do recall, making impossible
memories, environments and scenarios. I am inspired by textures also.
Sometimes I just like to stare into nothing and flashes of absurdity
and comfort come to me and I just explore it all a little further than
I probably should.

• GR: Let’s
speak about your music activity in “The Feeding Fingers” project. How
did it all start? What does the title of the band mean?


Justin:
The creation of Feeding Fingers developed around my psychological need
to purge out of my mind a collection of music that I had been writing
off and on since age 16 that I had originally intended to be used as
the soundtrack for an animated film project that I had in mind as a
teenager, which I eventually lost interest in and abandoned.
In
2005 I began production on a different feature-length stop-motion
puppet animated film titled "TICKS", which I am working on to this day,
and found myself with nearly twenty pieces of complimentary music in my
sketchbooks, on cassette-tapes and hard-drives spanning nearly ten
years. I decided that "TICKS" was going to be a film unto itself, in
which I was going to abandon all of my previous ideas and start from
the ground up. I tucked this older music away in my studio and decided
to never re-visit it.
Several months later, I purchased a home in
a suburb of Atlanta, GA (USA) which had a large performance/studio
space spanning the entire lower level of the house. The original intent
of purchasing the house was to allow for me to have the space required
to work on animation and music projects and I initially devoted most of
my time to working on "TICKS". But, seeing the space and thinking about
the abandoned music filled me with the desire to start a band and to
perform this music for a live audience, just as a temporary experiment
- so that I could get the urge out of my mind.
I had never started
a band. I had played with people through my teen years and have written
music since I was a child, but this was a new and exciting beginning
for me.
I submitted advertisements in music papers, internet
networking sites, etc., etc. calling for a bass player and a drummer
interested in playing in a group similar to Joy Division, Cocteau
Twins, Echo & the Bunnymen, and on and on. A few days later, phone
calls and emails started trickling in and everything fell into place
very easily.
The first phone call was from a bass player named
Todd Caras. I was staying evenings at a hospice with my dying
grandmother at the time of his call. I took the call on the back patio
of the hospice. His voice was loud and confident. Todd knows his
history and knew EXACTLY what I was looking for. Todd asked that I make
a CD for him with as much music that I had ready to perform and to pass
it along to him right away. I made a disc with ten songs and we met at
a bar near the hospice. Neither one of us had any idea of what the
other looked like, but for some reason as soon as I walked into the bar
he called my name, "Justin!" And we chatted for the next three hours.
We've been joined at the hip ever since.
Finding a drummer was a
bit more difficult. I went through at least a dozen phone calls from
very well-intentioned people, but they all had too many outside
obligations to be able to take my seemingly temporary project as
seriously as I would have liked.
One afternoon I took a call from
Danny and I asked when he would be available to come to my place for a
try-out and he said, "How about tonight?"
Danny is a veteran
percussionist of any style that you can imagine. He offers to the group
a certain finesse and professionalism through his experience that you
don't often hear anymore. After learning a little about his history
with the many national touring acts that he has performed with over
many years, I was a little intimidated by him initially and was a
little afraid to have him involved in the project, for fear of his just
abandoning us eventually for someone with a little more experience and
financial sway, but the man has found a comfortable home with Todd and
I.
The three of us have been together and unchanged since 2006. The
idea of a fourth member on keys has been discussed off and on for a
year or so, but at the moment I think that there is a certain something
from the group that would be lost if a fourth member were involved.
Also, given the temperament of the three of us and the amount of time
that we have spent together to be able to deal with one another's
eccentricities, I do not think that I would feel comfortable subjecting
a fourth person to dealing with the three of us.
I have my own
passive, nice-guy, workaholic, O.C.D., nature that my guys have to deal
with from day to day. Todd has a legendary temper which is known both
here in America and in the UK. And Danny… he scares people.
The name of the band comes from the lyrics of the song, "Feeding Fingers", on our first album, "Wound in Wall".
I
once dreamt that I was exploring a section of woods behind my childhood
home. I came upon a little girl, wearing a white dress. She was
faceless and she sat on a high-chair. She had a xylophone across her
lap. She couldn't speak, but I knew that in my brain, literally, was a
piece of music that she wanted to play on her xylophone. She
telepathically commanded that I sit under her xylophone and under her
feet. She reached into a pocket on her dress and she removed a knife
from it. She then reached down and sawed the top of my head off,
exposing my brain. She then took off her socks and shoes and placed her
feet into my brain, as if soaking and massaging her feet in a warm tub
of water. She felt the wrinkles in my brain between her toes, and she
absorbed the piece of music through her feet by osmosis. She then
proceeded to play the song.
I woke up from the dream and hummed
the tune to myself all day, and finally recorded it. That song is
recorded note for note on "Wound in Wall" in the song "Feeding
Fingers", but the lyrics themselves are about the girl being duplicated
into a dozen or so and showing up in another dream that came not long
after her first appearance. All of the girls stand single-file and wait
to put their fingers into small holes drilled into a perfect white wall
in a perfectly white room, where behind the wall is a starving man
waiting to eat their fingers. In this room, in this dream, I was a
victim too.
This girl makes an appearance in most of my work, for some reason. I am not sure what significance there is. She just is.

• GR: It
seems that sound of 80’s independent wave scene has really affected
your music. People often compare your albums with “Cure” and “Joy
Division” art if to speak about most famous bands of those times. What
do you think about this continuity and what attracts you in 80’s music?
What associations bring it to you?


Justin:
I don't really know. I come from a very musical and artistic family
with plenty of the psychological, social, and substance abuse problems
usually associated with that ilk.
I grew up listening to
avant-garde and modern classical music from composers like
Shostokovich, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, etc. I also liked a lot of
industrial, experimental "noise" music from SPK, Einsturzende
Neubauten, etc.
As far as the more 80's sort of post-punk/new-wave
kind of material - I am not so sure why that stuck to me. I think that
maybe I just identify with some of the imagery that the language in the
lyrics tend to conjure. Lyrically, I think that I appreciate music of
that era quite a bit more than others because it never really tends to
be so concrete and literal like most American music and contemporary
pop music is. Most of it is open for interpretation. And musically, I
think that I admire that sub-spectrum of pop because of the minimalist
simplicity of most of it. There is a strange authentic humanity behind
what was essentially a collection of amateur musical artists working in
whatever medium creating something beautiful and un-tethered to the
past conventions of pop music structure, tone, and performance.
Usually,
I have found, that the highly skilled or trained are a fraud. I think
that this kind of music has always been more concerned with creating an
atmosphere or texture than it is with selling records to the dumb
masses, who typically need their art and entertainment inspected and
approved by some community activist group or washed and dried by
whatever marketing campaign gives them a stamp of approval to put
something on an iPod.
Everyone knows that this kind of music
doesn't sell. Yet, the artists still hammer it out, year after year, to
little or no avail. This is because you are hearing work that is being
created out of a labor of love… and a healthy dose of obsessive
compulsive disorder.

• GR: Please say some words about concept and traits of your two albums – “Wound in Wall” - and the new one – “Baby Teeth”.

Justin:
"Baby Teeth" is the follow up to "Wound in Wall". I felt that "Baby
Teeth" was a necessary step to take with Feeding Fingers as a proper
band. "Wound in Wall" was more or less my own solo vanity project. With
"Baby Teeth" I felt it important to involve Todd and Danny very closely
as collaborators on this album to sort of give the listener and us a
sense of what the group might sound like if I took a little bit more of
a back seat and allow more of the their creative input and criticism. I
felt that "Baby Teeth" needed to be shorter, tighter, and more a
Feeding Fingers album rather than a Justin Curfman featuring Feeding
Fingers album - if that makes sense.
I come out of an animation
background, where I am used to controlling 100% of the creative
process. That habit bled over into my music, and I have had to learn to
let some of that go in order to give the listener a little bit more of
an unpredictable experience from album to album, and to make sure that
my mates don't get bored silly working with me. The process of creating
"Baby Teeth" was very different than that of "Wound in Wall".
We
started to work on "Baby Teeth" in June of 2008 and finished it four
months later in September. Stickfigure Records and my company,
Tephramedia, released it officially at the beginning of this year.
I
typically write all Feeding Fingers songs on bass and drums first and
then add slashes of keys and guitars, where appropriate. I then listen
to the music hundreds of times, over and over again, and sing nonsense
over it. Through this nonsense I find some recognizable pieces words
and phrases and I translate them to myself phonetically until I find
out what it is that I think that I am trying to say. I write lyrics in
a trance. I later alter them through some alchemical process of
association and eventually you have a song with lyrics that I intend
for one to translate the same way that one might interpret a
non-narrative painting or still image. I do not like literal language.
I can't think lyrically like that. Thinking that way makes me feel like
Robert Palmer must have felt.
My mates listen to these song
sketches and add their touches and suggestions and we fight a little
until a happy medium is found between us. I have to do all of the
engineering. I can't imagine working with a stranger in the room with
us. The creative process, for me, is very personal. I can't work with
someone not involved directly with Feeding Fingers in the studio. It
gives me that feeling that you get when you are using the restroom at
someone's house, you notice that the bathroom door is broken, and the
whole family will be home at any minute. It is a terrible intrusion of
privacy, and I can't do it.

• GR: It
seems that an atmosphere of your music is pierced by hopelessness,
isolation from the world and feeling of doom. Is it a correct
interpretation?


Justin:
I gather that that is the feeling that most people get from listening
to the music, judging from most of the correspondence that I get from
our listeners and from what I read and hear from reviewers, but I never
intend to create a mood or atmosphere like that on purpose. The work
that comes out, just comes out. There is no agenda.
I think that
when you become self-conscious and self-aware of what it is that you
are doing, you pervert the purity of your art and it becomes more of a
marketing construct to appeal to a demographic.
It may sound
unusual, considering the subject matter and feeling that most people
get from the music, but what you hear from Feeding Fingers is the sound
of comfort from inside my soul. These tones and these words combine to
envelope my mind into a place that makes me feel at home. I am just
happy that our listeners are interested in following us there and maybe
are able to find a place for themselves too.
I like thinking about
and living mentally in a world filled with missing children,
photo-booths, entomophagy, clothing made from laminated food, and where
people are people buried alive on artificial beaches underneath
lighthouses that shine forever into the desert, directing nothing.

• GR: Do you like to perform live? Is there something special for you while being on stage?

Justin:
I love performing. There is, admittedly, a degree of frustration and
discomfort that comes from performing live, considering the nature of
the instrumentation involved in the music, and since we're only a
three-piece. We're all multi-instrumentalists and have to play
different instruments from song to song, depending on what is required
to be played by either one of us. So, at times there is a lot of heavy
lifting involved when we perform live. And there is always the
frustration of being rushed on and off stage to meet time constraints,
which, once again, there only being three of us, adds even more to the
frustration, but once everything is in its place and the performance
begins, I feel like a different person in a different place. And once
the shows are over, I come back to earth and I feel like I have come
back from a dream.
Performing is really no different from
meditation, for me. It is an all enveloping experience into an internal
world that I can share with other people. I believe that this is why I
have such a hard time keeping my eyes open. I'm not here. And in those
moments, I don't necessarily have to be.

• GR: Let’s
speak about your visual art activity. When did you feel an interest
towards it and how did you come to a decision of making stop-motion
animation films? It must be difficult in professional way, isn’t it?


Justin:
I have always loved stop-motion animation, and film in general, because
it is really the only medium that we have that allows the artist to
create his own complete world, which incorporates all of the senses
(aside from smell… but I am sure that's on the way). Stop-motion
animation, for me, is the pinnacle of this because EVERYTHING is a
construct of your imagination from start to finish. Even as far as
manipulating the puppets and the environments they live in. You are
responsible for every element in that world - frame for frame.
For me, this is very satisfying, but at times, very frustrating and a very slow and tedious process.
I
got involved with stop-motion animation around 1999 - 2000 when trying
to put together the film, "Zugskin", because asking a real human-being
to masturbate and ejaculate a grub-worm, crush it, and use it as
shaving cream is not a very comfortable request of someone. I also
turned more steadily toward stop-motion animation while writing a film
script which later evolved into "Tephrasect". I initially wanted to
make "Tephrasect" a live-action film, but the frustrations with raising
money, building sets, and organizing crews became too discouraging. So,
I marched along further into to stop-motion with that project because
puppets usually don't have needy girlfriends, erratic work and sleep
schedules, or car trouble.

• GR: All
of your 3 films (“Zugskin”, “Tephrasect” and “Platelets”) are created
in united solemn and surrealistic style. What could you tell about main
hero(es) and reality where he exists? What have inspired you to create
this world with its characters? Do they live or just exist as ruined
and morbid essences? Is there any light behind this darkness for your
lyrical hero?


Justin:
I think that the three films are, in some unintentional way,
complimentary to one another. I do think that maybe they all exist
within the same cerebral world.
The protagonists from the films are
not the same people. I am not so sure who they are. Sometimes I think
that the protagonist in "Tephrasect" is me, in some way. I feel more
closely related to that character that to any of the others.
They
all exist in a place where the world is covered over with the dust from
the wings of moths, like snow or ash… like Vesuvius… like tephra. It is
a tephra-sect.
Insects play an important part of the world. There
is no real logic or a beginning, middle, or end. It is just a world
filled with experiences, environments, and impossible situations that
lead from one to the next in a continuous, complimentary pattern. You
can go there for a while… and come back home. I just tend to stay there
a lot of the time.
I believe that the initial inspiration from all
of this comes from a night-terror that I had as a child about a man
with stilt arms and no legs… just stumps bound together with white
bandages… wearing a suit and tie with a derby hat… he came into my
bedroom with a bag filled with ink ribbon replacements for a word
processor that I had… he replaced the used ribbon with his new one… he
looked at me and smiled as if to say, "Get to work". Before leaving, he
told me that his name was "Nimby". And somehow a lot of things just
came from that.

• GR: There
are scenes of autopsy and blood in you films. Do they and other painful
episodes (in spiritual and material sense) have some kind of symbolical
meaning?


Justin: I
don't think of anything that I have ever done as a simple exhibition of
gore or shock. The scenes involving blood, dissection, etc. are just
events that occur in one sort of run-on sentence that lead from one
experience to the next. I don't think about a message as I do anything.
I think that a message should be chiseled out over time by the creator
and the viewer. And if the patience isn't there from the viewer, that's
fine. It just doesn't speak their language.
I am sure that there
is some symbolism to be deciphered out of the images, but I am not so
sure what any of it is. But, occasionally I do get emails from people
that tell me that they watched the films and the content touched them
or identified with them on some symbolic level, and they explain it to
me. That is the kind of co-operation that I admire more than anything.
I would rather not just tell a story.

• GR: Is
there something in your art (music and visual) that is important but
not so evident for the listener which you’d like to point out?


Justin:
I don't think so. As I have said before - I am not so sure that
anyone's art is really important. Additionally, I think that anyone
that is interested in subjecting themselves to anything that I have
created obviously identifies with it and understands it to some degree.
Usually, people are better at understanding what I am doing on an
intellectually level than I am myself!
Well… one thing, maybe,
that I think that is important that the listener / viewer / reader
should know to be evident in my work is that I am not interested in
childishly making something gory or shocking or somber for the sake of
falling into a marketing stereotype to cater to a certain community. I
don't decide to make anything. I just make what I feel is right and
what satisfies what it is that I am trying to communicate - even if it
doesn't make "sense".

• GR: What
could you say about forthcoming “TICKS” film in general? Will it be
something that is connected with your other movies? How does the
process of its making these days evolve?


Justin:
"TICKS" is going to be a feature-length stop-motion animated movie with
some CG elements involved as well. I hope to have it finished toward
the end of 2010.
Initially, when I was working on "TICKS", I
expected the film to not really be connected to the past work in any
way. I was thinking that it would be stylistically and in essence
something totally different and somewhat removed from the past work,
but as the film moves along with production I am noticing that there
are some complimentary elements, but it is not a continuation of
anything from the past.
This film is, however, a narrative. There is
consequential dialog, unlike the past work. But, the dialog isn't
exactly the most driving element of the film.
As for my work
schedule… I am juggling the band, the film, the film soundtrack, the
third Feeding Fingers album, my business, and trying to keep my bills
paid. What I have to do is… every night before going to bed, I have to
make a schedule by blocking out the hours of my day which will be
devoted to one project or the next. Of course, things get manipulated
by unforeseeable circumstances and all of that, but I try to work on
everything as much as I can one day at a time. And at some point,
everything will be finished. And I will move on to something else.
Describing
the actually method of creating a stop-motion animated film is probably
one of the dullest subjects on earth to talk about. Basically… write a
script… design your characters... build them… build their environments…
light them… photograph them… move them… photograph them… move them…
thousands and thousands of times… edit them… over and over. It is not
very glamorous.



• GR: Shall
we await in future something else from you besides the releasing of
“Ticks” in 2010? Could you tell some more news about 3rd album?


Justin:
I will be writing all of the music for the "TICKS" soundtrack. The
soundtrack will be released along with the film. Feeding Fingers will
perform the soundtrack live with the film as it screens in theaters,
art houses, music venues, and art galleries.
As for the 3rd
Feeding Fingers album… we are already working on that. A few demos have
been written and recorded. The 3rd album will be complimentary to the
previous two, but quite different. You will all hear something soon, I
promise.

• GR: Is
it difficult to be or to stay an independent artist today? There’s an
opinion that real art isn’t so necessary for the most of the people
today which are sunk in stereotyped mass-media. What do you think about
it?


Justin: It is very
difficult. It has always been difficult, but I think that being an
independent artist is getting to be more and more challenging as time
goes on because of saturation the media and the entertainment industry.
Anyone and everyone can write and record an album, make a film, publish
a book, and on and on. Anyone with a few thousand dollars can go to a
retail electronics store and make a media studio at their home and do
anything.
I am not saying that that is really a bad thing. I think
that it is wonderful that we live in a world now where everyone has a
voice and it is relatively cheap and possible to do and say what you
like (for now… until the governments of the world start taxing and
regulating the internet… you know… "for the sake of the children"… just
another source of tax revenue… don't kid yourself… it's going to happen
in our lifetime… sooner than later).
So, because of that, the
consumer's dollar is stretched not between a dozen or so bands,
filmmakers, novelists, etc. that he or she likes… as it once was. Those
dollars are now stretched between hundreds and thousands of different
artists that he or she likes. And on top of that… the cost and standard
of living has become so terribly expensive and burdensome, that those
dollars are becoming more and more rare as well. But, that is a
separate issue altogether… I have a lot to say about the furtive
manipulation of the world economy by all political parties in all
developed countries working in unison - don't put your faith in that
machine - but this isn’t the forum for it. Not too many people have
"disposable" income to spend on something non-essential, like CDs,
MP3s, DVD, books, and other media. This isn't by accident.
This
puts the artist into a position to where he or she must make something
truly stellar to stand out in the enormous sea of peers, hire a very
effective PR staff (which not too many people can afford), or just be
consistent and prolific and eventually something good will come of your
labor. It may not be very impressive, but something will eventually
come of it.

• GR: At
the end, we’d like to thank you once again for this interview. If you
have any message to our readers or something to add, you’re welcome to
do that.


Justin: Thank
you all for taking the time to contact me, and hopefully we will be
meeting up with you sometime. Thank you to our listeners for putting up
with us over these past few years. I hope that we haven't disappointed
you too often. Keep in touch with us, okay? I'll talk to you soon. 

03/14/09:

Hello:

The 3rd stop motion animation puppet in a series
is available starting this morning on eBay, along with an original
painting titled, "Test Model". Take a look if you think that you might
be interested. Both items bids start at $24.99.

This is the listing to one of the puppets from the 2006 film, "Platelets: Lepidopteraphage":



There is also an original painting dated 1999, titled "Test Model" that is
available starting today. Here is a link to the listing for the
painting:
"Test Model" Original Painting on eBay


Here is a link to the film "Platelets: Lepidopteraphage":


Thank you all very much for your support through the years on all of these
projects. Every penny that is earned from my art goes directly back
into the production of the coming feature-length stop-motion/CG
animated film, "TICKS".

"TICKS" is coming along very well, by the way. We are about 20 minutes into the film and am going to be casting within the next couple of months for voice actors.


I will be posting a teaser/trailer for the film pretty soon. It is
radically different in style and quality from my past animation work. I
hope that you like the direction that it has gone into.

Also, I will be writing, recording, and producing a soundtrack for "TICKS"
which will be released on CD at the same time that the film is
released. The soundtrack will be a combination of solo material, an
instrumental score (string quartets and piano), along with some new
Feeding Fingers material.


As the film is released and shown on festival circuits and at galleries / theaters, I will be performing the soundtrack for the film as it screens live with Feeding Fingers and solo. We are all really excited about this.

Please Keep in Touch, Okay?
- Justin



03/07/09:

A new "services" page was added today to http://www.JustinCurfman.com. I am now available for any and all freelance and (or) contracted multi-media work. If you have an animation project (commercial, short, feature, TV show), audio production project (full-length album, demo, commercial, field recording, video project (music video, commercial, etc.), graphic commercial/promotion design, etc. and you think that my sensibilites and abilities might fit what you are interested in doing, please feel free to contact me anytime with your schedule, concepts, and budget and I will get back to you within 48 hours.

Also, Subhollow Studio (my recording studio just outside of west Atlanta) is wide open for booking through the year. I am also offering a rate reduction to only $15 per hour. Take a look and book some time.

And, Feeding Fingers is accepting label solicitations for their third album. If you are interested in producing Feeding Fingers' next album (and possibly the soundtrack to "TICKS"), please get in touch. Demos for the next two projects are available upon request. Feeding Fingers is not presently bound to any record label.

03/06/09:

A painting by Justin Curfman is available on eBay as of 03/06/09. Bidding will end for the painting on 03/13/09. Please take a look, if you're interested. Here's a link to the listing: Justin Curfman Painting on eBay 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

03/05/09:

The second puppet is being sold on eBay right now. The bidding ends on March 10th. Please take a look if you are interested. Contact me if you have any questions. Here is a link to the puppet: Justin Curfman Puppet #2 on eBay  

 

03/01/09:

 
March will be a very busy month for us. "Baby Teeth" was officially released in the USA through Stickfigure Records and Tephramedia on January 27th. But, the official European / International release date for "Baby Teeth" is March 20. However, March 7 will be the starting date for a series of CD release parties through Europe and Asia, in association with Stickfigure Records (USA), NetManagement Musik Verlag (....Germany....), Thirteen13 (UK), Divus Modus (....Germany....), Pater Noster, and Promo Fabrik (....Germany....).

Each party will be hosted by a DJ and followed (usually) by a live act. Also involved in these parties are our Stickfigure Records label-mates, Entertainment and Femme Fatality. Their new albums will be on the promotional agenda as well.

If you are in or near any of these parties, please go out, approach the DJs, promoters, and club owners with your feedback and opinions
and let them know that you want us to come play a live show in your city. This is why this is being done. These decisions are based on your voice,
and how loud your opinions are matter most.

This is the CD release promotional party schedule for Europe
and Asia for March - you are all invited:



Also…

.. ..

Feeding Fingers has two shows in one day on March 27 in Athens,
GA. The first show will be a live acoustic performance at the WUGA-FM National Public Radio station in Athens.

Feeding Fingers will be performing a live acoustic set with cello accompaniment
from fourteen-year old cellist, Maggi Arbir, an advanced orchestra student from
South Cobb High School in Austell, GA. Maggi is also a performing member of MYSO (Metro Youth Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta). This will be Feeding Fingers' first public acoustic set and will air live starting at 4PM on the National Public Radio segment, "It's Friday".

Cellist, Maggi Arbir:

..

Afterward, Feeding Fingers will be performing a live set at
Go Bar with Athens-native four-piece, Misfortune 500. Doors open at Go Bar for Feeding Fingers and Misfortune 500 at 9PM. For those of you that missed Feeding Fingers at The Earl on Sat. Feb. 28... here is a video:

02/23/09:

I am selling off puppets and set pieces from "TICKS" as I use them up, so as to avoid being buried under stuff while working on the film, and to help raise money for production of the film.

Here is the first puppet available on Ebay

02/09/09:

Alright... lots o' stuff:

Feeding Fingers, Entertainment, and Femme Fatality (Stickfigure Records mates) are all having album release parties in Europe and Asia through March and April. If you would like to attend one of these please email me ASAP. I have spots available on the guest lists for these shows (except for the one in Denmark - 'tis full). Please keep in mind that none of us are performing at these shows. These shows will have DJs spinning these albums for the crowds to help promote and raise awareness of the bands so that we don't go over there bilnd and on deaf ears. Here are the dates and venues:

Also... Feeding Fingers will be performing at THE EARL in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, February 28 with The Orphins and Club Awesome as part of the benefit for Paul Williams. Please visit THE EARL for more info. on Paul. Come out and be part of a great cause for a single father that needs your help:

And... Feeding Fingers will be performing two times in Athens, GA on Friday, March 27. The first show will be an acoustic set live on WUGA-FM - the Athens National Public Radio station at 4PM on their show, "It's Friday". We will have a cello player named Maggi Arbir playing with us.

Later on the same day we will be performing a live set at GO BAR with Misfortune 500.

Finally... I had an interview with FILM BIZARRO (Sweden) a few weeks ago. The article is called "Inside the Mind of Justin Curfman" and can be found here.

 

Oh yeah... Feeding Fingers lyrics to both "Wound in Wall" and "Baby Teeth" are available online now. Here you go:

Feeding Fingers: Wound in Wall (lyrics)

Feeding Fingers: Baby Teeth (lyrics)

01/25/09:

Well...

Feeding Fingers: "Baby Teeth" is available NOW!

I got home and into bed at around 4AM last night, after the "Baby Teeth" CD release show with Entertainment and Tenth to the Moon at The Drunken Unicorn. And here I am early this morning doing all of the updating and spreading word about the new album, and hoping that you all will enjoy it.

For those of you that couldn't make it out last night... it was a great time and we all had a very good night. Loved it.

Thank you all for staying out so late. After the sets were done... I was shocked to see that it was nearly 2AM. And even more shocked to see that everyone stuck around. That means the world.

Tenth to the Moon was incredible, as always. Entertainment nailed it as a trio. And I think that everything tied together perfectly.

Thank you all for spending your evening with a bunch of local artists that care a whole hell of a lot more about you and their communities than some label pushing goobers that are charging you $50+ for some show controlled by an iPod and a laptop just so that you can stand in their glory, stroke their egos, and watch them karaoke over some click track while they give less than a shit about you.

I ask that every one of you guys that come out to these shows to personally come up and say hello and talk to us, because that matters. Western culture is becoming entirely too electronic and personally evasive because of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and all of this. There is so little personal contact now, that just saying hello to someone is becoming awkward and unusual. And in a time when everyone is broke and unemployed... it's best that we all get away from this and start to work together to get anything done.

This system was not originally put together to do this, but it has slowly evolved in such a way to pacifiy you with pretty flashing lights and beat you into submission, so that you DON'T believe that you can do anything on your own. I am tired of hearing the discouragement from all corners of the media.

I can't watch television anymore, because I am sick and tired of the roots of all of these problems we're facing telling US all that we're in a downward spiral into hell, it's all OUR fault and that there is basically nothing that we can do about it, but surrender OUR lives and OUR wallets to THEM (the last people on Earth that deserves even less than an ounce of piss flavored trust) to fix everything. Fuck you. I'm not interested.

We don't need this and we don't need you. Do not place your faith in politicians. Do not place your faith in the banks. Just be a good person and help one another get where you need to be in life. Shake hands, and say hello to one another from time to time and always be suspicious and critical of everyone that thinks that they speak for you, because they don't. And if you think they do, and if you think that you have representation... you are wrong... and you are a fool. Speak for yourself.

Phew....

Anyhow...

Thanks again to every one of you for coming out last night and putting up with us. The new album, "Baby Teeth", is live and ready for sale right now. Please take some time to listen and, if you are interested in helping with furthing the output of the band and with me as an individual artist, go ahead and buy a copy.

The album is available on:
JustinCurfman.com
Stickfigure Records
iTunes
Amazon.com
CDBaby
Sounds for Sure (Netherlands)

And everywhere else. Just check all of the usual places that you buy music.

Any money that is made from anything that I do goes directly back into the cycle of creativity.

Thank you for supporting us over the past two years. We're not going anywhere anytime soon.

The third album is in the works, along with a "TICKS" soundtrack, which will likely come out around the same time. We'll see...

All the Best,
Justin Curfman
Feeding Fingers

www.justincurfman.com


01/13/09:

Danish Video Artist Daniel Dikov Collaborates with Justin Curfman on Feeding Fingers Music Video

 

Video artist (and author of "Fistful of Madness"), Daniel Dikov, of Copenhagen, Denmark and Justin Curfman, multi-media artist, animator, musician, and front-man for Atlanta, GA (USA) - based post-punk trio, Feeding Fingers (Stickfigure Records & TephraMedia) have completed a music video for the Feeding Fingers song titled, "Manufactured Missing Children", from the album "Wound in Wall" (2007). This information comes just two weeks before the release of Feeding Finger's 2nd album, "Baby Teeth" (Stickfigure Records & Tephramedia), due for release on January 27, 2009 - immediately following the Stickfigure Records Showcase 2009 "Baby Teeth" CD release show which will take place on Saturday, January 24, 2009 at The Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, GA.

The four minute music video is the result of an ongoing creative relationship with Curfman and Dikov since Curfman discovered a short film created by Dikov in 2008 titled "Manufactured Missing Children". The short film was inspired by the Feeding Fingers song of the same title.

"I fell in love with Feeding Fingers at first listen," says Dikov. "It was the dark, mellow and somewhat nostalgic touch it left in me which made me fall for their music."

Curfman contacted Dikov via email after watching the fan-inspired short and some other complimentary work and suggested that the two of them work together on a music video where elements of Dikov's shorts could be coupled with Feeding Fingers' music and edited by Curfman to pair up the two.

"My thoughts on Justin (Curfman), have been positive from day one. He always keeps his promises. Even on a slightly formal level, he still amazes me as person as much as an artist. When we first started talking, I was surprised, gladly, that he took the time to respond to my emails in person, and usually within a heartbeat, and that he took the time and took pleasure in viewing my pieces. And as much as I've given, he always gave just as much back," said Dikov in a recent interview.

The "Manufactured Missing Children" video from Curfman and Dikov (also featuring Freja Ishøj Hansen) can be found at www.JustinCurfman.com, YouTube, and all other typical media outlets.

12/16/08:

FINALLY!

THE LEPIDOPTERAPHAGIATOR!

After several years of development, I have finally created the Lepidopteraphagiator (as seen in the film "Platelets: Lepidopteraphagiator"). The product is ready to ship for only $89.99 (plus $10 s/h). Please watch this demonstration video and place your order right away. Supplies are limited for these: