Justin Curfman interviewed at:

Treffpunkt-Schwarz

The following interview with Justin Curfman, frontman for Feeding Fingers, is the English transcipt taken from the original German interview from Treffpunkt-Schwarz (Germany) in May of 2009. The original interview, in German, may be found here.

FEEDING FINGERS

Interviewed at Treffpunkt-Schwarz - May 2009

Hallo und vielen Dank, dass ihr euch die Zeit nehmt, uns ein paar Fragen zu beantworten!
Zu Beginn des Interviews würde ich euch bitten, euch einmal kurz unseren Lesern vorzustellen.
Hello and thank you for taking the time to answer a couple of questions for us. For a start, if you could just introduce your band to our readers?

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.

Beschreibt uns mal mit eigenen Worten die Musik von „Feeding Fingers“.
How would you describe the music of „Feeding Fingers”?

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-as-possible 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.

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 - most especially so in Europe.

Kanntet ihr euch schon vor der gemeinsamen Band und wie kamt ihr zu dem Entschluss, zusammen Musik zu machen?
Did you know one another before you started the band and if yes, what made you decide to make music together?

I didn't know Todd or Danny at all. As a matter of fact, the only musicians that I really knew prior to meeting them were just musicians that I grew up with as a teenager that I would do recording/production work for. I would occasionally fill in on guitar, bass, or keys in bands that were friends of mine, but I never really got very involved creatively with anyone else prior to Feeding Fingers. Typically, if I am not the one in a leadership role in any creative project - be it music, literature, film, animation, it falls apart for me.

Todd and I have a very natural creative chemistry. We come from very similar musical interests and influences. Also, Todd has a lot more performance history and collaborative experience with other people than I do, so the two of us have, so far, fit together very well. Of course, there are occasionally some creative differences, but that is usually very healthy. When you have to play the occasional give and take game, some anger, some frustration, and some dull moments you usually come out with something that neither one of you would have initially ever imagined or considered.

Danny fits well in the group based most especially on the fact that he is the most well-rounded and able percussionist I have ever met. Danny can adjust and play in any genre, and because of this, he is able to offer subtle touches here and there taking from every school of percussionist thought and theory and offer fresh touches to this material that would never occur to me.

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?"

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.

Ihr seid ja zusammen mit „Entertainment“, die ebenfalls aus der Nähe von Atlanta/Georgia kommen, auf dem Label „Stickfigure Records“ und Todd hat früher in dieser Band gespielt. Kennt man sich gut?
Just as “Entertainment”, another band from near Atlanta/Georgia, that Todd used to play with, you’re with the label “Stickfigure Records”. Do you know them well?

Feeding Fingers and Entertainment work very closely together, very often, and have been for nearly three years. We're very close friends and allies.

In our part of the country (or the world really), there is very little support for music like this. Feeding Fingers and Entertainment are very alien here. I don't want to put words in their mouth, and I don't speak for Entertainment, but I can imagine that they feel as Feeding Fingers feels often - like an organ that has been transplanted into the wrong body and that body has slowly been attacking and rejecting us over time here. But, that's fine. As I have said before, we all may live here, but this is not really our home.

There is virtually no local press support for Feeding Fingers and Entertainment here in this part of the country. Anything that we accomplish here in this part of America, is based solely on the efforts of Feeding Fingers, Entertainment, Stickfigure Recordings, our amazing friends, dedicated listeners, and all of the bands and artists that we work with here all of the time. We have created our own support structure here with no press support from the outside. It may be small, but I am very proud of that. Everything that we accomplish here is based on word-of-mouth and our very loyal and supportive friendships. Some of the best people on the planet basically live in our backyard, and I can't tell you how happy I am for that.

Gibt es in euerer Region noch andere Bands, die einen ähnlichen Stil spielen wie ihr und „Entertainment“ und wie sieht dort die Gothic-Szene aus?
In your area, are there other bands with a similar style like yours and “Entertainment” and what is the Gothic community like there generally?

Like I said above… the community is very small here, but we all work closely together every day. We love and trust one another and give everything that we can to help further and facilitate whatever successes (no matter how large or small) we can here.

Gibt es oft Konzerte und Events?
Are there a lot of concerts and events?

Well… there is a paradoxical element in doing too many concerts and events too often when you don't have a large market in the area that you are having them. Between Feeding Fingers, Entertainment, The Medusa Collective (including the bands Siberia My Sweet, Attention System, Promise December, and others), and all of our other event organizer, promoters, friends like Coyote J., Stephanie Roman, VJ Anthony, Jaysin & The Secretroom, etc. in the southeastern USA - yes we often have two or three events planned and running every month here in and around Atlanta, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are all as well-attended and as successful as we would all like for them to be. You have to be very careful about saturating your already small audience with too many appearances and shows. If you aren't careful, you will ruin your relationships with music venues, and you will exhaust your audience. Personally, I would like to see just one major event per month here, or even bi-monthly, so that the events are well coordinated and well-attended by an eager audience locally and possibly regionally, so that more time and resources can be focused on networking with people abroad and exporting all of this to other parts of the world where the audience is larger and more supportive of this kind of music and art… like Germany, for example. But, this isn't totally up to me.

Eine Frage an Justin: Auf vielen euerer Songs erinnert deine Stimme sehr an die von Robert Smith von „The Cure“. Ist die Ähnlichkeit beabsichtigt oder doch eher zufällig? Und was denkst du überhaupt über diesen Vergleich?
A question to Justin: In a lot of your songs your voice very much sounds like Robert Smith’s of “The Cure”. Is this similarity intentional or is it more coincidental? And what do you even think about this comparison?

So I've heard… and I know that this is the question that a lot of interviewers want to ask me, but they respectfully tend to skate around it and ask me in a passive-aggressive way about my thoughts on Robert Smith, my "influences", and all of that. I am glad that you are a little more straight-forward. I respect that a lot.

The similarity is not intentional. The quality and tone of my voice is what it is and I am not going to alter my delivery, tip toe around the association, or apologize. I realize that I am not going to be able to escape this association any time soon, but that doesn't concern me. My only concern is that Feeding Fingers remain as prolific as possible and continue to compose and record the best quality work that we are able to. I don’t know that I can go through puberty twice, so for the time being, this is my voice.

Ich habe schon einige Rezensionen über euer neues Album „Baby Teeth“ gelesen, in denen euer Sound oft mit legendären Gothic –und Wave-Bands wie den frühen „The Cure“, „Siouxie and the Banshees“ und „Bauhaus“ verglichen wird. Kann man diese als euere musikalischen Vorbilder bezeichnen?
I’ve been reading quite a few reviews about your new album “Baby Teeth” already, in which they often compare your sound to legendary Gothic and Wave bands like “The Cure” in their earlier years, “Siouxsie and the Banshees” and “Bauhaus”. Would you say they really are your idols?

I don't believe in idols. I do believe in a thing called "influence". I would say, yes, I do take a lot of influence of tone and arrangement from those bands. I admire the work that they did (in their early years at least). Yes, I think that they sort of set a nice foundation to build upon. No one is going to re-invent the wheel. But, Feeding Fingers is not interested in re-enforcing genre stereotypes and writing a tribute album any time soon. We write what comes natural, and if the same audience that listens to them can find common ground with us, then all the better.

Gab es etwas Besonderes, was euch während dem Songwriting der Songs auf „Baby Teeth“ inspiriert hat?
Was there anything special that inspired you during writing the songs for „Baby Teeth“?

Beautiful female lounge singers in their early 20s still with their baby teeth, claustrophobic fetishism, winter, packages, drowning, reproduction under ice, artificial and fabricated memories, monomania…

Was ist euer Grund dafür, warum ihr auf „Baby Teeth“ so stark nach den Anfangstagen des New –und Dark Wave Anfang der 80er klingt?
Is there a reason why “Baby Teeth” sounds so considerably like music of the early New/Dark Wave era in the 80s?

Not specifically or intentionally.

Hattet ihr seit dem Release von „Baby Teeth“ schon viele Auftritte und folgen in den nächsten Monaten noch welche? Plant ihr vielleicht sogar, nach Europa zu kommen?
Did you do a lot of live performances after the release of „Baby Teeth“ and are there more to come in the next months? Do you even plan on coming to Europe maybe?

Our album release show for "Baby Teeth" was in collaborative conjunction with the Stickfigure Recordings Showcase 2009 in January of 2009 in Atlanta, GA. The intention was to play that show as the main Feeding Fingers show on a local level for 2009. Afterward, our intention was to play only regional shows and national shows with hopes of having support from other national bands with support in this spectrum of the music audience, but the economy here went into the toilet and stuck a temporary fork in that road we wanted to take. So, for the time being, we are playing only about once or twice a month here until things turn around and then, yes, we intend to play only on at least a regional level.

Exporting ourselves to Europe is the primary goal for Feeding Fingers. Nearly 90% of our audience is in Germany, Italy, UK, Netherlands, and elsewhere in and around your part of the world. America is by and large, a dead market for us.

Financing a trip to Europe is very expensive. And given the economic problems right now here and abroad, things are at a little bit of a stand still. But, I wake up every morning here at about 4AM, and am at work constantly networking and collaborating with promoters, managers, listeners, venues, labels, other bands, and everyone else that I can to help organize a mini-tour of Europe, with German, Italy, Netherlands, and UK being the target. I am a very pro-active person. If anyone reading this might be interested in collaborating with Feeding Fingers in Europe, contact me.

Ultimately, I know that Feeding Fingers in Europe would do more good than Feeding Fingers throwing time, money, and resources at America - we just don’t have the support here that we have where you are.

Erinnert ihr euch eigentlich noch an eueren ersten Auftritt? Wenn ja, was gibt es darüber zu berichten?
Do you actually remember your very first live performance together? What was it like?

Of course I do! That was countless shows ago in the past. November 4, 2006 at the now defunct, ISP Space in East Atlanta was the first Feeding Fingers show. We played with a male/female electronic duo from Florida called Mad Happy (I believe they are, or were, produced by Tina Weymouth, formerly of Talking Heads) and with a hip-hop artist called Quan Star. I am not so sure where he was from anymore.

ISP (Industrial Strength Promotions) at the time, was a music and art co-op that was founded and managed by members of a music group called Elevado (also defunkt). The space is now a shoe store, I think. But, ISP still exists as a promotional group headed by a really great guy here named Eric Holder. He still helps promote bands through his ISP network and with his magazine here called Pine Magazine. He is a wonderful person whose ambitions sometimes over-stretch his means, much like the rest of us in the art world.

ISP space was about the size of a large master bedroom. It was small, cold, and raining. The other two bands were supposed the be at the venue by 8PM. Of course, they weren't. No one came to see them. The only people at the venue that were there, came to see us. And it was very few - some close friends and a couple of people from other bands that were interested in working with us, and one reviewer from Performer Magazine here in Atlanta.

It started to get late. The person managing the venue started to get a little anxious, because the other bands were getting later and later. I was getting a little angry, because it was getting late and the small audience that we did manage to gather together for the show was getting impatient and wanting to leave - understandably so. It was more than a little embarrassing and very unprofressional.

To make matters worse, the person managing the venue said that we had to play last because we were the local band hosting the out-of-towners. So, Todd and I just took matters into our own hands and set up our equipment and did our own sound and played to our modest audience on our own terms. I hated to be a bully, especially right out of the gate like that, but it had to happen. I thought for sure that we had ruined our relationship with ISP after being a bit beligerent, but we still work with them to this day.

A good friend of mine, and musical collegue, Jeffrey Butzer, happened to be in the audience for the show. He played a very short, impromotu, solo set to open up the night for us - since the other two bands were a no show at the moment. Afterward, Feeding Fingers played eight songs. At the time, we had not really incorporated keyboards very heavily into the live set. So, we played stripped down with no frills. It was a comfortable time and I think we played well. Now, Todd and I have to juggle three different instruments at every show! Things have spiraled from that small start quite a bit.

Ist seit euerem Bestehen irgendetwas Außergewöhnliches passiert, worüber ihr uns etwas erzählen könnt?
Did anything mentionable and unusual happen since you’ve started the band that you might want to tell us about?

Every outing has something unusual happen. This is one of the many reasons why one tends to stick with this life, despite the fact that there is very little to gain from a financial standpoint. All of this is a labor of love.

But, some events in particular:

1) A dead goat in a plastic bag at a venue called The Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta was a real treat. We have played several shows there. It is easily our favorite venue in Atlanta. We feel very much at home there. Once, we walked in to the venue to load in. Two people were mopping the floor very intently and seemed angry. One of the people apologized to us for the smell of the place and promised to have it cleaned up soon. I then noticed that the venue smelled like a rotten corpse. I asked what it was. He told me that the night before, a band was touring through North America, and they were bringing with them a dead goat in a plastic bag. They were using the goat as a stage prop and were also taking photos of it rotting in the bag to use as album and promotional artwork.

Later that night, after we played our show, and were loading out our equipment, Todd spotted a large lump of black necrotic tissue underneath a high voltage switchboard. The smell filled the room. Todd looked at me and said, "I think that that band should be wrapped in a plastic bag and left to rot and die."

2) We nearly burned down a music venue Savannah, GA filled with vampires and dominatrixi using nothing but anger, a ladder, and some aluminum foil.

3) I was offered oral sex from a homeless Truman Capote impersonator in exchange for driving him to a McDonald's fast food restaurant less than 50 meters away. I had to turn it down. I didn't want to risk hitting a speed hump along the way and ending up with vomit in my lap, you know?

4) I met an American Vietnam War veteran named Chew Choo in Florida. His name was Chew Choo because in the war, he was a "tunnel-rat". He had been hit with machine gun fire several times during his career there. He was human swiss-cheese. But, the man managed to survive. As a result of the shrapnel wounds, he lost almost all of his teeth and a part of his jaw. So, he was able to make a whistling sound almost exactly like a steam-powered train engine.

I could go on forever. We also nearly killed our drummer, Danny, in a little town called Tifton. We came less than a centimeter from backing over him in a van. It would have been great for publicity, but not so good for the band creatively.

Im englischen Wikipedia-Artikel zu euerer Band steht, dass ihr plant, für Justins ersten Animations-Spielfilm „Ticks“, der 2010 herauskommen soll, einen Soundtrack zu schreiben. Könnt ihr uns etwas dazu erzählen?
The english wikipedia article of your band states that you plan to write a soundtrack for Justin’s first animated movie „Ticks“, that is supposed to be released in 2010. What can you tell us about that?

I will be writing all of the music for the "TICKS" soundtrack - it will be primarily instrumental. 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, art galleries, etc.
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.

Plant Justin vielleicht auch, einen animierten Videoclip für einen euerer Songs zu erstellen?
Justin, are you planning on maybe making an animated videoclip for one of your songs?

I want to. I plan and hope to. Everything is a matter of time. There just physically does not exist enough time in a day for me to make an animated music video. Between Feeding Fingers, "TICKS", the mortgage, and all of the silly responsibilities of being an adult, there just doesn't exist enough time for me to do that right now. But, I am getting better at surrendering some responsibilities to other people for certain things, I am getting better at collaborating with people, and I am actively searching for managerial support for the band and some other things, so that I can get back into the business of being an artist.

Gibt es in der Zukunft von „Feeding Fingers“ sonst noch etwas, auf das wir gespannt sein dürfen?
Does the future of „Feeding Fingers“ hold anything else that you might want us to tell about?

There is a 3rd album in the works right now. I am shopping some demos to several record labels that I am very interested in working with in the future. The vast majority of these labels are in Europe. I am also trying to work with managerial support to get more things accomplished on a larger scale in the best interest of the longevity of the band.

The "TICKS" soundtrack is also going ahead. There is a music video for the song, "She Hides Disease" that should be in production in a few months. I am tossing ideas around about that right now, actually.

But, most importantly I am working on getting Feeding Fingers exported to you there in Germany to follow up on the wonderful response that we have had there with a personal appearance and a chance to connect with you all on a closer level.

Welche Musik hört ihr denn privat und ist da auch etwas dabei, was ihr unseren Lesern empfehlen würdet?
What music do you listen to privately and are there any recommendations in particular that you would want to share with our readers?

I most often listen to avant-garde and modernist composers, like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Witold Lutoslawski, Steve Reich, and Krystof Penderecki, etc. I also like a lot of the proto-industrial/minimal work that surfaced from the late 1970s through the 1980s from bands like Einsturzende Neubauten, S.P.K., D.A.F., Fad Gadget, Suicide and the like. But, honestly, lately I don't listen to much of anything. I also run a recording studio here in Atlanta, where I produce a lot of hip-hop, R&B, rock, and everything else - so I am always surrounded by music. I am so enveloped in music all of the time, that lately silence is very nice.

Vielen Dank für das Interview! Wir wünschen euch viel Erfolg mit „Baby Teeth“ und viel Spaß bei eueren nächsten Konzerten. Zum Abschluss des Interviews gebühren euch die letzten Worte.
Thanks a lot for the interview! We hope “Baby Teeth” will become a great success and you will enjoy your oncoming live shows. How about some last words from you?

Thank you all there in Germany, and in Europe in general for all of the support. Please stay in touch and don't hesitate to say hello. I want to hear from all of you as often as possible. For as long as you all want to listen to us, we will keep making music to share with you. I hope to meet you all in person very soon. We'll keep working at it until we get there. Please take care of yourselves.