High Bias #1

NAME: Killick

Home: Athens, Georgia

BIO: Killick loves sound in all its forms- silence, noise, organized, disorganized. He has immersed himself in all popular and unpopular musical styles equally, learning the “rules” of Western harmony, melody, and rhythm, which he now tends to ignore. Killick recontextualizes familiar vocabularies into something past classification, creating intense, playful, kinetic threads of sound. His latest recording, Exsanguinette, features sax legend Larry Ochs, trumpet firebrand Liz Allbee, and Brann Dailor, drummer of heavy metal band Mastodon. Killick is married to a morning person (awesome nonetheless), enjoys meditation, yoga, and not eating gluten.

WEBSITE: http://www.killick.me 

Do you read reviews of your work?

Yes.

Do you reread them?

Sometimes, especially if I'm rushing through the first time.

Save them?

I used to save tearsheets (remember those?) and then with the rise of the internet printed many of the articles/review. These days I tend to post them on my blog and they'll be lost to the ether if/when I switch from Tumblr. Quote them? I used to quote them in my bio, but don't any longer.

Have reviews ever had an effect upon the way you approach your work?

Not really, although a few nasty or mean-spirited comments in some early reviews made me question why I offer the music up for criticism.

For better or worse?

The process of reconciling the public aspect of my work with the private aspect was ultimately very helpful.

How?

I realized I take a work to a point where it sprouts wings, and it flies (or not) whether or not anybody likes the shape of the wings.

Are there writers you hope will (or won't) write about your work?

There was one really negative review in 2001 that made me at the time wish the writer would hear subsequent work and be smitten...this no longer is a concern of mine.

Have you ever written to a reviewer or publication in response to a negative review of your work?

Yes, just to thank them for reviewing the work.  

A positive one?

Yes, for the same reason.

Are there reviewers who you consider to be your friends?

Yes.

Do they write about your work?

Yes.

How does that make you feel?

I'm fine with it...I don't worry whether they like a particular work or not. It doesn't affect our friendship.

Have you ever been told by a writer that they feel too close to you personally to write about your work?

Sometimes it's too much of an insider job for writing to take place at a specific time or in a specific publication.

What was your reaction?

It's fine by me.

Have you ever felt that a writer was trying to get something out of you, or get back at you, or had some other ulterior motive in what they wrote about you? Please explain.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't about me, but a writer in a positive review of one of my albums threw in some anti-gay language which I found inappropriate and offensive, not to mention completely off-topic. And that really negative review I mentioned earlier went out of its way to be personally unkind to some of the other musicians on the recording, with no reason I could see to do so. Looking back, it was a strange position for the writer to take.

Have you ever published anything you wrote about someone else's music?

I used to write reviews and articles/interviews for the Flagpole magazine in Athens.

How often?

It was casual, but very steady for a few years.

Do you continue to write about music?

I mostly just write about my own music these days, and not too often. Plus the occasional writing about something that I'm promoting, and in this case it's music I feel strongly about.

Do you think there was a time in the past when music journalism was better or worse than it is now? Why or why not?

The Glory Days of Music Journalism? I don't know about that; there's always been attentive writing and sloppier writing. The challenge for a reviewer these days is keeping up with the crush of all the recorded sounds out there, and how to contextualize any of it.

Anything you'd like to add?

I appreciate when a reviewer has obviously given a recording a fair shake- a thorough listening, whether he or she liked it or not.

Anything you want to ask me?

Enough about me; what do you think of me? :-)