Writers, artists inspired by musician’s album-in-the-making
Collaboration is the new lonely.
John French and a handful of local musicians and artists aim to create together — but they need help.
Local band John French & the Bastilles have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for its new album. This album, however, will go far past just music, incorporating complementary artworks based on the band’s songs.
John French is funding his latest CD in a standard way – through donations, through the website Kickstarter — but with a most peculiar side-goal: if the album is a-go, it will do so complemented with art by French’s friends and fellow locals. Courtesy Cassie Robinson
Mixing mediums is not a new concept. French, in the spirit of working together and off of one another, got the idea from artists Frank O’Hara and Larry Rivers, who collaborated to make art incorporating song lyrics.
The idea of combining art forms fascinated French, and he jumped to start his own creation.
“In my creative writing class, I was working on a lot of poems, and I thought I could use my lyrics as poems,” French said. “The people critiquing them liked them, but they could tell they were songs. So I thought, ‘Is it possible to have lyrics be an individual volume of poetry and have the same feeling when reading it as I would listening to the music?’ That was kind of a stupid idea because why would you want to separate the music from the lyrics?”
When French realized that the importance of collaboration was not in the medium, but in the person behind the medium, he began reaching out to friends.
It turns out artists don’t want to be lonely all of the time.
French, realizing the value in not just the work produced but also in the creator, aims to include as many people and their ideas as available.
“The best thing for me is going to be to discover what the art is about,” he said. “I’ve been really blessed to have wonderful people around me who are so passionate about what they do and who are all so excited. I’m sold on my own idea. It’s worth seeing it through to the end, and I think a lot of people are starting to buy into it also.”
The passionate people French surrounds himself with, otherwise known as his friends, are the varied artists who will take part in the second half of the project. They will take the music John French & the Bastilles makes and create their own form of art, using the music as inspiration.
For example, Braden Buckner, an alumnus, will use his creative writing skills to create a reflection of his reaction to the music in his poetry, but he feels the experience will heighten his own art form as well.
“We wanted to include as many mediums as possible because a poem by itself is printed on white paper with black ink, and it is so hard to bring that into oral aesthetic,” Buckner said. “So, when I read it I have to make up for the paragraph breaks and the lines breaks. I had to make up for the lacks of that.”
Another friend, ceramicist Sadie Roebuck, is in on the project for the selfish joy of being a part of such an interesting and inspiring project, she said.
“It’s kind of exciting as an artist to think about collaboration because we don’t get to do that very often,” Roebuck said. “It can be a very lonely profession, and to be able to have a community where we are working together is exciting and meaningful to be working towards something together.”
French is open to any participant; the creativity of the project has no limits.
“As cool as it would be to have this be an Athens thing,” French said. “I’m not opposed to having a 90-year-old woman who lives in Maine paint something. She can paint anything she wants and send it to me.”
French has had offers from many different artists — such as painters, writers, ceramicists and choreographers — to create collaboration works with the band’s music.
But the project is on hold until the money can be raised on Kickstarter.
French is in, all-or-nothing.
If the full total of $11,000 is raised by the Feb. 12 deadline, the project will begin promptly; however, if the total is even one dollar short on the deadline, all of the money will be refunded and the project cannot go ahead.
It’s risky — but that only adds to the excitement.
“Normally people react to a product, and it is easy to support a product,” French said. “But to have people support an idea — it’s the coolest form of support. People are buying into an idea. They are believing in my ability. Nobody knows what it’s going to be, even I don’t know, but people still support it. That’s powerful.”
Buckner believes in the abilities of his friend, above anyone else, to accomplish his dream.
“Everybody has a dream in their heart, a passion, and there are very few people who realize it and work for it,” Buckner said. “If anybody is willing to take a risk on something and go for their dreams, it’s John. He’s extremely passionate about it and he’s not going to be deterred. He’ll do whatever it takes to make this happen.”
JOHN FRENCH KICKSTARTER PROJECT
To donate: kickstarter.com/
More info: johnfrenchmusic.com
