Composer, musician, aspiring dictator and Corporate Sellout founder Jason Kefalas bears all in this exclusive JLG365 interview.
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So, you live in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Is that where you were born and if not, how’d you end up there?
I’m originally from Michigan, from a Detroit suburb called Woodhaven. When I was nine, my parents split, and subsequently my life became fairly nomadic. When I turned 28, it was a milestone in that I had finally blown out candles on a cake more often than I had changed addresses since I was a teen. I’ve lived in Houston, L.A., Nashville, Chicago, and various places in and around Detroit. Invariably, I always ended up back in Michigan. It does have it’s charm, and despite all the bad press it receives – much of it deserved – it can be quite beautiful. I still get pissed off sometimes when I hear people slam this state, even though I bitch about it, myself. I live here though, so I’m allowed.
Did you have a happy childhood? I mean, listening to your music and reading some of your stuff leads me to believe you are the proverbial tortured soul. Any truth in that?
Did I have a happy childhood? Hmmm. Really, I don’t think a hell of a lot of people really think they had a happy childhood. That said, when you make a good friend, you inevitably exchange childhood memories, and the question that people never fail to ask me is something a kin to “How in the hell/fuck are you such a nice person?!” So the short answer is “no.”
To be fair, my formative years were idyllic, which I give both my parents – especially my mom – credit for. Once I was around seven, things deteriorated rapidly with their marriage. Without really getting too deep into it, I went back and forth between parents until I was around 14, and then lost touch with my mom until I was 21. She and I and my step-dad have a great relationship now. I haven’t seen my dad in 17 years, and we’re both the better for it, I’d say.
Does it affect my music? For my much earlier stuff, probably yeah, but with Corporate Sellout, I would say not really. As for the tortured soul part, I think everyone is a tortured soul to some extent. I deal with it with music, others might with doing drugs, or beating the shit out of their partners, or embezzling from their jobs, et al. I’d say I got really fucking lucky, all things considered.
Do you share your life with a special person?
I’m engaged to a beautiful woman I’ve known since I was 14. She’s a poet, and has actually contributed one of her works to the upcoming LP. Again, I’m a lucky guy.
Now, lets talk about your music. How young were you when you first took an interest in composing your own songs?
I was probably around 3 or so watching my dad play guitar. I would belt out some vocals, strum a plastic toy strat, and play nonsense on our upright piano. My mom made a failed attempt at getting me to take piano lessons when I was 10, but I bore easily, and didn’t want to “learn” music – I just wanted to “play.” Add to the mix my strained relationship with my dad, and having associated him with music/composing for so long, I really didn’t end up having any serious thoughts of composing until I was well into my teens.
Is the bulk of your music composed on keyboards through computer programs? If so, how do you transition your music from the studio to a live audience? Also, you say Corporate Sellout is a solo project, but you do mention other musicians. Who are they and what part do they play in your music?
This is where I’m probably going to piss off a lot of “musicians.” News flash: using Garageband, Ableton, Fruity Loops, etc., to make music doesn’t automatically make you a musician. Maybe what you made sounds cool, but looping and tweaking sounds and rhythms that someone else has already created makes you a DJ, not a musician. And I’ll only call you a DJ if you’re actually good at it! I barely consider myself to be a true musician, as it is. I know a guy that can just shred the fuck out of a violin. HE’S a musician.
I was lucky to see my dad playing an actual instrument when I was a kid, along with really learning guitar as I went along in my band in high school. Also, my faves growing up were bands like The Cure – you know, bands that utilized both actual instruments and synth technology. I DO use computers, software, synths, etc., but I write all my drum rhythms from scratch and try to keep the process as organic as possible with guitar, bass, piano and vocals while utilizing that technology. It’s a conscious effort.
Coming at it from that perspective, it’s fairly easy to transition, morph and compensate for a live show. There is usually more than enough material to work with, and the result can range anywhere from punk to chamber music, really. This is where the other musicians came in – for the live process. It’s like writing the song all over again, in some respects. Sometimes, the transformation is incredible, and at other times, it may just not work out. Sometimes it’s just that the song isn’t meant to be performed live, or it may be due to the limitations of the musicians playing – myself included.
The studio stuff has been me almost exclusively. Almost. For the “c0rp0rat3 53110ut” EP back in ’04, Glenn Smith did some damn inspired guitar work on three of the five tracks. He also co-wrote “Nuclear Winter” with me. My cousin, Sevy Martin helped with sequencing, composition, and lyrics for a few tracks on the “Welcome to the Corporation” LP. And for the upcoming LP coming out in March, my son Dylan adds guitar that sometimes leaves me speechless. He’s co-writing a couple of tracks with me, too. Oh, and I also made him chant “Oh God no – the hand of God – tin god…” for the remix of “Jack the God Killer” on the “Slaughter Towen” EP, when he was 7. Yeah, I warped the boy starting at an early age.
I notice there are many levels to your tracks, many elements, can you give us an idea of how your music comes about? I mean, do you first compose a melody and then add the various elements? Or do you have an idea in mind and search for the right background elements to fit your music around? And how do you know when the song is just right and ready to lay down the final track? Is it ever perfect for you?
It’s always different, and always episodic. I may go months – many, many months – without an idea coming across. This last period after releasing “Welcome to the Corporation” was fucking horrible, really. I couldn’t write shit. Then over the past few months, I’ve been almost manic with ideas. It could be a drum riff here, or a piano motif there, and it just snowballs. Once I get into it, it’s on. Working visually with the recording process (I use Cakewalk’s SONAR) helps, additionally. Being able to see the waveforms and MIDI notes as I write, record, and play them back helps to mimic the images in my head. I don’t read music, so between the visuals and sounds in my head, and the visuals and sounds coming from the computer, I’m able to create. I’ve recently heard that Mozart saw music as colors and patterns in his head. I’m in no way comparing myself to Mozart, but I understand what that’s like.
To be quite honest, I have no idea how I know a song’s completed. It just clicks in my head, and I feel a sense of relief. Some songs like “Uniform” can be in various states for years before completion. Others like “The Hammer” can take two to three hours from spark to completion. Most songs take time somewhere in between – usually a couple of months. My modus operandi is to have many songs in various stages of completion at one time. Again, I get bored easily, so this keeps me working.
Are you comfortable giving yourself the label of industrial rock for your music or do you have another way of describing your unique sound? And, what are some of the bands that have directly influenced your music?
Really, it actually pains me to categorize it at all. It’s funny, I’ve met a lot of people in bands that always say something like “well, our music isn’t really something that you can categorize…” The attitude it comes with usually makes me check myself so I don’t hit them in the mouth. Then they play, and they sound like fucking Dave Matthews… well… maybe a little better than that, but predictable, nonetheless. That kind of ‘I’m so artistic’ bullshit always made me shy from saying the same about Corporate Sellout, but I do genuinely feel that the sound is indefinable in that I pull it from any and all of my influences at any given time.
That said, it’s heartening to have people describe my music as different or “unique” as you did, rather than the usual generic compliments. Don’t get me wrong, I have that same compliment-sized hole in my psyche as everyone else, but words like “different,” “unique,” even “strange,” show that I’ve affected the listener in some way. Ultimately, that’s the goal. People like pizza because it’s familiar. I prefer sushi with spider crab legs sticking out of the end. Did that make sense? Now I’m hungry for sushi…
As far as influences go, there are just so damn many. My all-time, dream-come-true supergroup would be composed of Trent Reznor, David Bowie, Ludwig Von Beethoven, John Bonham, John Entwistle and Matthew Bellamy. I can’t imagine anything bad coming out of that ensemble. There’d probably be some internal conflict, but that would be cool, too!
Your earlier music has a very dark, almost primal feel to it, but through the years, the sound lightens a little with each album and your music seems to have evolved into more complex sounds and your most recent records don’t sound quite so ominous. Can you explain the evolution of your music?
Well, I’m older now, and more confident in myself musically and in general terms of who I am. It makes it easier to take chances on things. Also, when I recorded “Jack” in 2000-2001, I was using a four-track cassette recorder, bouncing the tracks to my computer, then back to a single track on the four-track, wash, rinse, repeat. In some ways, I was working harder to get around technological obstacles than I was in writing the actual song. As I slowly but surely scrimped and saved to piece together a decent home studio, recording became less of a pain in the ass, so it was easier to just concentrate on the songwriting. I also no longer feel like I have to hit people over the head with a musical or lyrical hammer to get their attention. So yeah, I’d like to think that the music speaks for itself at this point, and that the lyrics aren’t so much a blunt instrument as much as a subtle poison. God that sounds overly dramatic, but you get the metaphor. Take a band like Muse. They sound pretty damn poppy a lot of the time, but if you get to know the lyrics, it’s almost all about revolution, sometimes even actively inciting revolt. I really like those guys.
It’s pretty obvious from your website and your lyrics that you are really pissed off at your government; you’re anti-establishment, anti-corporate, anti-big money. So what is it that you are for? I mean, if someone actually listened when you told them what is needed to make this a better world in which to live, what would you insist on changing? And have you ever considered running for office?
There is a manifesto posted on corporate-sellout.net, as well as on the Myspace page. It’s not the only answer, but I really do believe that Corporatism is the major catalyst that has shifted this country’s economic system from Social Welfare Capitalism to Fascism. And yes, I am categorizing Fascism as an economic system. Corporate rights have superseded those of citizens; debt is publicized while profit is privatized. It’s economy without humanity. The more, and more diverse economic entities there are to compete with each other, the better the opportunities for prosperity all around. The past few decades of monopolistic consolidation of companies to corporation, and corporations to conglomerate, have had destabilizing results not just in our country, but also around the world.
There’s a great book, “Democracy In America
Running for office? Hmmm… I don’t think I’d make a very good politician. I barely have a tolerance for my own bullshit, let alone anyone else’s. I’d have to be a dictator, like “The Prince.” Niccolo Machiavelli and I share the same birthday, by the way. I might be a good Rove or Emanuel type, though. Hmmm…
You give your music away. Why? I mean, it’s your music obviously, so forgive me if I’m out of line, but just wondering if it wouldn’t be better to take any money you make if you don’t really want or need it and at least filter it to the organizations that you support or for relief efforts or whatever. Any thoughts on that?
Damn you and your moxy! … …anyway, at the moment, while I’m releasing music in mp3 format only, I don’t feel justified in charging for it. I do have a suggested donation for LP’s posted in the audio downloads page of corporate-sellout.net, but it’s just a suggestion. Right now, I’m in promotional mode, so getting the music out there is the main goal. By the end of the year – after a major move I have coming up – I’d like to have a live incarnation of Corporate Sellout in the works.
As far as taking donations for charity, Corporate Sellout isn’t yet a large enough entity to do anything more than get in the way of someone’s donation. Also, I would rather people give to charity than to me; so if you can’t afford both, just download my music for free. Perhaps a listing of charities I feel are worthwhile would be a good addition to the website, though. Tell ‘em I sent you.
Ultimately, my goal is to gain a respectably sized following, offer special edition higher-quality audio and art/packaging for a reasonable price if there is demand, and of course tour, tour, tour. Any musician worth his salt knows that if they want to make a living from music, they have to perform live. Having two viable LP’s released will be a good springboard for that. Promotion through media like JLG365 is integral, as well.
Ultimately, If I can dig myself out of the massive debt I’ve acquired through school and a period of 20 months of unemployment (thanks, Michigan), along with helping with costs associated with my mother recovering from a massive trauma she recently suffered, I would be more than happy with that. Mission accomplished.
You’ve pretty much made it clear you don’t care much for the RIAA, but have you ever been approached to release your music on an Indie label? Would you consider it?
Indie labels are great. Integral. I haven’t been approached, but I could see how having “None. Fuck the RIAA” under “Label” on the Myspace site could have people shying away. At the same time, I would hope it would attract the right kind of label, or independent benefactor(s) toward something mutually beneficial. Indie’s are like De Tocqueville’s townships. Good stuff; more a kin to something like the De Medici’s of Florence, rather than the entire Roman imperial machine.
Major labels, on the other hand, can suck my cock. Fuck ‘em. Their time is over. There used to be a time when “major” labels stuck by an artist and let them create albums. It was all album-based – art based. Now it’s about conglomerating labels under a handful of multi-national corporations (see how that keeps rearing it’s ugly head?) squeezing all the blood from largely contrived and reprocessed singles, with added tits, ass and bling. There’s nothing wrong with projecting an image, but that’s ALL major labels are about, anymore. Music is, at best, secondary to them. The LP days of Bowie, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, and even Depeche Mode are long dead and gone. It makes me sad.
One of the bigger labels I have respected over the years is Daniel Miller’s Mute. It grew to something large, yet kept its creative integrity. Nine times out of ten, you could count on a Mute artist to be viable or at least interesting. With its new overlord EMI, Mute has had much of the vigor crushed out of it. I really feel for the folks that are still there. I’ve met many of them. Good and creatively driven people.
What can we look forward to hearing from Jason Kefalas in 2010 and beyond? You mention on Facebook that you have “one last CorpSell LP in the works by May 10, 2010″. Do you mean the next or are you really telling your fans it’s the last? And can you let us in on who the special artists are? Any hints at all?
One thing you have to understand is that I sometimes have an artist’s over-emotional mentality in that I can become pathetically wrapped up in myself and verbally vomit something up on the Interwebs. I was feeling quite sorry for myself when I posted that. I want Corporate Sellout to thrive, and will hopefully continue with it or something like it until I’m dust. The “Welcome to the Resistance” LP will be out on March 15th. The artists contributing will be those I mentioned earlier – artists of minor repute like myself, but worthy of notice. My son Dylan is an especially gifted musician. His fortes are drums, guitar, bass, as well as some piano and cello. He actually played drums for the last (for now) Corporate Sellout live show in Detroit. To date, he’s the only drummer I’ve met that can handle the drums to Corporate Sellout songs while having the additional pressure of playing to a click track for extra synths. He’s light years beyond where I was at his age, and in some ways a better musician than I am now. He’s finding his way around other musicians his own age right now and it’s fucking brilliant to see him develop.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Yeah. This is for anyone and everyone reading: be who you are and do what you love. You can have a day job you dislike – I’m a paper-pushing, desk jockey by day – and not have it define who you are. It’s difficult, but possible. Use it as a means to an end. Do something that makes you happy. A couple of years ago, I read that Americans rate “success” at an alarmingly high level of importance over “happiness.” The two are not mutually exclusive; rather they are integrally inclusive. Mr. Death comes quick and he’s unpredictable. And contrary to religious/spiritual belief, nobody, and I mean fucking nobody knows what happens after that. Instead of believing that things will be better after you die, try believing it will be better now. Take chances on that. Even out of spite, if necessary. That’s life.
And finally, if you could sum up the world in one word, what would it be?
Entropy.
Oy! Be sure to check out Corporate Sellout’s website here, the Myspace page here and fan up on Facebook here. Also, all Jason’s free music downloads can be found here.
