Jacob Danish Sloan is an original. When he arrived to NYC 10 years with stand up bass jazz chops, and no experiences in bands, one might not have guessed he would have put together one of NYC’s most engaging shoegazy bands. Dream Diary, just recorded and released their first LP, You Are the Best, on Kanine Records

Hey Jacob. What is your songwriting process like?

Well I bring in a preliminary, and we play it as a group. And then everyone writes parts and adds things, and changes it around. But it started out with me writing songs on my bedroom and just recording myself like that and that was the basis. And playing with a full band—that has taken on a life of it’s own, and everyone has kind of changed the sound a bit with whatever they do.

Do you come up with chords & lyrics simultaneously?  Does the melody set it up? How do you work?

For me it’s more chords and melodies, and then a struggle to write passable lyrics to go with it. I guess that’s the way with a lot of musicians—it’s either one way or the opposite, where you can kinda tell. Like with some people, like Lloyd Cole and The Commotions—it seems like he’s struggling to fit in all the words that he wrote into the music cause he has so much to say. With others, it sounds like people are drawing the words out cause it’s more about the music and less… haha, they’re, ya know, more meager.

Who are some of your favorite lyricists?

Lloyd Cole. He’s this Scottish/English song writer from the 80’s who is really jangly, and made some great indie British pop of the 80’s, but with an obsession with Americana, and classic American films, and that whole idea. So his lyrics are really cool cause that’s where they’re coming from.

Do you try to take any hints from his work lyrically?

Yeah‑not to be cheesy with a cliché, but, instead, how to paint a picture with words, and just kind of evoke something rather than just getting a point across.

So how did you start out in NYC?

I actually came up to NY when I was 18 for college. I went to jazz school for a little bit. I studied as an upright bassist. It probably looked kind of goofy cause I am pretty skinny, and slender. And to see me wheeling around an upright bass must have been funny.

So you left?

Yeah, the jazz world was not something I wanted totally to be immersed in. It was just the kind of thing, where being here and meeting all kinds of people totally changed what I wanted to do. I grew up in Philly, and I never played in bands cause I never met anyone who like the music I liked there. I was always into the Smiths, and jangly arpeggiated guitar parts… The Go-Betweens, I love. They’re from Australia.

So you’re on a Brooklyn label, Kanine.

Yeah, Kanine Records is great. Leo and Kay are a married couple, and they run the thing out of their house in Williamsburg. So it’s nice that I can walk over to their headquarters whenever I want. I think the label started 5 years ago. They’ve done a lot of good bands. I think a lot of their bands are shoegazey which maybe we have a little bit of. Maybe that’s the common element between all the Kanine bands. We put out one full-length record this past Spring, and I am eager to start working on the next one.

Have all the material written?

Not yet. I think we want to want to expand our instrumentation, and use all these kinds of sounds that aren’t on the first one, and have it be less guitar based. I want to use everything from electric piano, to synth string pads, to glockenspiel… ya know, to make it a little mini pop-orchestra.

Are you playing full time? Touring soon?

No, we all have other jobs. I work at a publishing company a few days a week; Chris and Ale are busy with other things. The tours we’ve done so far have been short tours. We went to the Athens Pop Fest this past year, and the San Francisco Pop Fest. Those were really good. We also went to SXSW, which I didn’t like as much of an experience.

Yeah, it’s crazy there.

Yeah, it’s just overwhelming, and hard to find what you want. People have already pointed out how commercial the whole thing is. It’s funny how “indie” music now means music that’s sponsored, and put forth by soda companies and beer companies, and car companies. Ya know, going to the Budweiser indie tent… I don’t know, haha. I like the pop fests a lot of cities have, including NY. They’re smaller and super specific. I like fests that are more of a niche.

Artistically, is music your main love?

Yeah. I mean, I want to keep making music as long as I can, and make things fit into that instead of making music fit around other things. It’s hard in NYC when you’re trying to do something like that, but it’s inspiring since there lots of other people in the same boat, and amazing bands to play with. I love The Pains Of Being Pure at Heart, The Depreciation Guild, though it think they’re finished as a band. And now, Kurt, the singer, has a new band called The Ice Choir. Big Troubles, I love.  They’re a really good shoegazy band. Those are my favorites from NYC.

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The Lady Aye, the Sweetheart of the Sideshow is one of a kind.  She’s a fire-eater, an escapist, pain-proof gal, a sword swallower, and a dear friend. How exactly did a nice Jewish girl from NYC become the Lady Aye?

The Lady Aye. Where did you come up with that name?

The name actually comes from two places. My real name is “Ilise,” which no  one seems to be able to pronounce.  Years ago it was just a nickname. It was “The Lady,” initial “I.” And my first act was the Pyrate Sisters All Girl Side Show, and I thought “Oh, I’ll change it to the nautical. But now everyone pronounces it like “Lady A.” So I can’t win (laughs). But it also sort of comes from one of my favorite movies — a Preston Sturges film, The Lady Eve. So I just kind of took it from there.

Tell me about the Pyrate Sisters All Girls Side Show.

It was a leaning experience. It was me, and a fantastic artist and performer who is now known as A.V. Phibes. She really is the one who taught me most of my skills, and she’s one of my best, dearest friends in the whole wide world.   And Molly Crabapple, as a matter of fact, was in that act. And I was just starting out, and I really had no training as a performer. But I wanted to learn these things. We had dates before we actually had the act together. Molly was already working as a burlesque performer. Some people were bigger on rehearsing than others. Initially I was a really nervous performer; I was a really crappy performer. So it took a lot of work getting it together. There was a real learning curve involved.  It all came together eventually.

How old were you when you got started? You’re an escapist; you’re a fire-eater; you’re a sword swallower. Which skill came first?

I was 32 when I started performing. It will be 6 years in September since what I count as my debut. Before that I really had no intention of becoming a performer. I wanted to be a filmmaker. I went to college and grad school to be a director. I finished grad school, but, by that point, I was burned out on the film industry. They weren’t buying stuff from women. They weren’t interested in the stuff I was doing. The stuff that was selling at that point was stuff like “Swingers.” I had been nominated for a Sundance screenwriting award, and I couldn’t parlay that into an agent because I was told “Oh, there are too many woman in your scripts, and no one is buying anything about women.” And I wasn’t writing chick flicks, and they weren’t feminist scripts. I thought they were smart, edgy comedies. I was very into Preston Sturges, but I wanted to do something with a John Waters edge to it. In the meantime I was making my living working as a financial editor at one of the wire services, and I was working in the World Trade Center. So THAT happened. That really kicked me… sideways. It took me a year or two just to get my head screwed on again. From there I started promoting rockabilly shows and mixing in burlesque. I did a breast cancer fundraiser—“Burlesque Against Breast Cancer,” and the woman (A.V. Phibes) who did my graphics for it—I had been a fan of her artwork before hand. And she and I just started chatting one day, and I told her “Ya know I really want to go to Coney Island’s Sideshow School, but it’s really expensive. And I can’t afford it.” And she said “Oh, don’t be a sucker. I’m a retired fire-eater. I’ll teach you!” So I learned to eat fire in her apartment in Williamsburg. She had high ceilings—mercifully.

She (A.V.) taught me human blockhead, which is hammering nails into your nose, and the straightjacket… We bought a straightjacket, and she would just lash me into it and leave me on the living room floor and be like “Ok, figure it out!” And that’s how you have to learn that one. And there’s bed of nails—there’s no training for bed of nails. It’s just a bed of nails. And there’s eating a light bulb, which I don’t do anymore.  And there’s eating fire. The basics are very, very simple, but the subtleties take a lot of work.  But sword swallowing—I always compare it to doing a split cause your body has to be set up for it.  If your body isn’t set up for it, there’s just no learning it. There’s no faking it. It’s not a magic trick.

Learning it was actually pretty cool. I went to a town near Tampa, Florida called Gibsonton, which is where all the carnies live and retire. They have a retirement community there. There are llamas in people’s front yards, you can see these folded up Ferris wheels that just sit on people’s lawns off-seasons.  So I went down and visited this gentleman named Ward Hall, King Of the Sideshows. He’s an amazing man, an incredible charmer, and I talked with him for a few hours. And his partner, CM Chris, is a sword swallower, and he’s been doing it since the 50’s. And there are a couple of misconceptions that old-timers have. One of the reasons that there are not a lot of woman that do it is there was a misconception about height. He looked at me and said “Stand up! Turn around! How tall are you!?” I’m 5’2”. He said “You’re too short! You’re gonna kill yourself, but I’ll teach you any ways.” And it actually took me a couple of months to even work up the nerve to even try it. You start out with things to desensitize… you have 3 gag reflexes. You have one in the back of your throat, you have one that’s next to your heat, and you have one that’s at the opening of your stomach.  You have to desensitize all of them… And that’s the story how I became a sword swallower.

You got into this in your 30’s… how did you arrive at this persona that is part of you, that is you?

I am writing a book on that actually—Pain Proof: Becoming the Lady Aye. So I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I feel like I spent most of my life… ya know at 10, 11, or 12 years old someone said “It’s an awkward phase. You’ll grow out of it.”  And then you’re a grown up, and you’re still… you know…. I used to have a panic attack if I gave a toast at a wedding. The thing about sideshow is I took a lot of things that used to plague me; like my body issues, I had some on and off again trouble as a bulimic, I had a fear of being to be seen in public. I thought, “I’m not smart enough. I’m not pretty enough.” And at the same time I was thinking, “I reject you! I am so punk rock. I reject your social norms.” (Laughs). Being the Lady Aye let me marry a lot of those things in a positive way. In the case of purging… the fact that a recovering bulimic would become a sword swallower is sort of a strange form of therapy. Being an emcee—being up there, holding the mic, and thinking “I am in control of this room, and you are all looking at me, and you will go in the direction that I am telling you to go in,” and wearing the stuff that I wear on stage… you know it’s very empowering. I recently had a women come up to me last weekend, and, God love her, but eh way it came out was “Thank you for being fat.” (Laughs). She was drunk. But what she meant was, ya know you very seldom see women who are not a size two with any kind of power, and with any kind of sex appeal. And it’s a very hard thing. People talk about how full Jessica Simpson is, and she must be tipping the scales at a size 6.  So you know, it is empowering. It is for me. I think it is for female audiences, and for all audiences to see so many different things up there on stage. I spent so much of life apologizing and being sorry and embarrassed for being smart, and funny. And people were like “Well you’ll always be single! Cause you’re smart and funny,” and you know, not a Victoria Secret model. I kind of want to marry all of those things. There is a lot of power in that. I don’t want that taken away from women. Just becoming the Lady Aye has been very healing for me.

So what’s next?

Well I’ve got the book going. I got to get that sold.  The book is the next big thing. I am hoping that will sort of make… ya know… Sell the book! Tour the book! Make it a career, and then go to Hollywood and sell out (laughs).

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Josh Kaufman is a busy guy. As a full time musician, he’s always touring, producing records, collaborating in various bands, or putting out his own records as Rocketship Park. Cakes and Cookies (Serious Business Records) is Kaufman’s latest record and was just released on May 31^st.

Besides being a hard worker, and talented musician/producer, Josh is super nice guy. I had the chance to chat with him over a cup of coffee.  We spoke about some of his current projects, and the importance of musical relationships.

Last night you were in the studio with Balthrop, Alabama.

“They’re a brother and sister group from Mobile, Alabama that now live in Brooklyn, NY.

This isn’t the first record you’ve produced…

“Yeah, I’ve produced my own stuff (Rocketship Park), and some production work with other people.  Ya know it’s really hands on, so the productions always come as a result of that…. shaping things by playing on records. I co-produced Caithlin De Marrais’ first record with Kyle Fischer. She was in a band called Rainer Maria for a long time, and I am working on her second album now. I’m co-producing it with a guy named Steve Salett, who is an amazing singer/songwriter and producer. He used to be in a band called King Of France. And before that he was in the Kelly deal 6000. He’s a great musician.

As a producer for the project you’re working on right now, are you helping to finish the songs? I noticed some of their stuff online is more electronic based.

Yeah, some of it is. They are the song writers/singers, ya know, but shaping it aesthetically is something I’m helping with.  My approach is organic, people playing in a room together.

You play with a lot of other bands. Do you only play guitar in other bands?

(For recording) I end up playing other instruments. I mostly fiddle around.  I find myself not really hearing the guitar all that much in recordings.

Lately?

For a long, long time actually. Even back to 4 tracking and stuff. When I start imagining someone playing guitar I find myself getting grossed out.  So I have to avoid the image of that in my mind. But the guitar is a great instrument to bring on tour. It’s small, you can do a lot of things with it, and I feel comfortable playing it.

As far as Cakes and Cookies…

Yeah, there is some guitar on it. A lot of the electric guitar on “Off and Away”(Rocketship Park’s 1st record) is Eric Jackson, who is my buddy from high school. We’ve been friends forever.

You can tell each other something you’re doing sucks, and it’s not a big deal?

Exactly, and the conversation can go beyond music too, which I think is an important thing. So, Eric plays guitar on a lot of that stuff. On Cakes and Cookies, some of it is Eric, some if it is Brian Kantor, our drummer, some is Kevin Fish, who is in a band called Higgins, that I am also in. Kevin is also a very old friend, and we’ve known each other since high school. We’ve been playing music on and off together for many years.  The pedal steel stuff is my friend Mike Phillips. The lap steel stuff is me. The piano on the first album is all Rob Burger. But the piano on the new record is me and Kevin. I don’t know… These roles aren’t predefined or anything…  we we’re there, working out parts, and it’s just how it ended up.

You’re a full time musician? Are you doing anything outside music?

No.

That’s amazing.

Yeah (laughs). It’s hard. You know, you did it for a while, right?

Yeah, I didn’t have an apartment for 2.5 years while doing it. How long have you been full time?

Full time its been maybe 3, 3.5 years. Prior to that I was still playing a lot of music I just worked other jobs too. I worked at a printing press SOHO for years.

As a songwriter, when did you start writing songs? Generally, when you fist started to exercise those talents, were you just playing guitar in rock bands, or did you approach this whole thing thinking I want to be a songwriter? How did the whole thing unfold for you?

Hmmmm. It was the first thing that seemed natural. I played guitar in bands with friends in high school but I wasn’t very good at covering songs. So I started making my own. My friend had a four-track, and we recorded at home, and it was immediate and fun. We went into some real studios, but I never really liked those experiences as much. They were very rushed and I felt inadequate. But when we were screwing around with cassette tapes it was really fun.

Since you started, there is a solid aesthetic. It’s smart, self-aware, there is a pensive undertone, but its also celebratory. I assume you wrote tons and tons of songs before the Rocketship Park records.  Has the material you wrote even before Rocketship Park always been like that?

Thanks. I don’t think it was brand new. I think it just took a long time to feel comfortable making an album of my own stuff. Maybe the older stuff was less refined, and came from a younger place.

But the celebratory thing… the vibrancy that you’re picking up on has always been there, I think.

It seems like you have a tight group of friends. I love that video that you just put up with Sam Cohen. He’s a very tasteful guitar player.

Oh yeah, he’s amazing. I also play in his band, Yellowbirds.  That’s a group that I’ve played bass and guitar in.  Sometimes we do duo things. All these projects for me, are about a conversation. This musical conversation with people and all the different styles around me. It’s never been just about one thing for me. It’s always been a bigger community thing.

That’s interesting cause a lot of people in NY don’t work like that at all. They have a certain sound they want to do, and that’s it.

Yeah, and that works really well for a lot of people, but for me it doesn’t. I am just not interested in one thing. You know, it’s a life for me. I need it to be diverse and inspiring. For now, this is it. It’s got to be worth it.

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In 1972 critically acclaimed director, Tony Palmer (200 Motels, Cream ‘Farwell’ Concert) was granted intimate access to Leonard Cohen during a 20-city tour from Dublin to Jerusalem with the task of producing a documentary. Palmer delivered his edit of Bird On A Wire, 105 min, one month later, but the edit was met with apprehension, as Cohen feared it was “too confrontational.” Based on a rough screening of Palmer’s edit, the film was sold to the BBC, but 2 years later when the BBC received the re-edited version, which was put together by an Assistant Editor who convinced Cohen he could do a better job than Palmer, the BBC shelved it, stating it was “a mess.” Palmer’s work was lost, and bootlegs of the botched version, as well as the conclusive performance in Jerusalem, have circulated for decades.

In 2009 through a string of “complex coincidences,” Frank Zappas’s manager discovered over 200 rusty film canisters labeled “Bird On A Wire” in a Hollywood warehouse. He sent them to Palmer in London, and Palmer surprisingly found his original soundtracks in amazing shape. Palmer was able to piece together a new edit nearly identical to the original. Cohen fans, rejoice, for we are left with a beautiful, complex film filled with odd scenes of violence, a series of beautiful and awkward performances, and a vibrant, earnest Cohen weathering all of it.

Subjectively, and as a devout Leonard Cohen fan, it’s simultaneously surprising and unsurprising that Cohen would deem the film as being “too confrontational,” (especially one year after the release of Songs Of Love and Hate, his 1971 LP that contains some of the darkest tracks he ever put to tape.

It’s surprising in the sense there is confrontation in Cohen’s work, and any film that could illuminate that would seem rather appropriate. For instance right before a performance of the of “The Story of Isaac,” Cohen’s poetic adaptation of the biblical tale, Cohen tells the audience, “This is a song called ‘The Story Of Isaac,’ and it’s about those who would sacrifice one generation on behalf of another.” As the band plays the viewer is met with a brief montage of brutal footage comprised of the perils of Vietnam and human devastation; civilians burning to death, the footage (not photo) of the famously documented execution of a handcuffed prisoner by General Nguyen Ngoc, bombs falling from planes, and people painfully wailing over the scorched bodies of dead children.  Cohen’s brief explanation of intent seems to support the appropriation of this footage, which forces the viewer to abandon any traditional deductions (testing one’s devotion to God), and, instead, contemplate Cohen’s work within the realm of murderous realties of modern life.

Suffice to say, the film’s underscoring of confrontation is pretty heavy, and from the podium of being unsurprised that Cohen was originally turned off by the edit, there are lots of subtle, beautiful moments that seem to get overshadowed. It’s endearing to see Cohen going from band member to band member serving up a plate of cold cuts and cheese, Cohen laughing about an awkward flirt with a gorgeous woman in front of the camera, and the band launch into group song backstage after Cohen sings few lines a Capella. Each one of these moments, arguably just as vital to the narrative as anything else, but they are easily be overshadowed by the scenes of belligerent security guards, loud-mouthed audience members in Berlin, a PA system that causes technical problems throughout the tour, and two Norwegian dudes (one comically sporting a Prince Valiant bob) who find their way backstage after a show with serious PA problems, accusing the band of intentionally cheating the audience.

This is simply a dense documentary about a magnificent artist. From seeing him govern a room with song to leaving the stage abruptly and needing an impromptu shave before returning, Cohen fans are guaranteed to enjoy the wide spectrum of emotions they will undoubtedly experience while watching Bird on A Wire.

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