DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller) is a composer, author, producer, and electronic and experimental hip-hop musician. His stage name, "That Subliminal Kid," is borrowed from the character The Subliminal Kid[…]
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people
“Music is writing. Writing is art. Art is music. Simple,” says the DJ.
Question: Who are you trying to reach with your music?
DJrn Spooky: rnI’d say my audience is pretty much anyone who thinks, which is a bigrnaudience, and luckily and happily people have been very supportive ofrnthe idea of a writer, artist and musician making conceptual music. I’mrnnot art rock. I mean art rock dominates in the art world. I’m a kindrnof insurgency, like an electronic music insurgency because I’m tryingrnto push a lot of boundaries simultaneously. Racial politics, economicrnpolitics and above all the psychology about how people assign criteriarnand value and what people say is cool or good. I love the idea thatrnyou know your cell phone is disrupting the entire sort of consumerrnpattern of people or I love the idea that you know what, a curator or arnmuseum director or some art dealer the value isn’t for them create. rnIt’s the value that we, each of us, brings to something. So it’srndisruptive of all these kind of top-down hierarchies of how power formsrnin you know the normal corporate model of saying this artist or thisrnbook or... so my book is turning the world of Martha Stewartrnand Oprah Winfrey upside down and saying you know you are the mix.
rn
I enjoy writing and it’s one… another weird thing, arnbeef I have with normal critics is that they’re like, “Why don’t yournjust do the music?” You know I’m like: "Look, I’m an artist. I like tornwrite. I also do music, so they’re not separate." To me music isrnwriting. Writing is art. Art is music. Simple.
Recorded on April 8, 2010
DJrn Spooky: rnI’d say my audience is pretty much anyone who thinks, which is a bigrnaudience, and luckily and happily people have been very supportive ofrnthe idea of a writer, artist and musician making conceptual music. I’mrnnot art rock. I mean art rock dominates in the art world. I’m a kindrnof insurgency, like an electronic music insurgency because I’m tryingrnto push a lot of boundaries simultaneously. Racial politics, economicrnpolitics and above all the psychology about how people assign criteriarnand value and what people say is cool or good. I love the idea thatrnyou know your cell phone is disrupting the entire sort of consumerrnpattern of people or I love the idea that you know what, a curator or arnmuseum director or some art dealer the value isn’t for them create. rnIt’s the value that we, each of us, brings to something. So it’srndisruptive of all these kind of top-down hierarchies of how power formsrnin you know the normal corporate model of saying this artist or thisrnbook or... so my book is turning the world of Martha Stewartrnand Oprah Winfrey upside down and saying you know you are the mix.
rn
I enjoy writing and it’s one… another weird thing, arnbeef I have with normal critics is that they’re like, “Why don’t yournjust do the music?” You know I’m like: "Look, I’m an artist. I like tornwrite. I also do music, so they’re not separate." To me music isrnwriting. Writing is art. Art is music. Simple.
Recorded on April 8, 2010
▸
2 min
—
with
