Interview with the Band Picnic Lighting
By Mick Michaels
The Cosmick View: Hello, and welcome to The Cosmick
View/MBM Ten Pounder! Thanks for taking some time to chat with us!
CV: Describe your definition of the band’s sound and style and how does
that definition uniquely describe the music?
Picnic Lighting: We are raw and brooding desert punk, the sound of
summer heat and dimly lit clubs. Dark, post-everything wall of sound howls like
a dust storm, delivering a spiritual stomp that dwells in the shadowland of
trenchant questions and orphic revelations.
Our songs deftly touch the inexhaustible complexities of life and do so with
sonics as singular as the individual human experience. They croon and holler,
stomp and skip, wax thoughtful where vengeance belongs; and vice-versa. It’s
the fuel that sets your car aflame or gets you home; the drug that puts you
down or brings out the beast.
The band’s mantra from day one has been: let no one suffer. A blog once called
us “southern gothic psych” so that works too if you’re looking for something
shorter.
CV: Today, everyone talks about artist and audience connection. Is such a level
of connection actually achievable for an artist and if so, how have you made
the connection to your fans?
Picnic Lighting: Connection in general is easy…the internet and
all its outlets make access to others commonplace. The challenging part is
ensuring it’s authentic and genuine. Socials are a great tool, but they’re too
easy to turn into PR outlets instead of ways of connecting. We try to ensure
we’re posting videos of practice and our dicking around to show everyone that
we aren’t some overly serious musicians; we’re friends having a good time
making art together.
CV: Is fan interaction an important part of the band’s inner culture?
Picnic Lighting: Of course. We are extremely grateful for anyone
who takes time to listen to us and spends their money on our shows and songs
and merch. We highly respect that and take that seriously. Similarly, when
writing songs, tinkering and editing, we always have the listener in mind with
our mantra: let no one suffer.
CV: Can a band truly interact with its fans and still maintain a level of
personal privacy without crossing the line and giving up their “personal space”
in your opinion?
Picnic Lighting: For sure. That’s completely up to each artist
and band; what’s private to some is not to others. For us, we’re all relatively
private people in our personal lives so that naturally shows up in the band as
a collective. I think the challenge in this space is the expectation from
fans/audience. The
internet and all its avenues makes it seem like everyone “should” be accessible all the time.
CV: Is music, and its value, viewed differently around the world in your
opinion? If so, what do you see as the biggest difference in such multiple
views among various cultures?
Picnic Lighting: Music is art, so it’s viewed differently by
everyone all the time! Culturally and systemically, music might sound different
or be used in different contexts around the globe, but we’d argue it’s always
the same at its heart: to express, to connect, and to celebrate. One of the
more tangible ways we see this – not to get too in the weeds – is how tonal
scales & time signatures differ across the globe.
CV: Do you feel that a band that has an international appeal, will tend to
connect more so to American audiences? Would they be more enticed or intrigued
to see the band over indigenous acts because of the foreign flavor? Picnic
Lighting: In general, a band with international appeal is marketed to
American audiences because of historical Anglo-centric trends. The US had been
an economic powerhouse for a long time and the music business is a business,
especially when considering an international act: touring the world is
expensive. So, for those investing in the act, marketing to the US is
automatic. But as far as true connection, art, and culture, the US does not
have some sort of artistic monopoly over musical taste.
CV: Has modern-day digital technology made everyone an artist on some level
in your opinion? Have the actual lines of what really is an artist been
blurred?
Picnic Lighting: Humans are meaning making creatures, so on some
level we are all artists. Capitalism beats it out of some of us more than
others, but the affordability and accessibility of technology has allowed that
to be less true. There’s always some feeling of “what it means to be an artist”
or thoughts of “I’m a /true/ artist” but that’s usually coming from a place of
insecurity which just comes with the territory of art.
CV: How would you describe the difference between an artist who follows trends
and one who sets them?
Picnic Lighting: Vulnerability, risk taking, and access to funds.
Someone setting trends is usually doing something we’ve never seen before,
which means they took a risk and it’s paid off. That requires a sense of
vulnerability that is difficult for many of us to access. And no matter how
good the art, to get the world to see it and to set a new trend requires money
and access. You have to be able to fund all the avenues for others to
see/hear/experience it.
CV: Has music overall been splintered into too many sub-genres in an effort to
appease fan tastes in your opinion? And has such fan appeasements, in
actuality, weakened music’s impact as a whole by dividing audiences?
Picnic Lighting: Music has always been varied in tone and style.
We actually struggled for a while to find the terms that described our genre,
but that says more about the wider industry than it does the music. The music
business can often feel like it’s completely separate from the music itself.
For example, you see 50 different coffeehouse wild mood playlists on the
Spotify homepage and after listening for a few hours it’s always the same 50
songs. Because the business is concerned about marketing, ad play, algorithms,
and keeping you on the app. The business does not care about your taste or mood
or expression, but only keeping you listening. There is always an audience for
a song, even if it’s solely for the artist themselves.
CV: What can fans expect to see coming next from you?
Picnic Lighting: We’ve got 2 singles out: “Over My Head” is available
everywhere and “Six Feet Under” is out on July 8th. We’ve got a few more after
that for the remainder of the summer. We also have our back catalog on all
platforms. Stream it everywhere and buy some merch from us!
CV: Thanks again for taking some time and talking. It is greatly appreciated.
Check out Picnic Lighting
at:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/picniclghtnng
Facebook: www.facebook.com/picniclghtnng
Twitter: www.twitter.com/picniclghtnng
Official: http://www.picniclghtnng.com
Bandcamp: www.picniclghtnng.bandcamp.com
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