Jude Cowan Montague solicits the appeal of such arcane/experimental sound artisans as Daniel Johnston and most recently David Lynch. Many times eco-friendly and almost authoritative in their approach, Jude's songs find loose classification somewhere between Dadaist MicroKorg manifestos and what could be construed as contemporary folk temperament; that is to say, certain influences such as the folk rebirth during the late 60's (made popular by such denizens as electric Bob Dylan etc.) have fostered a significant effect on the lyrics, laying the bridged gap down brick by brick in her songs. I had the recent pleasure of corresponding with Jude about her work.
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Frankie Metro: Jude, let's start by analyzing the lyrical content of your songs; specifically, I'd like to focus on two in particular, the first of which being "Giant African Snails" from the album World News Vision. With such lines as:
"Snails have been chosen as detectives because they have lungs and breathe air like humans."
and
"This is not the first project in St. Petersburg where animals are employed to gather data on pollution."
From what I can surmise, there's a thin line between allusions and blunt fact in your songwriting. You make the simile that snails are the detectives at the beginning of the song, later revealing it's a bigger metaphor for animal testing, citing examples at the end of the song circa 2005 and crayfish in the Neva River. Can you tell us a little more about the inspiration for this song?
Jude Cowan Montague: These songs are improvisations taken from Reuters television news stories, so much of the lyrical content is very factual. The stories are chosen almost at random. I choose stories that catch my eye on the day. If I feel inspired to let the words go somewhere else, bringing in allusions and developing conceits, this happens very naturally and on the spur of the moment, and it is not planned.
To me stories are nearly always metaphors for wider concerns. The individual case stands for the greater cause, for the larger concern. It's easier for the material to do that without too much pushy, guiding interference for the conscious, organising part of my brain getting involved.
I like factual literature. It is the exceptional writer that makes me want to hear a story come straight out of an author's head. Fiction-makers that follow literary-convention too far often bore me, I have a low attention span and expect my audience to have one too. What's wrong with the real world? It's fascinating.
F/m: Next, I wanted to discuss "Barbie and Ken in Bolivia." For me, the message here was extremely layered, touching on the colonization of fashion, about living in between "two distinct worlds" of complacency and contradiction:
"Barbie's outfits help bridge the gap between 2 distinct worlds, the rich and the poor."
Within the music itself, we hear mechanical cranks, and what sounds like drumsticks on a desktop, tapered with the MicroKorg XL Synthesizer's drive/waveshifting circuits. How would you say the sound itself illustrates the lyrical portion, for instance, particularly coinciding with the homogenization of the blond-haired blue-eyed beauty standard?
J/C/M: The Barbie song—this piece is quite close to my heart as the very first song I decided to play my Microkorg with a percussion stick. I enjoyed performing this very much. Yes, the cranky, odd, percussive and disjointed performance does reflect the subject matter. I felt this at the point of delivery. The story is about the odd juxtaposition and squashing together of different worlds. Race, culture smash together in the cottage industry of making Barbie a traditional Bolivian costume.
F/m: Can you speak on the significance of the bowler hat?
J/C/M: The bowler hat is a key image in this song, which is why I've drawn so much attention to it. It is an iconic surreal image—that's important to me. It represents the culture of the ordinary man in twentieth century imagery and is a retro piece of clothing to British tastes. I want to tap into a way of seeing that is a little brutal and actual, that thrusts real objects into your mind's eye—I don't think songs often do this so it feels odd to us. That's good. I want to push songs into areas that people are uncomfortable with. There's too much passive acceptance that songs should be written and delivered in accepted ways. Songwriting has become such a conservative artform. It doesn't have to be.
F/m: I am curious as to your take on the controversy surrounding music piracy in the United States. With what you know of anti-piracy bills/organizations like SOPA and the RIAA, and seeing that you use music share services like Soundcloud and Three Legs Duck Netlabel Digital Album download service, is it safe to say that you are a proponent for free mp3 sharing?
J/C/M: Help. I don't know if I have a take on this. I haven't really thought about it. I am so much a music maker I feel a bit of a dolt when it comes to dissemination in general terms. I don't sell stuff because I can't believe anyone has any money to spend on unknown music from an 'eccentric' (outsider?) artist like myself. My friends tell me off for this, but I just am very un-worldy when it comes to that side of things.
F/m: Finally, what can you tell us about some of your upcoming projects? Will you be focusing on more spoken word performances in the future or do you even make a "distinction" between music and spoken word in your work?
J/C/M: Ah, the future. It will involve spoken word, it will involve music. You're right I don't really distinguish between them in my own work. My future will also involve visual art. I love to improvise. I just had a blast (last night actually) doing a music and partly spoken word improvisation piece to some short animations with my good friend Steve Moyes (cello/voice) I have just written and performed my first full length one woman show (that was on the folk music traditions of the 1960s and 1970s). There will be more of that. I love making music to bits. And I personally love word, vocals and music performance combined in unexpected ways. I will definitely be doing more mixing of these artforms paying as little regard to boundaries as I can get away with.
Yes, there are albums, radio shows, and gaudy improvisations to come. I shall enjoy making them immensely.
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Jude Cowan Montague is a writer, artist and composer who lives in London. She works as an archivist for Reuters Television. Her first collection of poetry, For the Messengers was published by Donut Press in 2011 and her second, The Groodoyals of Terre Rouge will be published by Dark Windows Press in 2012. She makes musical improvisations on Reuters stories and these are available on the Parisian based netlabel Three Legs Duck.
She has two one woman shows, Blackwaterside (based on the folk revival of the 1960s and 1970s,) and For the Messengers and is working on a third based on her record collection punctuated with memories of squatting in East London.
She's been a folk singer since a child and performs acapella folk inspired songs. creating polyphonic fragments, taking of lore and verse further with improvisation. She sometimes creates a drone on her grandfather's cello. Music and hill walking was her early life, and her new experimental album about these influences, Winter Hill Sings will soon be released on Linear Obsessional netlabel.
She first started singing professionally in Sumatra Barat, in Menangkabau country. She would sing songs for a few hundred rupiah. This inspired her experimental synthesiser and folk album Bukittinggi Tales. When she returned to London she studied on John Steven's 'Community Music' programme.
She has two residencies, at Scaledown music club and Spoonful of Poison with her World News Vision musical improvisation and is one half of a folk rock duo with Richard Sanderson called Foulkestone.
Check out Jude Cowan Montague's work here at Unlikely
Then be sure to see...
JudeCowan.tumblr.com
www.JudeCowan.net
ThreeLegsDuck.BandCamp.com
Frankie Metro is the Chief Rocknrolla at Unlikely Stories: Episode IV. He reviews, analyzes, and sometimes features music and literary art. You can learn more about him at his bio page.
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