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Videos by American Songwriter
“You think rock clubs are noisy? Try playing an art opening.” Wagner has played his fair share of gallery shows, both solo and with Lambchop. “In every case, it’s been like, ‘What are we doing here?’ You don’t feel like you connect. You really do feel like wallpaper.” If it’s unsatisfying for the performer, he reckons it’s equally awkward for the listener: “Art openings are designed to be these social gatherings where people talk about art. Do they really need someone else trying to be the third person in their conversation?”
Art and music don’t fit together perfectly, and the friction fascinates Wagner even today. “To me, they’re such different worlds,” he says. “The idea of trying to combine them, I’m not even sure it works.” Mr. M both sounds like and appears to be the culmination of some deep thinking on both media, as Wagner tries to reconcile the two pursuits. “I’m the same guy who bought records in the ‘70s,” Wagner says. “I bought a record and I held that album cover in my hand and listened to the music, and those two things fit together. They’re inseparable in my memory now. That’s how I look at music, as this experience of having a physical thing in your hand and something going on around you. That’s not necessarily how everybody looks at music these days.”
Especially with the advent of mp3s, iPods, and cloud services, the visual often gets lost in the transactions between performers and listeners, which means the music can’t quite realize its fullest evocative potential. “From the music perspective, art is basically treated as cover art, as a commercial representation of a product. There’s a certain advertising aspect to it. It’s not necessarily fine art.” Mr. M, which is rooted strongly in both media, perhaps offers some new possibilities in recombining the two, although Wagner admits he’s reluctant to create overly elaborate stage backdrops or bring a traveling exhibition on tour with the band. “People hopefully will have something to relate to other than a burned disc,” he says. “I’m not sure how it all works yet, but it’s exciting to think about. Maybe this will work out and maybe it can be something I can pursue. Maybe I’ll just have a painting sitting up there onstage, like another musician.”
