by
Earl Dax
23-Feb-11

Holcombe Waller first came to my attention through Shanta Thake at Joe’s Pub in New York City. It was 2006, and I was working informally with Jay Brannan, at the time best known for his role as Seth in John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus. Shanta invited Jay to share a bill with Holcombe at the Pub, heralding Holcombe’s arrival, if not in New York, then certainly in my life. Since that time he has become a fixture at events I have presented on two coasts: Tingel Tangel Club in San Francisco, Beyond Beyond with Justin Bond at the Trocadero in Philadelphia, Weimar New York at Pier 17 in New York, and, most recently, American PUSSY FAGGOT! Realness, also in New York. These appearances have promoted both his concerts and his theater piece, Into the Dark Unknown, which appeared in New York at the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival. The title from that show, and some its songs, have found their way on to Holcombe’s new album, which celebrates its CD release, at a performance loaded with very special guests, at Joe’s Pub in New York on Thursday, February 24.
Portraits of Holcombe photographed for EVB by Alicia J. Rose
'Bored of Memory' Video co-directed by Alicia J. Rose and Holcombe Waller

Earl Dax: Tell me about Into the Dark Unknown, your new album.
Holcombe Waller: It has a kind of around-the-campfire, shamanic vibe. It’s a conjuring of an introspective space where you’re steeped in melancholy but still in touch with the ephemeral, electric vitality of being alive.
Earl: Do you see it as the logical extension of your work as a singer/songwriter? Is there anything that marks a departure? Breaks new ground?
Holcombe: While Troubled Times [Waller’s previous album] was brooding, this new work feels more at ease with itself. There’s less rumbling and grit in the instrumentation. It's all lightness and air, strings, Wurlitzer and guitar. The album is almost entirely "live" in the performance of the music, with several tracks recorded in concert. Every song on the record can be played exactly as it’s arranged by me and my ensemble, The Healers. Even when I perform solo, like at Joe’s Pub, I’m able to represent the work authentically – the added intimacy with the audience becomes a character in its own right.
Earl: You recently shot a video with Penny Arcade. How did that come about?
Holcombe: I wrote the song 'Risk of Change' while I was getting to know Penny a couple years back, and I was hanging out with her a lot while I was in New York. A moment of our conversation made it's way into the lyrics of the song. I think I was feeling down and saying that I didn't know why I was trying to be a songwriter, and she was telling me I reminded her of Jeff Buckley. She said, "Jeff went to this deep dark place and then could come back and tell us all about it, and you're like that." Something to that effect. And it became a lyric in 'Risk of Change.'
I decided to shoot a video for the song in much the same way that I wrote the lyrics - traveling between Portland and New York and just pulling together images and experiences that were happening to me in that moment. I spent some time with Penny in her apartment, filming her interacting with the space, and I also filmed some friends here in Portland, including a staged "couple" with actors I've used in other videos. We're weaving these elements together into a kind of visual poem that mirrors the feeling of the lyrics.


Earl: What can people expect from the show at Joe's Pub?
Holcombe: I’m going to channel the personalities and spirits of New York that inhabit the record, and I’ve assembled a juicy clutch of guest artists to join me that reflect my love for and history with the city. I just did this in Portland - with special guests Storm Large, China Forbes of Pink Martini, and Matt Sheehy - and it felt very special, very much of-the-place and moment. My guests at Joe’s are stellar: Justin Bond, Penny Arcade, John Kelly, and Gabriel Kahane. Each will share a moment of their genius, and it’s sure to open the doors for some real extemporaneous energy. Creating a dynamic of controlled chaos let’s me enjoy an emcee-like role in addition to singer-songwriter. The emcee is a persona I invoke in my performing arts work, not to mention my upcoming music video with Miguel Gutierrez.
Earl: I love Miguel. I interviewed him for EVB as well. How did you come to work with him?
Holcombe: We’ve known of each other’s work for years and have both collaborated with Joe Goode, but we met for the first time at PUSSY FAGGOT! in January at the Delancey.
Earl: Amazing! I love hearing about PUSSY FAGGOT!’s creative love children.
Holcombe: I had just seen his performance at the American Realness Festival and it had blown my mind. I felt a real kinship for how he interacts with the audience, and I saw a melding of performer and emcee that I could connect with in my own work.
Earl: You ended up collaborating on a music video…
Holcombe: Yes, Miguel agreed to choreograph the ‘Hardliners’ video directed by Daniel Fickle. Daniel conceived of the video as a single shot following me from the bedroom to the stage. It was Miguel’s mission to collaborate with me to choreograph three “magic stagehands,” as we called them, who support me through that journey and back. His presence on camera, as on stage and in the rehearsal studio, is electric, deeply heart-centered and dramaturgically informed. It was a steep learning curve, because choreographing for a set frame is much more radically limiting than for the live stage. In the end, it became a true collaboration between myself, Miguel, the director and DP Brian McKee on steadycam, as well as a crew of 20-plus who were moving camera, lighting, and several rolling walls in one giant dance.
Earl: It sounds like you’ve got a lot of video projects going on.
Holcombe: Yeah. I have footage in the can for the 'Risk of Change' video featuring Penny Arcade, and there are a number of upcoming collaborations and concepts I’m fleshing out. I look at the video work as a new opportunity to craft a kind of treasure map to my creative vision and intent within the songwriting. The technology for video is so accessible, and the results so beautiful, I honestly can’t be stopped. Video production was the centerpiece of my art degree, after all. It’s exciting to weave that experience into what I’m doing now.
Earl: How's tricks in the love and romance department?
Holcombe: I'm deeply in love with my boyfriend Blake.
Earl: Oh, shit. You just lost half of the EVB readership!
Holcombe: [Laughs] We just moved in together a month ago. He's a gentle, kind, articulate, principled man, and he's made me feel so secure in his love for me in a way that I think has truly changed me in this moment.
Earl: How does your sexuality influence your music?
Holcombe: There is no aspect of my life that is not influenced by my sexuality, as I think is the case for all people. At this point, everything I do is informed by who I am and by my perspective and point of view. I tend to aim my crosshairs at universal themes, and I draw on my personal experiences and look for ways to connect them with the broader world. I feel really blessed, today, that I can be absolutely open, and that it's not an attribute that singularly defines me or limits my audience. The world is ready to watch, say, two boys falling in love along an epic river landscape, as we depicted in my video 'Bored of Memory,' but it’s not necessarily interpreted as a “gay video”, rather, a universal experience as eternal as the Columbia River itself.

Earl: So there’s the universal, but a lot of your songs have explicitly political themes. What do you make of the state of politics today?
Holcombe: What I’m really concerned about is the radical anti-academic right-wing movement going on in this country. When did modern Americans start feeling good bashing intellectualism openly in ways we haven't seen since McCarthyism? I think we need to work harder to market this reverence for intellectualism as worthy of praise and not derision, because the solutions to our most critical problems - be they economic, environmental or cultural - lie in progressive thought, genius planning and organizing that starts in the Universities, rather than in brute force, war, and power-jockeying born from politics and the military industrial complex. I really think we need a return of activism to the Universities, because more than ever, they need to defend themselves, even from within. The conservative forces taking history out of history books in Texas are also able to shape academia to their own dastardly agenda. All of this perspective is squarely rooted in my sexuality and my sexual identification, and honestly, it expresses itself as much in interviews like this as in my songs and performance pieces.
Earl: What's next for you?
Holcombe: My plan is to be on the road as much as possible this year, so that this album can reach new ears. I composed a minimal score for We Were Here, David Weissman’s new documentary following up his hit documentary The Cockettes. I enjoyed watching the screenings at Sundance and I’m hoping to assemble an EP of music from the film. I’m applying to the Sundance Institute’s Composers Lab - fingers crossed. I have an EP of excellent bonus tracks from Into the Dark Unknown I plan to release in the Fall, including a gorgeous song I composed to a lyric by Taylor Mac called 'Particularly in the Heartland.' I’m creating a new performance that premieres an excerpt in June at On the Boards in Seattle and will have an invitational showing at Abrons Art Center here in New York in early October. I’ve been so immersed in performance and theatrical gigs, it will be refreshing to get back on the road as a musician.
I’ve also started writing music for the next record, and it’s turning out to be a bit of a departure - more rhythm, groove and movement than on my last couple records. I’m very excited about that. I’m evolving beyond the confessional-catharsis writing style into more pop-inspired invocations. Music designed for dancing, fucking, being with friends - not alone on your iPod. I want to rock out a little bit. I think everyone’s gonna dig my upbeat re-arrangement of the until-now-deeply-melancholy song 'Literally the End of the World.'
That’s just where I’m at. Can I get a witness?





















