Christian Portwine – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

Christian Portwine – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: Every artist’s first song is a milestone. But so is the latest song. Describe the first song/album you recorded, and also the latest song/album you recorded; what are the
differences?

CP: My first song was written on a Rockford piano in Rockford, IL when I was five years old. It had three amazing chords, (Am, G, and F) no words, (mercifully) and by way of dutiful repetition, transitioned my family from feeling dazzled to sufficiently annoyed. As many performers do, I leaned into the love and just disregarded the rest. My first recorded song played out similarly. I used our family computer and a cable converter from Radio Shack so I could plug my acoustic guitar pedal into the microphone input. I felt like a genius, it sounded like poo. But I also had a secret weapon. I had a program called Reason and I fell in love with synthesis and dance music, so I knew I could cover a multitude of sins with enough 808s and percolating arpeggiators. My latest song Child Profits (A Miracle Waste) is built with a similar eclectic set of both acoustic and electronic instrumentation. It has a strong back beat and still a “4 on the floor” push at times. Latin percussion, snares with brushes, synth basses and guitars that sound like synthesisers. I suppose the main difference now is that the words and melodies I write can, hopefully, better support the productions.

RRX: Part of learning to be a musician is to fall in love with a song, an album, and
hammer away at your instrument until you can play that whole thing. What was that
song for you? Was there a hardest part?

CP: Most of the time I write lyrics first and then look for interesting changes that suit those ideas and feelings. More rarely the instrument comes first, and the seed of a song sprouts from the hands rather than the unweaving of pent up memories and one’s own sacred knowledge. In those other cases when the instrument leads, there’s always growing pains. For me it’s typically a struggle to marry the rhythmic elements to the singing. It’s common when a novel guitar lick turns into a hook, and that hook sits under a syncopated vocal. Additionally, due to my disability (I was born missing fingers on my right hand) I have to find unique ways of positioning that hand on different instruments. Fingerstyle with no fingers? Yup! For a while, when an idea is fresh, it’s also a bit raw and uncooked. In particular the rhythmic pocket of my performance will suffer at the outset, but with enough repetition, it doesn’t. And crossing those barriers; from feeling disjointed and fickle to feeling fluid and effortless, is truly wonderful. I believe it is one of the noblest of highs.

RRX: Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Or so they say. Whether you’re off the wagon, on it,
or never been, there’s something you got a thirst for. What are some of your basically
harmless vices?

CP: I grew up in a strict, religious, fundamentalist family. I was surrounded by addiction and abuse. The gift of this exposure was the ability to see the benefits and the costs of mental health and substance abuse. As such, my vices are diverse but my drive to them comes with baggage. So I try to approach these vices from a place of happiness and celebration, rather than coping and numbing. On the right evenings, you will find me sipping a whiskey (neat), grilling a filet with a dry rub, sharing a joint, and staring into a campfire. However, I have found that while writing music benefits from a myriad of mental states (sleepy, lonely, tipsy, etc.) performances very rarely do.

RRX: What instrument would you add to the band if you could? Is there anything you
are trying to do musically that would be helped with one or more additional players? from

CP: I think the best way to describe this is as a disease, and the only cure is more… something… I can’t recall. Anyways, I’d love to perform with a drummer and bassist that were twins separated at birth and then later reunited after both had attended prestigious music schools and individually won like, 15 awards each, and one knows Paul McCartney and the other Paul Oakenfold, and they’re both super-chill and super-hot. So yeah, nothing crazy.

RRX: Love is a big part of music. We’re talking first loves here. Lots of cool stories
about first loves and the things we do for those loves. Can you (or, in the case of a band,
one member) talk about your first love, especially if you did something cool to express
that love? (No names needed.)

CP: In the wax of my youth, one lasting impression was from playing bass in a hardcore band called It Never Fails. Together with my friends Adam, Cory, and Brian we played some of the worst heavy metal you can fathom. Cheesy faith-based lyrics: check. Guitar and bass out of tune: check. Amps way too loud: check. What stuck with me was the unbridled energy. 50-75 straight-edge kids crammed into clubs, hotel conference rooms, and church basements. I still see the black sharpie X’s, the knobby knees leaping from the stage, the bloody elbows from collisions in the pits, and the oppressive convolution of every possible flavor of axe body spray. It felt magical to be a part of a scene, even if it was the Skibidi Toilet of its time.

RRX: I know when pitching it helps to tell someone it’s “this meets that.” So let’s try
that with you. If you had to give me two bands that meet each other in your sound, what
are those bands? More than two bands?

CP: Hollywood and Nashville. My productions are often dense and layered, like a movie plot that has lots of metaphors. My musical structure is often more grounded with folk, country, and blues influences. An early 2000’s album called Turquoise and Crimson by Vast was a big influence for early production and mix. (Thrown Away is a real slice of time, an anthemic rock earworm akin to Interpol) For emotional depth, Gustov Holst’s The Planets has always been an enduring place of inspiration that covers so many moods, like a cheat sheet for writing music that grips the heart. Lyrical inspiration has always been stoked by poems and by hip-hop: Snoop, Wu-Tang, Tech9ine, Kendrick, Aesop, and many more.

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