100 Musicians Answer the Same 10 Questions

Part Fifteen: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

instigated by dave heaton

Since 1999's Answering Machine Music, Owen Ashworth has been releasing his own unique homemade synth-pop under the name Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. The songs on all four of his albums are smart, affecting, funny, and catchy, but it's with his newest album Etiquette (Tomlab) that's he taken his music to a new level. With a full sound filled with layers and textures (not to mention strings, flutes, and pedal steel), and particularly touching and playful songs sung by Ashworth and some guests, the album is an absolute gem, one I've listened to constantly since its release earlier this year. Check out the CFTPA website for mp3s, tourdates, and other information.

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What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?

Getting something finished and deciding it is very good.

What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?

Feeling like it'll never be finished and not feeling like it is very good.

What are you up to right now, music-wise? (Current or upcoming recordings, tours, extravaganzas, experiments, top-secret projects, etc).

I'm practicing piano a lot and recording a few new songs on my 4 track for a 12" ep and some different ingles and stuff. I'm planning an Australian tour for the end of the summer and a European tour for early fall. Maybe after that I will record some kind of new album.

What's the most unusual place you've ever played a show or made a recording? How did the qualities of that place affect the show/recording?

I played at a donut shop in Walnut Creek, CA with The Rapture in the late 90's. It was really loud and everyone stood outside and listened through the plate glass windows. Some people came inside to buy donuts and they seemed pretty annoyed.

In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived), affect the music you create, or your taste in music?

I think I travel too much for the location of my apartment to make too much of a difference anymore. Maybe I should try moving to Brazil.

When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about it?

It was about a week ago. It's called "Sunday St", got some vocoder on it.

As you create more music, do you find yourself getting more or less interested in seeking out and listening to new music made by other people...and why do you think that is?

I love that the older I've gotten, the more open I've become to different kinds of music. There is still so much fresh and exciting stuff that I know nothing about and I love that I get my whole life to find out about it. BUT, when I'm in the process of writing or recording my own songs, I tend to get paranoid that the other music I'm listening to is going to subconsciously influence my own music, so I try not to listen to much else until I've finished what I'm working on. I don't want to steal somebody else's tricks unless I definitely know for sure that I'm doing it.

Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener? (Old or new music? Music like yours or different from yours?)

Oh lots of things, I don't know. I guess music from other countries, mostly. It's been exciting to listen to things that I don't understand, in regard to both language and pop convention.

Name a band or musician, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time favorite recordings by this band/musician?

Man this is hard. I really love Arthur Russell. I love how his songs can feel simultaneously ambiguous and fully honest. His language feels really personal in the best way. I could probably learn a thing or two from that. There's a song called "Me For Real" that I think might have been one of the last things he finished that sounds really great on headphones both to and from the supermarket.

What's the saddest song you've ever heard?

I get asked this too often to keep giving the same answers because it gets boring to talk about otherwise. Lately I have been listening to Hank Williams' "Luke The Drifter" recordings a bunch and some of those songs are just crippling.

To check out the rest of the Q&As, click here.