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UK interview with Sarah Coleman and Sage Francis by Dinos

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Sage Francis
Self Fighteous

Joined: 30 Jun 2002
Posts: 19715

UK interview with Sarah Coleman and Sage Francis by Dinos

QUESTIONS FOR SAGE FRANCIS AND SARAH by Dinos

Q(Sarah): How did you get introduced to Sage's work?
"We're fans. My partner brought home an album in 2002 and we loved it.
Then we saw him at shows here and abroad - in fact one of them was the Dedbeat
gig in Rome about which he's just written a new track for his LP (lyrics on his site)."

Q(Sage): At what point did you know about Sarah's project?
"I'm not entirely sure. I think it was a few months before the actual showing. The first venue she proposed was a place I had previously played a free show. While playing that free show my tour van was broken into and all of our stuff was stolen. I suspect an inside job, so I told her I wouldn't be interested in performing at this place again. Then about a month before the actual showing she told me of the new venue and that's when I started noticing this was much more serious than I previously suspected. It was actually going to happen. Many people talk...but Sarah was determined to make this happen. So I stayed in touch because I was interested in seeing how it would play out."

Q(Sarah): What was the first piece to be inspired by Sage
"A long time ago; I think it was 'Life Is Just A Lie with an F in it, and Death is Def-in-ite'!
(from the Cure song)"

Q(Sarah): At what point did you realise you had a series/collection?
"I did the collection especially for the show. It had to be worked on in one go
as I can't work on things like this piecemeal. The only gradual thing was the
organisation of it and ideas generation; the actual production of the work was done
in a blur of creative, frantic output! Not all the pieces went into the show though; I was fairly brutal."

Q(Sage): Which work of art inspired by your work did you find most surprising/interesting?

"It's a toss up between the bedroom scene and the 'If These Walls Could Talk' wallpaper. But I think it was the bedroom set that just stopped me dead in my tracks and put a permanent smile on my face."

Q (Sarah): Can you link the conception/creation of any particular pieces to specific moments/incidents in your own life?
"Well I will always associate the show with this point in my career - my style of working
and choice of media is sort of settling down, finally, and I had never till now had the confidence ('balls', Leigh says) to put up a one-girl show of very personal, potentially highly uncommercial work. But I felt stable enough to do it. If that's what you mean.
October will forever be 'the month of the show!' It's taken me a long time to get
to the point where I can take two solid months out of my commercial work to finish
a personal project, and it took at least eighteen months to plan it prior to that. A lot of saving up was involved, and learning to say 'no' to clients!"

Q(Sage): Has anything that Sarah's done shown you something about you and your work which you yourself had previously not been aware?
"Well, being the inspiration behind a visual artist's project is something I never considered. It showed me that...it's all working. A great communication has taken place and I'm very grateful for that."

Q(Sarah): Are there any pieces in your collection which serve as criticisms of or, part of a dialogue with the aesthetics and message of a given Sage song?
"No criticisms. I made what I see or feel when I listen to the music and read the words. The music is, actually, equally as important though, there was a lot of emphasis on the words at the show; but if 'Runaways' didn't have that gentle, melancholy sound there wouldn't be those hundred crying little pencil faces; ditto 'Hopeless', which has no music, but the different
colours in Sage's tones - as he walks from a beautiful hymn to his girl to the bitter
'Poker face' line at the end - informed the images as much as the language.
You can see where I've stroked her face with a soft pencil but gouged at the sodden paper
under her feet with the sharpest nib."

Q(Sage): Are there any ways in which you feel Sarah has misinterpreted your work or misappropriated it?
"I can't say so. I think it was spot on to an eerie degree. In fact, the way she actualized some of my lyrics felt...exposing. Hats off to Sarah for that keen ear and imagination."

Q(Sarah):What would you like Sage to get from seeing your work?
"That his work speaks a universal language I suppose, and that there is both a potency
and accessibility to his work. And an openness. I obviously wanted him to enjoy the work, be surprised and laugh at it - I hoped he would laugh at 'Fuck The Past' and 'Forever' as much as I did when I first came up with the ideas. I also wanted him to enjoy seeing physical manifestations of his work - they were virtually 'brought to life'."

Q(Sage): Have any of your raps/poems been inspired by a work of non musical/hiphop art?
"Yeah, but nothing conventional. By that I mean...most of my work is inspired by moments of life that are artful. Those moments are often lost on people. I know when I lose those moments. It happens a lot. Sometimes I am lucky enough to catch it and commit it to memory or put it on paper. But art has a lot to do with experience, and if I 'experience' a piece of artwork, I take that with me and hope that it manifests into something of my own eventually. We carry all these little things around with us like pack rats."

Q(both): Given that hiphop is commonly recognised as a "fraternity," what do you think it is about the work of Sage Francis that appeals so strongly to the young laaaaadies?

Sarah: It's HONEST. He's LITERATE. His rib cage is WIDE OPEN on Personal Journals. Many women I know don't get that level of transparency from their own husbands and partners. And he's a clever being - the grip he has on our language is terribly appealing. The mind's the sexiest organ we have after all, and I'm sure that appeals to his female fans (of which there seem to be many!) Look at 'Hopeless'. If someone wrote 'I played connect the dots with your beauty marks and ended up with picture perfect sheet music' about you, you would fall hard, wouldn't you? Finally, his work is completely devoid of any of that particular brand of mind-numbing hip-hop cliche which belittles, alienates, trivializes or insults women. The line 'God's not a woman, she's a bitch' does not use the B-word the same way 'I got 99 problems...' does (though you can't argue with that beat...) I love that God line. Takes a classic feminist notion and pushes it that one impressive stage further while standing it on its head. Oh, and he speaks warmly of his Mum. ;-)

Sage: My initial impulse is to say, "this stuff is not appealing to the young laaaaadies." But I've found more and more that it actually is, and that is an unexpected result of making the kind of music I make. I don't alienate women in my music by trivializing them the way most rappers do. This allows women to experience my music without feeling like they are an enemy of mine...although some are. Just as many men are the enemy. Haha. But in general, my goal is not to present a reality where women are shit and men are champagne. We're all shit. Isn't that the ultimate lesson? And then when you learn that lesson you start to look closer at the shit and find the champagne. Misanthropy 101. I don't know, maybe some women hear my songs and they are surprised to finally be talked about in a way they know to be true. Or want to be true. Whatever the case, I thank them...BUT...please stop telling me that you think my mind is sexy. I get it...I get it...but, you know...its all about the eyes.

Q(Sage): Who are the three most important women in your life?
"This is a cliche answer, but my Mom, my grandmother and my girlfriend. If I answered differently I would be stung up on the family tree by my balls. But really, I am vulnerable to them all due to how I feel about them. They are strong, trustworthy and loving."

Q(Sage): Prior to this art exhibition, you invited aspiring producers to remix a track from your A Healthy Distrust LP. What did you feel about the response? Who submitted the best remix?
"I got hundreds of Gunz Yo remix entries. Some of them were God awful, but a few were what I was hoping for. Ingenuity unlimited. The talent is out there and I love giving them an opportunity to present themselves to me. Choosing a winner was really difficult because some people took great risks to create a whole new feel and direction for the song, while others just came with a really hot beat. The winner was a guy from the www.non-prophets.com/forum named Nozebleed. You can hear his remix at www.sagefrancis.net in the audio section.

Q(both): What's next? Any chance of Sarah doing the artwork for your next release?

Sarah: That's cheeky. And I think it's already sorted anyway! I'd willingly throw my nibs in the direction of anything Sage felt he wanted input on, but we'd have to both like what we produced, since working for Sage would involve a personal significance for me that means the outcome would matter more. I'd suddenly get a very serious face on!

Sage: I'm glad you asked before I had to. Coincidentally enough, I am entering an album artwork deadline period! Hahaa. Let's work something out here.

Q(Sage): What are you working on right now?
"I'm currently writing and recording my new album, Human the Death Dance, which is to be released in March/April of 2007 on Epitaph Records. I'm also the executive producer of a Prolyphic & Reanimator album titled 'The Ugly Truth' which is also slated for release around the same time on Strange Famous Records. Other than that, I am helping with the soundtrack to an Edward Norton film called 'Pride & Glory' and getting tours situated for the spring. Knowmore.org is still up and going strong, but we'd really appreciate some more outside help."

Q: (Both) Shoutouts? Words of advice and encouragement?

Sarah: Shoutouts to everybody who helped me to get the show together but thanks are due mainly to Leigh, who is my human-size woobie. Without him encouraging and inspiring me this show would not have happened. Solo One for delaying his South Africa trip to help me man the show, and my mum dad and sisters for healthy doses of realism. And strangedolls.net for the 'Broken Wings' collaboration. ('I could fill my tub with confidence, and still soak in doubt...' so true, so true!) Not sure what to add here in terms of advice + encouragement - not sure who your readers are really and what they might be aspiring to! So I'll leave that bit to Sage if I may.

Sage: Shout out to Sarah and everyone else in the UK who helped out with this project along with everyone who attended the exhibit. You've helped patch up my bad feelings about your island of thieves. This doesn't mean that a song isn't still on the way though. As for advice, I wouldn't even know where to start. Be more good than you are evil and stop dissing Dante on record, y'all.

Extra q's for Sage from Kate:

1. has anyone else done pictures of your lyrics for you before?

"Yeah, I have seen drawings and paintings done. Nothing to the extent that Sarah has brought it, but some very nice stuff nonetheless."

2. What were you expecting to see?

"I was expecting to see sketches and paintings of dark images and words. I obviously got much more."

3. Did it add anything to your experience of performing, being surrounded by the pieces.

"The whole thing was surreal. When I stepped into the room I was a bit overwhelmed. In fact, I had to revamp my whole set to adapt to my surroundings. It put me in a strange place mentally and emotionally, which is good. I feel honored to have had an experience like that. It was a beautiful night and I got to share it with some great people."

4. Do you picture your lyrics/songs by colour/hue ever?

"No. But when I do acid and open up the synesthesia floodgate I will let you know."