There is, perhaps, nothing more indicative of my generation’s penchant for vapid displays of a fabricated self than the endlessly mindless scroll of falsehood that is Instagram. At its best, users are presented with intimate snapshots of life’s best moments. This sounds wonderful, and is in single doses (Polaroids?), but in a world full of perpetual scroll, a constant stream of people’s best and most filtered moments creates a desire within the individual to further hide and bury life’s other side: those moments of absolute shit and disparity. To liberally paraphrase reluctant Internet icon Donald Glover, you don’t really see a lot of funeral selfies or screen captures of negative bank accounts next to an open Firefox tab that reads “Most Reputable Title Loan.”
Of course, as with any medium that becomes wrought with a lack of sincerity, there are some heroic exceptions. One such exception is @afasm – Chan (Cat Power) Marshall’s meticulously updated collection of everything from Robert De Niro with a cat to Johnny Cash savoring a drag to, most recently, images from the Million Mask March in Washington, D.C. Another frequent topic of Marshall’s pop culture curations is Nico Turner (@nicoturner). A quick Googling will reveal that Turner is currently on tour with Marshall, opening the current batch of Cat Power solo shows with her own experimental songs. Turner, an artist of the most extended sort (multi-instrumentalist, poet, painter, photographer, and writer), maintains an endearingly deflective online presence. She’s a perfect addition to the world of Cat Power, but enjoys dual citizenship on a planet all her own.
But who is Nico Turner?
In a world of selfies, she’s a camera pointed the opposite direction, facing you with the very same question.
How has your outlook on “the industry of art” changed since you first started touring and recording full-time? Do you feel jaded or have you maintained a positive outlook?
My outlook has definitely changed, or maybe it’s just become more informed. The industry and how it functions is based on the world we live in now. While I don’t know if it functions the best to support everyone equally, it definitely does what it’s always done. By that I mean the underground is still there inspiring new ways of creating, and the ones at the top are still there doing bigger things with better production value. There’s no time to be jaded about the realities of how it’s always been. We’re artists, we need something to rise up against. Thankfully, the industry of art always provides a great dichotomy. Thankfully, art has no rules. I guess I’m pretty optimistic at the end of the day. I guess I feel like we’re somewhat responsible for creating a machine or a monster, and if things get too out of hand, we can also be responsible for deconstructing the machine or slaying the monster. Somethin’ like that.
As a writer, what’s most important for you? Words or melody? Do you feel they are mutually beneficial and influential, or does one “carry” the other?
I think words and melody are mutually beneficial and influential. One can carry the other also. I was a drummer first, so the rhythm or beat of a song can sometimes override all other components for me. Overall, a song has to have feeling behind it, and when I write, I’m really just following a feeling. I don’t know where it will go and try not to ask. The melody and words come well after. I still feel like the music alone is its own language, the great communicator. Sometimes I don’t even want to put words over the music because I feel that the sounds are communicating exactly what I’d want to say anyway. This might be boring to some, but that’s where I’m at.
Name one album from your younger years that helped shape you, not only as an artist but as a person.
One album that was a huge revelation to me in its entirety is PJ Harvey’s Rid Of Me. Until that point, I had never heard a woman sing that way, or play a guitar the way she does, or tell those stories. It felt dangerous and beautiful all at once. It felt like my insides were being burned up and reconstructed. I was afraid! I was intrigued! It made me want to create! It let me know what was possible and reminded me that the simplest thing could have a huge impact.
Name one album from recent years that you feel is currently shaping you as an artist/person.
Honestly, the new Cat Power album, SUN, has had a similar revelatory effect on me as an artist and person. Even though I toured with the album as a member of Cat Power, I was still listening to the album on repeat during my personal time. It’s thoroughly such an inspired and amazing album. No bullshit. Those are great songs. I bought the “Ruin” single and literally listened to only that song for a month. I was going through a strange rough patch, working a job I needed but didn’t particularly love. I had to drive around Downtown L.A. a lot during that time, and I saw so many forgotten people wandering around. I would blast that song through my car speakers and remind myself over and over to just be grateful for whatever I was going through even if it felt difficult.
What are you currently working on? Future endeavors?
I’m looking forward to [more] Cat Power shows in February of 2014. I’m planning on recording new music in the new year. It will be an experimental collaborative effort between friends and myself and will be called LEGENDS. I have some photo projects in the works also.
Tell the story of your ongoing involvement with Chan Marshall / Cat Power.
I met Chan through a bit of happenstance a year and a half ago. A mutual friend of ours introduced us at a party Chan was having, and a week later, I became a part of her new band, very gratefully I might add, because at the time, I had just been laid off of a job and simultaneously had to move out of the place I was living. This meant no work and nowhere to go. She and the band basically saved me. Since then I’ve toured with Cat Power as sort of an auxiliary member playing bass, guitar, keys, percussion, and singing back up. I went to see one of Chan’s recent solo shows for Station to Station, which was just amazing. We talked about her upcoming solo tour, and I expressed that this time off would probably force me to work on my own solo music. Chan is such an amazing supporter of her friends and humans in general, and shortly after that, she asked if I’d be interested in opening some of the shows. There aren’t enough words to express my gratitude.
You performed with Chan in Atlanta on this tour. What are your experiences with performing in the South? Many would argue it’s remarkably different than almost anything else, while some seem to notice little variation. What your thoughts on the South, both as an artistic springboard and a potentially “un-tapped” well of future fans, supporters, and fellow artists?
I haven’t gotten to spend as much time as I’d like to in the south. I have very romantic ideas about it. I recently had the pleasure of meeting this traveling musician named Nick. He’s originally from Tennessee, but has spent the majority of his adult life train-hopping and busking around the country. We spoke of how people relate to the music in a specific way, like it’s just another way to tell a story and we’re all living a story. That’s the thing I’ve always really related to the south, the willingness of the people to really listen to another’s story and then share their own. I love that.
What’s the one thing you’ve learned from your own art and the art of others which has had the most impact on your day-to-day life?
Feeling like every day is an opportunity of creation, every task involves the art. It’s not a place one has to retreat to. I think I used to feel that I had to go through the dark places and endeavor some sort of underbelly to create, and I did create some really great things then, but I’ve learned that I can be a whole person, social, loving, open, smiling, happy, and still create beautiful things or dark things or sad things or whatever is in me. I think my friends and I, as we came of age, we learned that it is ours to share and we define it. We endeavor this thing that’s in us, and our duty is to figure out what it is and share the good part with others. The biggest thing I’ve learned, and it might sound strange, but it’s had a huge impact, is simply to be grateful for the time I have.
If God were real, which work of art would you present to him or her to show how you felt about your time here on Earth?
My Best Self.
Below, check out a live clip of Turner playing with Cat Power on Conan. You can also stream her solo cover of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way.”
