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The Reconciliation of Art & Faith (Dave Von Bieker, musician, singer-songwriter, arts chaplain interview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

It’s finally arrived! After a solid couple of weeks worth of posts featuring my good friend Dave Von Bieker, also known by his very clever stage name of Von Bieker, our full-length interview is alive, well and available for all to enjoy.

In case you haven’t been following the previews, I have decided to change things up just a little bit and slowly publish some the content related to each interview rather then post a single preview and a longer interview. That, and Mr. Von Bieker and I had tons of content to share, so this was a good trial run.

The first preview is about making art for self rather then a paycheck, and the second one about the role of art in a spiritual life. These are both great questions to consider in your own journey, and I think you’ll get a kick out of his answers, but don’t fret about the order of viewing – you can enjoy them before watching this video, afterwards, or over and over again. It’s your choice!

Now let’s discuss the main course – reconciliation. A couple of months ago, Dave and I sat down to talk about his role as an arts chaplain and his burgeoning career as a musician. You see, dear readers, Dave is a big believer in believing in something larger then yourself.

Whether you are into a religious ideal, self-actualization or somewhere in-between, the main theme running through this interview is the importance of reconciling art and faith within ourselves. The demands placed on artists are great, and they come both from within and from our clients, but Dave acutely recognizes this and has done things in his life to help him resolve those larger questions.

As the founder of Bleeding Heart Art Space (https://bleedingheartart.space/), this is a gallery Dave helped build, where faith meets art. Their tagline is Art Space, Sacred Space, Community Space. It’s a shining example of multiple elements of life coming together in a healthy relationship.

In the interview, we discuss the value of having a routine, another innovative musical hero named Dave, intention in art, the difference between performing and making, the immutable nature of music, and finally, why we need to reconcile art and faith. An easily answered question, of course.

theories Summarized

So there you have it, you absolutely can make a case for art and faith working together. Seamless really, and we managed to have fun while we solved all of the worlds problems. Now that that’s been accomplished, please tell me what YOU thought. Did one question stand above all the others? Do you agree with Dave? Are you a bigger fan of David Burns now?

Please check out more Von Bieker (http://vonbieker.com/) and if you’re interested in his social media –  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, Spotify, iTunes and YouTube have all the good stuff.

And special thanks to Dave for being daring, dapper and disciplined. We need more leaders like him in our local communities, artists who spend more time giving back then they do focusing on themselves. And if you want a bankable theory, I expect this is just the start of it for him.

Tim!

 

Be Formless. Shapeless. Like Water (Brendon Greene musician interview preview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Bruce Lee is one of those iconic figures that so many people seem to be inspired by.  Especially people who want to make a motivational point for others. To be fair, he did accomplish a great many different things in his rather short life in order to earn that title. And he IS damn quotable.

Credited with changing how Asian people were viewed in American cinema was a big one, but that is just one of his many incredible feats, not to mention setting world records in martial arts, founding the martial art of Jeet Kune Do, and becoming a pop culture focal point of the 20th century.

Bruce Lee was multi-talented too – an actor, director, martial artist, instructor, and philosopher.

One of the reasons why people are so easily and regularly inspired by Bruce Lee (I suspect anyway), is because of his philosophical views on life. I am sure you’ve heard your share of Bruce Lee quotes in your lifetime, even if you didn’t know it yet. Take this gem for instance.

This is one of my favourites, but there are hundreds of them out there. I’ll tell you too, people love to make posters out of Bruce Lee quotes too.

Now you’re probably wondering why I’m even writing about Bruce Lee, because this looks like an artist interview post. And yeah, you’d be right if you are thinking that. It just so happens though, that this martial arts icon has inspired a new friend of mine too. And how.

Brendon Greene is a very interesting fellow. His life has been rife with challenges, or opportunities as I’m sure he would call them. From those opportunities, Brendon has figured out what his purpose in life is. Which is why he decided a very short time ago, after running to office in the Green Party, to open his own record label – Conscious Collective. Brendon regularly teaches musicians how to get started, produce an album, and distribute it too. Plus he loves to manage new talent and make beautiful music, to boot.

Today I give you a sneak peek of an interview I had with him recently on his role as a mentor for younger musicians, and how Conscious Collective is community oriented. This preview asks the question about who a burgeoning musician should work with, and what kinds of content they should consume.

And Brendon delivers.

 

theories Summarized

I hope this interview preview was useful creative cuties. Brendon has a lot more to say too, but you’ll just have to come back in a week if you want to hear the rest of his story. I promise it will be just as entertaining as this clip, if not moreso.

With a ton more heart and pop culture references, this is an interview that prefaces a new series I’ll be producing with Brendon too! But more on that later. I’m out of theories for now, and I need to get some shut eye.

Tim!

Hearing Aid (timotheories presents: Sound Culture)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

One of my favourite pastimes is listening to music. I like to have an album going on repeat in my car while I drive on my commute, when I’m running around town, and when I feel like taking a late night drive.

It gives me focus, makes me stronger. And I can drive faster.

Okay maybe that last part isn’t true. But certain music can definitely help with bolstering your mood and work performance. I written about the subject of music listening before, and it’s one of the main reasons I share album reviews with you creative cuties on the weekly. I’m providing a service to get you the tunes which will help inspire your creative passion projects.

That, and sometimes it’s just nice to have suggestions hand delivered to you.

I confide in musical experts all the time. Some of my favourites are The Needle Drop, Spectrum Pulse, and ARTV. And Spectrum Pulse and ARTV are known to collaborate on the regular.

Quick, Somebody Get A Guitar!

I recently started releasing a weekly video series called Watch Culture, where I share movie recommendations with you. Featuring a revolving door of familiar timotheories faces, these are short videos which give you examples of shows and films in the annals of history that deserve your attention, no matter how old you are.

It’s been a fun project so far, and I’ve learned a lot in giving my thoughts on pop culture in a short format. But seeing as how this is the year of campfire stories, I will continue to expand the social circle and branch out into other areas of the arts.

It makes perfect sense to add album recommendations to the rotation because I have a lot to sense about music too, dear readers. So I’m pre-emptively introducing a new series to you – Sound Culture.

The show where I, and sometimes guests, but mostly featuring one very special musician named Brendon Greene, will give you recommendations based on albums we think you should buy, stream, and listen to. We’ll ensure each month features albums from different eras, genres, and artists – I think you’ll enjoy what we have to say about albums that are either freshly pressed and or classics in their own right.

And besides, every campfire needs an acoustic guitar sessions or three.

theories Summarized

Time to get to stepping folks, I promised myself I wouldn’t share too much of this new endeavour, lest I reveal what’s coming up in future weeks and totally destroy the element of surprise! I’m out of theories for now, but please come back tomorrow and I’ll give you my thoughts on the new Calvin Harris album, Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1.

Tim!

In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream (Planetarium review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Time to pull out the sports equipment, latex paint, and fishing line, we got ourselves a planetarium to construct!

 

Sufjan Stevens – Planetarium

released Jun 9, 2017
******** 8/10

Planetarium is a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens, composer Nico Muhly, drummer James McAlister, and guitarist Bryce Dessner. A supernova, modern art, super group, if you will. This album was inspired by our solar system and features tracks about black holes, tides, Halley’s Comet, black energy, the Sun, the Moon, the Kuiper Belt, creation, and each of the planets, including Pluto!

Now let’s get to the burning question on my mind – is it off for me to say that this was a weird album to review?

Running at just over seventy five minutes, and including seventeen different tracks, Planetarium takes us all over the place, both metaphorically and literally. An album chock full of ideas, it has tons of instrumentals to take advantage of, and produces epic soundscapes, while including vocals as necessary. It weaves in both the epic (Uranus, Mars, Jupiter, Black Energy) and the intimate (Venus, Mercury, Pluto, and Neptune) to good effect, but the most interesting thing to note of all of these tracks is not how they function individually, but what happens to you as you listen and experience this light show. Err, sound show.

Mythology, science and astronomy dominate this soundscape. Granted it may take a few listens to really immerse yourself in it all, but each time I sat down with it, I focused on different elements. Sometimes I focused on the melody, others were about the lyrics, and still other times I just sat with my own thoughts and contemplated life. That an album about the solar system could make me reflect on my own existence is compelling. Odd that.

And then we have sonic interludes like Halley’s Comet, Tides, the slightly longer Kuiper Belt, Black Hole and In The Beginning. These serve to dial down or ramp up as appropriate. Remember this is a dense album and not something to be taken lightly, but when you consider the scope and scale of it all, well then it just starts to make sense that it was organized this way.

Some of my favourite moments happen on Moon, with it’s many “R2-D2” like sounds, Mars and it’s to the point thoughts on love and war, and the unfettered sexuality/lust of Jupiter. By the time we get to Earth it’s already felt like everything has happened, but not worry.

Coming in at fifteen minutes, we get to experience the passage of millennia through carefully curated sequences representing formation, habitation, natural disasters, the arrival of man, and what seems like the end of civilization. This is all played tongue and cheek of course, delivered with lines like “… run Mission run, before we arrive” and ending with the more intimate Mercury.

Pros: Heady and thoughtful, the talent of its members is well demonstrated on Planetarium. It gets better and better with repeated viewings, each time with a new thing to uncover. Album closer Mercury is just brilliant.

Cons: Interestingly enough, the scale can be somewhat daunting to witness, but hopefully we get more harmony from the group in live performances or if they ever make another studio album. Sometimes Sufjan sounds like an auto-tuned parrot when he doesn’t need to be.

Runtime: 76 minutes

Points of Interest: The group was formed way back in 2012 and Planetarium actually existed as an idea way way back then, with further get togethers solidifying the songs and setting up for a full-length studio album. This is the result of those sessions. Cosmic themes make sense as globalization has flattened the Earth, but space still remains unexplored.

This is an album of abstractions, considerations, and comparative to a space opera. Maybe it won’t ever be repeated again in the history of humanity, but this record is quite a beautiful thing to behold – I just hope that it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of 2017 releases.

theories Summarized

What else can I say about Planetarium but to listen to it for yourself creative cuties? This is a concept album through and through, and one that isn’t afraid to switch from the grandeur of the stars right down to the people on this organic jet pack hurtling through space and time. Theory or no, that’s what I think.

Tim!

Oh You Do, Do You? (Eric Clapton, I Still Do review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Randy Newman is an American treasure. But I’m not American so that never meant anything to me. But dammit if Newman couldn’t pull on a boy’s heartstrings just as Disney was toying with Pixar and making us all believe in friendship again.

Soft rock and roots rock, with a hint of blues. That’s what Randy Newman did for children’s movies. Helped introduce the young world of the time to melancholy. An artist in a particular vein of blues.

Today’s album review is about another accomplished musician known for the sad stuff.

 

 

 

Eric Clapton – I Still Do
released May 20, 2016
****** 6/10

eric-clapton-i-still-do-2016-billboard-620

Eric Clapton, is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has recorded 23 full-length studio albums, on top of his various collaborations with The Yardbirds, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominos. Which is pretty damn impressive for a 71 year old man.

He has made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on three separate occasions (solo, Yardbirds, and Cream) and is considered to be one of the greatest guitarists of all times.

And he still knows how to make a solid blues album.

But the question comes down to this, does he know how to make a blues album that reaches forward and can mean something to anyone? Or is he best suited to the generation of babyboomers and other couch enthusiasts?

Well it does have some great backup vocals and smooth guitar sections, and it’s bluesy as all hell. Alabama Woman Blues is a great example of this right out the gate, and a great cover to boot. Can’t Let You Do it builds upon this idea too and rather nicely. I think my favourite though is his take on Stones In My Passway, which manages to make kidney stones something to be celebrated and soulful. It felt just as weird for me to write that as it does for you to read it.

I also really enjoyed the Billy Holiday cover, I’ll Be Seeing You. It is both tragic and romantic, a splash of blues on top of a sweet smoking ballad.

Clapton’s strength comes from swallowing sadness and spitting out an easy chair, so it’s not really a surprise that the energy never elevates too high to make you feel any sort of anthem. But that’s exactly the problem with the record, it’s solid. Definitely not a newsworthy piece of melodica.

If I Still Do is Clapton’s way of playing some fun covers and throwing in a taste of some original content, then he has definitely accomplished the goal and the record can find a place on the shelf, probably next to Slowhand. But let’s be brutally honest, because Eric Clapton has been around for a while; he’s not interested in breaking new ground. And while I can listen to this album all the way through, nothing on here is particularly memorable.

It’s good for a Sunday drive and a cigar but it’s missing the aviators and leather.

 

 

 

Don’t misconstrue my words dear readers, there is room enough for all in the world of blues. But that doesn’t mean it should be all blues all the time. You’ve got to feel it in your bones for it to mean anything, and while I believe Clapton feels it, I’m not sure he wanted to deliver an intense album. So I’ll have to stick with Newman and my toys. But that’s just my theory.

Tim!