Review Fix Exclusive: The President of Pop Talks ‘Word Nerd’ And More

Review Fix chats with the eccentric President of Pop, who discusses his new work, “Word Nerd,” and more.

About The President of Pop: 

The President of Pop hails from Asteroid P-420, the dimmest star you’re likely to find (at least on those nights you’re most likely to look.) He shares his tiny, lonely, planet with the great-great- granddaughter of The Little Prince’s rose.

The President of Pop came to Earth in search of a dream he once had of the Most Perfect Song Ever. He feels sure that if he collaborates with the Earth’s finest musicians, dancers, film-makers, and artists, his dream will return in its original fiery glory. As he’s accustomed to the 17 & 1/2 minute days of Asteroid P-420, our Most Glorious President of Pop is never fully awake, by Earth standards. But in the dreamy space in which he lives, songs pop into His Excellency’s mind with the rapidity of firefly blinks on a hot summer’s night.

Some of these songs end up on PopMusic.com, etc… seek and ye shall find.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

The President of Pop: Well, I was born–I assume, as I don’t actually remember being born–on Asteroid P420. In case you don’t know, Asteroid P420 is the dimmest star you’re likely to see on those nights you’re most likely to look. 

Mostly, though, Asteroid P420 is invisible.

On Asteroid P420 I only had a rose for a friend–but…brush with greatness!–she’s the great granddaughter of the Little Prince’s rose. 

Small world, huh? (Well, literally, for me.)

So, to be honest, there wasn’t much else to do on Asteroid P420 but music. I do get the feeling, though, that the same thing that makes my rose always face the sun brings music to me. Although, I suppose I know about as much about where music comes from as my rose knows about where sunshine comes from. (Which is…”Up there, somewhere…”)

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

The President of Pop: The spirit of the universe shines every so often, and says: “There shall be a song.”

And poof, voila, there one is!

Review Fix: What inspires you?

The President of Pop: Nothing much inspires me, although I’m often inspired…

Review Fix: What does music mean to you?

The President of Pop: What does a dreamer mean to a dream? About the same as that, I’d say.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

The President of Pop: I’d tell them to go to PopMusic.com–or, of course [YOUR SITE AS YOU WANT IT REFERRED TO]–and listen and look. The thing is, because so many people utilise music as background noise these days, I’ve stopped releasing my music anywhere but The President of Pop’s site,  PopMusic.com, and Youtube. 

I mean, background music is great, it sets moods, I’m all for it. It’s just that’s not what The President of Pop makes. I mean, I would. Maybe someday I will. I’m not opposed. It’s just not what The President of Pop’s music is, now.

I like actively listening to music, but most people, myself included…can’t, these days. I mean, there are so many distractions. Who has time to just close his eyes and… listen? Maybe, when walking… before you run into a tree!

But I think deeply getting “into” music is a great thing.

So, The President of Pop’s visual images, and sound, go together. They are part of the same thing. And we all do stare at videos. Surely too much. Videos are engrossing.  

So my videos, which have music and images–but aren’t “music videos”–are something you can concentrate on, and “get into”, rather than just…y’know…background music that makes you tap your foot while you play foosball, or whatever. [NB not a typo, foosball is the intended word.]

But most important, my music/video thing-a-mees are not “music videos”.

Anyway, you asked His Royal Highness, Our Almighty President of Pop to “describe” His Most Holy Videos:

Well, The President of Pop’s visual images describe his sound, and vice versa. Beyond that, explaining art, especially before someone experiences it, I think puts the intellect in the way, and prevents a potential listener from actually experiencing the art. Thinking is not experiencing. Would explaining sex make it better? Or worse…”First one person’s something-or-other thing gets harder, while someone else’s something-or-other gets wetter…” I mean, really? Explaining it doesn’t have anything to do with doing it. It certainly wouldn’t help. So why bother?

So, my “music videos” aren’t music videos…the music and images are each part of a cohesive  audio-visual thing, that goes together.

You wouldn’t listen to the soundtrack of a movie without the picture, right? Or watch a movie with no sound?  

So, His Almighty Holiness Our Beloved President of Pop’s videos are NOT “music videos.” They are, together, audio-visual thingamabobs. With some secret magic inside…

As for “music videos”? 

I barely, if ever, watch music videos, of the sort that most so-called artists make these days.  I’d say the things called “music videos” or “music clips” come from an evil place, even if the people who make them are too culturally illiterate to understand what they’re doing. What they are doing, even if they don’t know it, is exactly what Leni Reifenstahl did for her boss–propaganda designed to make you think a musical star is somehow more than human.

Not that some people aren’t super and great, and above the herd, and all that, but anyone who is truly great is not a fucking pop star. He wouldn’t need an edit every half a second to make him look interesting or cool. 

So anyway, music videos are evil, or at least antithetical to what music actually is–a gift from the Muses–and thus cliché-music-videos have absolutely nothing to do with music, which as of course you know, derives from the word Muse, which implies a sonic expression of a spiritual force. Which has pretty-fucking-much nothing to do with any of the legacy stuff associated with so-called music.

I like to think The President of Pop’s music is actually music, not sonic noise designed to dumbify already stupid people and somehow get money into the hands of materialist fucking cretins. So I’d describe my music, mostly, as being distinct by…drum roll please…being actual music. 

The President of Pop’s music is the spirit of the universe, audio-fied, and visualized, which doesn’t mean it’s some namby pamby airy fairy stuff–I mean, I’ve never taken DMT, but I imagine, at least from what Joe Rogan says about it, that anyone who does wouldn’t think God is  a wuss–but, anyway, The President of Pop’s music is that spirit –whatever that spirit actually is–in sonic and visual form. The President of Pop’s music is not, very much not, a “product to be consumed”, for #*#*sake, or be recommended by goddamned algorithms. 

Fuck all that. 

That’s  absolute evil

The President of Pop’s music and images are part of some kind of magic that no humans are yet evolved enough yet to fully understand, but it’s that nonetheless very real energy in the form of sound and vision. So take that, Charlie, and put it in your pancake (to coin an expression…)

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work (if you perform live)?

The President of Pop: I have a project where I go around the world, and play music with people…well, everywhere. Before your Earth’s pandemic, for example, The President of Pop–c’est moi!– came from my home on Asteroid P420 to Japan, and these kids in a drumming group–as one of many examples– said the day I was there was the best musical experience of their lives. I can’t explain what happens at these President of Pop events, but it works. So I have people all around the world contributing to the same music project. It’s not yet released, but will be, on PopMusic.com. (Well, in about 497 of my planet’s years, but don’t worry,  Asteroid P420 spins pretty fast, so…) 

Review Fix: What inspired “Word Nerd”?

The President of Pop: Songs inspire themselves. It’s like saying what inspired that particular person to have that particular personality. It doesn’t really work like that (at least not for His Almighty Holiness,The Serene and Magnificent President of Pop). A song exists as you once existed, as a baby or whatever. Yeah, sure, initially, you were covered in some kind of goo, and screamed a lot and, pretty certainly, sounded like shit. (As well as being covered in it?)

And you probably burped a lot. Like, always..

Yech.

But look at you now…all big, and a music journalist and stuff. Good on ya!

Along those same lines, if you heard the initial stages of The President of Pop’s songs–they sound like shit, and a helluva lot worse than, probably, your burps when you were a baby. Unless you’re Pavorati or something. 

No, even Pavorati’s probably sounded gross when he was a baby. Well, maybe you had a lovely burps…maybe you’re a veritable burp artiste…but the initial stages of The President of Pop’s songs sound bad, unless you have the ear to hear what’s coming, rather than just what’s already there. It’s like seeing inside someone, their soul. (At least that’s what I tell girls.)

You could argue, of course, that The President of Pop has no talent as all…just persistence, and a kind of blind–or deaf–optimism. That’s certainly some of what it is. (Edison said that’s  99% of it. Well, whatever…)

So, just like when you were a baby your mother saw a music journalist–I’ve heard, the best on Earth!–there’s something inside the initial horrible sounding inspiration of a song, that has to be given time to grown, and helped along etc., but it’s there from the start. 

So, with tons of time, patience, hard-won-experience, and almost inhumanly magical technology and handicrafts–ie, instruments–…the spirit of the song becomes, y’know, a song. 

But the spirit was always there.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of the year?

To break free from this damned pandemic!

Review Fix: What’s next?

The President of Pop: “Next” is a time a true Zen Master would say never exists. Not that I’m a Zen master, but I’m in a Zen mood, so I suppose “next” is a time that is never now, and yet…drum roll please…it is always now. 

Thus, “next” is nothing, and now is everything. 

Does that help?