Raymond Raposa on Wooden Wand, Rick Ruben, and San Diego Music

Photos taken during a performance at kvrx.org by Eric Katerman

Undoubtedly busy playing the five-show Sufjan marathon last month at the Bowery Ballroom in New York, the wizard behind 2004's mind-blowing Cathedral (Asthmatic Kitty) still found the time to send a completely honest interview to an online magazine whose first issue was still in the works. So in addition to being one of my favorite American songwriters, I can now say he's a nice guy. And he seems to be just as much of a Weird Weeds fanatic, which is also cool.

Listen to Castinets on our compilation.

W & A: First of all, thanks for the stellar set in Austin last month. It was refreshing to see you get up there with the Weird Weeds, a bunch of e-bows, a beer, and just let the songs go wherever they went. I heard someone say you'd been on the road six months at that point. Is that true?

RR: Maybe three months, off and on. I'm kind of living in New York for a little bit, so if that counts as on the road then yes, six. Enough and not enough. That was our fifth show in Austin in a three month span and the Weird Weeds made certain that it was the most rewarding. When I move there in my unspecified near future I will be finally their Biggest Fan, front row.

Do you write music when you're out for such a stretch or is that something you do more when you're at home?

Comes and goes. It is rarely so conscious an effort that I would be able to differentiate between the two. They come when they do. I am trying to be a little more pre-meditative about the process with mixed results.

Bummer that WW&VV didn't make it out to Austin with you. What happened? Something with their van, I heard? What's it like touring with them?

WWVV are magic incarnate. My favorite. Austin missed out on much revelry and wonder. We played about 35 shows with 'em and they didn't age a bit. My appreciation of their gift(s) has little precedent in my life.

You played some songs [at Emo's] that weren't on Cathedral, I'm wondering if they were from the forthcoming First Light's Freeze.

If I recall true, some were, some weren't. We're about halfway through the next record.

The list of collaborators on Cathedral is super cool. Jenkins and Hennies are two of my favorites. Who joins you on First Light's Freeze?

Daniel Carter, the Vanishing Voice, Sufjan Stevens, Create, Sayard Egan, Bridgit Decook, Rafter Roberts. A couple holdovers, a couple fresh faces. The others remain in spirit somewhere.

What other musicians would you like to collaborate with in the future?

Fennesz. Prince. Ghost.

I've always thought that the San Diego music scene in the 90s was pretty epic and that its influence is still spreading as a lot of those folks get more acclaim. Would you agree? Which San Diego artists do you recommend to folks?

I agree, epic. No one knew it though, as attendance proved. We could get into the band-to-band specifics, but more than anything else, at the time it really mostly was friends playing for friends. White belts weren't as cross-country hott as they soon became. Fond memories of hashed out BHP shows round the time of the first record. E St. House shows (Locust, Auto-Defenestration, Crimson Curse, Shortwave Channel) and the 2nd wave West Coast Power Violence stuff was always backflip fun.

A couple of current or recently relocated SD bands worth the while- Business Lady, Kill Me Tomorrow, The Skaters, Bunky, Sleeping People, Aspects of Physics, Optiganally Yours, Gogogo Airheart, Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects, Shining Path, and the resting in righteous un-peace Hot Snakes.

Favorite places to surf in San Diego? I once surfed Blacks Beach naked. Beer involved. Greatest day ever.

Blacks. Naked. I've done that one a few times. La Jolla reefs when the crowds are down. Sunset Cliffs on the 9'6". Swami's pretty much anytime. Places of which I can not speak.

[It's true. Talk too much about certain spots in San Diego and you'll sleep with the fishes.] I'm real curious about the novel mentioned in January's Pitchfork interview. Is it completed, still in the works, or on hold?

The novel Cathedral is long-shelved with only the most tentative of shuffle-steps being taken back towards or around it. Scared the hell out of me and was one of the least comfortable things I have ever tried to put myself through. See: no comment.

You got around on Greyhounds for some time. Did you meet any good crazies? What are your strongest memories of these travels?

Many crazies, but not as many as I've come across in the last couple of years of my life. Any lessons learned in that timeframe have long been improved upon or mutated. I don't remember. It was just my way of going to high school and who would want to reflect on that?

Do you ever write about your dreams? Can you recall any recent dreams you'd be down to talk about?

Just woke up. Awful dreams. It happens sometimes. I had a nice one last year where there was a dog dancing on my lap and lip-synching. I remember my dreams so rarely that I wouldn't be too surprised if they do sometimes circle back around to the conscious/working mind, but I wouldn't count on it either.

What music are you currently listening to or influenced by?

The Ethiopiques series, start to finish. Viking Moses.

How do you like NYC / LA audiences compared to smaller towns?

I don't like getting off stage and seeing Rick Rubin. Absolutely nothing against the guy, but it's a strange feeling.

And finally, but quite important: how long has your beard been growing?

The one I had for the last Austin show was about 9 months worth. It's gone now.

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