DEVIL’S ISLAND featuring Chalk Portraits
Welcome to this weeks edition of Devil's Island! Every week we maroon a band or artist on the island and see what they get up to, how they cope with being all alone on a small island in the middle of the ocean. It's not your average desert island and we'll see just how each person copes with the extreme conditions.
This week when we arrived at Devil's Island we find Chalk Portraits sat on the beach. The island is far from his home, so how did he end up here and how did he cope with life on Devil's Island?
Find out now...
Welcome to The Razors'e Edge and our somewhat lovely, warm desert island. Don't worry about it's name I'm sure it's not as bad as that would suggest.
So you're marooned here on this island, but before you ended up shipwrecked you chose one album that you couldn't live without. Which album did you each chose and why?
Let me tell you, swimming with a record held above my head was a real pain in the ass. Fortunately I grabbed With Teeth by Nine Inch Nails, so I'm all good! I chose With Teeth because it's a great cross-section of everything I love – a little synthy industrial, a little chilled out piano, and a good amount of heaviness. There is absolutely nothing not to love on this record, and I'd be happy spinning it all by my lonesome for a while.
Just behind that palm tree is a shack for each of you to stay in, with enough space for you to put up a poster on the wall of one album cover. What album cover do you each chose?
Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again by Tim Hecker. It's a calming photo of a city somewhere in Barcelona, Spain that will remind me that for one, Tim Hecker rules; and two, civilization is out there somewhere and maybe I won't go completely nuts. Though with Trent Reznor telling me that every day is exactly the same every single day, it'll be a close race between sanity and insanity.
There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to choose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?
For drink I'm choosing a Kir Royale, for beer I'll go with Fat Tire by New Belgium Brewing.
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. What’s the merch and for what band?
My Hidden Species Blood Incantation shirt made by Holy Mountain Printing. It's nice and broken in, and I am not letting it sink to the bottom of the ocean.
You’re sat on the island thinking “I’m stuck here on this island with my bandmates for eternity”… who would you rather have been shipwrecked with?
Considering my bandmate is my laptop, I'm fine with this. Still, if I had to choose someone else to be stuck with here, I'll go with John Darnielle from The Mountain Goats. Dude is an infinite well of knowledge and I'd probably come off the island a completely different, likely more intelligent person.
There's a walkman in your pocket, on the tape inside is the recording of the one live show that stands out for you. It could be any show, from any band, anywhere in the world. What show is on that walkman?
This completely defies the limitations of the format, but I want the five house set Om played at Club Uganda in Jerusalem on December 5, 2007. Only two songs have ever surfaced from that show, and I want the whole thing! I could listen to Al Cisneros play all day long, and this would be heaven for me.
You're getting desperate, you decide the only course of action is to put a message in a bottle and hope someone finds it. Your message could be to any member of any band, but should be the most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. Dude is a pilot and could totally save me, if he felt like it and had the time.
You've been stuck here for a while and food supplies are running low. There's only one thing for it... which fellow band member gets sacrificed to help the others survive?
I attempt to eat the laptop and die. It was a good run.
Finally, when the ship sank you each managed to save one person from the wreckage. That person is the one musician that has influenced your career the most, shaped your way of thinking and your outlook on life. Who did you save?
Not sure about outlook on life, but in terms of inspiration I'll say either Hecker or William Basinski. Both of them opened my eyes to the world of experimental and ambient, and I will never not be blown away by their creativity.
