of it? And now they’re used to you? Baldwin: Yeah, It’s hard to retain that. Every band I’ve been In has ripened and dropped from the tree. I don’t think that will happen to D’Anse Combeau for a long, long time, but there’s some work Involved, some attention Involved In keeping It frightening. CSQ: What about D’Anse Combeau’s intense sexuality? Baldwin: (looks Intensely mystified) What? What do you mean? CSQ: D’Anse Combeau is a very sexual persona, that you created. Very androgynous. Baldwin: (actually embarrassed) I think...the androgny...is probably...another category...of commentary. And that’s probably my own...more than...the band’s. Yeah. That’s my own theme. CSQ: Your persona? Baldwin: You like that word, don’t you? CSQ: Yeah, it fits in this case. A persona is always related in some way to the true person. Baldwin: Yeah! But that’s not something we’ve theorized about. CSQ: Maybe that unknown quantity has something to do with why it’s working? Baldwin: Could be. It would be easy to find out. CSQ: How? Replace you? Baldwin: No. That wouldn’t be the experiment. It would be for me to restrict my performance...on that level. CSQ: But why would you want to do that? Baldwin: You know, the sexuality was not really planned at all. And now It’s gotten more and more...lt wasn’t talked about. It was planned for D’Anse Combeau to go out Into the audience.... CSQ: And drip on them. Baldwin: Drip on them...and kiss a girl...shake hands. And that whole thing has become huge...the whole rhythm section follows D’Anse Combeau Into the audience and overwhelms some poor girl In the third row. But It never occurred to us that.... (trails off) CSQ: Do you agree with the idea that D’Anse Combeau represents suburban values? Baldwin: Yes, very much... vicarious experience. Nobody In the band has spent ten years In JalL.or like a Henry Miller kind of thing, where he was actually there, where he did all these things and now he’s writing about It.... CSQ: Are you saying you haven’t been there and done all these things? Baldwin: Well, I’ve done what I’ve done, but D’Anse Combeau doesn’t do Its own material. We do other peoples’ songs...whlch Is part of the suburban aspect of it. We’re commenting on things that other people have done. It’s meta-entertalnment. Entertainment about other entertainment. We have more credibility than entertainment. CSQ: What does that ’distance’ have to do with having gone to Wilson High School in Portland, Oregon? Baldwin: I’m sure It has everything to do with lt...l don’t know...Tutu Band started at Wilson High School. CSQ: Satire from a distance. Baldwin: I never really thought...vlcarlous experience... Yeah, Wilson High School Is definitely Illy white, and far away. CSQ: How old are you? Baldwin: Twenty seven. Yeah...well...vicarious experience-well that’s a pretty big ldea...because...l myself watched a lot of television. It has a lot to do with my outlook. Think about it: everything that Is on TV Is the same size. And It can’t be put Into any order, and anything can be made equal to anything else...on TV. That has a lot to do with the way that Ideas are Indiscriminate- ly...mlxed together In D’Anse Combeau. And that Is definitely a value, of value... In D’Anse Combeau. Part of the project Is to take Images and Ideas that people might not already associate with each other...and to create a new Insight. The similarity of things that people wouldn’t normally find similar.... CSQ: Or the dissimilarity of things people normally find similar. Baldwin: You bet!! It’s all TV...what It Is, is cybernetics.... CSQ: Or isomorphism...the transformation of systems onto each other so that it all becomes equalized? Baldwin: Yes, sure, you bet! (getting excited) It’s the process that anything that has meaning can go through, cybernetlcally. It’s the Impact of all electronic technology. It has been a very Important event In history. CSQ: In D’Anse Combeau are you trying to be like the tabula rasa, the person who was imprinted rather indiscriminately, rather in the way of someone watching television, so that the values are all sort of misapplied? Baldwin: (coyly) I flirt with that. No, seriously, It’s an Important part of the character. The confusion between the way people tell themselves they live and the way they really live. We’re just a tabula rasa being Imprinted. I think that’s a scary part of America.... Not really scary, though. It can only really Just happen.... I mean, I don’t know what It’s displacing. It appears that literacy Is getting displaced, for one thing. CSQ: And perhaps the capacity for discrimination. Baldwin: But It’s hardly Orwellian or anything like that, because the values that people used to have before the electronic revolution were Imprinted, too, and they weren’t all that great either. CSQ: Do you look forward to the future? Baldwin: Optimism and pessimism are both projections, and to take a ‘plus’ or a ‘minus’ attitude toward the future cuts out a lot of perceptions that you might otherwise have. It can make a lot of things unavailable to you. CSQ: I'm glad you live in Portland.' Baldwin: The reason Portland Is so fun Is that you get to see the future before It comes here. So you can prepare ahead of time for the negative aspects of the future. It’s like vicarious experience again. Sure It Is. CSQ: Do you not worry you will become D'Anse? Baldwin: No I don’t, because I’m way too curious. I’m always thinking through one thing or another. Everyone In the band Is so curious and enthusiastic. We don’t have the problem of things getting boring. We have the problem of too many Ideas. There’s something about the formula that appeals to M fiousc, a mpe ar^r; an offers a Cong and a, menan tf- aa World CLUSinc with an optimal sequence op Jour win£6. audiences, which Is great, and the subject matter we can examine In the band Is endless. CSQ: The subject is America? Baldwin: Yes, I can think of no other. And whether or not what we’re doing Is practical Is not my department. CSQ: Who’s the practical one? Baldwin: Jon. Ken Butler. They’re all more practical than I am. CSQ: How come you're so generous? Baldwin: If I weren’t I’d feel uncomfortable, and I’m sure also I wouldn’t be able to get away with being otherwise. I’d be like that Shakespeare play, the lady with blood on her hands.... CSQ: Lady Macbeth. Baldwin: I’d be like her and wake up In the middle of the night and have blood on my hands. I just happen to fit the suit. Besides it’s fun to be generous. 46 Clinton St. Quarterly
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