Siggy Interview
Q: Can you talk about your musical history and how this unique project formed?
A: Siggy has been a social experiment masquerading as a punk band since the late 1990’s. Our collective training in data science, neuropsychology, psychoanalysis, and ethical consumerism allows us to observe individual responses to a variety of stimuli, be they auditory, narrative, or in the case of our latest inquiry – digital humanity. The intersection of the impulsive id with the assault of technology made us wonder if there is a common goal here: change. Can tech aid our urge to become more fully in touch with our humanity? If so, how might that impact our quest for happiness, justice, and wholeness?
Q: What are some of the themes and concepts within Wirehead?
A: Hell if I know, man. Our bastard singer doesn’t tell us any damn thing about his words. Believe me, I’ve tried to ask him. I’ll be like “Just give me an idea, Galen, a theme or something,” and he’s like “No, it’s my right as an artist to keep it secret. You went to school, figure it out on your own.” And I’m all “Throw me a bone, like, is Rimbaud about the poet?” and he’s all “Dude, give it up, I don’t ask you what you’re playing on guitar do I?” and then I’m like “No, but it would be nice if you did, it would feel like you care,” and so on.
My guess is that our songs are about humanity’s longing for love, justice, security, and purpose, but what do I know? I suppose Wirehead is about the wires coming out of his head, duh.
Q: What drives you to create the kind of music you do?
A: We’re all products of our environment. I jumped around my living room at nine years old slamming Van Halen solos on a tennis racket. Galen sang a cappella hymns in a Pennsylvania Mennonite choir. Deborah belted out Marianne Faithful songs from the back of convertible on the sunny PCH. Paul slapped his knee to Waylon Jennings while driving a tractor in Oklahoma.
Fast forward a few years and our music is something akin to a musical Rorschach. We play blues, rock, country, pop, old school punk, EDM funk, tear-jerking power ballads and modern jams with word salad. We’re what happens when a Midwest tornado meets a west coast tsunami. Not always pretty, but quite the spectacle.
We’re driven by expression, catharsis, community, and the joy of creativity. Just like all bands, right?
Q: What is the recording process like for the band?
A: When we leave our day jobs and make music our focus, we want the people, setting, and vibe to be to our liking. We recorded two previous albums with Josiah Mazzaschi, and enjoyed his calm, creative, collaborative style, so we tapped him again for this album. He brought his A game.
We entered The Cave studio and downed the first of many tequila shots as our world became an isolated laboratory to mold the volatile plutonium of our music into ten radioactive songs. Some songs became Fabergé eggs requiring precision feather dusting under a microscope, others were swamp gators needing to be wrestled into submission. The work is mentally taxing and physically grueling, but few endeavors in life are more satisfying. After a week or an eternity, we emerged from The Cave, squinted at the blaring L.A. sun, and shuffled back to our menial existences.
Q: Can you talk about Neural Note and how it’s used with the band?
A: Our singer, Dr. Galen Buckwalter (Google him), broke his neck following a sweet swan dive into a shallow river when he was 16. He is now among the longest living quadriplegics, and is involved in a Caltech research program where cranial implants both read and stimulate portions of his brain with the hope that one day spinal cord injuries can be hacked and mobility will be restored. One of his graduate student researchers, Sean Darcy, developed a program to translate Galen’s brain waves into musical notes, and a recording of these notes became a musical addition to our song Wirehead, producing an instrument and a sound the world has never heard. Galen and Sean hope to further refine this process so his neurons can one day give a first-of-its-kind solo during a live performance.
Q: What other things should we know about the music? Anything you want our audience to know about?
A: It’s not our grasp of music theory or technique that makes Siggy unique, but our deep history of playing music together, our love for one another, and the culmination of life experiences informing the songs in our catalogue. On nearly every Friday night since 1997 you could find us gathered together sharing stories from our lives, giving tequila toasts, and creating music that reflects our mood and views of the world. If you’d like some of that deep community and connection in your life, go make it happen. While you’re at it, give us a listen.
Q: Can you talk about your musical history and how this unique project formed?
A: Siggy has been a social experiment masquerading as a punk band since the late 1990’s. Our collective training in data science, neuropsychology, psychoanalysis, and ethical consumerism allows us to observe individual responses to a variety of stimuli, be they auditory, narrative, or in the case of our latest inquiry – digital humanity. The intersection of the impulsive id with the assault of technology made us wonder if there is a common goal here: change. Can tech aid our urge to become more fully in touch with our humanity? If so, how might that impact our quest for happiness, justice, and wholeness?
Q: What are some of the themes and concepts within Wirehead?
A: Hell if I know, man. Our bastard singer doesn’t tell us any damn thing about his words. Believe me, I’ve tried to ask him. I’ll be like “Just give me an idea, Galen, a theme or something,” and he’s like “No, it’s my right as an artist to keep it secret. You went to school, figure it out on your own.” And I’m all “Throw me a bone, like, is Rimbaud about the poet?” and he’s all “Dude, give it up, I don’t ask you what you’re playing on guitar do I?” and then I’m like “No, but it would be nice if you did, it would feel like you care,” and so on.
My guess is that our songs are about humanity’s longing for love, justice, security, and purpose, but what do I know? I suppose Wirehead is about the wires coming out of his head, duh.
Q: What drives you to create the kind of music you do?
A: We’re all products of our environment. I jumped around my living room at nine years old slamming Van Halen solos on a tennis racket. Galen sang a cappella hymns in a Pennsylvania Mennonite choir. Deborah belted out Marianne Faithful songs from the back of convertible on the sunny PCH. Paul slapped his knee to Waylon Jennings while driving a tractor in Oklahoma.
Fast forward a few years and our music is something akin to a musical Rorschach. We play blues, rock, country, pop, old school punk, EDM funk, tear-jerking power ballads and modern jams with word salad. We’re what happens when a Midwest tornado meets a west coast tsunami. Not always pretty, but quite the spectacle.
We’re driven by expression, catharsis, community, and the joy of creativity. Just like all bands, right?
Q: What is the recording process like for the band?
A: When we leave our day jobs and make music our focus, we want the people, setting, and vibe to be to our liking. We recorded two previous albums with Josiah Mazzaschi, and enjoyed his calm, creative, collaborative style, so we tapped him again for this album. He brought his A game.
We entered The Cave studio and downed the first of many tequila shots as our world became an isolated laboratory to mold the volatile plutonium of our music into ten radioactive songs. Some songs became Fabergé eggs requiring precision feather dusting under a microscope, others were swamp gators needing to be wrestled into submission. The work is mentally taxing and physically grueling, but few endeavors in life are more satisfying. After a week or an eternity, we emerged from The Cave, squinted at the blaring L.A. sun, and shuffled back to our menial existences.
Q: Can you talk about Neural Note and how it’s used with the band?
A: Our singer, Dr. Galen Buckwalter (Google him), broke his neck following a sweet swan dive into a shallow river when he was 16. He is now among the longest living quadriplegics, and is involved in a Caltech research program where cranial implants both read and stimulate portions of his brain with the hope that one day spinal cord injuries can be hacked and mobility will be restored. One of his graduate student researchers, Sean Darcy, developed a program to translate Galen’s brain waves into musical notes, and a recording of these notes became a musical addition to our song Wirehead, producing an instrument and a sound the world has never heard. Galen and Sean hope to further refine this process so his neurons can one day give a first-of-its-kind solo during a live performance.
Q: What other things should we know about the music? Anything you want our audience to know about?
A: It’s not our grasp of music theory or technique that makes Siggy unique, but our deep history of playing music together, our love for one another, and the culmination of life experiences informing the songs in our catalogue. On nearly every Friday night since 1997 you could find us gathered together sharing stories from our lives, giving tequila toasts, and creating music that reflects our mood and views of the world. If you’d like some of that deep community and connection in your life, go make it happen. While you’re at it, give us a listen.