Email Etiquette

Interview: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Last April Mr. Owen Ashworth of "Casiontone for the Painfully Alone" took the time to answer a few questions via email for me. I would like to thank him again for the response.

1.) How did you first conceive of the Casiotone for the Painfully Alone musical identity?

It was in 1998. I got a call from a friend who was going through a bad breakup and felt very hurt and lonely. Throughout the call, I couldn't help but notice that there was no music in the background. That guy seriously needed some music to listen to at that stage in his life, so I wrote a bunch of songs about what it's like to be painfully lonely. It helped him out so I wrote more.

2.) Were you ever tempted to actually form a band or do you enjoy the independence of beinga solo artist?

I collaborate with a lot of my friends, and sometimes I go on tour with a backing band instead of just as a solo guy. But I think people come to my shows expecting to see a lonely, lonely dude playing music for them. So even though it's not as fun to play solo, I do like living up to people's expectations in that way.

3.) Much was made of the progression of your style on "Etiquette" to a fuller sound. Was this an organic change or did you consciously set out to expand? Will this process continue?

I guess you could say it was an organic change. A couple of the songs on "Etiquette" were originally going to be just on keyboards but they sounded way too sad that way, so I added instrument tracks to them one by one until they didn't make people want to die. Some of the songs I'm working on right now are even sadder, so you can expect to hear a lot of instrumentation on them because otherwise they would be dangerous.

4.) Your songs contain a great amount of detail in them, specific places and names, does this narrative approach come from your time spent in Film school?

Most of the classes I took in film school were for set decoration and lighting design, which did not help me at all when it came to song writing.

5.) Are you branching out into actual prose writing?

Not yet, but I would like to Twitter a novel one day.

6.) Your albums really capture the insecurity of the 20 something experience, the voidat that time of someones life. Are these people fiction or drawn from real events? Was there a Bobby Malone?

There are probably lots of Bobby Malones, but I don't know any of them personally. Most of the characters in my songs are built from pieces and parts of people I know in real life, or stories I've heard, or just stuff I squeeze from my mind grapes.

7.) There is very black humour in your work. Does that naturally come out in your workor is it an attempt to balance something against the angst that's on display?

Really? None of it is meant to be funny.

8.) Who would you cite as influences in the current musical world?

I like street performers. For instance there is this guy in Chicago named Shawon who plays the thumb piano. If you look closely I think he's using more fingers than just his thumb. Because how can you play so many notes in a row with just two thumbs?

9.) Obviously your work is layering various sounds in the recording process, do you enjoy recreating these live or can it be difficult?

It's definitely a challenge, but I enjoy doing it. You should see all the little boxes with switches and things that makes it possible for me to recreate those sounds. There are so many of them, and many of them are broken or otherwise not working properly.

10.) What next for Owen Ashworth?

Since it's around lunchtime I'm going to say "hummus plate."


CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE
Scandinavian Friendship"SEPTEMBER EUROPEAN TOUR

12.09.2008 Moscow (RU), Aktovy Zal
13.09.2008 St. Petersburg (RU), Sochi
14.09.2008 Helsinki (FI), Semifinal
15.09.2008 Oslo (NO), Bla
16.09.2008 Bergen (NO), Robotbutikken
17.09.2008 Copenhagen (DK), Din Nye Ven
18.09.2008 Malmö (SE), Debaser
19.09.2008 Stockholm (SE), Debaser Medis
21.09.2008 Tilburg (NL), ZXZW Festival
22.09.2008 Koeln (DE), Tsunami
23.09.2008 Berlin (DE), Westgermany