davecrowd@aol.com
to me
thanks very much for your email. i share your thoughts. i regret that you are not more familiar with our greater body of work. indeed the argument of kingdom as empty imagery is a valided in reproach. i am very much aware of the difficulty and appreciate your insights and encouragement. since you are less aware of our platform and agenda i've included a small portion of a "press release" that i wrote regarding our latest recording.
david
The making of a collision or (3 + 4 = 7)
By David Crowder
It all started with a book from the early 60s acquired by my wife from an antique shop in downtown Chicago. That, and a conversation with a very intelligent acquaintance of mine who is currently finishing his PhD work in super string theory, and who happened to mention in very whimsical tone one sunny Texas afternoon that we were, and I quote, "?walking around in the sky?" He said this while pointing to nothing in particular, "?you see, there is ground and there is sky and we are somewhere in between. We're walking around in it. Our feet are on the ground but. . ." Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself.
Like I said, it started with a book: "The Story of Atomic Energy" by Laura Fermi (decd. 1977) who was peace activist and wife of famed physicist Enrico Fermi (decd. 1954), with whom the atomic age arrived. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, which is home to the most powerful atom collider in the world, is located just outside of Chicago. I found it fascinating that my wife would procure this particular book from a shop in this particular city. The book's cover is pale green, definitive 60s green if you ask me, with what one would assume to be the representation of an atom in a complimentary 60s pale yellow set against it. It is the familiar depiction of a nucleus and some number of electrons swirling about. I was immediately enthused by this icon as I have an affinity toward semiotics and symbols and iconography and drew satisfaction that a book about energy had a representation symbolizing energy on its cover. No words, just pale yellow on pale green and through symbol I understood that energy was inside.
And here is why this simple thing would inspire a collection of songs: this model is improper in its depiction of particle matter. We know in fact that electrons do not circle in elliptical paths around a nucleus. And this is the difficulty with symbols. They are never quite proper. They are always a bit broken. And as I held this book in my hands, frozen in the middle of an intersection in downtown Chicago, while this inadequate drawing roused simultaneously both hope of discovery and reminiscence of destruction in my chest I thought, "This is the essence of art. We are creating broken containers."
Well, yes, I suppose so. But that wasn't really my point. Regardless, I'm tired of being an asshole:
David:
Thanks for responding to my e-mail. I agree very much with the idea that artists are essentially trying to say what cannot be said and will always be limited to symbols that are inadequate or broken. I admire your attempt to keep creating art even while understanding its limitations. I suspect that the drive in artists to create art is insatiable even if it is futile... I hope that art is not futile, that it can still change hearts and minds. I suspect that it can. I admire your decision to publically expose your art and take the risks that doing so entails.
Thanks, and again, best of luck in your endeavors,
Stephen