Art-Punk Avatar: Jowe Head
by Peter Aaron

England’s Jowe Head, who plays at Claude’s in Phoenicia on April 18, is one of those too-long-ignored, between-the-cracks figures that truly embody the DIY spirit of underground rock. As the bassist in two of the most influential cult bands of the last 30 years, seminal art punks Swell Maps (an outfit founded by late singer/guitarist Nikki Sudden and drummer Epic Soundtracks) and shambolic mod revisionists the Television Personalities, he made music that fired and fried the younger minds of those who went on to be in such bands as Pavement and Sonic Youth. But in addition to being an innovative musician, Head is also a highly accomplished visual artist whose twisted and bemusing style evokes Polynesian tiki figures as well as the Surrealists. His Phoenicia performance is being held in conjunction with an opening at the town’s Arts Upstairs gallery the following day.

Were you an artist or a musician first? How did you get started in each medium, and how are the two connected?

I started to paint and draw in my early teens. I was into ancient art and primitive cave paintings. I fell out with my art teacher at school, so I was forced to drop it, but I got interested in modern art later, when I went to technical college to study my art foundation after school. In my mid teens, I met Nikki, who became my best friend and he encouraged me to try making music. At first, it was a pure interest in various colors of sound and the qualities of materials; the same kind of values that drove my interest in visual art. I went up to study fine art in Manchester in 1976, but I traveled down nearly every weekend to be with Nikki and the other people who would go on to play in Swell Maps with me. Ever since I can remember, music and visual art have fueled each other. I usually listen to music when I paint and draw, and even when I’m not I’ll be meditating on ideas for my own music.

With Swell Maps and the Television Personalities you were doing music that was intentionally outside the mainstream, but did it ever occur to you that what you were doing then would later help to shape the mainstream itself?

Even now, I do not really consider seriously that what I’ve been involved in has “shaped” mainstream culture significantly. It’s not the kind of topic that I prefer to dwell upon. However, at certain times in my performing life I remember feeling that what I was striving for with my band-mates was of crucial importance and needed to be heard, but not at any cost to its intrinsic ideals. There was never any danger of us selling out to commercial pressure, because our attitude in Swell Maps, for example, was so willfully perverse and idiosyncratic! I’ve heard it said that the Maps and the TVPs (Television Personalities) were pioneers of independent alternative rock or something like that, so that’s quite satisfying. Having said that, I learned that a Maps track was recently used in a car advert in TV in the U.S. It is quite flattering that they chose to use such an obscure, primitive piece of 25-year-old music, I suppose, but that’s one of the most ridiculous ideas that I’ve ever heard!

Swell Maps had much more diverse influences than most other acts of the original UK punk era—perhaps as much Stockhausen as New York Dolls. What was it about the avant-garde that grabbed you as much as rock ’n’ roll did?

The range of influences in Swell Maps was down to the range of personalities involved. We would all share certain tastes, for example a liking for Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols, and Public Image, but we would all bring something personal into the mix: Epic’s love of Can, my love of Captain Beefheart, Nikki’s love T.Rex, [guitarist] Phones B. Sportsman’s liking for Stockhausen, and so on. We respected those differences, and recognized that the fusion of these elements would make for an interesting brew. Anyway, Can and Beefheart made great pop music sometimes, and on the other hand T.Rex made some very strange music too! We also liked another German group called Faust, who sold well in the UK in the 1970s. They were equally despised and adored for their bizarre mash-up of pop and the avant-garde.

Tell us about your current bands, Head and Shoulders and Angel Racing Food. How would you describe the sound of each?

Angel Racing Food is currently myself on guitar and vocals, Jeff Bloom on drums (ex-TVPs), Lee McFadden on guitar (also in Alternative TV), Marina Young on bass (ex-Shock-Headed Peters), and Rob Mack (ex-Househunters). It’s like a macabre cartoon – funny but definitely unhinged. It was intended to be a fun band, but the writing got more and more deranged. I cannot help it! Head and Shoulders is Lee and me. We played two shows at a club in Berlin in February and did 26 songs over two nights. It’s great, because we can play ARF songs, Swell Maps, my solo tunes, and even some weird cover-versions of cheesy old jazz tunes like “Paper Moon!”

For those who haven’t yet seen your artwork, how would describe it? Are there any detectable influences you’d like to admit to?

I find it difficult to pin down the influences in my pictures. I prefer not to analyze them. I adore some of the artwork of Max Ernst, Rene Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Hannah Hoch, and I could go on for hours. I do not have a favorite artist, and in most cases the direct influence is probably minimal. I will admit to drawing from elements in imagery from Ancient Egyptian imagery, Aztec and Mayan sculpture, medieval alchemical texts and so on. I have an equally exotic taste in music, so I love guitar sounds from Mali, Balinese gamelan, Latin-American music and Asian flavors.

Before you hit our area, you’re playing in New York with Hamish Kilgour of New Zealand DIY legends The Clean, who were obviously very much influenced by the Swell Maps and the Television Personalities. Is that how you know each other? Have you worked together before? Any chance he’ll be doing the Phoenicia gig with you?

I met Hamish Kilgour through his partner, Lisa Siegel, whom I met at a TVPs show in New York City, I recall. They have their own band based in Brooklyn called The Mad Scene. With me, Hamish is playing drums and Lisa the bass at a radio session for WFMU and shows at the Cake Shop, and they are planning to join me up in Phoenicia. The three of us played together at shows I did in New York in 1996, which was great fun. We are being joined again by guitar genius William Berger, formerly of local band Uncle Wiggly and an incarnation of the late Arthur Lee’s band, Love.

Have you played in many situations that blended visual art and music before? Are people any more open to these types of events than they were a few decades ago, or is it the other way around? The same?

I have performed at art galleries before one way and another, and prepared music for exhibitions. Most galleries are quiet places and have an awed hush to them, like a library, so it is nice to liven the place up a little, even if only for the opening night. It’s interesting, because some of the people who go to galleries would never be seen dead at a “rock show” and some music fans hate galleries, so it’s nice to try to bring these two sets of people together somehow. There have been opportunities for me to paint onstage while performing as well, and that was great fun, but it can end up that one activity distracts from the other. Usually, I would prefer to content myself with painting a backdrop beforehand. I would like to explore these ideas further, really, if anyone would allow me!

Jowe Head will play with JRBW (featuring Robert Burke Warren) at Claude’s in Phoenicia on April 18 at 8pm. An exhibition of Head’s art opens at the Arts Upstairs gallery in Phoenicia on April 19 at 6pm. (845) 688-7226; www.artsupstairs.com.