(English version).

Sabine Moig: Could you introduce yourself to the french public?

Marjorie Sturm: Hello. I'm an artist that has been living in San Francisco the last fifteen years, and I'm originally from New York.
I'm half of the Neshama Alma Band, a conceptual art project with composer/musician Ernesto Diaz-Infante. I'm what one could describe as a "non-specialized artist," as I like to play flute, write, watercolor, and make films. Also, as of the last few years, I co-run the label Pax Recordings that focuses on music from the margins of our culture and psyches. We've recently started releasing DVDs, mine included, too.

SM: Your latest project "Voices in the Wilderness: Dissenting Soundscapes and songs of G.W's America" was reviewed in our Autumn issue. Could you speak to us about your work for this CD? How and when is born this project?

M.Sturm: I'd like to take this moment to thank JazzoSphere for the support of the album. We have found the Europeans (not surprisingly) more open to it.

I edited and co-produced the album after the re-election of George W. Bush. It was honestly quite a dark moment for myself, and most everyone I know. People crying or speechless. Everyone we knew had put their faith in the fact that "truth would prevail," and some diluted form of democracy still exists. We saw that had slipped away. Ernesto tripped out, contacted a lot of musicians/friends, and asked them to contribute to a protest album. The response was quick, and much more than he expected, and we suddenly had a couple of hours of music.

Subsequently, Ernesto became quite overwhelmed with the project. He felt sensitive to the musicians' egos and feelings, wanted to include everyone, feared editing others' work, felt responsible, and then depressed. I was less sensitive because I didn't know everyone, their reputations, or lack of, very well. We contacted the musicians, explained the situation, and asked for their permission to edit their contributions. By and large most everyone had no problem, and I was frankly relieved when a musician felt their work was too precious to be edited down.

I spent a lot of time listening to these sounds, spoken words, and songs. Due to my film background, I searched for the best way of telling a soundscape narrative that would best document our emotional landscape and resistance to our political leadership.

I must say the "Voices" CD is one of the art works I am most proud to be a part of in my life. I have listened to it over and over, and am very impressed by the musicians on it and their raw, creative, lucid expression.

SM: You say the Europeans were more open to your project. How was it received in the USA? Did you have any contest and finally what do you think about the impact of the CD?

M. Sturm: The "Voices" CD was received fairly well in the US compared with how experimental or avant-garde work does generally. But it wasn't embraced by and large as much as I had hoped. It is unclear to me as to why. I am not sure if it is an issue of "guilt by association" or just that people who are typically complacent don't like to be reminded of that. The "Voices" CD was the least well-received in our home city of San Francisco. The strange reality was that we got zero local press support, even with the majority of the musicians from this area. There is a college radio station three blocks from my house who lent us only marginal support. Thankfully, radio stations elsewhere like WFMU in New York, invited us in . So the response in the U.S. has been a bit enigmatic, particulary since the U.S's anti-war movement is the strongest in the Bay Area.

Honestly, I am not quite sure of the impact of the CD. It sold better than any other CD on Pax, and got a solid number of reviews that were all positive (with the exception of The Wire). So on that level, as I wrote above, it did well and that is affirming. But the war continues on, and the reality of the torture and death continues . . . so unfortunately, it is hard for me to get too excited. I have fantasies of blasting the CD everywhere. In cafes, movie theaters, school hallways. Particularly, the track by the Cornelius Cardew Choir with the chorus, "Now is the time to bring down the government!" But I don't do that. I burn copies on my computer, give them to people I know, and hope they have the concentration span to really listen and get something out of it. And then I hope they will burn it, and pass it on.

SM: What do you think about the freedom of creation in the USA?

M.Sturm: I've thought a bit about this question, and what you mean by "freedom of creation." My first impulse was to think about Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and how profiteering and commodification effects the art we do. That whole brainwave goes down quite a theoretical course. So I will answer with how the question translates to me on a personal level. When I was twenty-one, I had my first extended stay outside of the USA in Mexico. One evening I was in a room with all Mexicans, the only gringa (American), and they passed a guitar around the room in a circle. I was the only one who couldn't play it, and had no relationship to the instrument at all. For me, it was a major revelation about my culture. Coming from New York and being twenty-one, it was considered "too late" for me to learn an instrument. That was a skill that I should have started acquiring at the age of five, followed by music summer camps, and later Juilliard special training in order to be "taken seriously" (i.e. compete) in the larger society. I never saw people in my immediate environment playing instruments and enjoying themselves for pleasure like this room of Mexicans were doing. And I realized that I wanted to play music. For myself. For fun. For my overall health and spirit. Up to that point I had mystified musicians and did the typical feminine thing of dating them. So while in Mexico, I went to a local music school and said, "I don't speak much Spanish, and I don't have much money, but I'd like to learn the guitar." They set me up with a teacher who met with me three times a week for free. The inverse of this (a Mexican going to a music school in the States who doesn't speak English) and gaining access to a music school education doesn't seems plausible.

I hope I am making sense because what you asked is really quite a big question. The reality of art making in the United States is pathetic and pitiful. Manipulation, marketing, press, and mind games, "let's package it as 'Wharhol' and then anything goes . . . " The "bottom line" is what proves you as a worthy artist. This makes for an absolute trash culture that censors a lot of meaningful work because it can't compete with base instincts that are marketable. This is obvious to most people I know, yet it permeates the culture everywhere. The immediate reaction to this for many artists is the whole "bedroom artist" polemic. This is extremely common in San Francisco, and less so in New York. Making art for oneself and nobody else. Working a day job. And in many ways, it is a decent strategy although it can lead to exhaustion as well. I have been in this category with my music and art for sure. After my epiphany about wanting to play music, I took weekly flute lessons from two incredible musicians, Eva Festa (now Chava Saban) and later AnneLise Zamula. After fifteen years of practicing in my living room, never feeling good enough for anyone else's ears, I finally started playing and recording experimental music with Ernesto Diaz-Infante, my boyfriend, in a more public way.

Filmmaking is incredibly time consuming, tedious, and potentially expensive that it is hard to maintain the idealism of the "bedroom artist." And with every contract signed with lawyers, the art and expression is at risk of being jeopardized. Yet, I think it is important to persevere against the obstacles, because they are not yours and yours alone. And otherwise, the profiteers truly win and control that much more of the general consciousness.

SM: In Europe (more particularly in France), we better know the work of the filmmaker Michael Moore. What do you think about his action? and do you think he can contribute to change the things in the USA and open people to the realities of the government action?

M. Sturm: I admire Michael Moore a lot. He is one of my early inspirations as a filmmaker. When I saw "Roger and Me" about fifteen years ago in college, I never had seen anything like it. The blatant, no masks, political intentionality with humor and relaxed, raw cinematography. It felt like something I could possibly do, as opposed to Hollywood films that seemed larger-than-life and generally bored me. I am continually impressed by Michael Moore on a lot of levels. While undoubtedly he has his flaws like anybody, he is on fire as a human inspiration. I have to tip my hat to any "straight-while-male" in the United States that has taken the time to write about what moronic dumb-fucks the "straight-white-male" population is that controls our country. People are tired of hearing women and black's anger. It has a lot of intellectual potency when a white man does some of the ranting. He is taking on the weight and responsibility. When Hurricane Katrina occurred, and the whole world got to witness the legacy of American slavery on television, Michael Moore's response was once again admirable and clear in its contesting of the U.S. government's response. Michael Moore is able to navigate the corporate system because his work is communicative and populist, so once again it is profitable. Yet, he overall feels like a fluke in the system.

I hope Michael Moore can help change things in the United States. He definitely has help galvanize a movement of resistance to the Bush Administration. Unfortunately, I fear that it won't be until more Americans FEEL this war, FEEL this government's harm, that we will see real change. I hate to be cynical, or perhaps I am trying to be realistic, but compassion is a quality that a lot of people don't have or are just developing. So for people to care about Iraqi mothers, fathers, and their children is completely abstract to their daily lives. During the Vietnam War, there was a draft. So the middle-class was forced to think about the issues because it effected them directly. I think Hurricane Katrina woke a lot of people up because it was on American land. It was harder to ignore, and impossible not to witness and conclude that the U.S. government was nowhere to be found when it was needed to do even simple things like drop water from helicopters. The average viewer doesn't have to be Einstein to then wonder, "I wonder how the hell they're handling those choppers out in Iraq" when no one is watching.

So, Michael Moore is definitely helping because he is a lucid, powerful voice speaking out. But the hegemonic forces of the Bush administration are so strong, we need a lot more voices speaking out, doing what they can, from all walks of life. And most of all not becoming dependent on the Michael Moores of the world speaking for them. I honestly believe that it is in every individual's power to do something to show resistance. Big actions. Small actions. Creative or mundane. Thought and intention are contagious. With that is my only hope that we see truth and change in the United States. Sooner rather than later.

SM: I recently listen to the "Mark Whitecage’s CD "BushWacked – a spoken opera" published on Acoustics records. Do you know this work and do you think there are more and more musicians and artists engaged in the USA to contest the government action?

M. Sturm: Ernesto has played music with him, but I didn't know his work. So I found it and listened to it briefly. I very much like what I heard!

With my whole heart I wish I could respond that there were more and more musicians and artists engaged in the USA to contest the government action. But from my experience here, I don't think that is the case. The resistance movement in the U.S. can become quite mariginalized to those people who identify as "activists," and then the greater population is almost on holiday from the war except for snippets of conversation and extreme news events like "a thousand people on a bridge dying at once." Or tallying up the gasoline prices. Or that's what it seems like to me. I think I am safe to say that in the greater American culture it is "business as usual." The exception to this would be the population of people that are FEELING the war through the tragedy, death, or impairment of their families and friends. Generally, this is lower working class Latinos and Blacks. I am acquainted with a lot of artists in San Francisco, and while I think everyone agrees the war is wrong, it doesn't play a factor in their day to day life. Myself included, and that's what I couldn't live with. I needed to make the "Voices" CD because it was what I could do. I couldn't live with myself "buying another pairs of shoes" while whole communities in Iraq are being devastated. I have always been this way. As a child, even if the bully wasn't messing with me and was picking on somebody else, I didn't like it.

American culture is not well. Depression, workaholism, drug addiction, careerism, and the rest can take the buzz out of a lot of parties. Artists aren't immune to these problems, and unfortunately so many are struggling to survive in a culture that doesn't support them at all. They begin to feel like they have to "give everything to their art." If over the years there isn't any emotional or monetary payback, which is always the risk if you aren't working from an internal place, inevitably there will come some suicidal waverings (I know this sounds dramatic, but I have seen it to be true). Needless to say, this isn't the spot that inspired political art usually comes from, not to say that it couldn't . . .

SM: Let’s speak about your project "Mirrors on the Crisis of Moment". How is born this project? How did you compose the music?

M.Sturm: The project was born from an idea I had to use the Tarot cards for advice on present-day world problems after Sound/visual artist John Kannenberg asked Ernesto to compose a piece for his Stasisfield netlabel. (Typically, the Tarot is used as psychological or divinatory system to help people with their personal lives.) I began studying the Tarot at the same time I began studying music. At University I majored in psychology and then naturally drifted into studying comparative religion, or more particularly, comparative mysticism. The Tarot spoke to me early-on because instead of seeking spiritual guidance from a guru, rabbi, priest, head monk, or even a therapist, it forces you to seek it within yourself. Which can be challenging because the culture often asks us to negate our intuition because our inner world or desires aren't compatible with it.

Anyways . . . Ernesto had been doing a lot of mantra strumming on acoustic steelstring guitar for some time, and had taken to pulling a Tarot card right before practicing. Whatever card was drawn would be his visualization while playing. So for this project, we discussed what we thought the "crisises of the moment" were, and narrowed it down to ten of the most over-arching ones. After naming a crisis (like Patriarchy, War, "Repression of the Unseen Psychic Fields", George Bush), we pulled a card and then reflected on the situation with the meaning. Soon after, Ernesto improvised on the guitar to the mood/ insight that was mirrored to us. I recorded it. Later, we decided to speed up and slow down some of the tracks.

Ernesto has always been adamant that I am credited properly for my contributions to whatever we do. At first I thought he was making too much of it, but I see that he is right. It's easy for me to say, "Oh, I don't care," but it's important to not shirk away. Women throughout history have done that, not gotten credit for their contributions, and I see that behavior in myself. I originally thought this piece should be entirely credited to him because he was the one playing the guitar.

SM: This recording speaks about Ecology problems. Do you think the War is for US government a way not to speak about other problems as social problems, ecology, instruction... ?

M. Sturm: The War is most definitely a way to not speak about domestic problems. It is incredible that we still don't have healthcare. So many Americans stay in meaningless crummy jobs for that reason. As well, there is a push towards the privatization of education by the simple not funding of it. California, the third richest economy in the world, has one of the worst public education systems in the country. I come from New York which has one of the best, so it is shocking for me here. Anyone who has any money tries to send their kids to private schools, which is understandable, but complicates the problem. The real issue is that we spend 52% of our tax dollars on the military. Approximately 350 billion a year. Next is the Soviet Union at 50 Billion. The rest of the world combined is less than another 50 Billion. And the people in the U.S. don't have healthcare? Or paper and books in the Oakland, California school system? It is maddening.

The real DISTRACTION to all of this, the war included, is our "entertainment industrial complex." Hypnotizing people with more cleavage, balls dribbling, celebrity weddings, and whatever else. This way the "military industrial complex" can do whatever the hell it wants because everyone is checked out. All of these corporate interests dancing themselves to the bank together. Very sick. Very scary. It took something like 911 to finally shake people up and educate them a little. Most Americans have no idea what we did to the Nicaraguan people for example. And that's how this war in Iraq continues . . Why should sports have its own section of the newspaper or take up a quarter of the television news hour? Are those games really that important? And celebrities' lives?! Why should we care about them? I'm all for escaping however you want to do it now and again, but this is corporate brainwashing and money interests at work.

SM: What are your projects (movie, music...) for 2006?

M. Sturm: Like a lot of artists, I am juggling projects in various stages. I'm not sure what will make it to completion in 2006.

I've been working on an experimental music documentary tentatively title, "The Last Remains of What is Not Corporately Controlled." I've followed Ernesto to some festivals and a lot of people were cool enough to let me document them. So I'd like to do a bit more filming and edit that up.

I recently finished a draft of my first feature script. It still is a long ways off as I haven't managed to find the time to get it into my computer from my journal. I was editing a video diary tentatively called "Baby Land" about my transition (identity-change) in becoming a mother, when the JT Leroy hoax was revealed. So I've put my video diary aside for the moment in order to resume working on the JT Leroy documentary that I began in 2002. So it is pretty funny to go from working on something that has almost no market value (a film about motherhood!) to a project of such high public interest. The JT Leroy hoax is psychologically complex and fascinating, but nothing that I would have followed too closely if I hadn't fallen into it serendipitously. It is really going to be a challenge and I am quite excited about it.

Lastly, but not least, Ernesto and I hope to release a Neshama Alma Band CD some time this year.("Neshama" means soul in Hebrew, and "Alma" means soul in Spanish.) It is a conceptual album that will most likely include mantra strumming, flute, lyrics, and potentially video. For me, playing the flute is such a high and a release compared to the tedium and headiness of making films. There's a real rush from the simplicity and the "in-the-moment-timelessness" of blowing into an instrument and hearing sounds. So soothing! The perfect antidote to the computer crashing again or worrying about some deadline.