Ian McKinney [Interview # 142]

1)  First and foremost, your album “The Story of Incompetence” is available as a cassette.  Have you ever considered doing a cassette boxed set for all of your music?  As of right now, it’d be eight tapes, but if you threw in a new album and some bonus stuff you could easily get it up to 10 tapes.  I don’t think that many tapes has been released at one time since someone tried to learn a foreign language in 1987.

It would be a lot like learning a foreign language except I would teach you the language of LOVE.  In fact, if you listen to all of the music on my Bandcamp page in the right order you will become fluent in three different dialects, but only if you've paid me enough money.

If I'm going to release music on any physical medium, I definitely prefer the tactile experience of a cassette (a lot of it is recorded on a cassette 4-track in the first place), but for now it's much more cost-effective to keep everything online, at least until I have some label support (I don't).  It seems like a cop-out, but since I don't play out much it's easier for me, it's easier for people to find it, and I'd rather have a hundred people download an album for free than have maybe two people buy it on tape.  

2)  You have one of the most interesting covers of “Bohemian Rhapsody” I have ever heard.   What was it like making not only that song, but “NOLA13” as a whole?

If you have a mixtape or something of interesting Bohemian Rhapsody covers you can share, please send me a copy.  

NOLA13 has a special place in my heart, to be honest.  My sweet lady wife, a couple good friends, and I were in New Orleans for our honeymoon (my wife and I had just gotten married, not the other two), and ended up staying in this awesome old house with a bunch of toys and musical instruments laying around for people to play with.  Among them were a couple guitars, a piano, a melodica, and the crown jewel, this circuit bent Omnichord that ended up being the backbone of most of that EP.  Our wedding song was 'Hair of the Dog' by Nazareth, and we thought the best way to celebrate the occasion was to take that and a few other covers, and knock them all out as fast as we could 'learn' them.

Shout out to Stacy Webster of the Feralings in Iowa City for laying down the sweet guitar licks, and Leesaw for her awesome house.

3) Your albums like to have sequels (American Hunk and Ms. Pain), will Octodad ever get a sequel or does he just become 10Dad or 16Dad instead?

Manopus, maybe?  I'm generally not very good at names.  Whether or not there is a sequel to 'Octodad' is pretty much up to whether or not the fine fellas at Young Horses Inc. call me up and ask for more songs.  As of yet, they've only asked for the one (plus the bangin' club mix a little while later), but Octodad is such a multifaceted subject.  I think there's still a lot left to unpack.

4)  Your musical style seems to be one that, in my opinion, encompasses all that is thought of musically when you think of Austin.   Would you say that your music is a reflection of your living in Texas’ capitol?

Well, yes and no.  I definitely came to Austin because it seemed to be full of like-minded people, and I'm sure its musical sensibility has rubbed off on me in some subtle ways.  I've been in town for maybe five years at this point, and I've developed a greater appreciation for both old-time music (bluegrass, folk, delta blues, whatever) and psychedelic music, which seem to remain Austin staples.

That said, I come from the Midwest originally (Iowa), and if I may be self-reflective for a moment, I like to think my music is informed more by that nervous, uncomfortable, heartland feeling than a lot of the stuff I hear from around here.  Everyone in Texas always acts so self-assured.

6) If Fred Schneider ever left the B-52’s and you were asked to replace him, would you do it?

YES.  I should think that would go without saying.

7) Do you have any new music in the works?

I've been on a little hiatus lately, but a pal of mine and I have been bouncing tracks back and forth for an electronic concept album about Black RoboCop that we plan to put out sometime soon.  It's about Black RoboCop.  Also, I'm sitting on a pile of old songs I recorded on my portastudio over the past 6-7 years that I might compile for another American Hunk album, but it would be more fun to make something new.

8) Final thoughts, shout outs to Austin friends, etc…??

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my intermittent collaboration with Austin rapper and good samaritan P-Tek as his producer/beat-maker (under the name 'Egon', sometimes 'Krang').  He's pretty good; you should google him.  There are some other good rappers in Austin, too, but they know who they are.  Hey Gene & Zach & Francis!  Love you, Mom and Dad!