Amidst the flurry of too-hot-to-handle news, prose, and otherwise highly informative text sitting in between the 60 pages of today’s issue of Just Out, you’ll find (on page 49, and here) a closer look at Portland DIY, experimental-folk troubadour Holcombe Waller.

Waller’s stunning online contenders for his upcoming album – tentatively titled Into the Dark Unknown – reveal an artist unafraid to reveal the personal springs from which his songs bubble out.

If you haven’t already, you still have until this Sunday, April 4th, to pledge money toward the final production costs for Waller’s album through his Kickstarter Web site. The initial $12,000 goal has been surpassed, but additional funds pledged will go toward all sorts of other mad genius minutiae.

If the article doesn’t satiate your thirst for all things (well, some things) Holcombe, check out the full interview with Just Out after the jump!

Your album-in-progress will be your first “release” since 2004’s Troubled Times. What steered you into focusing more on performance art in the years since that release?

I followed my interests.  Then, I integrated them and tried to define my own artistic space.  A lot of people suffer when trying to shoe-horn themselves into silly constructs, and I felt stifled and uninspired imagining myself as a touring musician filling venues with beer-swilling patrons, schmoozing with industry morons drunk at festivals, or prostrating myself at the smelly feet of music-tastemakers.  I enjoy dance, theater, and I studied video art in college, so I just followed my interests.  The world of performing art seemed a more receptive fit for my stuff than a SXSW kegger, you know?

In what ways do you feel like revealing contender tracks before your new album is released mirrors the artistic liberties and freedom of your performance art? Sort of creating without a net…

Releasing tracks iteratively feels in line with a modern, Facebook/Twitter-shaped multi-threaded experience of reality.  We’re all tracking so many unfolding stories, whether it’s a friend’s tweet feed or some episodic TV show.  If you’re going to get people to commit to a whole album’s vision, you’re gonna have to earn that time and interest.  What better way than to put pieces out one at a time?  In terms of production costs, one song or one video is an easier bite to chew.  Let the release of each song or video fuel more support towards the collective project.  What’s more, it feels organic to me, seasonal.  It lets listeners participate in the real-time experience of the artist, and to share in the season with the artist.  I really think it’s the future of the album.  I’m even creating a Web service that’ll streamline the experience for myself and other artists.  

Even in the album contender tracks you’ve uploaded, there’s a marked difference in the composition of the new songs from the older. Not necessarily more accessible, but at least slightly less experimental in their sparseness. Do you feel like the way you’ve assembled the release of the new album, and the request for participation and funds from fans, changed your approach to the song writing?

The answer is two-fold:  I DO think serialized release can and will affect artistic style and possibility, but only in the same way that commercial reality has always affected artistic reality.  Indeed, the artistic notion of “album” owes its existence to the commercial reality of particular recording mediums, like vinyl, tapes or CDs.  But going forward, we don’t necessarily have “B sides,” or maximum recording lengths.  Maybe in the future, songs will be 22 seconds long.  I’d love to make that record:  22-second love songs, with videos.  Twice a week.  I think for my boyfriend’s 26th birthday, I should write him 26 Twitter-able 26-second love songs.  Say that three times fast.

The songs in my current project have been around for a while, so the shift you’re describing is more indicative of my recent focus on acoustic live performance work than anything else.  I’ve wanted my music and my performances to capture an ephemeral live energy that tends to be diminished by punches, cuts, overdubs and effects.  I’m going for “a magical live vibe.”  So I work less with production and layers and more with efficient arrangement and performance to achieve a desired affect – the album really is a folk-classical record, in a lot of ways.  I can already tell you, though:  iterative song-by-song release WILL affect my approach to writing.  And I’m excited about it.

Explain the importance or necessity of the way your fan-funded album is taking shape with regard to you, first, then perhaps toward the music “business” at large.

Well, with regard to me, I’ll be quite honest:  Through 2004, I had a full-time day job funding my records.  After that, I became a full-time artist who carves out a living with live performances, scoring work, collaborations, residencies, teaching, and many other odd jobs.  The fan-fund helps me plan and execute a record release that requires advanced capitol.  This includes things like funding production costs, physical pressing and printing costs, video costs, marketing costs.  It’s hard, as an independent artist without a day job, to shore up this budget.

Looking at the business at large, labels are folding and penniless.  It’s increasingly hard for them to even come up with $12K to fund a record, and generally artists are left to their own devices to create the work, which is then picked up later by the label.  That might even happen with me, I’m not averse to the idea.

I hate the term “music business” (who says “art business?”), but whatever that is, it’s still evolving.  I have partnered with a friend to create a new web service, which combines the best of real time serial-released media with an “artist backer” mentality – a way to try to earn support for ongoing new work that could pair with occasional project-specific campaigns.  I do believe that people expect music and media to be free.  But I also believe there is a way artists can shape the experience around the media to be valuable to listeners and to give people clear and fun “pay points” where they can support the artists directly, reciprocate the value of the experience they are being offered, and get something extra special in return.

Does how many downloads a particular song gets prior to the album’s release do much to determine what makes it to the album?

Not really, in my case.  I kind of know before I put a song up whether it’s a hit or a sleeper.  Still, sleepers are often growers – what kind of world would we live in if every song was a single.  I guess it’d be like a Janet Jackson album.  Hmm, not so bad I guess.  But I think there’s a place for underdog songs.  After all, everyone on earth is so unique.  You shouldn’t democratize art – you’ll under serve the minority.  It’d be the same mentality that lets voters overturn constitutional rights by 51 percent.  Screw that!

The juxtaposition of recording your album in Alaska, in relative isolation, and releasing the tracks via the wide-open world of the Web is interesting. Does that or did that kind of contrast play a part in your song writing?

You misread something.  I was only in Alaska a couple weeks ago, for one week.  Was there for a theater residency.  But your idea sounds lovely!    I am aspiring to owning some land in Oregon, one day, and running a highly wired artistic residency that interfaces with my boyfriend’s permaculture community and farm.  I do think a lot can be done through thoughtful, wired interchange, and it can be done from remote places.  I also think the way the web levels cost, distance and time affords tremendous creative potential.  Again, I’m not sure you’re seeing a lot of that in the songs I’m currently releasing, but I hope you’ll be seeing it as I move forward.

You have more pledges in the $35 or more range than in the rest. What does that tell you about the relationship between your music and those who are willing to help its release along, considering there are lesser pledges people can choose?

Well, there are actually now more backers below 35 than above, but I understand your general question.

I thought carefully about the “Winter Songs” project, about Kickstarter, and about the notion of incentivizing support while also giving music away freely.  I decided that an economy of abundance, not scarcity, was what I wanted to create:  I don’t want to try to restrict access to my work – indeed, what would be the point?  Digital rights management tried to forge an economy of scarcity in the digital realm.  These schemes all failed.  I think in our guts we know that if there is no scarcity, imposing false scarcity is simply wicked.  Perhaps it’s the spirit thread of our oppressed ancestry grave-turning in our souls.

On the flip side, everyone knows that fair is fair.  For a smaller artist such as myself who has no mass following, the relative “true cost” of an mp3 in your hands is actually WAY higher than a dollar.  The sentiment of “true costs” – such as attributing a value to the environmental impact on a product’s life cycle and incorporating this into the cost of the product – is becoming mainstream (I hope it is, anyway).  Many people say to me, “how can I best support your work?  Where should I buy the CD?”  So, I think this indicates that “true cost” is on people’s minds with regard to music.  I spend a lot of money making this music, making my work, touring it, distributing it, promoting it – and people understand that, even while they generally expect to access music freely.

I researched other campaigns and noticed $30-50 was where most people gave.  I decided that I would make this “sweet spot” the biggest musical reward in order to underscore this phenomenon – so I gave my whole music collection as a download to backers at $35.  Above $35, I moved into fun ephemera and rewards that would incentivize folks who have the means to pull more weight “for the team” and who will pay larger sums for something special and rare.  My friend keystone said he preferred giving $50 towards the creation of a new album than paying $15 for the finished thing.  I think this is the “true cost” notion coming out.  People understand the realities of working artists and value being directly involved, and knowing where their money is going.  All of these factors contribute to a “more satisfying” monetary offering than shelving out $15 for some plastic.

Politically and spiritually, I do believe that those with means are indebted to those without.  We are all humans, equal in the eyes of whatever Great Spirit you ascribe to.  It is a sad irony that the most wealthy Americans align with the most Christian-connected political party.  How can this be?  Jesus was not hoarding money for power.  I think those of us fortunate or tenacious enough to get rich – well, we owe it to each other to share that good fortune.  Even if some people are born lazy, ambition is still a blessing, and everyone deserves the riches of this world.  So let those blessed with ambition share the wealth.  After costs of rewards, someone giving me $500 is essentially sponsoring my music for hundreds of people.  It may not make sense when we think about “the free market,” but it makes sense in my heart.

Is this album going to be released through your imprint Napoleon Records?

I kind of like the name Napoleon Records.  Using my label imprint named after a tyrannical French dictator is completely at odds with everything I’m writing here.  But I have this thing for fleurs de lys, and truly my label name references an Ani DiFranco lyric – “everyone is a fucking Napoleon.”  And Ani DiFranco is a powerful proponent of DIY.  She is the DIY mothership.

Is there any additional information you’d like to divulge to readers about your upcoming album? Touring? Videos, etc.?

Well, I’m really shifting my focus to music videos.  I am collaborating with some amazing artists to create an animated video for “Into the Dark Unknown (The Marriage Song)” that I hope will be very beautiful and very effective in underscoring the humanity and love behind our movement for GLBTQ marriage equality.  I am working with director Cullen Hoback to create a video for “Risk of Change” that is a combination of modern dance and nostalgic homage to the Godard film Band of Outsiders.  I hope to tour in the fall around an official public release date for this record, and I’m asking around trying to find a booking agent who doesn’t have his/her head up his/her ass.  That’s a tall order, apparently.  

On the album front, local artist Ross Christy is developing some gorgeous and poetic imagery for the artwork.  I’m hoping to extend the artwork in creative was to the digital realm.  We’ll see how it works out.