This is a project spanning people, places … and years. Why did it take so long?
It is because a raki-infused chimaera is almost impossible to cook properly. And it is even harder to produce enigmatic music while in a raki-induced frenzy. (Composing it, on the other hand, was a breeze.) There were other problems: How do you build a tower-sized nargile if you intend it to house your eclectic music project and all of its players and fans? How much glass, piping and toubeki would it take?
No, it isn’t just about the music, although the Electric Fez makes just music. Fortunately, we found that doing one thing right involves doing everything else wrong. Anyone can get everything else right –with a lot of cash and know-how. That would be too quick and easy; and that one thing would be botched.
We took the hard way out.
But we took it together; though, not always together. Quite often, the road was travelled alone; and sometimes, that road was a sun-drenched beach. (If you are going to suffer, at least choose a pleasant venue to do it in.) But hey, this isn’t about doing; it’s about being. And, don’t you have to be creative in order to do well?
Maybe.
Though many were interested in the Project, few believed. To be fair, only the world scoffed and gave up on us. That’s not nearly as bad as paying the world any attention and quitting. We never gave up.
We grooved.
And, we looked to the hoopoe as an example: Even if you don’t arm it with a small grenade launcher it still remains a plucky little bird, rightly deserving the title of king. Aristophanes knew what he was talking about. Do we?
Probably not.
But this isn’t the place for a manifesto. This is the filler between the last page you visited and the stuff that you came here for: Fast cars and Goat cruises; bush planes and back bacon; a symposium for cynics; a plaid tan under a nuclear umbrella; a quest for the perfect nosebleed; sardonic musings and sinister headgear.
Yes, we are definitely talking about the music and we are very serious about it.
So, try on the Electric Fez
Plug it in
Somewhere, it’s bound to fit you.
“The whole is something beside the parts”
– Aristotle, Metaphysica, Book VIII 1045a