Diane Cluck: Lancaster, PA. It was suburban, with lots of cornfields
around it.
-K: Describe
your first encounters with a guitar.
DC: I
played electric guitar for awhile when I was twelve. I think I did it because
my friend wanted to play drums. I took lessons for a few months, had a little
Gorilla amp, and joined 'guitar club' during club period in seventh grade. There
were only two of us in the club. Lessons didn't go very well — guitar felt
painful and clunky to me, then.
-K: How do
you write a song?
DC: Any which way. Moving and not thinking seems to help
the process along.
-K: Do you
remember why and when you got into playing music?
DC: I just always liked it. I had a crush on my friend's
kind-of-big toy piano when I was four.
One of my favorite moments in childhood was when I got to be in the house
alone ( which was rare )— then I would sing until I was hoarse or until someone
came home.
-K: What do
you do when you're not playing music?
DC: I cook a lot. Really, a lot. I make everything
from scratch. I like learning new old-fashioned skills in the kitchen. Making
food is definitely a form of play, of care. I don't have any babies yet
so I try to feed my friends and family when I can. I spend time noticing plants
and making plant medicines. That started about ten years ago, when I got
tired of the dead-end, violent advice I was getting from doctors.
-K: What's
the best thing about playing for an audience?
DC: I like hearing what 'landed' for people, afterwards. I
like being quiet with people, together. I
know, I'm the one with my mouth open, but singing actually feels very quiet
inside.
-K: You're on
Voodoo Eros, right?
DC: Well, I released an
album with them. I think one is only 'on' there are current or future
commitments, which I don't have. Melissa & Bianca's label was for them at
the time, with all of us learning as we went.seems to be dormant.
just now.
just now.
-K: Do you
know Sierra and Bianca well?
DC: We are friends. We don't spend lots of time together,
but I like feeling them out there.
-K: Do you
feel like you're part of a family of musicians?
DC: Yes, I suppose so. But it feels more like a family of
people. The fact that my friends make music isn't something I notice so
much anymore. I used to be more inspired by external creations. I'm
more interested in people now, in what we're being, in what we're saying.
-K: What's
your life's soundtrack?
DC: I used to listen to recorded music a lot, but now, almost
never. I might be sensitive to how jagged digital media sounds and how
computers have been turned into stereos. But I also soaked in so much
music earlier in life that now I'm pretty much okay only hearing it live, on
occasion. I sat in a subway station today and listened to a man named
George play harp with amazing skill, honed for fifty years. I make a lot
of music in my mind that I enjoy.
-K: What is
your favorite sound?
DC: I like noticing when appliances, houses, etc. are powered
down. That's a wonderful sound. I think about how that sound used to
be everywhere all of the time. Maybe
it's not a 'favorite', but it would be close.
-K: Have you
ever played in a band or would you ever want to play in a band?
DC: I
played in a Pink Floyd / R.E.M. / Peter Murphy cover band in high school,
called Nosferatu. We played together at fire halls and local clubs for
about three years. By the end we were playing mostly original songs, which
were suggestively about vampires. We made an album in Ken Heitmueller's
basement called "Agape"; I wrote and sang one of the songs called
"Disciple". I was very, very nervous during recording; my teeth
were chattering; the effect was that I sounded like Natalie Merchant, whose
singing I liked a lot. I've been playing with a terrific drummer, Anders
Griffen, for the past couple of years. It's kind of casual. We are
both 'busy'. I'm not feeling wanting to play in a band, because I'm not
feeling wanting to focus on that kind of relationship just now. I think
you have to be there for band mates, over time, in order to create good
lovin'. I do get lonely traveling and singing by myself sometimes.
It's part of why I haven't toured so much. I like being at home.
-K: Last
crazy dream you had?
DC: I am having so many crazy dreams lately. I've been
sleeping in a new place. I don't feel like typing specifically about the
dreams, it seems wasteful. There have been some 'shame about sex' dreams,
as usual.
Also some 'hey, this is a dream! I can try things out! Which is unusual — I used to have lucid dreams like that as a kid, but not since then until just recently. Sometimes I'm trying to fly, but it's mostly floating / hovering, and it's not easy.
Also some 'hey, this is a dream! I can try things out! Which is unusual — I used to have lucid dreams like that as a kid, but not since then until just recently. Sometimes I'm trying to fly, but it's mostly floating / hovering, and it's not easy.
-K: Last
crazy song you heard?
DC: Dan from BunnyBrains makes good-crazy songs all the time — I
can just stare and open up and laugh at them. We played a show together
recently, and it was great. He played me some live recordings of
improvised songs which were also good-crazy.
-K: Your
living space is burning...what do you take with you?
DC: You're
asking what 'stuff' is important to me? I appreciate and enjoy my stuff,
but it's mostly replaceable. I like the notebooks, sewing machine,
guitar, books, stones, typewriter that I have. I have a couple of mixing
bowls and a wooden spoon I like that belonged to my father's mother. I
might try to save my passport, because it wouldn't be fun to replace, and,
until 2015, I still have the old-fashioned kind without the freaky RFID chip
inside.
-K: What are you working
on at the moment?
DC: Not rushing! Not allowing rushing energies to rush me.]
DC: Not rushing! Not allowing rushing energies to rush me.]
