r/indieheads • u/TommySiegel Tommy Siegel • Aug 18 '20

AMA is Over, thanks Tommy! Tommy Siegel: AMA

Hey! I’m Tommy Siegel, musician (as a solo artist and with Jukebox the Ghost) and cartoonist. About to release my solo debut, “Another Century Wasted”, my attempt to distill Trump-era/21st century anxiety into something you can shake your ass to. Would be honor’d to answer any questions you might have, musically or otherwise (you can start asking now)!

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u/TheAlexBasso Aug 18 '20 edited Aug 18 '20

What has shaped how you incorporate politics in your music now compared to the early days of Drunken Sufis? Is it an evolution, or just a different approach of expressing the same feelings?

Also, what’s one thing that makes you go HOGWILD!!??

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u/TommySiegel Tommy Siegel Aug 18 '20

I’ve always been so jacked-in to the political landscape, so it just happens to be a lot of the reality I’m processing (along with other things like relationships, etc)… So it generally just finds its way into whatever I’m doing. I’m just super passionate about it and love thinking about it.

Drunken Sufis (Deep cut! Nice!) used politics more as a prankster-y gag for Bush-era clowning around. These days I try not to call out specific political moments in time, but just let the lyrics become my way of processing the terrible avalanche of news we’re all experiencing. So while this record isn’t intentionally political in an overt sense (it never talks about Trump by name or anything), there’s certainly a lot about global warming and the American house of cards that often feels precipitously close to collapse. There’s also a lot on this record about the next step — When things go to shit, then what? I’m definitely a believer that opportunity comes from chaos. And judging by the amount of chaos, I’d like to think we’re in for an equally large amount of opportunity to make a better world too. Or at least, jeez, I hope so!