INTERVIEW: Antony Hegarty Of Antony & The Johnsons

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Posted 2/13/2009 12:42 PM by Faith-Ann Young

Tags: Epilepsy Is Dancing, Wachowski Brothers, The Crying Light, Antony And The Johnsons, interview

Interview with Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons, January 30th, 2009

Antony Hegarty of Antony & The Johnsons

Q: What is the song “Epilepsy Is Dancing” about and how did you choose it as a single?

A: Epilepsy Is Dancing is a narrative about a person who has a seizure. I haven't written a lot of narrative songs in my life. But this is a story about a person who has this wild experience: she has this seizure where everything gets really shiny and dazzley and she has this vision. When she comes to, she is really frightened and she has a sense of brokenness.

The song is about how she was sort of engulfed in what she perceived as chaos, but then [upon] stepping back, she starts to see the pattern and you start to see the choreography of it, which is why I set the song to a waltz.

It's funny because the record company didn't really like the name of the song. They thought it was too weird. But it had so many connections to the other songs and I felt strongly about it.

Always when I feel a little embarrassed about [a song], I always think "Oh, that's probably a good sign." That's the same way I felt about "For Today I Am A Boy." People at first were like “You can't say that!” and I thought, “Well, why not?” I am just curious, you know?

Q: People who were first exposed to your vocals on the Hercules [And Love Affair] stuff like “Blind” might be surprised by the tenor your solo work. But [like in the] “Epilepsy Is Dancing” video, you obviously have an appreciation and experience with dance, something that goes back to your repertoire at the old Lime Light club [in NYC].

{Download Hercules & Love Affair Club Mix HERE}

A: I love to go onto Youtube and look at videos of people dancing all around the world. There's something so primary about it. It's so deep in our bones you know?

And singing is the same way. I love that quote from Nina Simone, where she says, "I sing to know that I am alive.” Dance is the same - you are kind of crying out with your body- jumping out - almost in for a mysterious feeling [that] you couldn't call one thing. It's that feeling about being alive!

Dancing and singing merges that feeling with creativity. And it's so very beautiful. For me, a lot of joy in my life comes from that convergence.

Antony & The Johnsons performing Apollo Theater, with full Orchestra, October 16th, 2008

Q: The Wachowski brothers’ [the director/producer team that directed/produced the “Epilepsy Is Dancing” video as well as V For Vandetta and the Matrix films] themes often times coincide with yours of creating another world. I am curious what the oral narrative was between the three of you creating “Epilepsy is Dancing”?

{download track HERE; check out video HERE}

A: It was like a little art collective that was formed for the weekend between about 5 or 6 different people. It was really a collaboration - not just between myself and the Wachowskis but with a bunch of others like Tino Rodriguez and Virgo Paraisoare, who are these two painters in San Francisco that did all the styling including creating the masks. Basically the Wachowskis had an idea and created the whole story board, then Tino and Virgo styled the whole film, Sean Dorsey did all the choreography and Johanna (Constantine) – the essential character and I just went there and just dove in.There were a lot of decisions being made collectively and intuitively to be honest.

Q: On a larger scale, do you feel there’s any connection between your music and the Wachowski's brothers filmmaking? Are there are any shared common goals or dynamics or ideologies?

A: They asked me to use my song in V for Vendetta. When I saw the film, it had this conspiratorial feeling to it; but really what they were putting forward was hope and empowerment.

I just saw Speed Racer recently and it is just an incredible foreshadowing of the election. If you remember, even 7 months before the election, none of us would have dared to dream that Obama could have won. Even [for] some of the most liberal of us, it was hard to dream that that positive outcome could have been reached.

In a funny way, I feel that that Speed Racer was really on the frontier of the collective consciousness of America. It was really saying that, in the face of all these institutions and the most corrupted institutions and the most corrupted interests, righteousness could still prevail. The film really didn't get received so well in part because people were afraid to embrace the message and then just eight or nine months later, it was echoed [in the election of Obama]. American history responded to it in a funny way.

And when I went to see V for Vendetta, it scared me. [I thought,] "Can you make a film that goes against the government and that says justice should prevail?" That was in the beginning of Guantanamo and all the rest of it.

I think there's something really exciting about what the Wachowskis do and I've always really felt inspired by it.

Album Cover, The Crying Light, Antony & The Johnsons

Q: In your new album, The Crying Light, what are some album themes?

A: There's a big theme on the album, which is about my relationship with nature and the natural world - about sort of the reaching out to earth to try to forge a new sense of connectiveness to it. I've really come back to this primary idea that I am a child of the earth and the earth is like a mother figure.

The other theme on the album is about mourning and grieving and the way we've affected the ecology of our home [and] of our planet. There's also this idea of a child grieving for its mother. As a child of this earth, I am grieving for my mother right now.

I am sitting with a very beautiful world, and yet I’m still aware of the brokenness in me. And it's sitting with these two things at the same time – this idea about brokenness and a beautiful world.