Category: Interviews

Channel 4 Teletext

20/10/04

In the late 80’s, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer formed The Posies, loosely an American equivalent of Teenage Fanclub with perfect acoustic melodies.

A decade later, the band split, only for both singers to get the ultimate accolade of being invited by Alex Chilton to join the reformed Big Star.

In between, Stringfellow became REMs regular keyboard player. He tells PS how he finds the time for all three bands, a solo album and fatherhood.

Ken Stringfellow says his attitude to his career is based on a speech by Nicolas Cage in Adaptation.

“When Cage’s character calls himself ‘Writer:fat, old, bald, pathetic’, that summed up exactly how I feel about what I do,” laughed Ken.

“OK, so I’ve got hair, I’m not too fat and 38’s not so old. The stupidity of what I do applies anyway. If I think ‘Musician: fat, old, bald, pathetic’ it stops me becoming a jerk.”

(read the rest at murmurs.com)

Ken Stringfellow just doesn’t get it. The singer-songwriter simply doesn’t have an accurate appreciation for some of his distinct talents. And while his modesty is charming, his perceptions bear little resemblance to reality. Stringfellow, a veteran of the critically acclaimed, cult-favorite power-pop band the Posies, and, these days, a solo artist (among other things), has a knack for writing near-perfect guitar- and piano-driven pop songs. He also, as it turns out, has the ability to create one of those songs, start to finish, within a matter of hours. Not always. But sometimes.

Full interview: Part one | Part two

Ken Stringfellow: Ambigious Pop

by Jennifer Kelly

Ken Stringfellow has one of the best resumes in pop music. As a founding member of the Posies, with Jon Auer, he resurrected the sweet-sour hooks and joyous energy of power pop. Then, in the early 1990s, he began a long-term partnership with the band that many people credit with inventing power pop, appearing on the live Big Star reunion album and touring with the band sporadically ever since. He’s also worked with REM on Reveal and their upcoming album, and has contributed to the work of a long list of lesser known artists, most recently Michael Cerveris, Jill Sobule and the Senegalese band WaFlash. And, perhaps best of all, he has written, performed and produced three excellent solo albums, each with the kind of eccentric, intelligent and many-sided songs whose impact deepens on repeat listens.

I talked to Ken recently as he was driving from one venue to another on his one-man tour in support of Soft Commands. Like his songs, our conversation was filled with sudden topical leaps, interesting sidelights and the occasional acerbic pause — but it was always interesting. Here’s what Ken had to say about AAA radio, self-pitying singer songwriters, Senegalese Mbalax music and his amazing new album.

Splendid: I love this album. It’s really beautiful — but what does Soft Commands mean?

Ken Stringfellow: It arose out of a kind of joke, really. I was trying to figure out what to name my record, and at some point, we were talking about … we were trying to put the artwork together for it. I was making an observation about my potential for being adult contemporary…which I’m really not, actually. I’ve discovered that I’m far too eccentric for that category.

(read more…)

The Posies’ Ken Stringfellow shares a full life with you via his music

by Adam McKibbin

Ken Stringfellow gets around. When he’s not touring and playing as a sometime-member of R.E.M. or Big Star or the Minus 5, and when he’s not resurrecting the Posies with fellow founding member Jon Auer, Stringfellow also has made time for a vibrant solo career. More recently, he’s also made time to become a husband, then a father. And, oh yes, in his spare time, he likes to travel.

Fittingly, the liner notes for Stringfellow’s new album, Soft Commands, include not just where each track was recorded, but where each track was written. We get visions, then, of the singer holed up in the Roosevelt Hotel here in Hollywood (“Known Diamond”) and inspired in Athens, in Senegal, and at his dual homes (Seattle and Paris).

“I wanted to give a little bit of glimpse as to how much movement there has been in my life,” Stringfellow says. “I think that gives me the ability to look at my life and other people’s lives from a number of different perspectives.”

“Being in Africa was really enlightening,” he continues. “We’re the same but different, different but the same. Especially among musicians, there’s so much common ground that the cultural differences between the States and Senegal didn’t really matter. They had a lot of the same reasons for writing and a lot of the same dreams about music and dreams about what they wanted to accomplish as people as I did.”

(Read more…)

“I write about everything,” he said. “And some things are better being projected through a reverse telescope. Every piece of fiction is an assembly of facts with the names blurred. Everyone has an agenda and a set of beliefs they want to reflect, and that’s OK. I don’t even try not to be subjective.”

And Stringfellow likes the clearly non-objective curves that his career has thrown him.

“My career happened without thinking. I’ve been playing in bands since I was a kid, and 20 years later, I’m still going,” he said. “The lack of control only teaches you how life really is. As a musician, you can’t help but live this way, but that’s OK. Other people are caught by surprise by change. Change is always shocking, but I feel that maybe I can accept it more.”

One thing that Stringfellow surely accepts is the appreciation his fans show.

“I haven’t a clue why they like me. It’s truly a mystery,” he said. “Sometimes I think, ‘OK, give me a sign if I’m doing the right job.’ But, if I make some people happy, and I’m not forcing it, then it’s all worth it.”

(read more)