If you have ever assumed that touring and being in a band that gets reviewed on blogs and music websites is a glamorous life, then look no further than artist Chloe Lum’s wonderfully written, yet poignant essay, “On the End of an Era,” for a strong dose of reality. Lum has performed in the self-described “Abstract Rock” (or “Formalist/Unknown Wave”, also self-described) band AIDS Wolf for the past nine years. Due to a complex variety of factors described in the piece, the Canadian group has decided to perform its last-ever show this May. The reasons for breaking up the band range from a changing cultural climate to critical indifference, or worse. Also, Lum is also a cofounder of the Seripop art entity, along with partner and fellow band member, Yannick Desranleau. And while the duo’s prints are quite well-known, Seripop and AIDS Wolf always made it a point to be distinguished as two separate projects. Now Lum says she’s “going back to school to finish a BFA.”
In the essay, Lum voices many of the frustrations I’ve heard or witnessed firsthand from those involved in the music industry, both above- and underground:
I’m not sure yet if this is the end of me making music or just the beginning of a long break, but if it’s the latter, I hope I can come back to it with ideas on how to create a new context for underground experimental music. A context that doesn’t revolve around youth culture or selling drinks (or anything else for that matter) or “entertainment,” but one similar [to] that of performance art or that of musique actuelle.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Chloe a few years ago for another website, and it was one of my favorites. She handled every curious question patiently. One passage still stands out, and I remember it as being particularly inspiring, since Lum seemed to be invigorated by her opposition:
Christopher Mosley: You also mention willfully bumming the crowd out and bringing “failure and misery with you in the wider world.” How important are these negative concepts to your overall philosophy and aesthetic? I often wonder about concepts like these and am fascinated by them. Do you in any way feel that negative energy can often be applied to life in positive ways that are simply misunderstood?
Chloe Lum: I do think that negative energy can be applied in positive ways. I actually see our outlook as very positive. It’s more about realizing your limitations and then celebrating them. You know?
When we started this band, we didn’t expect that people were going to love it, and we didn’t expect that we were going to be wonderfully popular or anything. But we also didn’t expect to be a bone of contention. We actually thought, if anything, we would just be ignored; we would do our thing, play in people’s basements, the five people who liked us would come out, and no one else would care. Um, that didn’t happen. It seemed like there were always a lot of people who hassled us, and had a lot of loud opinions about not liking us. And we kind of take that and laugh with it, because, what else are you going to do? Are you going to stop playing music? Are you going to change what you’re doing? Basically our whole idea of negativity and bumming people out, it’s about turning it on its head and being like, “Okay, yeah. Some people don’t like what we do, and maybe what we do is never going to be popular, but this is what f*cking lives inside of us that needs to come out and this is what we need to do and we’re just going to keep doing it no matter what.” It’s basically like us against the world, we’re like a gang. It’s celebrating that we’re not going to be deterred from what we’re trying to achieve aesthetically, and we are not going to be driven off-course by anybody else’s feedback or opinions.
Take a second to read the essay in its honest entirety. It’s a refreshingly sincere and realistic take on spending one’s best years on a life in music.
Pictured: Lum in live performance with AIDS Wolf at SXSW 2009. Photo by Layla Blackshear.
