THE FINGERTIPS Q&A Mike Reisenauer (Pale Young Gentlemen) November 2008

The Fingertips Q&A was launched in August with the express intent of allowing actual, working musicians the chance to talk about the state of the music industry in the digital age. I guess I've been growing tired of reading "future of music" stories online that seem full of either one music writer's opinion or the opinions of pundits and technology experts and record company officials and just about everyone except, in fact, work-a-day musicians who are out there seeking a living wage in the middle of the indie jungle. The Fingertips Q&A is not intended as a comprehensive discussion. Each time I ask five simple questions. This month's subject, Mike Reisenauer, is refreshingly pithy (his Q&A fits on one page), but also full of personality and insight. Reisenauer is the singer and pianist for the Madison, Wis.-based ensemble Pale Young Gentlemen, who were last featured in Fingertips in September. The band's new album, Black Forest (tra la la), was released in October on the Madison label Science of Sound. Q: From your perspective as a musician, what's one good thing about digital downloads that people don't seem to be talking about? And what's one bad thing? A: A musician, or maybe any artist, wants their work to be heard or viewed in its original format. It's a tremendous jump going from hearing your music play back in the studio to hearing an MP3 of your song on a laptop computer. Maybe the musical equivalent of viewing a huge mural for the first time as a thumbnail photo or something. So poor quality is the biggest offender. At the same time, it's a great way to get your music out there. Mostly, I just think there are too many of the damn things. Q: What would you like your iPod to do that it doesn't do? A: Mostly I wish the batteries would last longer or at least that a voice that would tell you when you had one hour left or something. I don't listen to music that often, so when I actually make it a point to do so and there isn't any power in the thing, it's frustrating. Q: How has your life as a musician been affected--or not--by the existence of music blogs? A: It's interesting to see how such a wide range of people interpret or internalize your album, your songs. They may not always know a lot about music, but a non-musical opinion can be more insightful sometimes. It also puts the musician in a possibly compromising situation--what do you do with all of these responses, all this information? Q: What are your thoughts about the album as a musical entity-- is it dying? Or are reports of its death greatly exaggerated, as the old phrase goes? A: I don't think it's dying at all--it's just that not everybody has to do it anymore. Which I think is good. Maybe not everybody is good at writing "an album." Or even needs to do so to make some money. I think there will always be musicians that want to write more than just songs and people willing to listen to entire albums. Q: A lot has been made of the assertion that in the future, people won't buy music, and artists will make a living only via performance. What are your feelings about that idea? A: Well, I don't feel too strongly about this. We're all just going to do what we do until something stabilizes, some better than others. There certainly has been a shift in revenue streams, but the idea that people won't pay for recordings at all anymore seems pretty preposterous to me. Also available: the Fingertips Q&A with Brad Armstrong (13ghosts) (October 2008) the Fingertips Q&A with Dirk Darmstaedter (September 2008) the Fingertips Q&A with Jonatha Brooke (August 2008) © copyright 2008 Fingertip Productions