Today we’d like to introduce you to Wendy Eisenberg.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was trained in Jazz music at two major conservatories, one of which totally cut off my artistic voice in favor of stylistic and technical rigor, and the other of which revived me and exploded my aesthetic framework. All moments spent apart from the study of this music were dedicated to playing in punk bands, reading a lot of modernist Russian literature, studying the Tarot, and experiencing some pretty wild perfumes all of these art forms encompassing different conceptions of time and timing.
After the breakup of the punk band Birthing Hips, which I started with some friends from my graduate program, I took the time to explore solo improvisation and composition, and specifically songwriting. That practice had always been happening, through jazz school and the punk and DIY scene, but never sustained me as it is now. It’s as much a part of my artistic self as improvisation and punk music, but it combines the aesthetics of the two in deep, beautiful ways that I never expected songs could.
Please tell us about your art.
I make songs informed by the traditions of improvised music, jazz music, metal and freak-folk. I always like to move fluidly between genres, and to show off the capabilities of the guitar. I make this music alone and with people, but recently more alone, and I do it so that I can challenge myself and others about what is possible for just one person with one voice and one guitar. I am an idealist on this instrument, and in the conceptual world of songs – I want each song to be its own world, and I want that world to be very interestingly organized, a little proportionately different, and to have its own logic.
Within each song, the lyrics are tied intimately to the guitar composition. I never include stray details in its orchestration (or, maybe I do), and I will never lie to you. The message, the inspiration of this work is to communicate very completely an image or a feeling that the listener has maybe been experienced, but maybe hasn’t yet been reflected back to them. I use specificity in my lyrics to communicate honestly my experience, but maybe the most important thing about my work is how much I recognize the space between what I say and what the listener might know. You can’t know an entire world, if you’re seeing it as separate from itself; but the world contains so much more, and knowing that otherness creates a different, kind of distant intimacy for a listener. I want my art to speak to that.
I also like playing guitar parts that are too hard for me, and then singing over it. Sometimes it can be that simple.
Choosing a creative or artistic path comes with many financial challenges. Any advice for those struggling to focus on their artwork due to financial concerns?
If you need to make it happen, you will. Art is about honoring the spirituality and value of time over the conquest of space and acquisition of things. You do not need that many things, anyway, and while getting day jobs is annoying and the arts are criminally underfunded in this country, working as little as possible in this broken-down system and honoring your artwork seems to be the cleaner ethical choice, from where I stand.
Also, keep a low overhead. I repeat: you don’t need that many things. You should always value your work, and expect to be paid fairly, and fight for that fair payment – I’m talking guarantees, raising prices of what you make so that it is properly compensated, etc. etc. etc. – but live simply and solely to honor the work you were set here to do.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
You can find my most of my song work on band camp: wendyeisenberg.bandcamp.com, though I will be releasing a few more albums this year on other outlets. You can know about this by scoping my tweets and posts about my work at twitter.com/eisenbergsounds; Facebook.com/eisenbergsounds, and my website, wendyeisenberg.com. Please buy merch from artists whose work touches you!
Contact Info:
- Website: wendyeisenberg.com
- Email: wjeisenb@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/wendyeyes
- Facebook: facebook.com/eisenbergsounds
- Twitter: twitter.com/eisenbergsounds
- Other: wendyeisenberg.bandcamp.com
Image Credit:
Charmaine Lee
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
