Slash Coleman

Q	What led you to the type of work you do today?
A	Phase 1: My grandfather was a dancer at the Moulin Rouge and my father is still a prolific sculptor and painter. I grew up in my father's various studios in the early seventies in a very unusual environment. I learned early that anything you can think up in your mind can be created in the world. Phase 2: I was a very eccentric, though introverted kid, who spent all his free time involved in art - piano, writing, and drawing - and also sports - surfing, wrestling, and gymnastics. I think these choices in kinesthetic, solitary sports directly reflect in my choices as an artist and solo performer. Phase 3: In college, I studied jazz piano and creative writing equally. By the time I was 22 I had written two novels and was touring with a jazz ensemble. I got kicked out of the grad school writing program after two semesters and ended up studying with a well know jazz pianist. Eventually my stage antics as a musician took over and the ensemble was like, "Uh, We think it's time for you to get your own show."
Q	Who is your greatest professional inspiration and why?
A	After Eminem won the Oscar for the soundtrack to Eight Mile I bought it, listened to it and was surprised that people in the world would actually pay to hear an openly angry, slightly cynical artist put words to music about what his typical day was like. The entire album was like a recorded therapy session set to a drum machine. I actually became addicted to the album without knowing why. And then, one day the reason hit me. The only thing I can bring to the table as an artist is my authentic and truthful voice which is reflected in the choices I make in my daily life. Eminem's idea that others would be interested in hearing about my own struggles without masking my experiences with fancy words or abstract concepts blossomed in me and simplified the idea of art-making for me. This is sort of the fringe creed, isn't it?
Q	How do you manage wearing different 'hats' as a self-producing artist? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?
A	Things work out the best for me when I am totally consumed in the artistic process and this process has nothing to do with the business side of things. When I'm consumed, doors open, connections happen, and a very magical world unfolds. As I go deeper into this type of creative process, my work leads me to the answers I seek and any ambiguity is solved. However, this world is also quite frightening for me. A world where everything is left to chance, a world where everything feels completely ungrounded, a world that can, and does, attract drama is more than a little unsettling. This is an example of my strength being my greatest weakness. AND so, I've never allowed myself to exist in this process for long periods of time. Perhaps I fear I would lose myself? What do I do instead? Well, one of the ways I feel most grounded is by the business side of things: writing e-mails to venues, preparing my press kits, researching publishers, contacting the media, making sales calls, working on my website. As Andy Warhol said, "After art comes the business of art." I actually spend about 80% of my time doing this business stuff and only about 20% of my time creating in the creative world. And so my biggest strength is being self aware and my biggest weakness is being self aware. Part of me wants to create more and more of me won't allow it.
Q	As a self-producing artist, what qualities make for a good show idea in your opinion, and what is typically the first step in realizing your artistic vision?
A	I work in most mediums as an artist so at this point in my career I'm usually able to recognize early on which ideas are meant for the stage, which ones work better in a solo show or an ensemble piece or which ones work better as a painting, a poem, a song, a novel, a script, a short story or a piece of sculpture, etc. The ideas speak to me very differently in terms of vision. If an idea occurs to me and it keeps re-occurring and it scares me a little bit and it also incites a good feeling inside of me, I'll pursue it. Then, well ... as a child raised on McDonalds Happy Meals, I always like to figure out the packaging for my ideas first before deciding what I want to put inside of them. The packaging always excites me the most. In other words, how am I going to sell this idea to the world?
Q	What makes your work unique?
A	Me and the surreal world I was raised in and my attempt to categorize my confusion of it all. For instance, my parents only drove motorcycles until I was six. My twin sisters spoke a bizarre twin language until I was eight. There were six nationalities represented in my family which created a unique blend of languages. Early on, my father's day job was as a thief while he created road-kill sculptures and we had a room and a refrigerator just for his specimens. Half my family consists of deer-in-the-headlight Holocaust survivors and the other half consists of redneck Jerry Springer show guests and Soprano-like mobsters. Visit Slash Coleman's website!