Pass The Mic
An interview with Phil Elvrum of The Microphones
By Sierra Sky

Smash: You’ve spent so much time touring/traveling; do you have a favorite place to visit? Is there any place you haven’t gone that you’d like to?

Phil: Obviously my favorite place is my home, Anacortes, Washington. Every time I come back from traveling, I’m blown away by it. It sometimes feels weirdly like the center of the universe, which I guess for me it is. At the same time, every time I hear from someone in a different place, anywhere, or even hear stories about a different place I really want to go there. I love traveling and I romanticize everything and everywhere. Seriously. I want to go everywhere. I have been to lots of places, but I feel like I have lived in a bubble. The world is so huge. I have never been to the southern hemisphere! I have been to Japan a little bit, nothing else in Asia! What about Siberia? What about Sri Lanka? What about Antarctica? Greenland? The moon? I am already 25! I’m always torn between this pull to everywhere and my deep love for my home.

Smash: What are your thoughts on the death of Elliott Smith? What do you think of suicide in general?

Phil: It’s so intense. I want to know more about what he was thinking and at the same time I want to leave that to him. I just finished reading "Runaway Horses" by Yukio Mishima, which is a novel that really examines and supports the idea of seppku, Japanese ritual suicide. It’s so weird. I almost understand but I don’t really, and anyways, I doubt Elliott Smith killed himself out of reverence to "the Emperor". But the book has made me think a bit more on suicide from other interesting angles. Shit’s intense. I can’t articulate what I think about it because it’s so intense. I have an older song called "I got stabbed" about stabbing myself (though not to death, and not for the purpose of killing myself) that I won’t be able to play anymore because I feel like I can’t treat it lightly like that. My heart feels different now.

Smash: As for the majority of your music/lyrics, are they about your personal experiences, or are they fiction based?

Phil: I am not good at putting myself in someone else’s position so everything I do is inevitably from my own. But the songs aren’t necessarily about my experiences, more about my ideas and drives and thoughts on living. I make up stuff that hasn’t happened to me to me to illustrate this stuff.

Smash: Besides making stuff up, do you work a lot with metaphor?

Phil: Yes, metaphors are all over the place. I even speak like that. Slang, sayings, jokes, codes, etc. Also, I am a big fan of the clear straight forward way of saying things. I like names and dates and descriptions that are normal, leaving nothing to wonder about. I also like writing "poems" that sound like someone speaking casually. I like say saying things like, "yeah right" and "totally" (as in "totally awesome") in lyrics.

Smash: What is your first memory as a child?

Phil: I don’t remember. My memory is pretty crappy. I often think that stuff I made up really happened. I live in a cloud. There are a lot of old watery pictures in my head.

Smash: Does this ever cause conflict with people you’re close to or is it just a personal thing with yourself?

Phil: Yes, sometimes it’s annoying to people that I don’t remember them or that I already told them the story I’m telling. That’s how it is.

Smash: What were you like as a kid? Do you identify with that person anymore?

Phil: I was pretty much the same as I am now. A little more cranky. A little less knowledgeable but still the same person with the same weird ideas and habits.

Smash: Have you ever been in love?

Phil: Yes, I am now.

Smash: Do you find you’re more inspired when you’re in love or more when you’re brokenhearted or full of discontent?

Phil: Real love is different. I am now so charged with big feelings. My creative drive now comes from a totally different place. Everything is different. But also, I would feel SO OK about just shutting up and living the love and letting my "creative" parts just be for the love. I am not concerned with being productive anymore. The world is different.

Smash: How is the world different for you?

Phil: I can’t really talk about it. It is still all a big blur, and will probably stay that way. A sweet blob.

Smash: When you dream, do you dream about random things that are pulled from your imagination or are they vividly real?

Phil: Usually they are weird vague things but then occasionally I dream a deeply emotional dream and it wakes me up and I think about it for weeks.

Smash: Where do you see yourself in five years? Or are you the kind of person that just lives day to day?

Phil: I live day to day. I would not have expected THIS five years ago, no way. I have given up strategizing.

Smash: If you didn’t play music, what would you be doing?

Phil: Rolling around in blankets farting.

Smash: What, (if anything) do you want the world to know about you and your music?

Phil: What world? I just want it all to be face value. The albums are the albums. My shows are my shows, then I get in the truck and drive away, then the next show is the next show. I don’t want people to do research to be able to under- stand or enjoy the things I do. It’s impossible to avoid misinterpretation anyway. I want the world to know what it gathers about me by itself.