John Wiese



Where are you now?

I'm at my house in Ohio.


Where would you be?

I had planned to tour extensively this year. Around January/February I experienced a series of disasters (my van was stolen, computer suddenly died, hard drive died, etc.) that were all very expensive to recover from. I took on a lot of debt with the intention of making it up with hard work throughout the year, but that's now proven difficult. I had heard a bit about the virus on the news, but nothing that seemed very close to me. The first day of tour (March 9th), I drove 8 hours to Richmond, Virginia and could hear the tone of the coverage change dramatically over the course of the day, getting more and more dire. By the time I got to the show, I was sufficiently paranoid, and it didn't help that the event was aggressively crowded. The next couple days I spent with Drew and Martin from Matmos at their home in Baltimore in advance of a show there, and slowly but surely we saw Drew's school close, and things seemed to take a dramatic turn nationally. In real-time it's harder to understand the moves you need to take. We went ahead with the Baltimore show, and Martin took responsibility to clean the whole venue in advance and to impose some basic safety precautions. The turnout was good, but definitely a general feeling of change in the atmosphere. The day after in New York City I played a duo with Charmaine Lee, but by that time the venue wasn't allowing attendees, so the concert was streaming-only. By the next day, everything into the future was cancelled and I drove home, where I've been ever since.


What have you been doing lately?

Every day I'm working, watching movies. That part hasn't changed much.


What are you hearing right now?

My house is pretty quiet, thankfully. A fan and some birds.


Are you taking advantage of this containment period to make music?

A lot. I'm grateful for saving all of the recording sessions and source material from over the years that I never got around to finishing. It's coming in handy now, providing a lot of material to mine. I've been starting new projects and finishing old ones. My philosophy has always been to record everything—if you never get around to doing anything with it, no stress, but it's circumstances like this where it really comes in handy. One of the new projects I've started is a series of ensemble pieces with lot's of contributions from friends, I'm really enthusiastic about the results so far.


How will the world be after all this?

What a nightmare.


How can we support the music community?

The total lack of support in the US is a problem. When events stopped, my income stopped, going on four months now. I'm a full time artist, not a trust fund baby, and on my own. I've applied to every arts relief grant I've seen, no response from any of them (I'm sure they're overburdened, but proof it's not a sufficient remedy), and not a penny of government assistance. I've been trying to cover my bare necessities with mailorder and taking on graphic design work, but finding new work is difficult when everyone's businesses are depressed.


5 musical recommendations? 1 book?

Some recommended apocalypse training films:

—Where Have All The People Gone (1974)
—Day of the Survivalist (1986)
—No Blade of Grass (1970)
—Human Animals (1983)
—Nightmare City (1980)
—The Aftermath (1982)
—Def-Con 4 (1985)
—Hell Comes To Frogtown (1988)
—City Limits (1984)
—Night of the Comet (1984)
—The Quiet Earth (1985)
—Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
—Day of the Dead (1985)
—Creepozoids (1987)
—Threads (1984)
—Cyborg (1989)
—Steel Dawn (1987)
—The Sisterhood (1988)
—1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)
—2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)
—2020: Texas Gladiators (1983)
—Escape from the Bronx (1983)
—The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983)
—She (1984)
—Robot Wars (1993)
—Robot Holocaust (1987)
—Stryker (1983)
—Hands of Steel (1986)
—Endgame (1983)


What will you do when you're out?

Really looking forward to rescheduling that trip to Paris next year!


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Photo :
Katie Vonderheide

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