...i listen to the wind that obliterates my traces by Steve Roden

along with being immersed in an alternative culture, this was during a time the government was thinking about reinstating the draft, so we had songs (i wrote the lyrics and sang - i should say, shouted!), one about anti-religion, one about ronald reagan, etc. we were, at age 14 or so, looking to have a voice. it is kind of a cliche’ but the punk scene resonated through my young life so richly because we weren’t looking for fame and “fortune”.

i don’t think i was ever made for doing practical things. but i never had those kinds of fights with my parents.Ĭertainly drawing and painting as a child was very important for me - and really i never wanted to do anything else … and truthfully my practice is just an extension of my childhood - with a need to have a lot of “play” and to roam (now more mentally than physically). when i became part of the punk scene, and started a band with some friends, there was no tension with my parents and no fights about my blue hair! a lot of my friends’ parents had fights with their kids because of how they dressed, etc. my parents were relatively progressive, in that they let me follow my own path. so overall there was some atmosphere of making things - being creative. after getting the super 8 camera, my friends and i made a film about a time machine … it was a simple thing, but we spent a lot of time creating it.

i was lucky that my parents gave me once for my birthday a small super 8 film camera and once also a small portable cassette recorder - so at a young age, i was working with machines and “technology'. as a kid, i was always drawing, and my mom made stained glass windows with a friend in our garage, and my father was also very artistic. i mean as long as i can remember i have wanted to make things - be they images or sounds, etc. How did you come to work in music, sound, and visual art? DAVID POOLMAN: You’ve been involved in a variety of projects since the early 1980s and were part of the LA punk scene in the late 1970s with your band, Seditionaries.

...i listen to the wind that obliterates my traces by Steve Roden