Question: How would you describe your music?
Meier: I heard some find it abstract. Maybe because it is so up close that you can only make out the brushstrokes.
Q: So you’re comparing it to a painting?
M: Sure. I usually think of music that way. Like it is a painting that you sometimes see from up close and some times from a distance. In one moment, you can see the details only and then you back up and can only see the big picture and perhaps make out a motif. Maybe you see enough of the artist’s collected work to appreciate the consistent esthetics, the vision and the hard work you’re standing in the middle of. But I’m starting to realise that I’m actually more of a sculptor. Adding and removing mass and material to get the desired texture and shape. I sometimes wish my recordings were public sculptures that you can touch and sit on. That you were not limited to seeing them, you could actually feel them. That they were physical.
Q: How come? Why would you like someone to ”sit” on your music?
M: Well, maybe the main role of public art is not to be dissected or analysed. I think it exists to reflect the sunlight on a Monday morning in a way that makes people on the way to work feel less abandoned, less like machines.
Q: Right, like a soundtrack of everyone’s life?
M: Well, the problem with soundtracks and music in that genre is that it tries to evoke emotions on command. As if the format of movies requires predictability and manipulation of the viewer. It leaves no room for absorption or digestion. I think there is a big difference between a soundtrack for a movie and a soundtrack for living. You know most people would only watch a scene in your film once.I like visual arts museums because it gives you, the observer, control of time. And perspective. You may stare at little details for as long as you like. You can leave the room and return. Like life. Except the part about returning, haha.
Q: All of this sculpting sounds like a slow and heavy process. Is that how you always do it?
M: Sometimes it is more like analog point-and-shoot photography. I simply hope the most fantastic grains, scratches and glares will show up somewhere in the process. These imperfections usually appear when using old or very basic devices. Well, to me they are perfections.
Q: One final question before I let you go. What would be the equivalent of bass in the visual fine arts?
M: Nothing. Bass is bass. There is no substitute.