click to enlarge

Those who have glimpsed this week's glossy pages or read Steve's blog posts earlier today know that this week's cover story was "10 Artists to Watch in 2010." What were the criteria for the artists we selected? They're from Nashville, they've got artistic merit according to the writer selected for the profile, and they plan on doing stuff in 2010. You know how a lot of bands want to be covered, but they won't, you know, do stuff? These guys all definitely have stuff in the works.

So Daniel Pujol answered some questions for my Pujol profile (or Puj-file). Were his responses esoteric? Perhaps. Cryptic? For sure. Big-picture? No doubt. But they also made for an entertaining read, and you can check them out after the jump. Below you can hear two of Pujol's songs. They're typically stuck in analog-listening format, so enjoy them in rare digital form. And as far as that photo? We encouraged the subjects of this piece to bring "props" to their photo shoots, thinking they'd be inclined to tote along instruments and whatnot. Pujol elected to bring a ceramic kitty cat.

Nashville Cream: Some people are pretty excited about the MEEMAW reunion. Is that just going to be a one-off, or can we anticipate some more showings from you guys in the future?

Daniel Pujol: Well, we just kind of do what we want, so we're playing a show. We don't know the future until we feel it. It's like commuting by bus but it's the bus. Get on the bus.

We have some new songs where David Lee Roth is the Kool-Aid man like 2012 Teenage Confucius and Reverse Vampire BFF like:

"God is underneath your memory floating in your head."

So I guess we'll all find out together.

NC: You seem to do a lot of releases on tape. Is that your preferred medium? Is it just the easiest? Any releases on the horizon? What's the most recent?

DP:I've been doing tape releases because they are the easiest. I prefer releasing vinyl and I'll work with anyone willing to work.

Currently I am finishing a four song 7" with Infinity Cat Recordings entitled 2010. My most recent release is a cassette that is collection of demos called Ringo, Where Art Thou? It is available for purchase or download off Infinity Cat.

I'm looking to put out some more 7", split, or tape releases with anyone capable and interested and will start recording a full length for Infinity Cat Recordings in the spring.

NC: Do you play all of the instruments on your recordings, and what sort of set-up do you typically use?

DP: In the past, I played everything on my recordings. When I record myself I usually record the basic tracks myself and then bring in specific people to rub their individual personality all over the recording. I can't play the Joey, the Wez, or the Seanny-Greg, so I have to celebrate our mutual existence through capturing them in recordings. The song "Jimmie Rogers" off my tape split with Deluxin' entitled Timbre Shades of Great is an example of that.

My setup consists of whatever I can get my hands on. I am basically a technological transient, but I'd really like to use YOUR set up. Maybe you could record the band and I sometime, World? You know I left my phone at your place.

NC: I know you're a pretty prolific dude and seem to be a part of several projects. Other than PUJOL, MEEMAW and Denney and the Jets (you're still playing with them, right?) what projects are you a part of?

DP: Nashville is a Rock N Roll Food Chain Pyramid:

My main focus is PUJOL: me, Joey Scala, Greg Meredith, and Sean "To the Wall" Thomspon like an eating amoeba.

MEEMAW: me, Wez, and Jez like a Batman Bigwheel.

Skunkape: me, Daniel from Heavy Cream, and the simply amazing Kyle Hunter.

Saigon Baby/Wizardz: me, Jake, Wez, and some cave people.

World Peace: me and the Wez with a million moms clapping their hands.

And I think Denney just snagged his dream drummer, so who knows!?

NC: Do you prefer collaborative efforts over strictly solo ones? Why / why not?

DP: I prefer to be able to control the pace of my own life. Sometimes that works better alone, sometimes it works better in collaborative situations, but in the end, I play music WITH people, FOR people, so it's sort of all collaborative aside from what's in my head, and I live out of my head, not in my head.

NC: I've seen some of your work in Meta Motor Speedway and Nashville's Dead. Is writing something you've kind of gotten into recently or as an afterthought, or is it something that's always been a big creative outlet for you? Do you have any more forthcoming writing we can be on the lookout for?

DP: Writing has always been a way I communicate. I write because: different mediums let you express some ideas better than others, it's a legitimate form of communication, and what gets talked about in the public domain decides what ideas people must exchange to communicate and build their lives in private.

Most young people don't make time for writing because they don't teach kids how to write in schools anymore, just fill in bubbles, and I think we've been robbed of that communicative ability in the name of quantitative data as a generation.

In terms of my forthcomings as a writer: I have lyrics.

Book-wise, I'm about to do another small run of Meta Motor Speedway: The Bristol Sessions (which is also on Lulu.com for order now) and have those at shows. When I get Photoshop again, I will start doing some more zines regularly and find a place to post them for free download. Also, I do a pseudo-weekly piece, like the MLK post, on Nashville's Dead called the "Shreditorial," which is basically Jeff Foxworthy's iPod writing A Modest Proposal.

In conclusion, I will also do new projects I don't know about yet.

NC: What does this new decade mean to you? What new movements and creations and planes of consciousness do you foresee or hope to discover (musically and otherwise) in this decade?

DP: I think the new decade means what it says:

"There's no shadow over the glass ceiling anymore, just a mirror, and we got to break on through."

"The Internet is, like, a symbolic materialization of the collective consciousness, dude."

Musically and otherwise, I hope that the new decade will be rhetorically less about ideology and more about humanity and that whole shared experience of existence thing. Like how old solutions are new problems, and we basically stamp Platonic eras of Particulars over the Essence of the human experience: "Ding-dong, the witch is dead?"

NC: If I've left anything out you'd like to talk about, please feel free to muse or riff or proselytize.

DP: Hmmmmmm:

1. What if being informed was as important of a value as freedom in American political culture?

2. What if kids were taught where and how to vote and stay informed on local and state elections throughout compulsory education (since our form of government is bottom up and not top down)?

3. What if major elections were federal holidays for America's workforce?

4. The recycling and redistribution of stagnant resources could be metaphysically different from the redistribution of wealth and has the potential to create a new socioeconomic culture of giving responsibly in America? Bleh!!