Neu Vinyl Williams: ‘I’m A Meeting Ground Between The Cosmos And The Earth’

Such is the frequency with which the average internet-enhanced music listener flicks through Bandcamp or SoundCloud, it’s not often that you stop and explore a particular artist with huge enthusiasm. Vinyl Williams (Lionel Williams) however, is the most fascinating of all bedroom artists, with a fixating personality that flows pure through his excitable, psychedelic style of music.

He creates through several forms, not just with his music. Despite building up a portfolio and a golden reputation for his collage form of art, he compulsively seeks other outputs, namely through the most bombastic music any human being is capable of making. Similar to his collages, we’re given insights into every corner of the Earth through his songs; a kaleidoscope of ideas, infused by exploration and thinking outside of the box. Side-project work under the name of Wizard Cave is yet another product of his, but DIY is given a distinct impression in our interview with Lionel that this is a man on a mission. 2012 is the year where everything gets into gear for Vinyl Williams. It doesn’t just seem probable, it seems inevitable.

There seems to be a direct link between the art you make and the music you write. A huge mish-mash of influences helping to make up an incredible collage of ideas. Are the two processes similar; making art and making music?
The two processes are the same! It is the parallel output of the same channel that occurs from within some weird intangible place inside of me. There is no conception to the work, as in I let it ‘happen’ without restricting it conceptually, or by forming preliminary ideas before actually executing the work. I let it flow out, I improvise, then toy at the improvisation until it emanates some kind of bliss. There is no thought or logic to what I do what-so-fucking-ever. It is 100% purely intuitive. My technique is complete shit in the first place, and my sense of organisation cannot occur without an initial aesthetic to play with. That initial aesthetic is always the result of a natural flow through me - I am thus a weird medium, some kind of meeting ground between the cosmos and Earth…mmm tasty.

You’ve got a huge following from your art work, a lot of which seems to have been built up on tumblr. How important do you find tumblr as a platform? Does it have any negatives, in your opinion?
Tumblr is a digital realm of bullshit. The bullshit has a constellation of functions though - to distract, to freely express, or more usually to affirm that you are real, to provide authenticity to your existence. It is a vital human attribute that we do this, because it’s what separates us from every other animal and every other thing in nature. We look at ourselves in the mirror and are fascinated by ourselves, the ‘other’, in a digital non-physical space. We then perform innumerable acts throughout our lives of replicating our substance, our image, into a more affirmed, desired ‘I’. It is a massive problem of humanity, but also a stunningly unique quality. There is no other animal in our world that looks at its reflection and finds interest in such an image. It may confuse, but it does not provocatively stimulate. To me, Tumblr is just a platform. Initially I needed a digital space to put up my work, to see how I progress, and I guess to receive feedback. I never ‘tumble’ through Tumblr, or re-blog, I don’t have much interest in doing so. Tumblr is not what makes Tumblr a shit storm. It is the adolescent users that make it a less advanced experience of imagery. I’m not really sure how I contribute to these kids, or to the website as a whole. I’m not really making any demands in my work, or telling people what to think. I’m creating other worlds.

Your following as an artist: Did it help you in exposing your music when you first brought out ‘Naked Sanctuary’?
Maybe in some ways. I’d say at least over 3/4ths of the people who laid eyes on my artwork had no idea that I make music. For instance, my art is represented on Mammoth Collection, and there is no link to my music on that site. It would take just a simple google search to find out, but a ‘Lionel Williams’ search does not necessarily bring up ‘Vinyl Williams’ results either. People have too low of an attention span, me included, to realize the full project. In a way it makes my music and artwork more of an encounter, in which one or the other are not ‘promoted’ together. So, fans of the music may discover the artwork much later than they found the music, and vice versa. This may make my whole collection of work more of a mysterious thing, to not see it all at once, to subject yourself to it slowly and organically. At least I dreamingly like to think so…I fucking love mystery. To answer the question though, if my artwork helped get Naked Sanctuary into your eardrum, I definitely never saw the statistics to measure it so.

You’re even making/ selling your own t-shirts! You seem like a hugely creative person. Are you making a living out of your work or do you balance it with other work?
I am DEFINITELY NOT able to sustain myself through my creativity. I am able to keep myself very busy though. I rarely promote myself as a commodity, but when time calls for it, like now - when I need to fundraise for our tour in Korea w/ Toro Y Moi - then I do what’s necessary to put the income back into the creativity itself. I am an art student at CalArts, and the tuition is astronomically expensive. Presently, I’m really barely able to eat. Sales of my music and artwork do help me get through, without them I would be absolutely dirt poor. I have no other income at the moment besides my creative projects. Hence, if I were to impregnate somebody right now I would be absolutely fucked.

Which influences are behind ‘Lemniscate’? I feel like I’m hearing these colossal, ambitious, drugged-up freakouts and in a way, these remind me of the Flaming Lips. Would I be right in thinking that you’re inspired by their stuff?
I love Embryonic… only some of their poppy stuff, very little of their punky stuff. There is a certain kind of authentic sound that I crave in music, and its only really provided in a few albums. I love contrasty degradation. Glimmering dimness. All paradoxical terms, but The Flaming Lips sometimes arrive somewhere close to the sound of my dreams. Not in the way that I think they’re a futuristic sound, or one that I would most optimally want to hear, but one that is literally such a good representation of dreams that I sometimes have. Vinyl Williams music, in a way, is ‘about’ altered states, it naturally is an expression of places outside of sensory experience. A place attainable, but is perpetuated only by a more elastic mind. Induced or ultra-conscious, whatever the means towards expansion, music itself can act as a bridge to such a place.

What’s next for you? ‘Lemniscate”s gotten a terrific response and you’ve had Altered Zones write about you, too. Has that been humbling and what’s the sensible next step?
What’s next is I keep creating and see where it goes. I have a new live band in Los Angeles filled with 4 other members, James Lake (drums, synth) Billy Winger (drums) Nikita Arefkia (synth, guitar) Ian Gibbs (guitar, drums, bass). It’ll be fascinating to see how 2012 pans out. January I’ll be doing a week-long exhibition in Berlin at the Mindpirates Vereinsheim theater, working with Ralf Schmerburg, director of documentary film ‘Problema’. Korea is in February, we as a band are doing shows w/ Toro Y Moi. We’ll have ‘Lemniscate’ on 180-gram vinyl by then as well as at least 2 brand new digi-EPs through Warmest Chord (label, released Wild Nothing) and Bad Panda Records. This summer we’ll be attempting SXSW as well as numerous other shows. If you’re reading this far into the interview, hook us up with domestic USA shows this summer!

Stellarscope by Vinyl Williams