[ed.note - One of the great things about Anthem is since the very beginning, I had the latitude to be as 'gonzo' as I want to be. Injecting oneself into a story is a contentious issue however, I feel that the ability to do so in certain situations creates the opportunity for a story, or a view into an artist's life that is otherwise unavailable. This bizarro early Anthem article is one example. From a j-school angle, this piece is everything your profs tell you not to do but somehow, I think the end result was a candidness and perspective of Pall, Toby and their music that even I didn't expect. -ts 2005]

"Ok. We want to interview you right now. This is part of the interview and you have to write it." Pall Jenkins says to me seated in the recording studio of he and fellow bandmate, Tobias Nathaniel's San Diego home.

The three of us had attempted a normal interview, however that plan failed miserably...perhaps we shouldn't have hit the scotch. So, Pall and Toby, founding members of the ominous sound that is the Black Heart Procession (BHP) thought it would be more entertaining to interview their friend rather than let her ask them questions she already knows the answers to.

"So, I was up last night taking notes for this interview and I have a series of questions for you." Pall mockingly begins, "Now that you know us a little bit more...written some articles on us...and we've hung out a bit...do we seem dark and brooding?"

No, Pall and Toby are not dark and brooding. They are pretty pleasant fellows who are more likely to be figuring out ways to annihilate video game characters or trick out an old piano and less likely to be writing verbose entries in journals about lost loves. The nature of their music however, has led many astray. With their eerie musical arrangements, dimly lit stage set up, and songs of heartbreak and woe most assume the members of the Black Heart Procession to be disheartened intellectuals of some sort. In scanning previous articles written on them there is usually a paragraph or two where Pall or Toby have to assure the writer that they are not on heroin or manic depressed.

"So...do you feel now," Pall pauses with a smile, "since you've gotten to know us better, that we're faking it on stage?"

The answer to this question is also no. Said simply, if someone is doing music because they truly love it, as are the members of BHP, then the place where that music originates is somewhere very honest and genuine. We can have feelings of depression or darkness in life and write about them without being depressing or dark people.

From this point, the interview gets a bit crazy for awhile. Pall has a fun time saying, "Hello out there in readerland!" into my tape recorder while the two torture me with silly word association games and requests to judge whose butt looks better in their pants. This would be very absurd of course if I didn't know them, so I ask the two how they would want their fans or people who aren't familiar with them to perceive them.

"That's weird...hmm...I don't think about it like that. I think of what I want people to see or hear on stage." Pall replies. "I think that's completely different from who I am. I don't want people to know me like my friends know me really...I like having something to hide behind a little bit."

I then ask what he would like people to see or hear.

"I want to make better music so I want them to hear better things." He plainly states.

"...and I want them to hear my piano when I play it." Toby quips.

"You're always the loudest thing anyway..." Paul counters.

"Ha ha...I know..." Toby retorts.

This banter of ours causes me to think how illusion is a funny thing. It's almost as if, with film or music, most of us would rather believe that what we are seeing is the real every day manifestation of those people than to acknowledge it is simply one aspect of people we really don't know anything about. The intimacy we can feel with complete strangers simply because of their music or art is amazing. It's almost as if, in those moments where we are the spectator, that we aren't simply identifying with another person's emotions but that we are acquainted with them personally.

"Can you imagine me..." Pall starts in with a sense of sarcasm and sincerity, "now that you've gotten to know us better and seen our house and everything here...can you imagine me like chillin' on my bed on a Sunday afternoon in my boxers no shirt on with a Carl's Jr. western bacon cheese chicken sandwich and fries...watchin' football...slurpin' a coke...just chillin'?!"

Contrasted with the music of BHP, that picture is hard to imagine, even for me. We begin to laugh and talk about how the supposed allure of "indie" music is that people are theoretically thought of to be more real and common and not into the whole rock star shtick.

"Or the opposite, they're high fashion and 'before their time.' I mean not saying we are, but hey, we're ready to do something big." He facetiously declares.

I then begin to joke that the Black Heart Procession are going to take on the Strokes, who are seemingly 'the big thing' in music these days.

"Well, we offered to but we never saw them." Toby kids.

"I mean, I look better than all four of the guys put together in my underwear jacked up to my chest..." Pall adds.

I then threaten Pall that I'm going to print that the Black Heart Procession are going to challenge the Strokes.

"Oh, you can print that. I would take them on-- in a modeling contest-- and I bet you I would win: whoever's photos look better in the end. I mean, on the stage, they're going to rock my ass off the stage. I'm not even going to be able to keep up on the stage because those guys are good on stage...but in bed, in front of a camera? Who's better?!" He queries in a Tenacious D sort of way.

We all continue to tease each other which ends in my request to see some video footage of this camera action of his.

"What, me with the Strokes? Those are for certain eyes only. We had some fun with those boys...." He digresses with an evil smile.

It was about this point where we stopped tape. A lot of laughing and a lot of sarcasm, no doubt. However, the outcome of this inversed interview, I think, is far more honest than many musicians show themselves to be. Being on stage is a far more vulnerable thing than most would think. It's no wonder a good number of musicians hide behind personas, some extravagant like Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, others as simple as Pall Jenkins' wearing girl's sunglasses. These performances don't negate the reality of these people, they merely serve as the conduit by which these artists display their work. It almost makes the idea of interviews somewhat odd, because the illusion is essentially unraveled. There is that sense that the artist doesn't want to reveal their true self and yet they must answer question after question aimed at doing exactly that. In the end, I think the irony is that when it comes to film or music we still choose to believe in most of our illusions anyway. If we didn't, scary movies wouldn't frighten us anymore and emotive music like that of the Black Heart Procession wouldn't break our hearts in quite the same way.