SJC (Mycelium Cloak – drums/lyrics/vocals)
SPB: Has being on a stage regularly changed how you interact with strangers? Are you more/less social because of your stage experience?
SJC: When I first started playing music, it definitely made me more social. Simply playing with other bands extended my network of friends. As I became an ancient head in punk years, I still made new friends, but not in the same volume.
The aspect of Mycelium Cloak I like the best is that most of our business is conducted in-house. It doesn't require many people, or any type of network. That's to the detriment of awareness of the "band," but as far as efficiency goes, being self-contained is tops. We write, record, and mix the music ourselves, with songs being essentially completed before getting together, so the writing process is fast. The art, packaging, and lyrics are also conceptualized long before the music is finished. Beyond writing the music, everything else is a solitary pursuit--with some outsourcing for packaging and mastering.
This is all very satisfying until we release our music, when the absence of a network or fanbase becomes glaringly apparent. Unfortunately, I've become less social as I attend fewer shows and grumpily refuse to engage in social media. That's where my partner is so valuable, not just for his musical acumen, but because he engages with the virtual world to a certain extent. In the end, while I'd like the validation, the process itself is pretty rewarding, as is the solitude.
