Rock and roll ain't meant to be tame. And no doubt Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart knows a thing or two about letting out his wild side. He may look like an angel, but boy's got the sonic spirit of a hell bound demon. In a good way, of course.

As with Matthias Herrmann, Stewart's all about the artistic message. He's aware, however, that there's a fine line between giving the listener a glimpse and shoving it down their throat. He tells Queerty contributor Jesse Finkelstein:

The point of making art is that hopefully someone is touched by it. It is not the business of the person making it to foist their preconceived notions of destination on a listener or viewer.

See what else the handsome 34-year old has to say, after the jump.

Jesse Finkelstein: I’m interested in how people write about your music. Writers are consistently interested in you, not just as a musician, but your personal experience. Do you anticipate this interest when you write and create music? That your fans and whomever expect you to be so open?

Also, I find that interviews with musicians are incredibly gendered. Men often get the questions about the craft and the artistic process and women, the questions about the emotional experience. However you, you lucky guy, manage to get both. Is it because you're queer?

Jamie Stewart: I try as hard as I can not to think about anything but making the best music we can. Everything else is pointless and antithetical to art. I do not care if this makes me sound like a hermetic dickface.

To the second question - that is curious. I have not thought about that. In a funny way that is a huge compliment. I would hope that our band comes across as clearly giving time [to] the detail and craft of music as well as clearly being generous and open with emotionality. Therefore, being queer rules.

JF: You don't sound like a hermetical dick face, but certainly you're work doesn't exist in a vacuum. A lot of your music sounds performative and appears to build off a relationship with your audience. I don't mean that you're acting as a character or anything, but there is theatricality to your work, and in that sense, you must be aware of the limitations of your audience. I guess this leads to my more general question - but it's your fault for bringing it up - what is antithetical to art? What does it mean to think only about making the best music you can? What do you have to filter out?

JS: It is not our intent or my intent in any way to challenge our audience. People's reactions are theirs and we want them to be their own. If people find the music challenging and they are looking for something challenging then that is up to them, and I hope we can make something for them that is meaningful in the way that they need. But there is no way that we can know what that is ahead of time aside from trying as hard as we can to be honest lyrically and musically.

I think what it is antithetical to art to make something with an idea of whom it will be for ahead of time. Then you are only making a supposition, not a pure statement of emotion or politics or narration or representation. The point of making art is that hopefully someone is touched by it. It is not the business of the person making it to foist their preconceived notions of destination on a listener or viewer. You have to filter out what people will think and just play yourself. That’s all you can and should do.

JF: There's something terrifying about your music - and I mean this in only a good way - which, as someone who listens to it, makes it difficult for me to talk about it. I also don't have much of a musical background, so that could account for my ignorance. But I was hoping you could talk about your craft, and how you experience your own music. I guess for me it's difficult to talk about it because there isn't necessarily that traditional exchange that happens, that catharsis - often times I'm left with something a bit confusing and frustrating - which in my mind is good, because it sort of forces my boundaries. But I wonder, because musicians often talk about their music as cathartic, whether you have that experience playing or listening to your work. Or if, like me, you sometimes hit upon that terror?

JS: It is not cathartic to play insofar as I feel better afterwards but it is certainly necessary in that if I did not do it, I would probably - sorry for sounding like a douche bag - kill myself. It keeps things clarified. Without a certain level of clarity there would be so much overwhelming terror as you put it on my mind and in my life and heart that it would too much for me to stand. I cannot deal with life very well and aspects of my life [are] so fucked that I need something to hold onto and for me that is music.

JF: I've been thinking about what you said earlier concerning art and those concerns that are antithetical to its creation. I was wondering if you could explain this a bit more. Personally, I believe that art can have a "functioning aesthetic" - that art can have a social and political purpose, and that such a purpose can be invested in the work prior to its exhibition. There is such a rich history of protest music and literature, which can be judged equally by its artistic merit as it can by its social impact. I would even say that Xiu Xiu is a type of protest music. Take, for instance, “Support Our Troops OH! (Black Angels OH!)”. That song, in my mind, protests a particular cruelty and presents a political/social argument. In addition, it seems that in being so open to interviews and discussing your work in a personal and political context, you could be seen as framing the material - in some sense the medium is the message and so forth.

JS: I think that intent is different than considering whom the receiver of said intent is and trying to gauge their reaction ahead of time. All art has intent and specific purpose, but again if you are trying to make someone think what you think or try to get them to like you, then you are being manipulative - not generous or artistic. It just becomes like advertising a product. I think that art needs to allow people to do with it what they will or need to. Sometimes some conceptual art is annoying to me, because in order to "get it" the artist has to explain how you have to "get it".

JF: About not being able to handle life very well… You've published like a CD a year, you're involved in multiple projects, and you find time to interview with all sorts of people. This is always I question I have for artists who claim to be impractical or unable to deal with life: how do you maintain the discipline or ability to accomplish so much? How is it that those things which are so fucked don't prevent you from doing all those other things, like music?

JS: Sometimes they do. It is those fucked things that are the driving force behind being so obsessive. It becomes necessary to work in order to keep things from falling apart or feeling meaningless. I feel unbelievably fortunate to be able to deal with things in this way, to have the opportunity to deal with things in this way. It is an incredible privilege that I hope to be able to honor.

JF: Let's talk about [one] of those fucked things: our political situation. Since this is for a queer blog, I have to ask your opinion on gay marriage. I have no clear opinion on the subject, myself. If others want it for themselves, then who am I to deny them the right, but personally, marriage seems a little silly to me. How about you? Are there weddings bells in your future? What do you make of this national preoccupation with gay marriage?

JS: Do what you want. I don’t really have anything to add to this. The two arguments are valid: people should be able to do what ever they want and why do some people give a flying fuck who anyone marries? [Also] why do queer people feel the need to fit into an oppressive lame ass "straight" world to feel equal and validated? I think the wide answer is, "Go for it!" Cowabunga! It is just a way for the crazy right wing war/lust machine to distract people from their more and more obvious genocide/Armageddon orgy.

JF: That said, who’s your pick for ’08?

JS: For the White House? Err, that is depressing. Clinton is closet warmonger with no backbone. Obama has no experience. Edwards is sort of vapid [and] blank. Did you hear the one that Chris Rock said “is America ready for a black president?" "They are ready for a retarded president, why not?" I just hope to God that whoever wins/steals is somehow able to feel something for someone else and think about what they are doing in relation to humanity. I am a dreamer.

Image Sources (Top To Bottom):
Noise Pop
Preston Reyes
David Horvitz for NYFA
Caralee McElroy for 2004's Fabulous Muscles