The paradigm of the artist can only be an individual
I think has been broken.
Within the architectural practice there is
a collaborative, creative process usually.
But the other factor was that in the counterculture
it was really considered better, you know, morally
to be in a collective than to be an individual.
There was this aspect about suppress your ego
and work, you know, in the commune.
And the commune is more important than the individual
For Ant Farm, it was a period
1973, '74, '75, ‘76,
when we were really hitting on all cylinders,
to use an automotive metaphor.
Miranda and I had known each other for quite a while
before Learning to Love You More.
I was always trying to create communities or invent
setups that would fill that space
that I hadn’t experienced
of some kind of community or school or network.
We were also, I think both probably
into the web at that point
there was no Facebook, MySpace,
YouTube, anything like that.
Realizing, oh, this is a place in which
people all over the world who have access to that
could participate in something.
And the idea that in a way,
we could be collaborating with them.
We all do our own projects and I think it's
a really important part of
(the profession)
yeah, like the psyche of when we do come together
as Futurefarmers.
We've kind of evolved on our own
or we've had new experiences.
Maybe sometimes good, maybe sometimes bad,
and we bring that knowledge back into the group.
I think it also makes our practice more diverse.
It was nice to go from a position as artists,
where we were supposed to be original and totally
you know, in control of everything to then going to
a project where that people wouldn’t
have to worry about those kinds of concerns.
I know it's easy to stumble alone.
But when you're with someone else,
I think, it's brave to stumble with someone else.
There's this ethos of play in this area.
I think with that comes an openness to collaborating.
There's a sense of playing together,
goes back to jazz and improvisation.
Of course as lead guitarist and lead vocalist,
but that's, you know, a lot of ego stuff gets worked on.
It's hippie architecture, you know. The hippie
vying for the temporary rock and roll event.
We're almost exuberantly into sharing knowledge like
as soon as you find someone who's curious we're like,
"Oh, but and there's this and we've found this and
this should go here" and there's like,
I think it also comes with teaching, like there's this
fulfillment in sharing knowledge.
Constantly being like asking each other questions
asking each other for help
and then you've realized how interesting that is.
How when you ask questions to a collaborator
about technology or about nature
how that is an interesting part of the process
and then wanting to open that up to a wider audience.
For me, it was one of my most favorite things I ever did.
In the simplest sense, all I really wanna do as an artist
is put something out and get something back,
have a real feeling of connection.
I think that any band,
you know, you have different personalities
when that creative collaboration is working well,
it's really
creating more of what individuals put on their own.