Amanda Palmer, lead singer and composer of the Dresden Dolls duo, has been visiting protest camps around the world. We asked about her experiences with Occupy.
OCCUPIED TIMES: Amanda, you have been playing quite a few Occupy camps – how come?
AMANDA PALMER: I play free outdoor gigs for my fans anyways when I tour. Occupy started up just as I was leaving for a tour and so I decided to play Occupy Spaces instead of random parks: it seemed like a perfect wedding of events. ?A lot of my fans knew about Occupy but only from what they’d read online and in the news but hadn’t actually been on site. I gave them a reason. Musicians can be handy that way, they always have been. They act as umbrellas under which people can physically gather and connect. I truly love that part of my job: being a human megaphone, acting as a spotlight to shine on what might be dimly lit.
OT: Where have you been and what were your impressions of the different sites?
AP: Well, I started with Occupy Boston, which was a few blocks from my house. Then I went to Wall St about a week later… this was back in the early fall. When my tour started, I hit all the cities I was touring in: Oakland, LA, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver. I’m going to play a free gig at Occupy Christchurch in New Zealand. It’s like having a floating pop-up venue… perfect. Every site had it’s own character and energy. LA felt slightly hostile; Oakland felt more solid and peaceful. Portland felt homey; Vancouver felt somber… someone had just died in a tent. I think my impressions really depended on the moment I dropped in on the camps. It’s like visiting a person. You’re never going to find them in the same mood twice.
OT: Did you want to express a particular message for people?
AP: Yes. Do shit. And don’t forget you have the power to create your own fucking reality every single day. The fact that we’re alive and human beings on planet earth is a ridiculous fucking miracle. Rejoice.
OT: What effect, do you think, did your music have on the occupations?
AP: I hope that in my own way I brought joy? Distraction? And fuel? To the movement – or at least to the moment.
OT: What was your best experience with Occupy?
AP: Playing “The World Turned Upside-down” in various cities and hearing people across the country cheering at the same points in the song. Pretty inspiring, that words strike a universal soul chord.
OT: Was there any bad experience?
AP: Sure. Plenty. One of the worst: a dude at Wall St came up while I was playing and starting haranguing my site contact, complaining that I was “hijacking the movement”. He wasn’t listening to what I was playing or noticing what people were doing (a lot of my fans brought donations and help). It was sad. That moment spoke volumes about the problem of the movement in general… the “ownership” problem. Who owns this movement? Who can claim that?
OT: Do you think this movement will have a long-term effect on society?
AP: God I hope so.
OT: Do you see yourself as an activist artist, or is art mostly independent from politics?
AP: I always say the personal is political. I kind of detest the word “political”. It carries so much bullshit baggage. And if I’m an activist artist, then every artist is an activist… of something or other. I always used to say to journalists that my job wasn’t to tell people what to do, or who to vote for, or how to think. ?My job was to provide them with a safe space to become who they already are. The band was always really dedicated to a kind of radical honesty and radical acceptance… having been outcasts as kids, we didn’t want to perpetuate that kind of clique and exclusive mentality.
OT: What do you think is wrong with today’s society?
AP: Honestly? That we live in fear of each other and are terrified to non-judgmentally love and help each other.
OT: What can we as individuals change?
AP: Our attitudes towards each other and the possibilities of human kind. It isn’t hopeless: the whole world is changeable. It just takes a certain kind of faith that the status quo is not the king.
OT: What does “Occupy yourself” mean to you?
AP: It means that before you can occupy an outside space, you have to be standing on solid ground with yourself – which is hard, but necessary. Nothing will destroy real human progress more than people trying to make a progressive change that comes from a place of fear, lack and anger. That’s what will take us down.
