Sex Worker Interview: SXSW 2010

Sex Worker is the side project of Mi Ami singer and former classical guitar student Daniel Martin-McCormick that sculpts an experimental, electronic soundscape on the 2009 LP 'The Labor of Love.' It is a labor of love -- a ritualistic offering to the healing that music can provide to both its creators and its listeners. Martin-McCormick'will also be collaborating on a 7" later this year; his side of the record will be a cover of Blondie's 'Hanging on the Telephone.' Spinner chatted with Martin-McCormick before his upcoming appearance at SXSW.

Describe your sound in your own words.

The Sex Worker project is electronic noise, and [it] has to do with a concept of layering alienation or mournfulness to create kind of a pulsing, electronic feel or soundspace that's very tactile, and at the same time has a sort of ritual component of mourning your personal loss and the experience of disconnection with human being and framing that [is] within a larger social context.

How did you come up with your band name?

I had been thinking a lot of a photograph I'd seen of woman in an Eastern European brothel. She was kept there against her will, and people were going and trying to treat PTSD. I was really shaken up when I'd first learned about it. At the same time, I was trying to process a really intense personal situation in my own life that was much much less intense that anything like that, but it still had a strong effect on me.

How did your project form?

It started as a seed in my mind after a short Mi Ami tour, and that was the first time on tour in about three years. [I] had forgotten what it was like, and was really having a strong desire to connect with the audience in a physical way, in an intimate way -- not physical with being loud [and] jumping around like that, but lyrically and vocally touch[ing] people, and maybe bring[ing] people into a more comfortable, or maybe just more intimate, space at a show.

I guess [it came from] coming off from having been depressed for 2-3 years, coming out of that [and] starting to feel like a normal person again. [I] just wanted to think about, just how to frame the two things together -- personal suffering and the larger context.

Where do you and Mi Ami differ? Why the need for a solo project?

[Mi Ami] writes the songs together, mostly. But Mi Ami is much more about live dynamic. Songs, I mean, I write the lyrics and everything, but the feeling of the music is much more the result of three personalities, and kind of the fourth personality -- that is, the personality of the band. Sex Worker is more like physically exploring a very specific idea. There is some crossover -- maybe not so much in sound, but in exploring certain feelings. I mean, I talk about some of that stuff with [both] Mi Ami lyrics and Sex Worker lyrics.

What's your performance philosophy?

I try to not worry about the audience. It's been kind of an exploration, and it's become a little more anthemic. People get kind of hyped up, but other times, it feels more like I feel like I'm lighting some incense to put up a prayer offering. I guess there's sometimes a ritual component. You should try to make eye contact with the audience, and I find that with Sex Worker it's a lot harder because I'm going to an inner space or something like that. I don't like to bring a whole lot of gear. The setup is pretty practical and flexible, so it shifts sometimes.

What are your musical influences?

There are a few that I was kind of thinking about physically for this project, but there are really so many to say. Terry Riley's record 'Persian Surgery Dervishes,' [on] solo organ. It has a muted sound that I find really compelling. I was pretty struck by [a] kind of mournful memory space created by Burial on [record label] Hyperdub. And then I'm mostly just really fascinated by a lot of intense meaning or lyrics in pop music that are just stuck away under a veneer of fun, or that can be turned around and be interpreted much darker. I'm covering the Blondie song 'Hanging on a Telephone,' and the original intention of that song was to be about being fun and young and being in love. Or ,on the other hand, you could recast it in the light of power dynamic and control, and you know it could be a lot more menacing.

What's been your favorite place to travel to?

I really like the South a lot. I like New Orleans. I've only traveled around the US and Europe, but I think it's pretty amazing going to all these different places and seeing the variety. I think America is pretty amazing, because you go to seven different countries in one, and going to Europe is also pretty amazing because of the difference five hours of driving can make. New Orleans and Texas and Poland and Finland, and maybe Paris and New York City are my favorites."

So you have been to Texas before?

Been to Austin. Mi Ami played Austin last year, and I've been there a few other times.

What's your biggest vice?

I crack my knuckles, and I got really into popping my ear. If you pull your ear really hard, it makes a pop like a knuckle. I have a broken left ear [now].

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

I don't believe in musical guilty pleasures. I don't believe in it. Maybe Wayne Wonder.

Beatles or Stones?

Beatles, definitely. [My favorite is] probably John, and actually I think Ringo's pretty cool.


S. Carrie Dickerson is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.