Soundshop’s 15-song Exquisite Corpse
An ongoing surrealism-inspired playlist
When I started interviewing artists in July 2020, I decided to maintain an ongoing playlist as a thread connecting the artists. For this playlist, I took inspiration from the game Exquisite Corpse, which was birthed from Surrealism, an art movement whose notable characters included André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, and René Magritte. In their game, players take turns drawing on a piece of paper and concealing earlier parts of the drawing before passing it along to the next player. In so doing, the players generate a nonsensical work of art. It’s like a game of telephone with a complete record of everything getting wildly lost in translation. In my musical interpretation of Exquisite Corpse, each artist receives a prior song and picks the next song, explaining the connecting concept. I elaborated that the connection could be as meaningful or tenuous as the artist would like: a common producer, a similar title, a rebuttal of the prior song, similar chord progression or rhythm, et cetera.
We begin this musical journey with Caitlin Cawley, whom I emailed after her interview in July 2020 to give the honor of picking any song to begin the playlist.
1. Caitlin Cawley: Summertime, by Elvin Jones and Richard Davis
Of her choice, Caitlin said, “I became obsessed with Richard Davis in the early quarantine days! He has a duo record with Walt Dickerson, which is just jaw-dropping”. We had some technical difficulties during this first interview, and I didn’t save the recording, which is unfortunate because our chat set the tone for my interview style very well. But the rest, with one exception, are saved, so you are welcome to hop through the links to any of them as you peruse this blog post.
2. Stephen Chen: “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Movement 1”
by Henryk Górecki
My interview with Stephen Chen was my first time explaining the concept within an interview, and he had only moments to reply before the recording cut out as Instagram Live had a one-hour limit back then. Right at the buzzer, he volunteered “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs” as the follow-up to Caitlin’s contribution, saying that his chosen piece “starts with a 10-minute long very slow string — ”. You may check out our full interview here or read the recap of the same here.
3. Purelands: “Stereotypes” by Black Violin
Stephen’s interview taught me that my energy could carry me through a full hour interview, risking the song-sharing portion getting cut off. Instead of having Purelands respond in real-time, I emailed her to get her follow-up. She went with “Stereotypes” by Black Violin, saying:
As the last song ends on a slow, somber path, I wanted to be uplifted and transported to another place still with ‘classical’ themes: but a different genre and opportunity to lift off comes to mind… Black Violin’s ‘Stereotypes’ is awesome.. and the key/segue from song to song is legit perfect!! It’s basically the same key. I’ve always loved mixing classical violin string sounds with other genres.
You may check out the write-up on her interview here or watch it on IG Live here.
4. Tan Brown: “I am” by Jorja Smith
Next up, I interviewed Tan Brown, who said of “I am” by Jorja Smith: “The previous track was called Black Violin which made me think of Black Panther, and this song is on the soundtrack! And I think it sounds nice after it”. You may find her full interview here.
5. Elisa Winter: “Everything is Everything” by Lauryn Hill
Elisa Winter gave the most detailed response of everyone and is definitely my favorite response so far. She said:
The moment I heard the repeated lyrics “That is everything” I heard Lauryn Hill’s “Everything is everything”.
The song has been on my mind a lot anyway. Aside from being a constant on my “Friday Friday” playlist, it offers a particularly great message during this time:
Everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change, it comes eventuallyRecently my friend and I looked up Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums on a whim. Obviously this list is completely arbitrary and absurd by its very nature, but it’s an incredible resource if you’re looking to dive into some great music, new or nostalgic, and the write-ups really highlight the historical context and overall impact of the albums. My friend immediately latched onto “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” at #10. He had never listened through the full album before, and once he did he couldn’t stop talking about it. It made me remember all the things I loved about the album when it first came out.
“Miseducation” came out in 1998. “I Am” was released in 2018, 20 years later. Hearing the songs back-to-back, it feels like so much has changed and nothing has changed. Either way, I like to think of Lauryn Hill paving the way for artists like Jorja Smith.
I live for this level of thoughtfulness about things as seemingly trivial as a song recommendation for a surrealist playlist. You may watch our Instagram Live chat here.
6. Sage Buchalter: “The Fall of Autumn” by Hurricane Holly
As summer 2020 turned to fall and no return of live events in sight, I started losing motivation around Soundshop. And I don’t think I fully regained it until July of 2021, just weeks before writing the first draft of this playlist post. I say this to note that while I interviewed Sage Buchalter in October 2020, I didn’t request her song recommendation until January 2021, when the duo of Miri Ben-Ari and Reggie Watts interviews motivated me to work through my five-artist backlog. She recommended “The Fall of Autumn,” saying, “It’s the lyrics for me: moving from winter to spring and the idea of change.” You may check out our full conversation here.
7. Matt Wood: “Chelsea Morning” by Joni Mitchell
Matt Wood texted me the following of his choice: “The song you sent loosely reminded me of when Joni Mitchell is upbeat and conversational. I don’t know her catalog too well, but this song seemed to illustrate that feeling”. In November 2020, I talked to him in his studio (my first IRL interview!), and you can check out that chat here.
8. Cyberattack: “Waiting for an Alibi” by Thin Lizzy
Cyberattack offered the following about his own selected track: “The references to gambling in the lyrics made me think of this.” And then later switched to “Waiting for an Alibi,” saying, “Hey, wait can I change my answer? This is a different song by the same band that’s also about gambling, but it’s better, and it’s got more of a storytelling vibe, like the Joni Mitchell song:”
9. Conor TL Sullivan: “Reckless” by Healy
I interviewed Conor a week before my mom, brother, and I took part in his art festival The Festival of Lights and Sound. And two weeks ahead of interviewing Grammy Award-winning violinist Miri Ben-Ari. By the time I’d gotten caught up with my backlog of song recommendations, it was already a month after interviewing Miri and a week before Reggie’s interview. Conor said the following of “Reckless” by Healy:
I picked it because I had an idea of following the thread of the guitar or of the addiction elements. But then I thought choosing a song that handled those elements in a similar way would be too similar of a song, even if it was a different genre. So instead I chose this song because I wanted to take the elements of the Thin Lizzy song and turn them into something more gentle and positive, transforming them. So the guitar is now a gentle acoustic strumming and the recklessness of the gambler in “Waiting for an Alibi” is instead the recklessness of a young person living without restraint. The narrator in “Reckless” is skipping class, changing his appearance on a whim, chasing after his ex, and all in all living with a lust and urgency for life and the summer.
10. Miri Ben-Ari: “Just the Two of Us,” by Grover Washington featuring Bill Withers
As of writing of this article in August 2021, interviewing Miri Ben-Ari was my absolute favorite. One never knows what to expect interacting with famous people, especially one I’d been a fan of since seeing her play violin on the music video for Twista’s Kanye-produced track “Overnight Celebrity” as a kid. But moments into our pre-interview call, we just fell into a groove. If I had to say where you, the reader, should start watching my interviews, I’d point you to my chat with Miri Ben-Ari; my excitement is palpable, and we were very much on a common wavelength throughout. Check it out here! As for her song choice, here’s what she wrote: “same chord progression,” which was truly a spot-on observation. It’s short but very much in line with my approach for spotting commonalities between songs; I love observing common chord progressions. Also, I’m such a fan of Bill Withers that I wrote a blog post about his passing last year, which I’ll point you to here.
11. Reggie Watts: “Room a Thousand Years Wide” by Soundgarden
It was a lot of doing to get caught up on the playlist backlog, so by the time I messaged Reggie Watts, it was March, two months after our interview in January (which you can watch here). I texted him with Miri’s choice but didn’t hear back. And it just bugged me that the playlist was incomplete. But one day in July 2021, as I slowly regained my Soundshop mojo and felt the pressure to get fully caught up before interviewing my old friend Mt Fog, I felt inspired to include the following in a text to Reggie:
I’m writing up a blog post about my interviews and including everyone’s song, but without your response the playlist chain is broken and the gods of music will cast me into hades 💔
We arranged to chat later that day, and in peak Reggie fashion, he chose “Room a Thousand Years Wide,” the most aggressive-sounding choice so far, and related it to the prior song with:
They both have the note D-flat in them.
And they’re both primarily sung by human beings.
12. Petra Jasmiina: “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri
Petra Jasmiina’s musical style is the total opposite of Reggie’s musical offering, so I knew it would be a hilarious contrast to get her song recommendation. She went with “A Thousand Years” from the soundtrack for “Twilight: Breaking Dawn.” It’s a song that’s very in line with the energy of her own music, and she went on to explain:
Okay! I’m taking this to a very different direction with a super obvious connection 😂
with “thousand years” in the title being the connecting thread. You can check out my IG chat with Petra here.
13. Johan Lenox: “Midsummer Madness” by 88rising, Joji, Rich Brian, Higher Brothers, and AUGUST 08
Johan Lenox, whom I interviewed in February, submitted “Midsummer Madness” when I looped back to him in July, saying:
The connection is they have basically the same melody lol
14. Mikal Hameed: “Keemy Casanova” by Akeem Ali
It was very satisfying to move from Johan Lenox (who has produced for some of hip-hop’s biggest artists) to Mikal Hameed, a hip-hop OG who witnessed bathroom rap battles in middle school and was production designer and art director for the music video for Kelis’ hit “Milkshake.” He and I chatted about the evolution of Hip-hop and his gorgeous surfboard-speakers at his pad in Rockaway, New York, the week after I started my job at Bandcamp. Sadly, the full interview couldn’t stay up thanks to a rights issue on him playing some Kamasi Washington on one of the surfboard speakers, but you can check out snippets here and here. When catching up with him in July for his song recommendation, he recommended “Keemy Casanova,” saying:
Midsummer Madness is a straight up summer jam. So on that note I give you Keemy Casanova, the summer jam of the year
15. Mt Fog: “Dry and Dusty” by Fever Ray
I interviewed Mt Fog just before writing this post, and I’m grateful that interviewing an old friend was the occasion that prompted my final push on making the playlist current. (I got Mikale’s rec the day before she and I chatted!) Mt Fog and I initially became friends in college over Intro Bio and common aspirations in the sciences, largely went our separate ways after that, but reconnected in the last few years over our returns to music. Like my interviews and this playlist, she and I are two loosely-connected threads that parallel the other. In her recommendation of “Dry and Dusty,” she said she picked the song because
the song you sent is smooth and about this guy being a sexy dude dancing, gettin’ the ladies etc. This song is a different idea of love and literally says I am dry and dusty. So feels like the same but the opposite in like every way.
Follow Soundshop on Instagram for more events and interviews, check out the playlist below, and give it a follow to view more songs as they are added!
— Akpanoluo U Etteh II
Akpanoluo Etteh is an artist,
founder of The Soundshop and
Data Lead at Bandcamp
