’89 domande a Jack Kilmer – Musician
ALL THE PUNK AMORE PICTURES OF JACK KILMER ARE BY FRANCIS DELACROIX
Name? Jack Kilmer (@jackkilmer)
How old are you? 30.
What’s your job? Musican, Actor, Film Producer.
What did you study? High School education, studied acting a bit, self taught in music.
What do you think about cloning? Would you get cloned if you had the chance? I don’t.
If you were to be a song, what would it be? Castles made of sand by Jimi Hendrix.
In a time when AI can be a backstage collaborator in music-making, do you think the artist’s real life will slide back into the spotlight, becoming the rawest form of art itself? And how might AI mess with the sound or spark new music while the human presence stays the real headline? I think we’ve been trying to sound like robots with electronic music for a long time. So now they are trying to sound like us. There will always be Value in making something the old fashioned way. How we involve other people in that is our choice. I worry we will have less shows to go to the more we entertain ourselves at home.
Do you think, for example, that killing an ant is the same thing as killing a dolphin? In other words, do you think that the lives of living beings are all on the same level, or do you evaluate them on the basis of their functionality in relation to human beings? I am a huge animal lover, but I do have to take the side of human lives. In the scenario that a shark is attacking a person I would save the human if it means losing the sharks life unfortunately.
In your opinion, is it right that states exist? Or would you prefer a world and humanity united under one “flag”? I am an American man.
Is it right in your opinion to place limits on immigration, or should everyone be able to go anywhere? Fuck I.C.E.
What is your musical project, album, or composition that you are most attached to? Why? Lou Salome band is my current project and obsession. It’s the most honest thing I’ve ever done. And I think it shows it’s cool just to be yourself. I worship the church of cool like Velvet Underground and Suede. But ultimately I am much more of a cheesy dweeb than that.
Can you tell us something about you that nobody knows or very few people know? I have 5 middle names. Jack Cole Buster Ray Angel Kilmer.
Do you think Hegel was right to put music as art at a higher level, or do you think the figurative arts, especially at an emotional level,
are on the same level? I don’t think about stuff like that. I try to just act like a 5 year old with art. But I am very discipline with my approach to it and I work hard.
Can you give us a definition of art? The ability to cope with the crushing overwhelming scope of reality with humor.
Do you consider music to be a form of art? Yes, and somehow more drug like or therapeutic/homeopathic.
If you could speak in world vision for 15 minutes what would you say? Let’s have a good time.
Do you think exist an objective aesthetic value or you think aesthetic value is just subjective? I think aesthetics are very subjective and ironic in America and very objective and real in Paris.
When, in your opinion, can you define a person as a musician? I think anybody can be a musician if they make noise and find some value in that and share it with other people.
Do you think that the relationship between music and drugs is just a cliché? Major cliche man.
Are you in favor of the liberalization of soft drugs? I have been sober for three years and I recently quit smoking. But I think all drugs should be legalized.
And hard drugs? Yes of course you can’t make a chemical or plant illegal in the same way there should not be illegal people. It’s not the drugs fault it’s the way we take them. American pharmaceutical industry is pushing a heavily drugged lifestyle. Most Straight normal people I know are high as fuck all the time on something their doctor gave them for “anxiety.” Yet artists get arrested all the time for smoking weed.
Do you have any political orientation? I think right and left are two evils. I try to stay out of that. I am from Hollywood do you really want to know what Hollywood actors have to say about politics?
Do you think it still makes sense to use music as a political weapon, or has the whole thing become too blurred in the noise of the digital age? Of course we should use Music as a political weapon. I think we’ve been silenced by big streaming. But we’ll be back. I recently got into that band Atari teenage riot. I miss those blatantly political bands so much. Maybe I am so old and jaded now and Ive given up the fight. I hope not.
Do you think that believing in God and not believing in God start from the same presumption about something that in itself we have
no possibility of knowing, thus reducing even atheism to an act of faith toward the unknown? I pray twice a day for 5 years. I even try to pray on my knees regularly. One time I called my friend Rene AKA the chief in a panic. I needed him to save my life. I was in deep trouble. And he said “jack I can’t help you it sounds like you need to pray’. I said “what do you mean” he said you better get on your knees and pray.” …Ive done it ever since.
Can you tell us the craziest anecdote you have experienced or witnessed in the music industry? One time an old man grabbed me and started massaging my back at a party I turned around and it was Ron Wood for the Stones. Another story is Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson would visit my dad’s ranch in New Mexico quite often one time it was just us jamming playing the blues when I was a kid. Another time he was doing kendo sword fighting on the grass in the early morning.
In your opinion is there such a thing as unnatural? In the case in point, if you consider man as part of nature, is everything that emanates from it to be considered natural? If not, why do you not consider man as part of nature? It’s all nature baby.
If you were not in your profession what work would you have wanted to do? I would probably work at a pet store or something. Or do something with my hands like work with clothes.
What do you think people say about you? Sweet, aloof , handsome, bad at texting. I hope that’s all haha.
Can you tell us when you think a person is cool and when they are not cool? I think it’s cool when a person is authentically themselves and not trying to be somebody else. Or at least honest in their failure to be somebody else.
What’s your favorite musician or composer? I like Bach and Eric Satie. Keith Levene the guitar player from PiL was a big influence on me. Also learned how to play guitar playing the song Fright Train by Elisabeth Cotton and Last chance Hobart smith on banjo.
If you could choose which historical era to live in, which would you choose? Ah i’m not a big let’s go back in time guy. I wanna keep it moving forward.
Who are the people that inspired you the most? John Cassettes.
If you could spend a day with a musician from the past, who would you choose and why? Maybe to drop acid with the Beatles or something and just watch their dynamics unfold.
A song you wish you had written? Sweetheart like you Bob Dylan.
Is there anyone you don’t get along with? Yes.
What is the thing you like most about Italy? That its shaped like a boot.
And one you don’t like? Those masquerade masks freak me out.
Do you think it would be correct to create a place where man can live in the state of nature, making him free from a choice of social
belonging that is instead taken for granted? For sure.
What’s the topic you are most expert in? Chilling.
Have you ever been in love? Yes.
Favorite song? Slippin’ and Slidin’ Buddy Holly version.
Favorite song-writer? I don’t know.
Favorite artworks? Daido Moriyama.
Favorite movie? Blow Up.
Favorite director? David Lynch.
Do you feel envy for anyone? If so, for whom? Yes, Ive come to welcome it. It’s ok as long as you’re not an asshole about it.
The quality you would like to have and don’t have? I wish I had less self doubt and I was more trusting of others.
There are more and more models who do not respond to the “classic” aesthetic canons, do you think that brands really try to
change the social dynamics or do you think they are choices dictated by marketing reasons to exploit the politically correct? It’s very funny to see brand scramble to target Gen-z. There’s some really weird stuff coming out of it. Look at the band Geese as an example of how post post post irony is the new thing.
If you had the possibility to remove social networks from the world, would you delete them? Nah.
The craziest experience you’ve ever had? Loosing my Dad.
What do you think about influencers? I’m jealous of their follower number and I want the money. But I don’t know why.
What’s your favorite historical character? Can’t believe i’m saying this but Mark Twain because he reminds me of my dad.
Can you define yourself with an adjective? Gemini.
If you were to be an instrument, which one would you like to be? A piano.
What’s your favorite city in the world? Los Angeles.
Do you believe in some religions? No.
What’s the first thing you would do if you win the lottery? Buy a house.
How important is it for you to be rich from 1 to 10? Likeeeee a 7.
And fame? I want it, but I am happiest without it.
How important are fame and money to impress a partner? Not important.
And what about beauty? I’m big into beauty.
And intelligence? The most important thing.
Do you consider yourself smart? Yes I do.
An advice you can give to someone that want to do your job about making it as a musician, performing, or composing professionally? Value what you make.
Do you think that if people couldn’t post on Instagram about it, they would take part as well to social movements? I sure miss the days of Social movements but good things like that can’t last forever. Maybe it is happening but I am out of the loop.
What do you think about the existence of royal rulers for birthright? I am half British and I loved the Queen of England.
What are the clothes you can’t stand to see on a man and on a woman? Athletic Clothes. All birds shoes. Im a bit sick of the y2k thing. Dad hats. People wearing all white or all cream or all pale pink. I hate phone cases with designs on them or quirky phone cases. Im gonna say it I don’t like the gorp hiking shoe urban rock climber thing either. I hate guys that wear snap back hats with loafers and slacks. Im sick of the film bro guys wearing obscure street wear adjacent movie merch too like a hat that says good fellas on it or something.
Do you think that if there were no hypothetical partners to impress, human beings would pursue success so spasmodically? No I think people want success to get the partners.
Do you think that in certain environments, especially those in which we find fame and money, there is a lack of certain values? There’s a total lack of values in these places but if that’s all you see maybe you are the problem.
Does the current concept of democracy make sense to you? Not really. But I don’t have a better option.
What is your position on a hypothetical enlightened dictatorship that could direct the good of people? Sounds like they would make cool train stations and statues.
What do you think about the psychological profile of politicians? Generalizing and keeping in mind the existence of due exceptions,
do you think that politicians get to do their job for personal interests, such as ego satisfaction or economic profit, or for an ethical and civic help vocation? Do you think that prison, intended as deprivation of freedom of a subject, is a correct solution for an individual who violates the laws of society, or do you think it presupposes an acceptance of participation in the social contract that some individuals may not want? We have a racist and corrupt prison system America. I think it is designed that way on purpose and it’s despicable.
What might be an alternative solution to prison for you? Sports.
There are those who argue that the death penalty is a non-penalty, in the sense that at the moment in which the penalty is executed, the subject who should undergo it does not exist anymore because of the penalty itself, consequently involving however an interference in the life of the subjects close to the condemned, who would become at that point the real passive subjects of the case, what do you think about it? I don’t know that sounds scary.
Do you think that as animals, races also exist for human beings? What?
What is racism for you? And where do you think it comes from? I don’t know.
Do you think that a cultural growth is always good for an individual or do you think that in certain situations it is identified with a loss
of intellectual purity? I think community should be more of a goal for people vs individual gain.
Do you think that culture in the hands of a stupid person can sometimes represent a problem? Just let it go.
What do you think about the cancel culture in the music scene? Maybe some truth but by and large really dumb.
Is rock and roll still alive? Yes.
Is fashion still a political act or just became pure aesthetic? It can be political.
What do you think about ChatGPT and artificial intelligence? I am becoming addicted to it for technical questions which sucks. But I don’t let it in my creative work.
What do you think is the biggest problem of artificial intelligence? It will indulge your stupidest thoughts to no end.
Can you try to imagine what someone will look like in fifty years? No haha.
Do you think it could be the closest element that points to possible proof of the existence of the divine? Hedi Slimane is God.
What’s your best talent? Learning music by ear.
The material good you most desire and envy? A vintage Les Paul.
Favorite fashion brand? Series of aesthetic manufacturing.
What’s the item of clothing you spent the most money on? I just bought a Leather jacket that was so expensive.
What answer would you have given yourself related to music, composing, or performing? My Band Lou Salome (@lousalomeband).
If you could choose a person you know to read this interview, who would it be? Leah Hennesey.
