Your latest album, The Transit Rider, is about a train journey and the people you meet along the way. Why this fascination with travelling?
For as long as I can remember I've had the urge to travel, to be a sort of anthropologist or wandering scientist who goes around meeting people and experiencing different things. I was brought up in a small town in Washington which wasn't sympathetic to the arts - and which was apparently cursed by gypsies - so I moved to New York to do some cabaret-style sideshow work with the Bindlestiff Family Circus. After a while the vortex of New York became oppressive, so I left the city with an open ticket. I've been touring pretty solidly for five years now, and the best things I've learned in my life were picked up on the road.
You must have met some amazing folk along the way...
The true gold of this travelling work is the people you meet. From the Hobbit-like guy in Australia who showed me wild koala bears in the dead of night to the elderly lady in Oakland who held the world record for jumping out of aeroplanes, the people I've met have been incredible. It's also allowed me to talk to older people and learn more about the past, which is great as I'm often troubled by the pace of modern life and how we've become disconnected from nature's cycles and rhythms.
As you've collected stories from around the world, I guess this is how Faun Fables' 'storytelling' style developed...
It's hard to describe what we do, but basically we tell stories with songs, and all our numbers have a narrative emphasis. There's a quality in the vocals that has more presence of character, almost like an actor, which allows me to play different roles. It also allows me to explore my vocals; rather than being like a voice student who learns to achieve sounds mechanically, I'd rather allow my singing to evolve instinctively so I have my own take on it. Actually, that's not true - I'm just too lazy to become technically proficient.
THE TRANSIT RIDER
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