SOUNDTRACK: QUINN CHRISTOPHERSON-Tiny Desk Concert #854 (June 3, 2019).
Quinn Christopherson won the 2019 Tiny Desk Contest.
Despite the fact that I watch all of the Tiny Desk Concerts, I don’t really get involved in the Contest. There’s just too many entries and too many bands to root for. So I just sit back and wait to see who the judges pick.
When I first listened to Christopherson’s winning entry, “Erase Me,” I wasn’t that impressed. It was spare and his voice was unusual. His voice was kind of punky–the kind of voice that might work really well with some loud guitars around it, but this song was just a voice and a quiet guitar. The song was pretty long and it was very angsty.
It built up some interesting tensions. And by the end, I kind of liked it.
Then I read about Quinn, and how he is a transgender man, and I started thinking about how many people will say that he won because of that (like they said that Gaelynn Lea won because of her “condition” as well). And that annoyed me (I’m not reading comments this time).
Then I listened to the song again and I really got it–the honesty, the power in his voice and the vulnerability behind the words. It’s definitely not a song for everyone. It is not catchy (although the chorus is kind of catchy), it is not easy.
One of the things about the Tiny Desk entrants is that there are some 5,000 of them and you never know how serious they are as musicians. I mean, I could submit a song. Quinn’s video, is fascinatingly set up in an art gallery in Anchorage, Alaska, where he lives. But you never know if it’s his only song.
Indeed, no, as the blurb says,
What was most striking about the performance was [Quinn and his musical partner, guitarist and singer Nick Carpenter’s], unfettered confidence. Watching them play together and hearing their songs, with their interweaving guitar lines and vocal harmonies, feels like seeing two brothers performing old favorites.
This Tiny Desk confirms that his delivery is more of a melodic storyteller than a singer.
Quinn writes story-songs about what he knows best, his mom and sister, about their addictions and his love for them.
He opens with his brand-new tune, “You Told Me.” It’s a slow song, with Nick playing the more active guitar parts. It’s personal and intimate and yet still vague enough that you’re not entirely sure what it’s about.
And then comes an insight into life in Alaska.
A moment after our 2019 Tiny Desk Contest winner, Quinn Christopherson, finished his first song at the NPR offices, he made a confession. He looked at me, while tuning his “vintage white” Fender Telecaster, and said, “I don’t know if you know this, but when you called me and you told me, ‘You won!’ I got off the phone and I thought, ‘Dang, I should buy a guitar.’ Legit, did not have one. But that’s Anchorage; that’s the music community there. Everyone just borrowed me their stuff long term.”
The next song, Glenn,” is about his father. Quinn and Nick play their chords back and forth chuckling with each other before Quinn starts singing
a moving song about his father and their beautiful two-peas-in-a pod relationship. There’s a line in that song that goes to the heart of Quinn’s songwriting talents: “My dad, he plays guitar, says he knows more than he can do. He tells me that I do more than I know.”
I enjoyed this verse:
He asks me what I wanna do when the weekend came
I always wanna go camping but not too far away
So we head to Eagle River and make ourselves a fire
Just the two of us eating pancakes and listening to …N… PR.
In the middle of the song Quinn says, “if my dad was here right now he’d probably say… wheres the bridge?”
They definitely have fun at the Concert. Even during Quinn’s contest-winning song “Erase Me,” their excitement is palpable.
“Erase Me” is about his recent transition, what it now means to be a man and how he sees the way the world treats him differently after so many years of being “used to pulling the short stick” as a woman. It’s a revealing look at the roles of men and women in our culture at a pivotal time from a songwriter who, I believe, will be a defining voice in the future of music.
They lyrics are really affecting
“I got so used to pulling the short stick /
I don’t know what to do with all this privilege /
‘Cause I got a voice now and I got power /
But I can’t stand it,”
But even during this intense song, they can still have fun. In the video submission, Nick’s guitar cuts out during the transition to the loud part. It’s fascinating that they left it in, but they did. During the Concert everyone sort of chuckles at how Nick handles that moment.
I’m curious to see what kind of success Quinn has after this.
[READ: June 3, 2019] “Canvas”
This story starts in a fascinating way.
The narrator talks about a woman, Agnes, who may or may not be in the upstairs apartment. The narrator was renting the place and Agnes said she may be back to work in the studio upstairs. The situation was weird but affordable. And the narrator would only be there for maybe a year longer while she did research on Gothic iconography of the soul.
She didn’t see much of Agnes and then one day there was a note on her door from Agnes inviting her to the studio.
I love this description of Agnes:
She was sitting on a stool, her bones jutting out in a frenzied geometry.
Agnes thanked her for coming saying it was good to be among friends “She looked at me quickly, to see my reaction.” (more…)
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