28-09-2003

Devendra Banhart

"Five digressions"

Since we first heard him on the Guinguette Pirate opening for The Black Heart Procession, the crazy folk minstrel has grown more famous with his buzz-generating album "Oh Me Oh My..." out on Young God Records. Here are a few words from him to find out more about this alien in the folk scene.

These are the five words that Devendra Banhart picked:
Owl
Indian
Red
Island
May


# Owl
Man do I dig it when I see it written, hear it said or sung, see one drawn, all owls, they can't do wrong in my book, oh when they sing too, and in jewelry they can be seen, they are natural living oracles, very separate from mankind, how obviously intelligent is that?! Yes, can't do wrong.


# Indian
The red people, RED POWER! Real Indians look unlike anyone I've ever seen, they look more like Nature, like a tree trunk, a river.


# Red
Red is the only color I can draw with, that's not entirely true, but it's the big one, my beard is red, red is everywhere, it's a shame so many products have the word red, it's such a good thing.


# Island
Like is land, just a speck of it in the sea, a mountain tip, like a nipple on the sea.


# May
The amount is just right, three letters, and what letters! I love this word, it's got kids and moves to them or moves like kids that might be legless and old and float cause they are dead and are floating and it's like singing "The Day Goes By" over and over again.