DM Stith: Idiot Savant
The Asthmatic Kitty artist learns the business side while indulging his artistic gifts

by Matt Conner

If an imaginary list were to take shape of the Most Respected Labels around today, Asthmatic Kitty would undoubtedly make it near the top. Such high placement would be warranted for both high-profile artists like Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond as well as newer offerings from Rafter and Fol Chen. So it's no surprise to find how much we enjoyed DM Stith's releases from the last year, as both Heavy Ghost and its smaller predecessor Curtain Speech delighted the senses.

Now David Stith is busy as he readies his latest release, Heavy Ghost Appendices, a mixture of previous recordings and new remixes, and preps for his first major tour through North America. And working with tour mates Inlets, he also has a tour EP available as well. It's a process of learning the business to which he admits he's quite ignorant, but it's that "idiot savant" on the musical end that keeps us wanting more.

The progression from Curtain Speech to Heavy Ghost moves a bit from dark to light, or at least it feels that way. Is that indicative of further development in that direction or where do you go after Heavy Ghost?

I think it gets a bit more light. Not light, but more accessible. There's a regular beat, which I think helps a lot of people. [Laughs] I think it helps a lot. Curtain Speech and Heavy Ghost were written and recorded at the same time. I originally thought it was going to be a really long record, but it was in the mixing process that I pulled five of the songs out as separate and knew I would use them first.

So whatever progression is there, I think it's more that I had to write those dark things as part of the mixture of things I was writing. In the end, I think I liked the brighter, more ecstatic stuff better. Heavy Ghost was more of choosing the best of the best of the stuff I was writing. Curtain Speech was more of a promotional thing.

But yeah, I think there's a lot of stress in writing a record and knowing who's going to put it out and knowing you have to tour. I think there's a lot of tension in those two records that's really about wanting to make the right first impression.

So you have the pressure on those first two records, but what pressure still remains for you?

It's the hope that you have some kind of tangible success. [Laughs] I mean, I'm really proud of the things that I do and I feel really lucky to be able to spend as much time doing them as I do. But it would be nice if I could financially put a little bit more support into what I do. [Laughs] As it is, there's an expectation that I will put out another record, but I live in a tiny place and still have the same equipment that I did when I recorded Heavy Ghost. You're supposed to keep growing, but there are limits because of your materials.

There are financial stresses, but that's a really small issue. I feel like I really jumped into an industry I didn't know much about. I knew a lot about the art side of it, but I knew nothing of the touring side, the live show side, the business side, the money side. And because I was kind of an idiot savant, where the music side just comes easy for me, and I'm on this label, but I don't have a manager. I don't have someone who is walking me step by step through this entire thing. So it's a pretty humiliating process to realize how little I know about what I'm trying to do.

So there's a trial by fire feeling to it all.

Yeah, I think so. [Laughs] People are astonished that I don't know what a lead is. I'm just a kid playing around. So I'm having to learn by making mistakes or learn by making a fool of myself. It's not a bad thing.

Does the machine of the industry make you question the process of making art in the first place?

No, I don't see it as a machine. I think the audience treats itself or is treated by audience-based press as a machine. For me, the ugliest side of the whole music industry is at the small blog level. [Laughs] And it's all about numbers. It's all about getting readership, which means treating the art like a commodity. That exists on the publishing side and the commercial side and all of that. But I think I've been pretty astounded by the generosity of people, even at the highest level.

The ugly thing that I see is the grading scale when you're grading a release on a scale of 1 to 100 or something, or you're grading a single or a music video. It just puts everybody in this competitive mood, where I don't see that used by what I would have called the machine five years ago. So I don't see it as a machine, but as a lot of people trying to support something they love. I feel very supported by people I never thought that I would have contact with. So it doesn't make me distrust the art or feel like I want to give up on it at all. It all feels separate to me.

My day to day work of writing songs is so intensely personal, and it has to be because that's my experience with music.  Music is a very personal thing. I listen with headphones. I very rarely went to shows. So it was all about my tastes and what I got out of it and what it taught me about my own self. It's never been about a social game for me. So I feel like I'm in some ways really lucky to have that crutch that everything I do artistically is always going to be insufferably mine. It's not going to be something I make in order to please anyone in particular.

But very separate from that is the business. I want to be responsible and I have a lot of people now depending on me. When you put out another release, all of the other releases get more attention than if you never put anything else out. If you do publicity or interviews or think about promoting yourself as a brand, it benefits your art more holistically. I'm trying to get good at those things for the sake of all people who are working for me.

But I don't see it tainting somehow the art that I do. It's strange to me that they are connected at all, those two things, but I see why. In my mind, they are very separate somehow, so I never feel I'm whoring myself out for some machine.

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