Artwork for this article by Kennetha Story

Somewhen inbetween their first album "Media" in 1998 and "Blank-Wave Arcade" a year later, Omaha, Nebraska based band The Faint developed a stand-alone scion amid the spreading reviviscence of 80s sounds. By interlacing their skateboard punk base with some sparkling dancy threads they created the airborne, edgy, keyboard driven rock music they're now famous for far beyond the Omaha city boundaries. The Faint's latest album "Wet From Birth" features a song that is called "Phone Call", and the band made a projection video for it. Listen to it, see the video and read an email interview with The Faint.

http://www.thefaint.com/
The Faint's site

receiver:

Your song "Phone Call" presents a classic boy/girl topic: a boy receives a call from the girl he loves who tells him she prefers to spend the night alone. The song is built around this call. Has the diversity of communication channels changed the "you leave me hanging on the telephone" situation in any way?

The Faint:

I suppose there are break-ups happening via text message these days. That's a sad thought. I know people who have been fired through emails as well. There are methods of communicating that are somewhat less personal, which make it easier for the non-confrontational types to just say what they need to and not deal with the other person's emotions. At least with a phone call you get the chance to respond immediately. Although maybe that's not always the best thing.

receiver:

You posted the projection video for the song to YouTube. Why do you and your label, Saddle Creek, participate in "broadcast yourself" communities on the internet like YouTube?

The Faint:

We created this video for the purpose of being projected on large screens at our live shows. After we stopped playing the song at our concerts, the video just sat in the archives. People had always asked about that video, so I thought some of the fans might appreciate a chance to take a second look at it.

There are countless reasons to participate in the video posting communities. Video is a wonderful tool for expression because it encompasses 4 dimensions. You can treat it like moving photography plus music, but when it really comes down to it, I think it can be far more powerful than both of those mediums combined.

receiver:

Do the possibilities to distribute your music beyond the classical channels have any effect on where your music is known, on touring or on your contact with fans?

The Faint:

Oh definitely. We've been able to maintain direct contact with our fans, as well as reach new audiences because of websites like YouTube. Just the other day, Rick Finch from KC and the Sunshine Band sent us a message through YouTube because he stumbled on to one of our videos and liked what he saw, and heard.

receiver:

In how far do platforms like YouTube or MySpace change our concept of the private sphere?

The Faint:

I think that they only change that concept as much as we let them. A lot of people don't have other ways of expressing themselves, so they create a MySpace page and spill their guts all over it. I was looking for some new MySpace codes the other day and one of them was called "Whore Me". I'm not sure what that code does, but it seems to fit in with this idea of being superficially open and honest, using the MySpace platform to create a persona who is based on your real person, but buffing out the rough spots, and not revealing the things about yourself that you wish weren't true. Allowing the world a peek into your private life, although it's a completely contrived one.

receiver:

What role do digital media play in your personal life, at home?

The Faint:

Digital media is all over my personal life. I constantly DVR television and movies and then record them on DVDs. I have a massive library of cinema and imagery that I pull from freely when creating videos for projections and such. Of course I treat the video in ways so as to not break copyright laws, like rotoscope the bodies, or erase large portions of the footage. Take a look at the projection video for Paranoiattack that Dapose put together for a good example of some manipulated imagery from TV. Aside from what comes through that particular cable, there is the internet which is obviously vast and chock full of digital media. Within the last year or so we have begun to establish our presence on the internet on sites like MySpace and YouTube, as well as some up and comers. I am the one who maintains these sites, so I'm on the internet all the time. But with all that user uploaded content, it's easy to get distracted.

The questions were answered by Jacob Thiele, The Faint's keyboard player.