January 20, 2008

Filkoe

Filkoe

Introduce yourself, crew, affiliations etc.

Douglas Filkins, filkoe, filkoe176, Dug Yuck, A5er. I get down with Endemik, Jerk Circuit, NoNotUnNon, Group Hug, Seattle Slash Atlantis… Animoe Heads.

Do you have any pets?

I am completely in love with my Black-Headed Caique “Gonzo”. He has green wings, a white body, and orange legs. Caique’s are the clowns of the parrot world. He has a smokers laugh like Dick Dastardly’s dog “Muttley” and has a tendency to laugh at the appropriate time. He pretty much has free reign of the old tire factory i live in. I don’t have the heart to clip his wings (which is supposed to make him less dominant) My girlfriend and i really enjoy watching him fly from his perch onto a rope we have hung for him in the bathroom. They say he has a life expectancy of 30 years…so we will be homies for a while. I also have Live Plants, 2 Tiger Barbs, a Neon Tetra, a Bala Shark, and a Clown Loach, all in a 30 Gallon fresh water set-up.

What are your thoughts on Zoo’s and did they have any influence on this album?

I really just like the idea of Zoo Keeper’s losing their keys… I did enjoy the Cleveland Metroparks and Brookfeild Zoo’s in Chicago when i was a kid. I remember being completely blown away at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago… Now when i go the zoo, the animals look so sad… i overhear little kids asking their parents, “why do the animals look so sad?” It’s just weird to me… i know there are a lot of good people that work with animals, but it’s so unnatural.

What is the driving force behind the subject matter of your album, lost zoo keys and the animal spirits that haunt them?

The driving force for the album came from me wanting to learn as much as i could before these amazing beings aren’t around anymore.

Are you trying to educate others or share your love of animals with your lyrics?

I think it’s… wanting to inspire others to go out and research on thier own.

Can you talk to animals? If so which ones and can you speak rhinoceroses?

hahaha…. I think animals can let us know what they are feeling, without having to “talk” per say… I can’t verbally or telepathically communicate with animals, but i definitely can feel what they are feeling. Essentially, what we both are feeling, at certain moments, in close proximity of each other (no beasty). Wait.. actually… i do speak squirrel and seahorse…

Do you feel you have to be advocate for animals because you have a voice and they are otherwise voiceless in this world?

Filkoe - lost zoo keys and the animal spirits that haunt them

I don’t think the animals summoned me to be their jesus… Cavemen drew pictures of animals on cave walls… i’m simply “keeping it real”, only i’m not using blood to paint pictures. I’m using words, ideas and minds.

What is your favourite animal?

I’m really into the Duck-Billed Platapus and the Bower Bird.

What do you mean when you say “share space with an equal”?

I think animals are just as important as humans… Mahatma Gandhi said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”… yeah… i be Gandhi and shit… what… what.

Who would win in a fight, your Posse on the Island of Madagascar or the J.R. Ewing of Seattle’s Posse on Broadway?

The posse on Madagascar is straight skinny looking chewbacca’s… Lemur’s… however agile and lean, are still no match for fake gangster’s with plastic gats.

Please explain or shed some light on the following quote from your liner note “Interest and Enthusiasm. two things I feel are vital in learning… this is not a persona or alter ego… this is heartcore, weirdo, word melding, bad book report rap…to be continued… I love al things enlightened innocence and respect what is darkness… bar sinister over the verb kill… thank you everything… start with endangered species in your home state

Interest and enthusiasm keep me wanting to learn, and continue to educate myself while staying happy and positive. The alter ego comment, was me saying… this is me saying these things. Not a man behind a mask, or rapper behind a microphone, but Douglas Filkins screaming at the top of his lungs, on a street corner or in the middle of the woods. Also, don’t stop at the stars! The Bar sinister is the No sign, the circle with a diagonal line through it. So that symbol over the verb “KILL” to me, means no killing.

How would you describe your music to a person in a line waiting to by a daily newspaper?

So i make these weirdo ode, rap, quirk-hop songs. Their about animals that i find interesting on the endangered species list… people usually get really excited about it… or say… are you a vegan?

How did this album materialize to be released on Endemik?

Basically… Bleubird and I are good friends and when i went to see him in Montreal I met Scott Da Ros… Scott and I became friends… I did a song with Scott on his album “One Kind of Dead End” called “outline of valentine” based on the Edgar Allen Poe work “The Tell Tale Heart”… Soon after Scott and I were talking and told about what i was thinking about for an album. He’s a big animal lover himself… he actually sponsors a Sloth named “Gino” in Costa Rico… so it just kind of took off from there…

You were in the US Marines what impact has that experience had on your music?

I’m not going to go in detail about me being in the Navy… but lets just say… play it cool… and you can make the system work for you.

What did you do with the money you got from selling your kit at the surplus store?

I think i got a bowl of Vietnamese Pho~ and bought “Norman”. from Barfly at a Nite-Owls show.

What is a typical day in the life of Filkoe like?

Typical day for Filkoe is… wake up early, drink coffee, go to school. Come home, work on art and music… meet up with my girlfriend and eat well… watch foreign films… pass out.

Any last words, shout outs, stories, etc?

Keep life Weird…
support the save the dieing animals Rap
Book me in your city…
it’s fun to study oddities that out of the norm.
what up
Chaps
Epic
Bleubird
Scott Da Ros
The Cleaver League
Sign One
Tweetch iz Own
Oskar Ohlson
Adrian Orange

12 Responses

  1. Filkoe’s dope, i had bought this album on a whim and was not disappointed. Aren’t you kind of contradicting yourself by being anti-zoo and then having a bunch of pets though?

  2. Having pets in an old tire factory sounds as “weird” and “unnatural” as a zoo, that is all i was getting at. Using your analogy jesse, that would be more like saying prison is unnatural and then keeping your adopted child in a cage in the basement. I like pets.

  3. for the the record…
    i’m weirder than parrots in old tire factory’s…
    and more natural than….
    Carl Linnaeus in a organic cotton hoody with a water-based ink screenprint on the front.
    werd.
    peas & tofu
    filkoe

  4. MY MINI DACHSHUND ONLY EATS MINI CORN~DOGS FROM WHITE CASTLE~THE ALBUM IS SICK AND YETI MOSHPITS ARE STILL ACTIVE IN THE US~!

  5. Holy cow! DJ. Not the right venue to be chatting, but NO WAY – you’ve got an album. We’ve got someone famous in the fam!

  6. “I don’t think the animals summoned me to be their jesus”

    im fucking dieing…

    maybe its just because i can picture the look on your face as your answering that question.