Interview with Tav Falco by Price Harrison

PH: A Panther Burns performance in the early 80′s was always a multi-media experience:  there was the music, the visual presentation, the films and of course, the beautiful poster art. How conscious was your artistic control of these elements, or was it more of an organic process?

TF: Well, the process was a conscious one, although much of the time organically out of control as it were. As a product of the turbulent 60s, my approach was to do everything at once and to take on the mission proclaimed even earlier by the horn player, Charlie Parker, that the job of the artist is to break down barriers between the arts.

PH: What aspects of the Memphis environment were most influential in your artistic development?

TF: In the early 70s I migrated to Memphis from Arkansas to be a filmmaker. Along with my exposure to visual artists like sculptor, John McIntire, cineaste Carl Orr, photographer William Eggleston, was exposure to the blues artists Furry Lewis, Bukka White, Houston Stackhouse, Van Zula Hunt, Mose Vinson, and rockabilly artists such as Charlie Feathers. Also, there was the deepening influence of rockers Jim Dickinson, Lee Baker, Cordell Jackson plus jazzmen Phineas Newborn, Jr, Hank Crawford, a list of others too numerous to mention. To put it simply, music hung in the air in Memphis like low-hanging magnolia blossoms. You could just reach out and touch it… which is what I tried to do with my camera. Pretty soon there was no separation between what was in front of the camera, and what was going on behind it.
(more…)