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Cory McAbee explores the American psyche

Cory McAbee is something of a renaissance man. In addition to being the director of several films, he is also a musician, cartoonist and actor. Now Cory McAbee has released his first solo album, the concept album Small Star Seminar that explores self-help culture and the American psyche.

How did the Small Star Seminar project start?

– I was contacted by a festival in Poland that was wondering if I could perform with any of the projects I’m in involved in. But my old band The Billy Nayer Show is disbanded and it was not the right forum for the collective Captain Ahab’s Motorcycle Club. So I offered to write something completely new and perform it solo. The timetable was two months and the budget was zero. The rhings I had was my mic, my autoharp and my ukulele, so that’s what I used. My daughter helped me, she sings in the background, she has a really beautiful voice. Other than that I did everything on the record myself.

What’s the concept of the album?

– The idea is that I take on the role of a motivational speaker. As inspiration I listened to lots of motivational speakers and some of the things that they say is very strange. One man talked about having cancer, and claimed that because of his positive attitude and his belief in himself, he was cured of his cancer. When you think about what he says, this means after all that those who do not become cured of their cancer have themselves and their negative attitude to blame.

– An idea that really stuck with me is that we are always encouraged to believe in ourselves. It is a very modern idea: do not believe in the church, or your family, or your community. No, believe in yourself, you’re the only one that you can believe in.

A lot of the advice in the songs feel like the opposite of what a self-help guru would say…

– Exactly. But it’s not just about that. Another important theme is information. Where is it easiest to hide a tree? In the forest, of course. And where is it easiest to hide information? In a flood of information. And that is the society in which we live.

Is the album about the United States?

– In some ways. It’s a very American way of thinking, and a very American thing to say: believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything. And so it becomes quite extreme when I come out and say you’ve done what you can, stop trying, you’re not special.

You are also working on a project called Captain Ahab’s Motorcycle Club, can you tell me about that?

– When The Billy Nayer Show split I wanted to do something that was less excluding. I wanted to do something very open, so I started Captain Ahab’s Motorcycle Club, which is a community that everyone can join. As it says on the home page: “participation equals membership”, so participate, and you’re in.

What have you worked with in Captain Ahab’s Motorcycle Club?

– First the focus was on the graphics and music. A variety of illustrators have contributed with pictures, emblems, animations, lots of different things. I wrote a bunch of songs and put them up on the website, with each audio track separated so that everyone can make their own versions of the songs. I urged people to make their own interpretations of the songs and email it to the site, and as long as the track with my voice fit with what they had done I would try to perform the songs live with their versions.

– Then I went on tour in the US, two months, with concerts almost every night. In the morning I downloaded the new versions that had been emailed to the site and listened to them. Then in the evening I went up on stage and tried to sing songs to the new music. It was really fun!

What are Captain Ahab’s Motorcycle Club working with now?

– We are changing the focus of what we do to the making of a movie. It will be called The Embalmer’s Tale and it’s about the man who embalmed Abraham Lincoln. This year is the 150th anniversary of the assassination of Lincoln, so there will be lots of things happening, like re-enactments of his funeral and that sort of thing. I try to get people to film these events, so we can use it in the film.

What is it that motivates you to do these projects?

– I do not know. But one thing that has been important is the total lack of commercial success. Because I never had any commercial success I have never had any previous succes that I have to follow up. So I have been able to explore different ways of doing things and experimenting. Small Star Seminar had never been the same album if I had a big budget, or any budget at all, to do it.

Cory McAbee: One Man Show
Cory McAbee is an extremely interesting guy. He is an actor, director, screenwriter and producer, active in American cinema, draws autobiographical comics, composes songs, writes lyrics, performs on stage – in short, an artist with an enormity of talents. Several of which were presented to the audience gathered at the Contemporary Theatre during his – let’s say – concert as part of the 36th Song Festival.

Without tricks
A “concert”, as Cory performed several of his works of word and music, supported only by instrumental backing from a laptop. There were no instruments, just singing and song-talking, filling gaps with unbridled expressionist acting – so it was a song-act, but in an American stand-up comedy style. Importantly, each composition had its translation into Polish.  Translated text was displayed on a big dark screen which, in addition to said laptop set in the background on a small table, set the scenery of the performance. Cory McAbee, however, did not need any theatrical tricks and filled the stage space with success…all by himself. He has freedom, charm and charisma that many stars would envy.

The contrary manifesto of conformity?
In the realm of this specific “one man show” under the slogan “Smallest Star Seminar” and with the background sounds of motorized, almost industrial sounding music, McAbee presented a concept whose motto could be: “The quieter you go, the further you get”. It was such a contrary manifesto on conformism, with verses such as: “If you don’t speak up, they might like you” or “I felt happy when I realized that my turn would never come. Why would it? After all, there is nothing special about me. Learn to deal with it”. From the mouth of Cory, a more modern-looking grey corporate accountant type rather than a freelance artist, it sounded funny and poignant. But also, though this is cliché to say, it made you think. Because could we actually not be a little – happier, if not for our damned ambitions? Maybe McAbee isn’t fibbing but – as Max Kolonko says – tells it like it is?

Skeleton and star
After the performance, Cory thanked his audience at length (which, unfortunately, was small, but in accordance with such niche fan events); he wanted to answer questions (here the audience seemed stunned and McAbee got only one question about his favorite poets) and as pat of the encore he sang two parts of a prepared piece… of opera. As the audience was leaving, he stood in the door and handed out stickers with a skeleton, a star and words “The Smallest Star”. Well, in principle that may be so, but in this show it had no bearing on the laughter.

Thanks to Magdalena Kenar for her help with the translation.