By Keith Walsh
As a jeweler focuses his or her eyesight on a gem with keen awareness, Sam Farzin of Southern California’s post punk group Media Jeweler has taken a close look at the world we live in, with views expressed in his lyrics. Live and on record, Farzin plays guitar while his authoritative baritone commands attention over the idiosyncratic drum beats of Bryson Mounts, melodic bass of Thom Lucero, the innovative guitar work of Jac Aranda, and the exceptional synth and guitar work of Graham Ulicny.

I asked Farzin, who started Media Jeweler in 2013 in Orange County, what makes music such a special vehicle for ideas? “I think that what I find most interesting in music,” he said, “and what I’m always drawn to…is a goal of the performance is to not necessarily kind of push the envelope in an obvious way — not like GG Allin or whatever –but to kind of like to connect in a way that requires putting yourself out there a little bit, you know, in kind of a vulnerable way.”

One common way that musical artists make themselves vulnerable is with personal lyrics. But in the case of Media Jeweler, the words are surprisingly impersonal. One song I thought might be an exception is “Brushstrokes.” The first song on Media Jeweler’s new album The Sublime Sculpture Of Being Alive has the lines: “Jealousy/The patron saint/enforcing novel ways/of making, making….”

I asked Farzin if the song was based on material from his personal life. “It’s kind of a more general, abstracted version of jealousy,” he said. “Almost none of the songs on the album are about specific personal experiences. There are little bits and pieces thrown about, but mostly they’re abstractions and kind of a little bit of absurdity and inversions of accepted concepts and language. That song is mostly just the kind of crux of that song is ‘why do we assign value to anything in particular and not assign value to anything else in particular.’

‘Happening In Real Time’
There are lots of references to visual arts and the act of painting, as well as pop culture throwbacks among the social criticisms on The Sublime Sculpture Of Being Alive – no surprise as Farzin studied Art History and Film at UC Irvine. I asked him why he chose music as a medium as opposed to visual art or film? “I think I’ve always had a slightly deeper connection to music as opposed to anything else since I was like 12 or 13 years old,” he said. “And I think that music occupies a very interesting space in kind of the greater understanding of art and what you might call the art world. Because music is intangible, largely. You can buy a record or a CD or whatever but the actual music itself cannot be held.”

Farzin continues: “And I think that with most forms of art that are more regularly discussed and lauded as art as opposed to a content of a certain, type, music is often ignored in that way, because it cannot be owned in the same way. And I think that’s interesting, I just like music, I find music exciting in a way that…. – I mean I like visual art and film and everything else, but I find music to be the most exciting because it’s happening in real time and because it’s not given the same credibility of other art forms, again because of the lack of ownership, and I think that’s interesting.”

I asked Farzin if he was familiar with the sale of Wu Tang Clan’s Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, an album that sold in 2015 as a single copy for $2 million.

“Totally, yeah, the Martin Shkreli (thing) – yeah, that was interesting. But at the end of the day it’s kind of a novelty, because only one person gets to hear that thing. It’s a good idea in theory but I don’t know if the execution really holds water because of the novelty.”

I wondered if another reason music is imbued with less credibility is because it’s considered ‘low art.’ “I don’t think it’s considered like ‘low art’ but I don’t think it’s considered ‘high art,’ Farzin said. “When you get to something like opera, then you’re like in that world of quote unquote ‘high art,’ and upper class experience of what might be referred to as art. But you still can’t own an opera either, and an opera is never going to be sold at an auction for thirty million dollars.”

As Media Jeweler’s promo text on Bandcamp points out, quoting Walter Benjamin, our everyday lives are constantly mediated by created visual art and crafted messages. Considering this, what does Farzin consider to be the artist’s approach to life? He tells me: “The best thing you can probably do is just acknowledge it. And know that despite how precious you might feel about what you are making, you are inevitably ripping somebody else off, and being motivated in some capacity by the movement and dynamics of the world around you.”

I assured him that Media Jeweler is an palpably unique band. “That’s what we’re trying to do,”he said. “We’re trying to take all our influences and make something different.”

D.I.Y. An Outdated Concept?
Even with the titles of their earliest works which contained few lyrics, Media Jeweler has always pointed their criticism at the commerciality of late capitalism. “I mean, when you talk about selling things,” Farzin told me, “it’s part of the bigger conversation, even when it comes down to selling records or music or whatever, but it’s such small stakes and small potatoes that it almost is like a different thing altogether. No record label selling a few thousand records a year is part of the bigger capitalistic system, but the same time is that the machine to rage against?”

I pointed out that nowadays there are lots of tools for recording artists to create and distribute their music on their own, without someone from a label breathing down their neck, and without making compromises. He said: “Yeah, but even in those capacities if you’re trying to be a purist, you’re going to host your files on an Amazon server, you’re going to have to buy CD-Rs from Best Buy, you’re going to have to buy things to make the things, even, if you’re doing it yourself. You’re still creating potential waste or whatever.”

Is Media Jeweler interested in licensing deals, or getting their music in films, television or commercials?  “I mean, we’re open to it, we’re not wanting to feel precious,” he told me. “I think the idea of selling out, it’s quite different than I was when I was a teenager, and I’m sure you know how it felt to people in the 80s, and really like the 80s forward. Like after punk was a much larger force. I think it’s always been a kind of flawed idea, because like I said, you’re trying to be a purist about everything but you’re still having to get engaged with the larger system in place. I think we’d all be open to getting paid for our music. In that capacity as long as we’re being aligned with that, it didn’t feel like the worst thing in the world long ago.”

Farzin tells me that and the other members of Media Jeweler are talking about a new album. “Hopefully that will happen before the end of the year,” he said. “My goal or idea, and I think what everyone else would be into too, would be to try and like record as much as possible remotely, and it would lend a kind of scattered sound to the way the music sounds, and then when we meet up, kind of color in-between the lines and make it sound more like Media Jeweler. Which is what always ends up happening.”

Farzin plays a G & L C3 (with the middle pickup removed), a Sunn amplifier head and Sunn 112 cabinet. His most used pedal is clone of the Boss Slow Gear, an envelope filter that can alter the attack and decay of a musical signal.

Find out more about Media Jeweler at Fire Talk Records, on Bandcamp and at MediaJeweler.com .

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Header image: Thom Lucero (bass/vox) – Graham Ulicny (keys/guitar/vox) – Sam Farzin (guitar/vox) – Bryson Mounts (drums) – Jac Aranda (guitar/vox)