INTERVIEW | Lord Loxley

I met this dope cat in ‘Nam. We killed a couple of commies and then ate their bodies prior to eating their friends and their friends’ friends and then their dads and their moms and a bunch of pigeons.

A conspiracy… it was later said. And yet, it all felt so real that we did not know.

Ok. I did not meet this man in Vietnam, nor have I ever killed another being, pigeons included, but I think this might have been a dream that someone once had about things like that. However, I did meet this man. I took his photo, listened to his words, and clumsily attempted to choose some meaningful morsels of insight, from a continually expanding block of life experience. He was kind enough to share all this with myself in three hours+ of interviews, via deep and meaningful grunts while collaborating to get Skewed 09 happening and during just plain old chillins.

Meet Lord Loxley. Another one of the most fascinating humans currently in existence. And this is only our second interview. Four more to come. Each one as unique as their ‘beholders’. Here we go.

That’s what this country is good for.
This interview has started. Do you want me to pause (my semi-intrusive recording device) while you talk about this country?
Nah. See, if you could just say that word slower, I’d be a happier man. C’mmon, say it.

SEX
What’s your most amazing fantasy?
Oh, my.

It doesn’t have to be sexual. It can be artistic or otherwise. Maybe we can start with your fantasy dump. As well as talk about dumps. Why talk about dumps?
Well, I’ll tell you, I’ve always had this fantasy to do with… submarines.

Uh, huh.
And… I’ve always wanted to like… emerge while on a submarine, doing something crazy. Just emerge with a full audience there, doing something that would really surprise them so they’re like: “Wow, there’s a submarine. Oh my god. Look at what they’re doing on that submarine”. And I’ve always wanted to be there doing something…maybe some sort of super erotic situation. Most likely. But, I don’t know. At the same time, something that would make my children proud.

So it would be something pseudo-erotic that would make your children proud?
Yeah.

We are at a busy coffee shop. People come, people go. We meet n greet.

You paused [your recorder], eh?

Yeah, I didn’t want to document our little interaction there… I’m seeing so many people today. Sorry. It’s crazy.
Yeah, you’ve been here before, haven’t you? Is this where you make your rent usually?

No. The other ones. The ones that close early. (The coffee shops is what we are talking about).
That wasn’t you in the handicapped washroom that I slipped a twenty to, way back? No?

No.
No?

No. I was the one you slipped into.
Right, right.

Without paying me. So you still owe me twenty bucks.
(Giggles) That’s right. Of course.

Is that where my money’s been going? You’ve been robbing me?
Shit, I‘ve been paying my rent with…

My grocery money.
Oh, dear.

You are that guy! Another m******a!! Like… (I drop food all over the place) I really need to learn how to eat when I’m tired. A skill to master.

Yeah… There was this one time you crossed the ocean.

Yeah.
To spend a divine night with me. Unforgettable.

I forgot it. So… It wasn’t…
Let me update you.

Yeah, it wasn’t…
You made my cat drool.

Yeah?
She won’t stop talking about you.

DRUGS
Do you talk to your cat a lot?
No, I’m just lying for content for this interview. I don’t know where that came from, but…

I did cross the ocean.
It was a divine night as well. Yeah. I felt like a foreign doctor from the Netherlands prescribing sleep to you. And rest.

Uh, huh.
I’m glad I could be that boring.

I could’ve stayed up.
We smile and giggle.

Being a visual artist, as well as part of the DJ/Music scene, you must have had your fair share of coming across a lot of different people and the ‘illicit’ substances they choose to inflict onto bystanders and submarine aficionados. You once described an experience with Herbal E, which we won’t go into right now, however I am wondering what was on your mind at the time?
HERBAL E. Fully unexpected, fully uninitiated experience. Similar to a wet dream.
I wish I had details as to what I was thinking at the time, but I do not. It might have been… I might have been thinking about Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, when she fell asleep in that little field, on the way to the Wicked Witch. I might have been thinking about that.

How likely is it?
It’s probably highly likely.

Like 90% likely or 99% likely?
Yes.

Both?
Yes.

Good answer. Did you learn that in politics? Possibly while you were in the White House?
I visited the White House much later in life. Unfortunately, that might have just been testosterone thinking back then. Fantasies…The mind. That amazing thing.

Do your children know?
About what?

Taking Herbal E.
At that point, maybe my son was born. Actually, no. My son and my daughter were born. They were basically one and two years old.

And you told them about the Herbal E because they were too young to understand you?
That I didn’t, but we did have the sex and drug conversation.

Yeah?
For certain.

Anything to share about other substances that came up in that conversation?
I had an LSD induced Astral Projection experience, where I rose up and out of my body slowly, like a reversed satellite zooming back to earth.

Sounds like an LSD story alright, but how does a reversed satellite zoom to earth?
It is the VIEW of the satellite, not the actual satellite that zooms down to earth… It was like this but in reverse and slower: Satellite Zoom.

Were you aware of all this?
I was very aware of this. I had read about astral traveling before this and was looking to try and do it. Also, I had done LSD over a hundred times previous and knew what just being on LSD was like. This was much different.

How long was this experience?
It seemed to have lasted about 5 minutes and in reality I’m not sure, as I had no sense of time at that moment…

Did you panic throughout at all or did you have the ability to see yourself do this?
It was a little overwhelming right at first, because I was rising naked, but I felt like I knew what was going on, and that I was in a safe place.

What did you do immediately after it was over?
I tripped balls for a long time after that, for many hours. That was right near the end of my days with LSD as I thought that it had taught me enough… I really had wonderful experiences with LSD and really learned a lot.

ROLL N ROCK
So you’re a pretty kick ass producer + performer, headed on your way to the Junos to grace the pop world with your nominated presence, and you’re constantly putting your mark on extremely interesting collaborations, such as Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea. Having this immense musical range is all fun and games really, and it seems to equally match up with your diverse subject matter in photography and film, but what’s next? Anything even left to tackle?
Melding photography with music and exploring that relationship of image & sound coming together, printing on leaves, experimenting. Since looking up my Viking roots and heritage, I’ve been thinking of pillaging a village.

Just to get satisfied all at once?
Yep. Shall we? Let’s go pillage…

We should. How many people? How are we going to make the quota?
Whatever is offered to us.

Can I take a leak before we pillage?
Absolutely.

Can you sing?
Yes.

Are you shy about it?
I think I’ve journeyed beyond being shy. But I’d say just of recent.

Can you do it right now?
I might sing outside. Singing in a coffee shop I might not. If we can take it outside.

Why not? There’s an audience.
I won’t sing for free in coffee shops. If they draw pornographic art for me, perhaps.

Fair enough. Let’s move on from minor chords and pillaging for a moment. If your drug days are over, is drinking the alternative to keep the rockstar artist persona going? Were you drunk when you gave your kids the sex talk?
No.

Were you on Herbal E?
No.

Were you thinking about Barbara Walters?
No. I really do enjoy drinking and getting out of hand, but it’s a pretty serious thing when you have your kids there.

I am actually curious about that. As a real question, cause it seems terrifying…
I don’t know. You might ask other people this, and they might have a different take on it, and it’s different with your daughter and it’s different with your son. My son… I could only feed him to the best of knowledge, what I know. I conceived him when I was fifteen years old. What the f*** did I know at that age to begin with?

Did your mom give you the talk before then, or after?
She had showed me some stuff, yeah. Honestly, I think I was fully equipped with all the knowledge that could’ve been delivered to me at that age. I had seen terrible photos, I’d been told by teachers and parents and everybody to have protected sex and be careful with this and that. It never stopped me, but it didn’t take long for me to have a child on the way. And that’s where I try and think: how come it happened so quickly for me? It’s like, this never happened to all my other friends…And to me it happened instantly. All of a sudden I had a kid on the way.

Did that change your take on the world?
Fully. To this day I remember how it all went down. And I tend to think that some people are meant to bring people into this world, and for the son I have today… I get so much enjoyment to see how he’s coming along, what he’s up to, what he’s become and what he’s becoming. I get so much enjoyment out of seeing that. I’m like “Wow, man. You give me purpose.” And I know that most parents would say that now. “You know, children do give you purpose in life and they’re a reason for living and all that”. But man, I’m really stoked. I have no regrets.

How many kids do you have now?
Three.

Did you (have regrets) at that age?
I was digging ditches in my teenage years. I had to drop out of high-school to pay for diapers and food, and you know, most people didn’t understand what I was going through, because nobody else was. I was this kid who had this weird situation on his hands, and nobody else did. And I don’t know, man. I made it through it, and I don’t regret anything. Austin kicks ass. Alex does too and so does Adrianna. I don’t regret any of it. Their mom and myself decided to take the challenge of bringing them into the world. That’s the thing. People have choices these days…You can decide whether to bring a life into this world, or not. And I think that’s one of the toughest decisions that you can encounter in life. Especially as a woman. And it’s something you gotta live with.

We talked about that on that day, and he was just sitting there in awe.

With such a packed schedule, do you hang out with them lots?
Not nearly enough. What I really want this year is more time to spend with them. The biggest thing for me is that I’m a pretty broke artist, and I’m struggling, and I have trouble paying my rent, let alone eating and stuff. And I just hate showing up empty handed. I have the time to spend with these children. And I know that’s all they want, and they don’t care about material things. I know they’d be happy just hanging out with me wherever, but it’s me. I find myself not wanting to show up, because I feel like a douche bag without a gift or something like that. And I need to get past that, man, because that’s in the way of us really getting to enjoy each other’s company. What I’m making an effort at this year, it’s not about being materialistic, but I do want to make an effort to contribute to their life and education on a financial level, and hopefully the future and art will be able to assist me with that.

3 Special Words from The Glossary of Accounts, Loxley’s first book…
Aloha: Hawaiian for affection, love, peace, compassion, mercy, goodbye and hello.
Bumfuck Nowhere: a place you’ve never heard of that you wouldn’t remember.
Transhemispated: the experience of feeling out-of-sorts physically while travelling from one hemisphere to another.

An abbreviated description of his relationship to photography, taken from that same book…
“Like my tattoos, each photo has memories associated with it […] a time capsule, that I only need to look at to find myself there again. While navigating through my viewfinder, I am infatuated with time and capturing moments within it. There is always life and a certain reality in the rectangular frame.”

-Fin-

Well, not really. Since we were only allowed to distribute small doses of this man all at once, for the sake of our nun friends and the general well being of the internet, we felt the need for an in depth, second interview to grace the pages of our tenth issue. Tattoos, Photography and Fiery Passion are all part of Lord’s world on a daily basis. ‘Tune in’ into our May/June issue for more art talk + more Loxley. Mullets and Humanity are also covered.

Meanwhile… www.lordloxley.com + download Skewed 09 for a quick profile.

|skewed|

Interview & Photography by Lexa Naicu

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