Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Perlstein.
Hi Jesse, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Composing first came to me in my early twenties, living in a Montréal apartment above an abandoned sewing machine shop, I formed a band with my roommates and best friends called [the] Slowest Runner [in all the world]. A friend gave me a pirated version of Ableton and I record sounds onto an old Zoom recorder and load them up into the DAW and manipulate them wildly. I didn’t know how to play any instruments so I set about using my voice as a more “controlled” noise maker, putting it through a myriad of effects, always different. The band grew, gaining a bassist, violinist and drummer but the bassist shortly dropped out so I picked it up and figured it out. We left Montréal and started rehearsing, recording and performing in New York City, the place I was born. I continued to hone my craft for the next four years of the band’s existence, taking on more creative, compositional roles in the band, as well as booking shows, organizing, outreach, etc. All while working crappy bar and cafe jobs and other strange gigs + scams to earn enough to stay in the band and keep it my priority. We grew in size (a different drummer, a cellist) and toured all over the US and Canada. We had a cult following after our first release and then a second, and sadly our last.
And while that band ended tragically in 2010, another, built from the original Montréal roommates, grew from its ashes. We named the project Sontag Shogun, a neo-classical trio that has taken me all over the world. With over a dozen releases, my relationship to sound and art has only expanded in ways I could not have anticipated. The experimental noise-making turned into coordination and arrangement. I was offered jobs to score short films by an artist out of Rotterdam, a filmmaker in New York, composing themes and emotional beds for stories to live in. When I moved to LA in January 2020, I was hoping to get into film/television/games but the pandemic shifted my path into a more deeply concerted effort in podcasts. One credit leads to another credit and my ability to profit off my sounds is only growing.
Music and art will always have value outside of money, and I’ll never stop making art that has no profit, but it is nice to live off what you love. I’ll continue to make radio, DJ, compose, perform, tour, make art installations, paint, draw, collage and everything else.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
So many people tried to tell me I was wasting my time with music. Or at least, that it was only a hobby and I’d wind up old and unemployed, aging out of the service industry that has buoyed me for my entire adulthood. But i persisted because I found it more enjoyable and fulfilling/rewarding to do what I loved and not worry about what could happen later.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in improvisational and experimental music. I am a feverent collaborator and someone who is obsessed with capturing and repurposing moments (in the form of field recordings). I love the intimacy of my life with my friends and loved ones and how it inspires my music. I’m probably best known for my work with Sontag Shogun but I hope to have my solo compositions gain in notoriety.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I’ve never had a mentor but I have made amazing friends and collaborators in my life. My advice: be nice to people. Say YES when you can, try new things and be easy to work with. My success partially comes from my ability to be creative without being overly controlling.
Contact Info:
- Website: jesseperlstein.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/absentwarrior/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseperlstein/
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/jesseperlstein
