Karen Stever Chats to Wicked Spins Radio
Karen Stever Chats to Wicked Spins Radio
by Phlis (Alteria Anarchy)
Concept albums are sometimes something special and The Idiot Savant by Karen Stever is more then special, its a work of art. Its dark and emotional and an album that Karen hopes will inspire people. As well as the album Karen is also writing a book as well. Wicked Spins Radio got chance to chat to Karen about The Idiot Savant, its ideas, the role of Ian in the story and also about why its set in the 1930’s. Interested you? Well read on and find out more about this immense project.
WSR – Thank you for giving Wicked Spins Radio this interview, can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?
Karen – I am a weirdo. I suck at math and science. I think too deeply and perhaps feel too emotionally.
It makes for a good basis to do a lot of writing. I have written a ton of songs and a couple of albums. The first album which is, ‘Playground Isolator’ was during my depression so that I could get a lot off my chest at that time. The current record, ‘Idiot Savant’ was written when I started to fall in love with writing and with characters again. It is a very large concept record set back in the 1930s. Everything I do, tends to be with a very small team and everything I make is always on a shoestring budget. I love finding things at garage sales or making things from scratch.
WSR – The Stever Community has helped you in many ways, what is the greatest way that they have helped you?
Karen – I should mention two ways because they helped me emotionally and physically. During the first record, I sincerely thought, like many people do, that I was going through my depression all by myself. As it turned out, while I was sharing the music with them, they in turn were comforting me at a time that I didn’t really feel like I had very much confidence in anyone around me.
Then when I wanted to put out the second record, everyone helped me by funding the campaign to release it in just eight days. That directly helped me to heal from some of the major things that were going on in my life. I am ever so thankful. On top of that, my faith in humanity has been restored which daily affects how I view people.
WSR – Can you tell our readers a little bit more about Ian please?
Karen – Ian is the nine-year-old main character from ‘Idiot Savant’. The story chronicles his journey through hell back towards the playground again. He is a talented Savant who has bad teachers and comes across an old organ grinder as his new mentor. The 1930s were a very dark and brooding time. His story is far from elegant. I will be touching on the physical and mental Hell he goes through and throughout the story he has an amazing relationship with animals. I have over 50 creatures mentioned in the record itself.
WSR – Spiders featured on Idiot Savant, what is their role in Ian’s story?
Karen – For anybody who has ever spent an excessive amount of time being alone or lonely, I am sure you can relate to looking for comfort in any kind of kindred spirit or anything that moves. This may be a ladybug that lands on your curtain or a bird outside of your window. For Ian, spiders are the only form of life that he witnesses in the asylum where he is staying (outside of the doctors and nurses).
WSR – Idiot Savant is a concept album, a piece of art, a masterpiece that I feel only you could pull off. Did you have any doubt that you could breathe life into Idiot Savant and did you ever think you could create something so amazing like you have?
Karen – That is the question that I have never been asked nor is it a thinking pattern I’ve ever gone through. But, let me do my best to answer it! When I am writing something, I give absolutely no consideration to whether or not I will do a good job at it. I simply suffer from too many thoughts in my head that have to get out or I will be tortured by them. I will say that while writing this very large story, I remained diligent in making sure that this young boy’s message remained front and center. It is very easy in the world of rock and roll to get sidetracked by the glamour. Because I have learned to quit caring what people think about me, it has really put me into a free head space where I can write something honestly and authentically with a much better motivation than what I’ve had in the past. Simply put, I fell in love with writing again and have enjoyed it the way I did when I was a young person in school. I am much closer to the childlike spirit that I have striven for but I don’t know that I will ever go back to looking for praise. The story is so much larger than anyone of us. That story and the music remains the boss that I continue to answer to. In some ways, I consider myself an audience to it all. 🙂
WSR – Is there any part of Ian that is a reflection of you?
Karen – I think that is a question I will probably answer more solidly when the whole book is done. I don’t tend to look at him as me so much as I tend to look at him as a boy that I have deep compassion for. I think it stands to reason that when you are compassionate towards somebody else it is because you have gone through something similar. I like to think that there is a bit of Ian in all of us.
WSR – What made you stop watching the news?
Karen – I had an enormously low serotonin level to the point where my doctor had put me onto medication. That is your happy chemical in your brain. Things like exercise and Omegas help to raise that up. One of the biggest killers of serotonin is stress because it causes stomach acid which eats up your serotonin. There is nothing in the world more stressful to me then hearing not just a negative spin on reality but the dishonesty in skewing the truth. While I still look at the headlines to be aware, I have learned to separate myself from bad events so that they don’t set my day or my bedtime on the wrong path. I am amazed by people who can watch terrible things and still manage to have supreme happiness throughout their day.
WSR – Ian’s story is set in the 1930’s, what is it about that era that you adore so much?
Karen – I love the look and feel of that era like in New York for instance but I also appreciate the extreme struggles that families went through and ultimately survived. I chose to feature the two lions that are in front of the New York library because their names are Patience and Fortitude. The Great Depression seems to be just a larger scale of my own depression. I also have an historical fascination with that time because I believe from a mental health standpoint, it has set a very bad precedent for how we handle these things today.
WSR – Apart from producing, what part has Frank played in Idiot Savant?
Karen – I have two people in my world who have been directly involved in this and I am very thankful to have in my life. One is Mark Miller who sees me struggle daily and is an amazing set builder. If I imagine a very large prop like a piano, a spinning riser for filming, a juggernaut or a model of the New York library, Mark has an amazing skill set to be able to bring that vision to life. You will also see him not only play drums in the videos, but he is also one of the two people in lab coats dragging me into the asylum. The other person in the lab coat is Frank Gryner. He coproduced both records. You will see him playing guitar but he also films these videos and has done all that amazing animation that you’ve seen.
WSR – You are writing a book to follow Idiot Savant, is this just one story or will it be bigger than just one book?
Karen – I don’t know the answer to that yet. I am also an audience member here just paying attention to where it is supposed to go. The breakdown for the book is that the 12 songs you hear on the record are also the 12 chapters that are in the book. They are just stretched out. Each song is either a moment or scene from the larger story. It certainly has the ability to widen to several other topics but I hope to keep the reins on it for the sake of focus. Ha!
WSR – Idiot Savant carries a message, what would the feeling be like for you if you knew that it had changed someone’s life for the good?
Karen – It has always been my hope with this record to inspire somebody to get back to the spirit of play. We just simply are not living life to the fullest and we are not fulfilling the original intention that was sent out for us. While I don’t think in terms of numbers and I hope that it touches even one other person, the idea that it could cause a movement of play to happen again where people reunite with that inner child is an amazing thing to strive for. To inspire and to be inspired – what a truly awesome thought.
WSR – Idiot Savant is very dark, how can something so dark inspire someone in a great way?
Karen – I think darkness used to be equated with evil things or extreme sadness but I don’t think that sunshine and flowers are the only things that people find beauty in. I love the ligaments in the spider’s leg. I love the passion that sits in the stomach of a mother crow when she guards her young babies. I would hope that if there are people out there who feel like Ian and have gone through something that he has gone through, they can also see that there is hope in getting back to the true spirit of play.
WSR – Society dictates that we should get married, have the usual 2.4 children, car, mortgage. My life is far from what society dictates, I have no children and live my life for the love of life itself. What path in life have you chosen?
Karen – I have learned to ride life’s wave. I have made some choices in my life which have proven to be very unhealthy for me. I figure I have had my shot at choosing my path and now I’m going to live my life as a wide-eyed little girl full of discovery in the hopes that I can be used in a very efficient way which serves the greater purpose. I feel that it has been imperative to my growth to not follow whatever anybody else does just because society sells us the things we have in our life based on those relationships.
WSR – My biggest strength but also my biggest downfall is my emotion, it’s a human trait that can fell the greatest and strongest of us all. What trait within you is your strength and what is your own weakness?
Karen – I believe my compassion is a blessing and a curse but I am unwilling to give it up. It has helped me to help others but it has also caused me an enormous lack of sleep because seeing the pain of other people or animals is emotionally super heavy. I am trying to focus that into my writing so that all these thoughts can have the hope of making a bigger difference than just me sitting by myself worrying about it.
WSR – Thank you so much for giving Wicked Spins Radio this interview, is there anything you would like to add?
Karen – If you have followed along this far, I want to say that it is my hope for you to reunite with your inner child and find the true spirit of play once again. The world has enough paper doll cut-outs and we are truly excited to meet the authentic you!
https://www.facebook.com/SteverMusic
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