Accompanied by just his acoustic guitar and a drum machine, Chad Methany, a.k.a. Emperor X, is yelling at the ceiling. He’s performing alone— but not really. The crowd of one hundred and some chants back catchy melodies that are chock full of weird words. Somewhere hidden in the impressive sonic output is the unfiltered perspective of an extremely cool musician (I’m talking about Methany). He’s trotting around the stage, standing on the subwoofer, and taking song requests in Philly’s Ukranian club-turned-venue. Methany’s excitement seems to rub off on everyone in attendance. To say the least, I was just charmed to just be a part of it.
Methany is legally blind, a former science teacher, a cancer survivor, and of course, a musician. Being legally blind, the government does not trust him to drive. With that, Methany’s got to trust the government to get him around, so he tours entirely via public transportation. Highlighted many times in the Emperor X discography is his passionate relationship with the infrastructure that takes him from one show to another. One project on his Bandcamp is a critical collection of songs hyper focused on public transit in the Northeast Corridor. Each track corresponds to concerts he performed at—and more importantly, the transit he took to get there.
After the show, Methany and I exchanged emails so we could chat about what he’s been up to, what it’s like touring via bus (government owned) and train, and what the fuck he’s talking about in these songs. Whether it’s about quasi-physics, corrupted bureaucracies, or just his thoughts on being a person—there’s always a lot in there, and it’s always really interesting.
In our correspondence, Methany prefaces he’s battling jet lag from a flight back to his current home: Berlin. Jet lag or not, Methany has a way with words that transcends beyond just his lyrics. He was cool and had so much good stuff to say. Check it out.
Your music addresses everything from bureaucracy and public transit, to love and personal experience. The lyrics are often phonetically dense. Is there a goal or particular inspiration for the intricate style of your songwriting?
There is no pre-set goal for which I choose my style of songwriting. Each song’s style is emergent from my process. Purpose usually shows up after the fact. I do not start out by saying “Okay, what would be a really intricate thing to say here about Topic ___?” I start out with a sound and hang words on it like a bowerbird builds a nest. I then identify a desired element — a phrase that emerges from phonetic nonsense for example — and accept, reject, or rewrite existing elements in the song to support that element. The difference between a bowerbird and I is that I then spend a ton of time editing to serve this mid-process-identified purpose, whereas a bowerbird just says “birrrrrd” and makes out in the nest.
You’ve had an interesting path through life, you were a science teacher, battled testicular cancer, are legally blind, and a Florida native who lives in Berlin. How do you think Emperor X would look and sound without these things?
I’m a science fiction guy, so I turned your question into an excuse to explore three alternate-universe scenarios.
Counterfactual Scenario 1: I stay in Florida. E.X would probably be a friend-packed and beautiful but cumbersome full band that plays at Christmas and for high school reunions. I’d probably be more on the punk side of folk punk and I doubt I would have embraced electronic music in the same way. I’d have kids, I’d still be teaching high school. I’d be 20 pounds heavier, but not from fat — I’d just be into lifting. I would have moved a few miles downstate to Titusville so I could become the local poet laureate of the American space program. I would read villanelles about SRBs and rocket propellant at open mic nights. I would have been arrested for biking on the freeway at least once in my 30s, and instead of “Erica Western Teleport” my most famous song would be a very silly entitled growling punk song about freeways not really being free or something like that.
Counterfactual Scenario 2: I can see normally. Honestly, this is a pretty short scenario, because one of the main reasons I left Florida was because it is an awful, structurally mean place to be stuck in when you can’t drive. So just take Scenario 1 above but without the consolation prize of the silly song about getting arrested for biking on the freeway.
Counterfactual Scenario 3: I didn’t have testicular cancer. Honestly, this one’s not really worth contemplating. I’d be down one good song (“€30,000“) but I’d have twice my current default lung capacity (bleomycin is absolute murder on lungs) and one additional testicle. I don’t know, this one’s kind of a wash honestly. I think I’d be in pretty much the same situation without the cancer because I was an absolute curmudgeon and tried really hard to let it change nothing about me. Cancer was kind of a waste of time tbh. Cannot recommend. 🙂
An easier way to answer this question though is that we all play these counterfactual games and attribute who we are to events that happened to us, but I think this is an error. Who we are responds to events that happen to us. We have our choice landscape expanded or limited by what happens to us, but the specific path we take within that landscape is, in my strict libertarian (in the free will sense, not the political one) position, precisely what defines us.
Due to your vision, you tour via public transportation and seem to have a passion for it and its possible improvements. What’s your experience with traveling on public transit- what do you love? What do you hate? Stories?
My love for public transit relates partly to the counterfactual scenarios above, for several reasons. I would have loved not having to leave my home state because it is such an unfriendly place for people who can’t drive. For me public transportation is a symbol of individual liberty! I love trains like Republicans love guns: MUH (RAIL) FREEDOM.
I’m being silly; it goes deeper than that. Social: Group ownership of the means of transportation creates opportunity for interaction with other individuals as unknown mysteries to explore, and for interaction with a capital-P Public that is unknowable in the bubble confines of suburban-home-and-car. Economic: Public infrastructure is a crucial piece of a functional society, be it Smithian/capitalist or Marxist/command or Keynesian/mixed. Even in strict capitalism, under-investment in state infrastructure leads to monopolistic stagnation. Aesthetic: THERE IS NOTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN A PEOPLE MIXED AND ENCOURAGED TO FLOW THROUGH THE WORLD WITH ONE ANOTHER! Subways are the waterslides of the civilizational playground.
I hate nothing about public transit as such. I DO hate LOTS about public transportation as currently realized in our world, and particularly in the majority of North America. This is one of the main attractions of Europe for me. Please tell everyone you know, for example, that beginning in May, €49 per month buys you unlimited rides on all public transportation IN EVERY CITY IN GERMANY AND ON REGIONAL TRAINS BETWEEN THEM. In American terms, imagine a pass that would let you ride SEPTA, the NYC subway, the T in Boston, and NJ Transit + local Amtrak service (basically everything but Acela and airplanes), for $55 per month. No buying tickets, no getting weekly passes when you travel — all cities included, no matter where you live. And good service, too. That an EU state with a lower GDP can do that without batting an eyelash should make every American and Canadian shake their fist in rage at their ineffectual government. It’s getting better all the time. but not quickly enough.
As for stories…too many to list here.
What are your biggest suggestions or hopes for the future of public transit?
I think I cover this one above. This is doable with SLIGHTLY HIGHER WINDFALL PROFIT TAXES! No more ballot measures asking people to pay what amounts to a flat tax on all purchases. Give taxes a tiny bump in the upper bracket, reroute funding to rails and buses and infrastructure. The Biden admin’s getting some of this right, actually — not nearly far enough in my opinion but at least in the right direction.
You often perform solo with just your guitar and what looked like an op-1. Is this how you prefer to present your music? have you ever played with a full live band?
Yeah, I used either an OP-1 or an OP-Z or a Synthstrom Deluge, depending on my mood. They are all quite small and battery-powered, and very inspiring for composition and performance in very different ways.
Regarding full band, I would love to. But tour economics are not such that I can afford to pay musicians. I run things in a very strictly egalitarian model when I play with others; I am also a person with lots of financial responsibilities. Those two combined mean that I can’t do a full band right now without sacrificing too far in one direction (me taking a disproportionately larger share than the supporting band) or the other (me coming home from tour with stupidly little money for myself). In future this might happen in a limited capacity for some shows in larger cities, but a The Emperor X Band Tours North America thing looks quite remote, at least in early 2023. We’ll see, who knows! 🙂
For those who don’t know your music, how would you describe it?
Woodie Guthrie, Michael Stipe and D. Boon kidnap Daft Punk and Everything But the Girl, and they all step into a Star Trek transporter and get Tuvix-style fused into some guy’s solo project.
dope.
Although I already have my answer, why should other people care about Emperor X?
I’m happy when people care about music at all. If they care about mine that’s an added bonus for me but music is an infinitely exciting way for humans to connect with one another; if people can do that with my music, great. If they can’t, they should follow the scent of music with which they can do that.
And that’s why I am the worst PR person ever; let the products sell themselves.
You heard it here. While Methany rests up, we’ll all just have to wait for his next thing. If you love music: listen to Emperor X. If you love music live: go see Emperor X.
Take the train or bus to get there. It’s a symbol of your individual liberty. You might as well use it.
Watch our full live set of Emporer X performing at Ukie Club below.
