SAM PREKOP
INTERVIEW

1) Hello Sam…… Where did the title of the new album come from?
riding in a car down ashland avenue a fats waller tune was playing on the radio, wasn't paying much attention to it until the couplet "who's your new professor" jumped and just sort of hung there as a very odd combo of words and as happened to be i needed a title so maybe i prepared to hear something like this connect in an unusual way.

2) I would like to say my favorite song would have to be "Chicago People", tell us about that one.
i haven't had to pick a favorite, but i think "chicago people" is my favorite as well. it's the type of song or somehow part of some tradition maybe that i feel like i've been trying to do for a long time. i feel it's very distilled undecorated, what needed to be there is there and nothing extra, this i think will always be a challenge for me, and i think i got pretty close with this song. i like the idea that each lyric musically could be from a different song, i was interested in writing this seemingly static piece that actuallychanges quite bit all the time however subtly and the title cracks me up.

3) How does Chicago as a city influence your art?
at this point it's hard to tell, i've been here basically my whole life. so i don't have the benefit of an outsiders perspective to recognize all of it's peculiar qualities that might be a specific influence. however i like to think it's had a tremendous influence for the fact that i live here and if what i'm doing is any good it's got to reflect that fact. i think visually the color of chicago is very fine, some would say lacking but i think it has a quality that sneaks up on you just have to be looking.

4) What album in your record collection would people be surprised that you owned?
i've got a few willie nelson albums, that i thought i would never have gotten into.

5) What record made you want to write songs?
i never had a thought "now i will write songs" it's always been "i can't believe this sounds like music" when i started making music the velvet underground was a really big deal for me, also tom waits' records swordfish trombone and rain dogs in retrospect i think have been pretty influential.

6) What's up next for The Sea and Cake?
i hope to start getting together some new material for hopefully some shows and recording this fall, i hope time permits. i think it will.

7) Do you think everyone having solo projects keeps The Sea and Cake new and fresh?
i'd like to think so, i think all the extra curricular activity can't help but influence what we do in the sea and cake, but the sea and cake is quite an insular unit as well.

8) How do you get along differently with individual members of the group?
i get long famously with all of them.

9) When I heard your music for the first time, I thought to myself, this is what pop music sounds like underwater. What do you think of this analogy?
hmm, i don't know i hate swimming.

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