‘”What did (or do) you call your grandparents?” was the question I asked 100 friends and family members. My Father’s Father is a 5 song EP and accompanying short film featuring 217 spoken grandparent names.
Names, especially grandparent names, are simultaneously personal and universal. Precious and shared. From just a couple syllables, one might make assumptions about a shared ethnicity, nationality, race, age, gender, class. When I hear these recordings it’s hard not to suppose the grandchild’s relation (or lack of) to their grandparent. Like a tongue twister or one of those games where you repeat the same word over and over and over, I wonder if hearing names arranged in these ways will strip any of these associations away?
Who does the naming? With grandparents, that’s pretty up in the air. I gave one of my grandmothers her name. It was rather random but I saw Bukie more often than Reba. I think I was too young to tell the difference between these 2 old women in my life so I often called them both “Bukie”. More power to Reba for rolling with me but eventually something had to give. The compromise of a toddler was to change one letter. From then on I had a “Bukie” and a “Bupie.”
The animation I made was (rather directly) inspired by Drums West, an early short by Jim Henson that visualizes the drumming of Chico Hamilton.”‘ -Noah Wall
Read much more about the project over at DavidByrne.com
This follows Noah’s Live at Guitar Center project and comes just in time for Grandparents Day (Sept. 13).
Noah Wall
My Father’s Father
(Self-Released)
Digital Only
Street date: Sept. 4, 2015
Track List:
1. My Father’s Father
2. Pa Boo La
3. Stacks
4. Grammy Pop
5. Morris, I Think
NOAH WALL LINKS: