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<\/a>The transition between playing and collaborating with bands as big as The Posies, Big Star, and R.E.M to playing in venues with sometimes less than 75 people watching was Stringfellow\u2019s way to cultivate human connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a 15- or 20-year acceleration of volume where the shows just got louder and louder,\u201d says Stringfellow. \u201cIt\u2019s fun and all, but for the solo show, I had different things that I was trying to explore that would never survive that atmosphere; they\u2019re just too fragile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stringfellow says the search for intimacy and connection with the crowd through his art was not necessarily a conscious decision; he began to realize over time that it\u2019s just what invigorated him the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an emotional kind of intensity that has to do with focus,\u201d he says about his solo work. \u201cIf you\u2019re plying with a loud band\u2014as a listener I\u2019ve experienced this\u2014they can disappear into the noise, and noise can become like this big security blanket. In the end, yeah, it\u2019s intense because it\u2019s loud, but actually, emotionally, it\u2019s not that intense. Even something as harmless as a tiny four-channel PA, it adds a thing that\u2019s not real in a way. The fragile thing is, just, that\u2019s how humans are, and we do a lot to get out of being fragile.\u201d<\/p>\n