Ghenis Tron by Nathan Appel model: Sovereign Syre

NATHAN MOTHERFUCKIN’ APPEL:

Every time I shoot with Nathan (@nathanappel) it gets better, and each time I shoot with Nathan, it gets more harrowing.

The first time we shot together, he picked me up in Santa Maria and took me to a dive motel where for twenty bucks extra, we got the hot tub suite.  He bought me a wedding dress at the thrift store and as soon as I jumped in the tub, an acrid stench was released into the air.

And just when the dress came off, the power went out.  The shoot went on with only a single beauty light. (Hey, it’s ALL I need!)

The second time we shot together, he broke his tooth on the way over and we spent most of the shoot drinking gin and grape soda and talking about how he might take care of his tooth without any money.  He took a lot of pictures of me in an eyepatch, hanging out with my pitbulls.

He also took one of the most magical sets ever in the yard that I grew up in.

This time, he got a flat tire in Atascadero and then got a speeding ticket, so he didnt’ get to the location until the sun was almost setting.

On top of that, during my visit back home, I think the sun has only come out once or twice.  I’ve been living in a strange ether of fog and cold for weeks.  It’s been good for character building I guess.  I feel like I’m some hinterland most of the time, more distant than ever from the home I left behind to move to NYC and start my life.

I’m staying in my childhood bedroom, surrounding by curios from a time that feels increasing foreign to me.  Sometimes I feel like the detective in my own life story, wondering why I was so fascinated with the Virgin Mary or collecting antique keys.  (Why do have so many figurines of a virgin?!?)

This time when Nathan and I shot I was in the middle of recording a video for JM Darling and sending out emails to everyone who came to the West Coast benefit for Jessie Lee and bought prints.

We spent a long time talking about pornography and whether or not I’m going to venture into adult work.

The conversation drifted, as it always does between him and I, to what it meant to be an artist and our relationship to our work.

I actively seek out an audience for what I do.  I think people have too many choices for you just to wait around for them to figure out that you’re there.  Nathan doesn’t really care if anyone sees his work or not.  He’s the far nobler of course.

I just want to be loved or something.

Nathan built a large format polaroid camera and we took a lot of amazing pictures of me in some vintage lingerie my ladyboi gave me and an old mask I had lying around.

He felt that I came out with something darker and more intense this shoot together.

It might be true.

When we went to dinner I was answering questions for an interview I have in a magazine coming up.  The writer was wondering how I felt about the state of erotica and why I was appealing as a model.

I didn’t know what to answer.  I don’t really think of myself that way.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“You look like one of those models from the early nineties,” he said, “Your face, it’s like Cindy Crawford or you know those girls from the age of the supermodel. You know what I’m talking about?”

I wrote down, “My ass intellect.”

We talked a lot about the move to the moving picture as a trend in erotic photography.  He talked a lot about how not new that really was.  We delved into the vision for Darling House and what I hope it will become.  We talked about social networking and business and all the other things that artists seem to regard with a strange kind of ambivalence.

We can’t seem to figure if the internet is an audience worthy of anything truly artful, of if they are forever too churlish…then again, people read this thing so…somewhere there an audience interested in something more sophisticated than animated gifs of girls getting facefucked.

“If you want me to film you and Josh,” he said before he left, “I will…unless that’d be weird for you guys.”

“Nothing’s weird for me and Josh,” I said, “We love weird.”

XOXO,

Sovvy.

Berry tends to play men full of fumbling hubris to great comedic effect, while at the same time managing to abscond with some of their swagger. There is always a trace of sexuality bubbling just under the surface. This duality, the contradiction between the comedian as a usually self effacing figure and the smirking flirtation of an inwardly confident man, is perhaps what makes him so intriguing At least to his female fans. The rest of his fans are probably more likely to cite deftness of the crude humor and his ability to play the straight man without ever flinching, no matter how ridiculous the premise of an enterprise.

But Berry is more than just a deliciously offbeat actor. He wrote his own show, Snuff Box which appeared on the BBC, and contains some really brilliant material alongside American cohort Rich Fulcher. Check out the series and see if the sketches Boyfriends or Rude Song dont make you laugh out loud. Snuff Box was also full of musical numbers, something that is always wound up with Berrys work.

Berry is an accomplished musician, and has released two albums, Opium, and most recently, Witchhazel. Hes also the voice of Absolute Radio where he periodically produces some of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes.

When I caught up with Mr. Berry, it was just before his birthday and he was preparing for the release of Witchhazel. (For those of you wondering, hes13,151 days old, and his Native American totem is the Beaver.)

It seems hes certainly been busy.

1. Your podcasts are quite popular. Your voice is one of the things youre most known for. How old were you when you realized your voice was special? Did you have to develop it, or was it something that you always had with you?

I never thought about it until it was noticed from the early TV stuff. Old friends really don’t understand the fuss as they have had to listen to me shitting on for years.

2. Do you consider yourself more an actor, writer, or musician? What did you aspire to be when you started?

I try not to consider myself, and the only thing I’ve ever aspired to do is not work at a conventional job. My only aim from being very young was not to have a 9-5 job. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with an office job; I’m just saying that I recognized early that it would be an environment that would unleash dreadful demons from within myself. I am all too aware that I am at the moment bloody lucky to be able to spend my time doing the things I love, and get paid for it.

3. How involved were you with the writing of Darkplace? How did the idea come about? One-Track Lover is quite brilliant,

There was a very large amount of improvising especially the talking heads bits and commentary which was all unscripted. The premise itself came from purely from Matt Holeness and Richard Ayoade.

4. I’ve noticed a lot of the same actors appear all over British television; you and Richard Ayoade come to mind. Are only a certain number of people allowed to be funny at one time in Britain? Is there a caste system in place in that regard? Please inform.

No. I think it may appear that way to you because of the things you have watched. The comedies I have been involved in, with the possible exception of the IT Crowd, are not mainstream comedy programs. They are cult shows, which translate as late night viewing with a small but dedicated audience. The IT Crowd is probably as mainstream as Ill ever get on British television, as I’m sure the writers and producers of the big family comedy shows don’t want me anywhere, fucking near their work.

5. I know you’re involved with Amnesty International, what cause in particular brought you into contact with them?

I’ve always been aggressively opposed to capital punishment and Amnesty are keen for me to use their various platforms to force the point that if we, the West, stop executing people completely, we stand a better chance of outlawing the frequent public executions (recently two teenage girls) that occur in the Middle East. Every time there is such an event, and we outcry, the powers that be in the Middle East always respond by calling us hypocrites due to the executions that are taking place in our own countries. To execute someone is abhorrent enough, but to execute someone in public pisses in the face of any human rights we have. It’s all very awkward.

6. What are the differences between British and American comedy?

In mainstream/family American comedy the jokes come thick and fast during the half hour show, with the British equivalent; the jokes are usually labored for the full twenty-eight minutes without ever being ready, or able to come. There are of course exceptions to that sweeping and sloppy innuendo infused generalization.

7. What has been your favorite project so far?

I’m quietly proud of ‘Snuff Box’ which was a show I wrote with Rich Fulcher for the BBC. The thing ended up looking pretty similar to the image I had in my head before we started. I was also surprised that it went out at all; as I expected it to be shelved, and for me to be told to get fucked. I also loved every minute of writing and recording ‘Witchazel’, my second album, which comes out soon.

8. Is it, or is it not acceptable to use the word cunt in polite conversation in England? Also, please explain this whole fuck/shag thing. Keep in mind, I’m an American and confuse easily.

You cannot drop cunt at a dinner table or in front of any persons you don t know as, the negatives far out way the positives. What most people seem to do, is wait for the most offend-able person to use the word and take that as their cue to drop it themselves. Cunt is still the big one, and a word that divides most people here. People who are totally opposed and offended by that word should take note that there are many cunts out there ready and waiting to ease their lives into chaos so, if they can think of a better word to describe such people then please come forward.

Shag: An outdated, lame and lazy alternative word for people who are too afraid to say fuck. The only US equivalent I can think of would be ’swell’ in response to good news…you get what Im trying to say.

9. A recent comment about you on Youtube.com said simply that you were, “the sexxx.” Are you indeed, the sexxx?

Yes (without hesitation).

10. What are you working on right now?

I have just finished the fourth series of the IT Crowd here in the UK and am due to fly to North Carolina in a few days time to make a film with Steve Agee from the Sarah Silverman program. Steve is a brilliant comic and friend so I’m very much looking forward to that, and then I will return to London and launch straight into the recording of my third album which will be titled ‘Music For Insomniacs’ and will blow your fucking minds into space.

I love you Sovereign and look forward to showing you the British way.