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Mar 15, 2019 Web Exclusive By Christopher Roberts

To end out the week, we ask Jake Webb of Methyl Ethel some questions about endings and death.

Webb leads the Australian New Wave/art rock band. They released a new album, Triage, in February via 4AD. Triage is Methyl Ethel’s third album. Webb wrote, performed, and produced the album, recording it in his home studio in Perth. For live shows the band fills out to a five-piece, adding in Thom Stewart, Chris Wright, Lyndon Blue, and Jacob Diamond.

Read on as Webb talks about how he’d like to die, what song he’d like performed on his deathbed, his favorite endings to books, TV shows, albums, and movies, and his concepts of heaven and hell.

How would you like to die and what age would you like to be?

In the throes of ecstasy, at whatever age in whatever ecstatic state. Just glowing with overwhelming pleasure. I already feel like these questions are going to reveal some deep seeded foibles.

What song would you like to be playing at your deathbed?

Some remix of the second movement from Ravel’s “Piano Concerto in G” and a J Dilla beat. Maybe I could be making the mix. That could be the ecstatic moment! When it all just clicked!

What song would you like to be performed at your funeral and who would you like to sing it?

No singing is to be sung, no live music is to be performed. I haven’t thought about my funeral at all until this point but of this I am certain. Geez, who knows if anyone would even turn up. Definitely no singing though, maybe some DJs.

What’s your favorite ending to a movie?

The ending to the Miranda July film, Me and You and Everyone We Know. Such a great film. I love it when there are these little mundane mysteries that run like a seam through a film. The reveal isn’t a twist, more like an answer that you realize you weren’t ever really searching for. Something like that. Just watch the film.

What’s your favorite last line in a book?

I loved the ending to The Trial by Franz Kafka. Orson Welles’ film version does a pretty good job on the ending too. Most good books have great endings. I mean, come on, if nothing else, at least reward your readers with a decent ending. For the slog, you know? Mayonnaise.

What’s your favorite series finale last ever episode of a TV show?

Controversially I think the last episode of The Sopranos is great. I’m happy to have a little ambiguity. Go out like [former Australian Prime Minister] Harold Holt, R.I.P.

What’s your favorite last song on an album?

Has to be “Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family” from [David Bowie’s] Diamond Dogs. It would be perfect if the loop at the very end could be in some sort of locked groove and just continue forever. This would be my way of deciding who my true friends really were-if people couldn’t sit through it long enough, I’d show them the door.

What’s your favorite last album by a band who then broke up?

[The Beatles’] Let It Be, no question. Glad they broke up though, look how great the music they made after was!

What’s your favorite way a band broke up?

I don’t think I really care enough if bands break up to have a favorite way. I’m sure somewhere in the world a band broke up in some weird ritualistic way. Maybe Oasis broke up in a cool way. Surely.

Whose passing has most affected you?

My great friend and fellow experimenter Brian Mitra, R.I.P.

If you were on death row, what would you like your last meal to be?

Maybe a really nice sandwich with toasted bread. Or one of these couscous salads I make myself. Definitely some crisps and a glass of wine. Shit, last meal!? I don’t think I’d be worried about the meal, more the death.

What’s your concept of the afterlife?

Nothingness.

What would be your own personal version of heaven if it exists?

You see, I find heavenly experiences all the time. Hellish ones too. My version of heaven would be an acceptance and readiness in death.

What would be the worst punishment the devil could devise for you in hell, if he exists?

Firstly let’s render the devil genderless. I think the worst punishments have been inflicted and are being inflicted upon people right now. For many of these things, we have the power to affect change. Just a thought.

If reincarnation exists, who or what would you like to be reincarnated as?

Anything really. Well, maybe anybody. Roll the dice!

What role or achievement would you most like to be remembered for?

I don’t care about being remembered for anything really. When I’m gone, I’m gone. You kind of die in the lives of people all the time. Seems like It’s more important to be something now.

What would you like your last words to be?

Shit! I forgot what I was going to say. Oh well, fuck it…

www.methylethel.com

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