Forget Diamonds, Cartier is a Girl’s Best Friend
Parker Posey interviews Daniel Cartier.

Prince predicted much in his song "1999," but how could he have foreseen East Village icon Daniel Cartier
packing up his little red corvette and moving to Los Angeles that year? From dues-paying gigs in subway
stations (he recorded his first album in a Canal Street subway stop) to his friendship with Parker Posey,
the boy with the sunburst tattoo on top of his head is quintessential New York. That's why it's so great to
have him back. Cartier will be performing old favorites along with songs from his latest CD Wide Outside at
Fez every Sunday night at 10:30pm from May 27th through June 24th. Indie Goddess Parker Posey, who
also has a debut this June in Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh's film The Anniversary Party, sat
down with her pal Daniel and the two talked about the realness of New York, Andy Warhol, explosive
diarrhea, Patti Smith and Daniel's return to Gotham's concert stage.

So, Daniel. You're a gay singer/songwriter. How does that feel? Great?
[Laughs] Oh my God! Well, it depends on what I'm doing. Yeah, it feels pretty great except that I wouldn't
want people not to listen to me just because I'm gay. I don't want to exclude anybody.

I was being facetious with the gay question. I know that music Is something that feeds the ears of
everyone, straight or gay. How Is it to be back home?
It feels totally awesome to be back in New York-just to be able to walk around and bump into people I know
and not have to deal with Hollywood, where everyone has a script in one hand and a soy decaf latté in the
other. New York is just more real.

What have your learned from being away from this great city?
Um, do you think I'm fat? Oh God, I've been in LA too long. Just kidding. I've learned that sometimes you
need to get away to appreciate what you have.

Were you Influenced by the garage type studio mentality-computers and people making their own
music at home?
Most definitely. That's really the only thing I'm interested in now. Rocket Records spent enough on my last
album, Avenue A, to feed a small country for two years and sold about two copies of it. The great thing
about technology is that musicians can do it themselves for so much less, plus it's just more spontaneous.

How much space do you need to make music?
Um, not to sound cheesy, but the space between my ears. Oh God, that does sound really cheesy.
The space I work out of now is the size of a large walk-in closet, Actually, it is a walk-in closet.

Have you ever thought of carrying around a recording device to hum into so you don't forget
song ideas?
Oh my God, that's so weird that you say that. I have a number just for voicemail and I'm always calling in
from wherever-pay phones-and singing into the voicemail. But I also love carrying around tape recorders too;
it makes me feel like Andy Warhol. I did this recording once where I walked into a video arcade with a tape
recorder and put all the sounds into the middle of the song.

I've got my foot on a pedal right now snappin' photos of myself.
That reminds me of when you used to carry that digital camcorder around and you said you felt like a spy.

Yes. That's right, I did. And do you know why?
In case anyone tried to sue you?

Because... well, many reasons. One is that I was slightly obsessed with the way images can
accidentally coincide with each other and form something perfect if you get the timing right.
One of the great things I love about New York is that when you walk around and hear what's
happening or see it, and... well, perfect moments make me happy.
I'm obsessed with photography that shows people doing everyday things unaware of the camera. I think
people are most beautiful when they don't realize the focus is on them.

I love that too.
I'm such a control freak and it seems I'm always searching for that perfect moment. Like huddled with Banjo
[Cartier's dog] and Craig [Cartier's lover] today-there was this perfect moment-and then Banjo had explosive
diarrhea and it ended.

Oh my God! What are you feeding her? Is she on a diet?
I think she probably drank water at the dog run and got a parasite. She's on Wellness Formula. Jane [Adams,
from Happiness] told me to put her on it. That's what her dog's on.

Now why did you name your dog Banjo?
Good question! Awww! Because Craig gave me these slippers that looked like dogs that I named Banjo and
Wildfire and I always thought Banjo would be a cute name for a dog because I always picture dogs on a farm
with haystacks and little kerchiefs on. And it's musical.

Speaking of musical, what are your favorite songs? What's the common theme?
Oh my god, that's such a great question. I love Patti Smith!

So do l, she's very deep. She's a rock star saint.
She's the one person I met that I literally couldn't talk I was so star struck. I love Air. There are songs people
write that I don't even think about, then when I hear them I go "I wish I wrote that." My problem is that I like too
much. I just heard "When Doves Cry" on the radio in a cab and was blown away. You're really into
singer/songwriters, aren't you, Parker?

Oh, yes. My favorite is Bob Dylan.
Dylan's so cool. He was so funny on the Oscars, performing on a big jumbo-tron. I'm so glad he won.

I'm sure he didn't care.
He seemed like the whole thing was ridiculous.

Dylan's a poet, as well as Patti Smith.
I love his whole history-how his fans got so outraged when he changed his sound.

I love his Jesus phase, personally.
Have you read Wool Gathering by Patti?

She's an enchantress. Have you ever seen her live?
I've only seen Patti live on video. A friend of mine did go to see her play with Bob Dylan in Philly and she went to
the pay phone and called me and held the phone up to the stage. She said that every pay phone there had
someone holding the phone up the stage. That to me is so beautiful!

Wow. What do you think of music today?
It's so corporate and pre-programmed. It's like they just punch some buttons and a computer spits out a hit song.

I agree.
But there are some artists I really respect out there - I love Jill Scott, David Grey-I think a lot of the coolest
songwriting is happening with underground bands and electronic musicians. One of the guys from Yo Lo Tango
has this new band where he does a cover of "Pop Life" by Prince that is so gorgeous-can you tell
I'm a big Prince fan?

There's something about you that's very Prince...
Oh my goodness, thanks! I hope I'm not as self-conscious as he is though.
I won't be changing my name to a symbol.

Change it to a sound: a cough.
[Laughs] You have such a good delivery of one-liners.

I'd like to do bad stand-up with bad jokes that only I laugh at. The sound of your voice, I don't know
where you got it. It sounds like a instrument almost-any vocal DNA running around the Cartier's?
My dad and my sister both sing. They sing country music though! And then I have a sister out in LA that does
crazy lesbian performance art. She gives herself orgasms onstage with fruit and then cuts it up a gives pieces
of it to the audience. What do you think that means?

She wants attention. What's your favorite song you've written?
Whatever song I'm working on right now is usually my favorite song. I've written 600 songs at this point and it's
so hard because they all mean something me, even the bad, stupid, sophomoric ones. I wrote a song when
I was 12 called "Me and My Ferrari." the first real song I ever finished and my sister's band performed it at a
college. I was 12-years-old hearing a rock band perform my song. It's one of my happiest memories.

That's so nice. Do you like writing songs or performing them or both? What's your favorite?
I think performing is great because it's the one part of what I do where I really feel the connection with other people.
I can't feel that when I'm alone in my room recording. That connection-it must be Iike when you do theater
versus movies.

Right.
When I was performing in the subway, I had a woman miss her train three times just to hear me play. She was
my favorite audience ever.

What a romantic New York memory.
That's why I'm excited about Fez. I've been play there on and off for the past eight years-it's such a magical room.

Yes, it is. I saw Hedwig there and Kiki and Herb I don't know of many places that have that downstairs
smoky feeling that Fez does.
This show will actually be following Kiki and Herb. They play at 8 and I play at 10:30 Sundays.

I'm looking forward to it! And I'm sure a lotta people are, you have a really nice following here.
Awww-Well, the feelings mutual, I totally love New Yorkers.