Jandek

Only a handful of people claimed to have successfully contacted Jandek before he began regularly playing in public in 2004 (see below). He releases albums through his own record label Corwood Industries, keeping a Houston post office box so fans can write to Corwood for a typewritten catalogue and to order Jandek's albums, usually at low prices. Many of his albums feature photos of a white male at various ages; although it seemed likely that this man was the principal performer, this presumption was not certain until his live debut in 2004.

Jandek now often performs live with other musicians, but these collaborations remain the extent of his engagement with the public.

Sterling Smith
Smith performing in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Sterling Richard Smith
Born	(1945-10-26) October 26, 1945
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, harmonica, bass, keyboards, piano, vocals, drums

It was widely accepted that The Representative of Corwood Industries' real name is Sterling Richard Smith. A review of the debut album Ready for the House (1978) in OP magazine, the first ever national press given to Jandek, referred to the artist as Sterling Smith.[3] Smith has kept his personal history secret, revealing only one story about his pre-Corwood years: he wrote seven novels but burned them upon rejection from New York publishers.[4] Aside from that anecdote, little is known about his life. It has also been said that he is married to frequent collaborator Sheila Smith, has a job outside of music and is well traveled, as several album sleeves depict locations that have been formally identified as being outside the United States.

In one of his three unauthorized interviews (unknowingly given in 1985 to John Trubee for Spin Magazine), The Rep mentioned that he was working at that time as a machinist.[5]

Jandek's first album, Ready for the House, though a solo work, was originally credited to a band called The Units. As explained in an interview in the first issue of Spin, Smith was forced to change the name The Units by an identically named Californian group already in possession of a trademark on the name,[6] after Scott Ryser from The Units wrote Smith a letter[7] with documentation. All reissues of this first album and all subsequent Corwood releases have been credited to "Jandek". In Trubee's interview, Smith claims he came up with the name Jandek while on the telephone with a person named Decker during the month of January.[5] Smith's initial use of a plural band name (and Corwood's tendency to refer to as "a representative from Corwood Industries") has led some fans to suggest that the reclusive artist intended his oeuvre to be perceived as the work of an anonymous collective rather than that of a single man. Though roughly two-thirds of his records are solo affairs, the other third have variably featured male and female vocalists, bass guitar, electric guitar, drums, and accordion. These contributions are usually credited to outside collaborators, but in the Spin interview as well as a letter to DJ Irwin Chusid the artist admitted to having overdubbed parts himself on occasion, such as on the album The Rocks Crumble. No proper credits list has ever appeared on an album, but song titles have included "Nancy Sings" and "John Plays Drums", though those pieces are two different versions of the same song.

One early theory suggested that all the music was recorded in a single, feverish, possibly manic phase and that after 19 albums the releases would stop. This appeared, at the time, as if it might have some validity – the 21st album, Lost Cause, finished with a sidelong piece called "The Electric End", a crazed instrumental featuring shouted vocals, electric guitar, and microphone feedback. Instead, this seems to have marked the end of the "first band phase." Then the 22nd album arrived and returned to the acoustic and vocal sound that is found on most of the first six Corwood albums (often referred to as "the first acoustic phase"). This continued unabated for seven albums until, in 1999, The Beginning was released, which ended with a fifteen-minute-long work of instrumental piano. This ushered in the most controversial period of albums in Corwood's history – three albums of unaccompanied voice. Seemingly recorded on a voice-activated tape recorder, these "spoken word songs" ran up to half an hour in length and taxed even the most devoted followers. After these albums, though, the direction changed again and Jandek returned to a voice and guitar mixture with occasional harmonica, though the approach was different than the earlier recordings. The guitar was often electric and the voice was decidedly older than that on the previous albums. Further albums have continued the solo approach, though the instrument used has occasionally been a fretless bass, and the songs have stretched progressively longer and the lyrics have become even more personal. Though Corwood still releases albums like this (the most recent is What Was Out There Disappeared), they are now alternated with releases of the live band shows, which are remarkably different and feature unusually tight playing.

In the 1980s and 1990s most fans stumbled into the world of Jandek after hearing his music on college radio or freeform stations like WFMU and WCBN-FM. But as the 21st century approached Jandek was just as likely to catch fans through the internet. An "unofficial Jandek website" was founded by Seth Tisue in 1997.[8] It includes complete descriptions of each album and concert and the archives of the Jandek Discussion List.

Corwood Industries has an official website (www.corwoodindustries.com) which launched in the early 2000s.[9]

Smith unknowingly gave two unauthorized phone interviews in his entire career, the first conducted by fellow outsider artist John Trubee, for the aforementioned Spin article in 1985. In it, he admitted to having had musical training earlier in life, and refuted an OP magazine reviewer praising "May he never tune his guitar!" by stating that he did indeed tune his guitar, albeit usually to open tunings of his own devising. The Spin article was Jandek's first major press; as the '80s drew to a close, the magazine proclaimed him to be one of the Most Important Artists of the 1980s in a special end-of-decade issue. Outsider music expert Irwin Chusid conducted the second interview and brought quite a bit of attention to Jandek by including an account of his own dealings with Corwood Industries in his book Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious World of Outsider Music, the accompanying album featuring a track from Ready for the House after Jandek called him in response to Chusid's request for information. Texas Monthly reporter Katy Vine tracked down the "Corwood Representative" and gave an account of her experiences in the August 1999 issue. At Jandek's request Vine kept his name and address a secret.

In 2004 Unicorn Stencil Productions released the first documentary on Jandek, entitled Jandek on Corwood. It was directed by Chad Freidrichs, and produced by Freidrichs and Paul Fehler. Amongst the extras on the DVD release of the documentary is the entire unedited tape of the John Trubee-conducted Spin interview. No one from Corwood Industries is represented on screen, but the label did suggest several people to be interviewed for the movie, including music critics Phil Milstein and Gary Pig Gold, and Katy Vine. Corwood's recommendation of Vine for the documentary is seen as essentially endorsing the contents and confirming the authenticity of the Texas Monthly interview. In October of the same year Jandek stunned the alternative music scene by playing live for what was probably the first time (see live performances section below for details).

There have been a handful of live shows each year since 2004, and Corwood intends to release all of them on CD in addition to its studio albums. In fact, Corwood puts out more Jandek releases now than ever in its history, releasing five albums in 2005 alone. Summer 2006 saw the release of the first Corwood DVD, a video version of Glasgow Sunday, Jandek's first live performance.

Duality of Self, a record of Jandek's performance in Toronto in September 2006 was premiered at the SXSW Music Festival and Film Festival in March 2007. Produced by Colin Brunton, Jim Mauro, Gary Topp and "The Representative from Corwood", the two-hour concert film was directed by Brunton and editor Ryan Noth, using a five camera set up.

"Kooken", a one-act play featuring Jandek (The Representative and Sheila Smith), aired on a PBS program called Hardly Sound in November 2014. It was filmed live in August 2014.

The mystery of Jandek's identity was partially resolved in October 2004 when he performed live at the Instal 04 music festival in Glasgow, Scotland. This was Jandek's first known live appearance and he performed with Richard Youngs (bass) and Alex Neilson (drums). The man on stage was obviously the same man who appears on the album covers. Per Corwood's stipulations, the performance was not publicized in advance, nor was it identified as it happened or at any point afterwards. David Tibet of Current 93, who had headlined the festival the previous day, advised fans not only that none of the other artists knew of the performance but also that the word "Jandek" was never used, the man who performed alongside Youngs and Neilson being identified only as "a representative of Corwood Industries".

Since then, Jandek has occasionally performed in the U.S. and Europe. These concerts have, for the most part, been announced in advance.[10]

This is the discography of Corwood Industries; the record company releases only albums by Jandek.

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jandek.

• Corwood Industries Website
• Guide to Jandek by Seth Tisue
• Jandek Concert History Archives by Brown Rainbow
• Jandek on Corwood, a documentary film
• Single Cell Press publishers of "Niagra Blues: Slingerland" by Danen D. Jobe
• "JANDEK: The Great Disconnect" by Irwin Chusid
• Playing with Jandek, an interview with backing musicians on Dallas music blog We Shot J.R.
• Jandek discography at MusicBrainz
• Jandek on NPR, December 10, 2007
• Jandek acts in a one-act play entitled "Kooken", aired on Austin PBS November 2014.