Who Is Seth Kabala?

Interviewer: Who is Seth Kabala?

Seth: I'm not who I was when I was an 80s kid listening to dial-a-stories (literally using a rotary dial phone) from the Davenport Public Library. I'm not who I was when I was dreaming up early stories and writing bad news articles and really, really, really bad early fiction.

Interviewer: Okay. Lot of negatives there.

Seth: I’m not who I was when I was learning scales and arpeggios in the 90s and then stupidly thinking I was ready to play Chopin. Or when I was watching Shine and stupidly thinking I was good enough to play Rachmaninoff. Or taking voice lessons for the first time in the 2000s and stupidly thinking I was good enough to sing Verdi and Puccini.

Interviewer: Umm … okay. [checks notes, then under breath] What the hell question did I ask?

Seth: You work at it consistently, daily, and over the years, you become something else, and then I think … I think God rewards that. I think it's kind of a lock-step thing where you put in the effort, and God blesses that.

He typically doesn't bless inertia, at least in my experience. You generate momentum, and He rewards that with an additional push. I feel like I've gotten that initial push many times, and it's now rolled me down the hill to this website.

Interviewer: So, let me see if I’ve got this right. You’re not who you were. You are something else–not sure what–and God had something to do with that?

Seth: Should I be more specific?

Interviewer: Please do.

Why I Do This: Fear of Jobing

Seth: Okay. Basically, I live in fear of a Biblical Job-like cataclysm smashing into my life and taking away all my talent. So, to avoid that, I’m getting ahead of God and sharing my stories with you, dear reader, and my music with you, dear listener.

Interviewer: So, you’re a conspiracy theorist obsessed with a vindictive deity?

Seth: That’s reductive.

Interviewer: Actually, I think it’s spot-on.

Seth: Oh, yeah? Well, think about it like this: if only one cat’s out of the bag, God might still trouble Himself to Job me, but if millions of cats are out of millions of bags–meaning (hint-hint-wink-wink) lots of you have read or listened to my stuff–maybe that wasn’t exactly what God had in mind when He gave me a smidge of talent, but distribution is distribution, right? So, I think God and I are good. Right, Big Guy?

Interviewer: [looks behind him] Who are you talking to?

Seth: [ignoring Interviewer] If a column of fire drops in over the Quad Cities, I’ll assume that God has decided to have that come-to-Him meeting with me, but until then, my stories and music will keep on a-comin’ to you, raining like cats and dogs … [sharp inhalation] So that’s what that expression means. [wide eyes, open mouth, exhaling breath, facial expression indicative of having just discovered the meaning of life]

Interviewer: [face in hand] I can’t even.

Two Main Things: Writer, Musician

Seth: I am two main things. I'm a writer. I’m a musician. There is some interplay between the two. But they really exist as their own identities, their own creative entities, so to speak. I wanted to have a combined landing page (because I wanted the credit for both of these things) but also because I just wanted an easy inlet, an intake, a funnel–to use marketing speak–for people to come to my site and know this is my stuff.

Then I, or my digital self, can be like, Hey, if you like music, this is the kind of music I do. Click here and you can find more of that good stuff. If you like words and stories, these are the kinds of stories that I write and produce. If you like that stuff, click here, and you'll get a lot more of that good stuff.

Interviewer: [watching through splayed fingers and thinking] Is this really happening? Is he actually drifting closer to answering my question?

Seth: [lapsing, once again, into stream-of-consciousness thinking] I didn't want to have just a massive smorgasbord of content. A big collection of stuff that isn't necessarily all related.

Some things can be paired well together. But if you treated the smorgasbord like a slip-and-slide and jumped from one end to the other, arms out like Superman, abs sucked in like Batman, and smashed everything together, and now you've got the red Jello on the taco meat on the strawberry soft serve on the broccoli on the clam chowder, you’ve got a mess, right?

Interviewer: Oh, God. I jinxed it.

Seth: Individually, I like all those things. Together? Maybe not so much.

Interviewer: [face in both hands]

Seth: But they all come from me, so I needed them to be in one space. One creative space with multiple buckets, into which I could place the things that more closely clung to themselves than they did to other things in other buckets, if that makes sense.

Interviewer: [tips hand like a teeter-totter] Sixty-forty? If I’m being generous.

Seth: I’ll take it.

Producer Perspective

Interviewer: But leaning into what you just said, all this stuff doesn’t come from you. A lot of it is inspired by the work of others, sometimes nakedly so. What do you say to that?

Seth: I’ll stipulate to that. I like to be entertained. I like to be a consumer of good writing and good music. But my interests aren't just from a consumer perspective. I look at things from a producer perspective, as well. So, as much as I enjoy reading and listening to the amazing creative that other amazing people produce, as much as I enjoy conjuring totally original ideas, I want to see what I can do in that existing space.

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I'm not trying to be anyone else, but I will certainly admit that other creatives inspire me. I want to take what they've done, twist it, and make it mine. Make it familiar enough that it retains the essence of the elements of its origin while giving it a dual identity.

Interviewer: Kind of like this interview.

Seth: What?

Interviewer: What?

Sum-Up and Garbage Day

Seth: Okay, how about this? I'm a writer and a musician. I have a focused way of playing and singing, but I play and sing across many genres because I like those genres, and I want to see how my focused method shows up in those genres. If you like it, maybe give it a listen.

Interviewer: A little weak on the CTA, but otherwise cogent.

Seth: I'm also a writer.

Interviewer: So you’ve said. Many times.

Seth: As with music, I have a defined approach to how I compose stories and a style that is all my own. It’s different now than it was when I started decades ago, and will be different next week, but I hope not noticeably different. Because what you will get from me is quality and consistency. You will not come away from reading my stuff thinking, What a hunk of garbage.

Interviewer: Longer than needed and somewhat redundant, but also otherwise cogent.

Seth: At least, I hope not. … Unless you happen to be looking at a hunk of garbage that fell out the back of a garbage truck while you were reading …

Interviewer: Oh, shit. Here we go again.

Seth: … and therefore, that image polluted your thoughts, which is what I'm going to assume happened if you ever describe my stuff as a hunk of garbage. Hmm. … Maybe avoid looking out your window on garbage day.

Interviewer: Throwing myself into that garbage truck along with the garbage stories and garbage music and this garbage interview.

Seth: I can hear your thoughts, you know?

Interviewer: And that’s a wrap.