John Cameron Mitchell doesn’t live in Portland, but he’s sure spending a lot of time here.
Besides being featured on Hulu’s “Shrill,” which films locally, the multi-hyphenate performer behind the musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” was bringing his “Origin of Love” tour to Revolution Hall on Feb. 26. He will return for the Portland International Film Festival on March 8, with a marathon “listening party” of his recent podcast musical “Anthem: Homunculus,” a star-studded (Glenn Close, Patti Lupone, Laurie Anderson), uncategorizable, autobiographical tale of life, death and crowdfunding. Meanwhile, “Hedwig” also just completed a two-month sold-out run at Portland Center Stage, with its two gender-fluid leads both played by performers of color.
On top of that, Mitchell has become an honorary member of Eyelids, joining the five-piece Portland indie-rock band, as well as R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, for a spectacular mini-set at Mississippi Studios last August, and then again in Athens, Ga., last month.
Mitchell and Eyelids’ Chris Slusarenko — formerly of the Portland Sub Pop band Sprinkler, as well as Guided By Voices — first worked together, along with “Hedwig” composer Steven Trask, on the 2003 tribute album “Wig in a Box,” a star-studded (Yoko Ono, Sleater-Kinney with Fred Schneider, The Breeders) charity compilation benefiting The Harvey Milk School in New York City.
Late last year, Mitchell and Eyelids released “Turning Time Around,” an EP of Lou Reed covers. Mitchell gives the title track a contemporary political spin by adding phrases from W.B. Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming,” changing the poem’s famous final couplet to “what orange beast, its hour come around at last/ Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Eyelids were pretty much a cinch to join Mitchell at the Revolution Hall show, while the record release for their own new album, “The Accidental Falls,” is Feb. 29 at Mississippi Studios.
Street Roots spoke to Mitchell and Slusarenko both together and separately for this interview.
Jason Cohen: So, let’s go back to the start. How did you first discover “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”?
Chris Slusarenko: It was funny. I had a friend who kept trying to get me to see (the 2001 film). And I was like, eh, it’s a glam rock-musical. Eh, that’s hard to pull off. I was never really a “Rocky Horror” fan, so I was kind of putting it in that camp, and it was really close-minded of me to think that. Then I heard that Bob Mould had played guitar on the soundtrack. And I was like, oh, OK, that’s kind of cool.
And so I saw it, and I was really mad at myself. This movie could have been in my life six months earlier! I was just obsessed with it. I thought the story was amazing. I thought the look of the film was amazing. The songs were incredible. It just spoke to me. I thought, “These people understand rock ’n’ roll.”
Cohen: And what made you want to do the tribute album?
Slusarenko: I was like, “Oh shit, someone’s gonna make a really bad tribute album!” I was really worried about it. It’s too great not to have people cover this material. I didn’t want to pick up an album that would make me sad and not have versions that I thought would do total service to it.
John Cameron Mitchell: Chris is one of the few people who is supremely musically talented but also incredibly organized in a logistical way. With all of his wonderful connections in the music biz, it was just out-of-control talent.
Cohen: So, all these years later, John played an Eyelids show in August, with the Drive By Truckers’ Jay Gonzalez and members of Camper Van Beethoven, where you covered Lou Reed and David Bowie and the title song from “Hedwig.”
Slusarenko: We’ve worked together, but we’ve never worked together musically. It just felt really charmed and effortless and powerful. John is so good at emoting, and at owning the space of the stuff he writes and sings and covers. He just commands this beauty with a wave of a hand. When he hopped up on stage at Mississippi Studios, there were people crying.
Cohen: So I guess we have “Shrill” to thank for that. You recorded Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” with Jay Gonzalez for your character, alt-weekly editor Gabe, to sing in one of the Season 2 episodes.
Mitchell: The character is sweating that he might be fired, because he’s too old and out of touch and narcissistic. So his solution is to perform at his own dinner party, before his boss. I sang it once before, on a birthday video that I made for my boyfriend, Jack. It was my first film. And so it was really awesome to come back to that song.
Slusarenko: The original is so great, but I’m very used to the live version.
Mitchell: Mick Ronson, out of control!
Slusarenko: Yeah, the really long solo, while Bowie goes off to change. It was really cool to see Jay and John work out this different phrasing. I think Cole Porter was a touchstone.
Mitchell: We did our rock ballad.
Cohen: So Gabe may or may not be based on Dan Savage, who was “Shrill” author Lindy West’s editor at “The Stranger” in Seattle. Did you invent your own backstory?
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Mitchell: I did. Which was: he had a grunge-era band in Portland. Probably had a small, fairly successful record label. Better at promoting and talking about the bands than being in them. A bit of a name-dropper in that world — he probably dines out on his Kurt Cobain stories. And is a pain in the ass because nothing is as good as it was in his mind, in that pre-digital heaven that never quite existed. But some things I definitely relate to — his impatience with ADD, and that kind of malaise that comes out of everything being possible, and yet somehow nothing is possible. Because of digital technology.
Cohen: You also first met “Anthem: Homunculus” composer Bryan Weller when you were DJing at Mississippi in 2011. As much time as you’ve spent here, what do you think of Portland?
Mitchell: I really love it. People always complain about, well it’s not as good as it used to be, or it was cheaper. And that’s always going to be the case. But Portland does preserve an energy that I love, which tends to be community-based, but still still creative. A band of misfits. The joke, of course, is that everyone’s an artisan, or has an heirloom quality. But I love that. I feel that in Japan too. The quality of what you make, and how much time you spend on making it, is very important. It might be a little silly, but at least there’s a lot of care taken.
Cohen: So in addition to the Bowie tune, you wound up making the John Cameron Mitchell/Eyelids “Turning Time Around” EP, which came out late last year.
Mitchell: (At Mississippi Studios) we did a few songs that I did at Lou Reed Day at Lincoln Center for Laurie Anderson. We had such a blast performing that, so we thought: let’s do an EP of Lou songs, benefiting my mom’s health care, which is very expensive. And it just happened. Suddenly, there was a label. There was Peter Buck producing. There was Eyelids playing.
Slusarenko: After the energy of that show, it just made sense to try to capture it. You feel like you have something that you want to continue to share. And talking to John about what he’s going through with his mom, who has Alzheimer’s, it seemed like a really good place to help, even if it’s just a little shot in the arm. We’re all dealing with it right now, whether it’s a parent or a sibling or a friend or ourselves — just the pain and the reality of health issues, and the costs associated with it in this country.
Cohen: Did the inspiration for Anthem start with with your mom?
Mitchell: No, that kind of started with my boyfriend, Jack, and his passing. It’s dealing with that loss. And the character that I play — which is a version of myself — is also dealing with potential loss, because he has a brain tumor that he’s crowdfunding his treatment for. I lost a brother when I was a teenager, and both my parents had Alzheimer’s, so all of these events have found their way into “Anthem.” Dealing with the second half of your life, which is really about your mortality.
Cohen: Medical crowd-funding is obviously a political issue, too. A social failure in America.
Mitchell: Yes. Very much so. That’s implied, as opposed to directly dealt with. We’ve come to this absurd point in our rich nation where priorities are so fucked up. “Anthem” takes place in the near future, in Kansas, and we project that Kansas has legalized medical marijuana as well as assisted suicide, which is the trend. And my character says, “Interesting. I would call it palliative democracy.” Perhaps the best that we can hope for right now.
Cohen: Going back to “Hedwig” for a bit. This question comes from Delphon “DJ” Curtis Jr., who just finished playing the character in Portland Center Stage’s production. With your experience in the role, how do you feel your relationships with those around you changed?
Mitchell: Well, it’s interesting. I grew up in a very military, Catholic background, and the idea of femininity, especially in men, was anathema, and horrifying, and worse than murder. All those things that our culture teaches. It was to the point where I was only attracted to guys that were straight-acting, you know, that horrible term, meaning a certain view of masculinity.
And doing the very first gig of “Hedwig” almost cured me of that instantaneously. I suddenly found all kinds of people attractive. Feminine guys, masculine women, anyone who was comfortable with who they were. It wasn’t really about femininity or masculinity; it was about the comfort of who they are. And those energies, which are found in all of us, were expressed in different ways. The people who really could integrate those energies successfully were suddenly incredibly attractive.
So that’s an example of how it did affect me, playing the role. But drag can do that for anyone.
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Cohen: Over the years, “Hedwig” has lent itself to all kinds of interpretations and casting choices in terms of sexuality, race and gender.
Mitchell: Yeah. It’s what you do with it. There was — you know that meme that went around of a screaming woman from a reality show, and then a cat with some vegetables? A trans performer did one with “Hedwig,” and the screaming woman is saying, “Hedwig is a confused cis man!” and then the cat says, “Hedwig is you and me and everyone.” That’s how I feel. Anyone can play it. Drag is a mask and a role.
Cohen: Does the “Origin of Love” show feel more like a concert or a theatrical review?
Mitchell: It’s a kind of a hybrid. It’s a memoir, too. I talk about my boyfriend, Jack, who was there at the beginning — he passed away in 2004 — and his effect on “Hedwig” and my life. I talk about Plato and the Gnostic Christians and how that affected the philosophy of it. We do some outtake songs that never made it in. We do some songs from people who inspired us. I do songs from “Anthem,” and songs from my last film, “How to Talk to Girls.” And sometimes we do songs that are related to the venue in which we’re performing. So in Austin, Texas, we did a Janis Joplin song.
It’s a grab bag, and it can change, but it has a really strong structure, and feels a little bit like a musical. Oddly, a few people have said they enjoyed the concert more. The musical was in the form of a fake rock gig. This is a real rock gig that’s sometimes imitating a musical.