INTERVIEW:
IMAGE CREDIT: University of Texas Press
Joan LeMay (Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan)
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AN incredible book…
IN THIS PHOTO: Joan LeMay
that every music lover should own, Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan, is out now. You do not need to be a Steely Dan diehard to appreciate this engrossing and beautiful book. The group, led by Donald Fagen and Water Becker, released some of the finest albums of the 1970s (and '80s). Classics like Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972) and Aja (1977) are among my all-time favourite albums. Go and grab a copy of a remarkable and must-read work. With the text written by writer and journalist Alex Pappademas, and the gorgeous, characterful, and unique images by Joan LeMay, it is a wonderous and awe-inspiring book you will not be able to put down! I have been speaking with LeMay about the book. Before getting there, and if further convincing was required, here is what you can expect from the stunning Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan:
“literary and visual exploration of the songs of Steely Dan.
Steely Dan's songs are exercises in fictional world-building. No one else in the classic-rock canon has conjured a more vivid cast of rogues and heroes, creeps and schmucks, lovers and dreamers and cold-blooded operators-or imbued their characters with so much humanity. Pulling from history, lived experience, pulp fiction, the lore of the counterculture, and their own darkly comic imaginations, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker summoned protagonists who seemed like fully formed people with complicated pasts, scars they don't talk about, delusions and desires and memories they can't shake. From Rikki to Dr. Wu, Hoops McCann to Kid Charlemagne, Franny from NYU to the Woolly Man without a Face, every name is a locked-room mystery, beguiling listeners and earning the band an exceptionally passionate and ever-growing cult fandom.
Quantum Criminals presents the world of Steely Dan as it has never been seen, much less heard. Artist Joan LeMay has crafted lively, color-saturated images of her favorite characters from the Daniverse to accompany writer Alex Pappademas's explorations of the famous and obscure songs that inspired each painting, in short essays full of cultural context, wild speculation, inspired dot-connecting, and the occasional conspiracy theory. All of it is refracted through the perspectives of the characters themselves, making for a musical companion unlike any other. Funny, discerning, and visually stunning, Quantum Criminals is a singular celebration of Steely Dan's musical cosmos”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Alex Pappademas
Published through the University of Texas Press, this is the ultimate Steely Dan text. A companion that you will not want to miss out on! The reviews for Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan have been extremely positive. This is what Expanding Dan (who also interviewed Pappademas and LeMay recently about the book) noted:
“Remarkable...we finally have a book about Steely Dan in which the writing and art fully measure up to the sophistication and beauty of Becker and Fagen's music...Pappademas's incisive, elegant prose poetry pairs perfectly with LeMay's colorful hand-painted portraits that offer humorous and empathetic glimpses of the Dan's menagerie of luckless pedestrians”.
To celebrate a book that will please the long-running fans of Steely Dan, and lure and entice forward those who are new to their work, Joan LeMay discusses how the collaboration between her and Alex Pappademas came about (I would also suggest you check out interview they have done together such as this), when she discovered the legendary band, and which illustration of hers from the book is a particular favourite – and best demonstrates her artistic style and voice. It has been a real pleasure speaking with the brilliant and enormously talented Joan LeMay as, together with Alex Pappademas, they have created a Steely Dan vision that is…
IN THIS IMAGE: The Expanding Man from “Deacon Blues”/ART CREDIT: Joan LeMay/University of Texas Press
IN a league of its own!
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Hi Joan. Can you remember how Steely Dan came into your life? Was there a song or album that grabbed you at a young age - or did it take a bit longer for that fuse to be lit?
In my house growing up, there weren’t a lot of records — there was a row about four, five inches thick. It, however, contained the whole Steely Dan catalog (and later, The Nightfly) alongside lots of Linda Rondstadt, Jethro Tull, Best of the Doobie Brothers Vol II, and a few other selections. As a baby, my honest to God first musical memory was being tall enough (I am tall now and was a tall baby then) to plop the platter for Can’t Buy a Thrill onto the turntable. I believe I gravitated towards that over other Steely Dan albums at the time because I was two and a half and the colors on the cover were attractive. The candle has long burned throughout my life as my love for and understanding of Steely Dan has deepened; it is the light that never goes out.
Even though I feel Steely Dan are underrated, now seems like a time when their music is as powerful, affecting, needed and popular as ever. Do you think there is this renaissance happening?
There absolutely is a ‘Danissance’ afoot, and has been for the past few years. Alex writes about the why and how of this beautifully in the book; he and I both agree that when we started this project it was a niche idea for a book, and now that it is out, it is a mainstream idea for a book.
“I definitely escaped into these characters”
Can you tell me how the idea emerged for Quantum Criminals. Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan? How did you and Alex (Pappademas, the book’s author) decide what to focus on and what structure the book would take?
Around 2019/'20, Alex and I had been independently forming Dan-related projects - I had just started making a fanzine called “Danzine”, wherein I planned to draw/paint every named Dan character in the entire oeuvre. Alex had been talking with our mutual friend and the book’s doula, Jessica Hopper, about writing a book for University of Texas Press, where she was in a position to acquire. He pitched her “Bluets, but Steely Dan”, which is obviously brilliant. As they were communicating about this, Hopper saw me post on Instagram about my project, and she texted me “That’s not a zine, Joanie, that’s a book.” She put us together (Alex and I had been in touch with each other on and off over the years because I lived a former 17-year-long life as a music publicist and would send him pitches) and the structure of the book shifted to be what it became.
In terms of focus, we knew we had to implement some constraints so that this thing wasn’t Biblical. Throughout the book’s production, we communicated on Mondays over the phone and looked at a spreadsheet called the MASTER DANIVERSE CHARACTER SHEET - we discussed who I was most excited to paint, which characters would work best as foci through which Alex could write what he wanted to write and went from there.
IN THIS IMAGE: Owsley Stanley from “Kid Charlemagne”/ART CREDIT: Joan LeMay/University of Texas Press
The art and illustrations throughout are amazing, so realistic and utterly unique! Did you produce the art for Quantum Criminals. Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan whilst reading what Alex had written, or by listening to the group’s music? How did the creative juices flow in that respect?
In most cases, I finished my paintings before Alex finished his text because I am a fast worker and needed/wanted/am prone to taking a completely immersive, near manic approach when working on projects in series. So aside from instances in which Alex had fantastic thoughts about particular pieces (for example, it was his idea to paint Rudy as MF Doom), I would whip these things out and send him photos as I produced them. I would sometimes do up to three a day. This was during lockdown, and things were often dark. I definitely escaped into these characters. I was also gifted one of those little Crosley turntables and additional pressings of the canonical LPs by my partner at the time specifically so that they’d live in my studio for this project, so those put gas in the car.
“…and it is luck and kismet that Jessica Hopper, in her infinite wisdom, put us together”
Why was now the right moment for the two of you to create this book?
It was the right moment for both of us as individuals to start our respective projects that then merged and became the book, because we each had time and opportunity to start something we each knew we’d love following through on in a sustaining, sustainable way — and it is luck and kismet that Jessica Hopper, in her infinite wisdom, put us together. It is also luck and kismet that between the time that this thing got cooking and the time that it is coming out of the oven, the cultural landscape changed in such a way that it is being received more enthusiastically and widely than I ever, in my wildest dreams, thought it might be.
Is there a particular piece of art from the book that is your favourite? The one you would highlight as representative of the book and your style…
I am really partial to the Holy Man. There’s something sweet and come-hither on his face; I painted him as an odalisque intentionally, which is a parallel that is an easter egg maybe for me and three other people who are into art history enough to find it funny. One thing that was interesting in the making of this is that I was cognizant of the fact that, when you paint 120 paintings in the same style, you have to work hard to sustain that style because the way you paint — little things about technical technique or gesture or vibe will change between the first piece and the 120th. I am a figurative painter and a portraitist above all, and I work in oils a lot, so there is a fair amount of elasticity in my style depending on medium, subject, scale, the project itself….one commonality is that my work is either very vibrantly colorful or it’s in greyscale. I paint differently now than I did in 2021, which is when all of these pieces were made.
IN THIS IMAGE: Josie from “Josie”/ART CREDIT: Joan LeMay/University of Texas Press
How has your relationship with Steely Dan changed since Quantum Criminals. Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan was completed? Have you come to appreciate them more and discovered elements to their music that you did not see before?
I learned so, so much from all of Alex’s research, and my love for them deepened as one’s love for anything does when you pay a greater, or different, level of sustained attention to it. One of the beautiful things about Steely Dan is that they invite intense attention; they are the onion that never gets peeled all the way.
“I have never read a more loving, playful, thoroughly researched, generous, hilarious, voicey book about any band in my life, and neither will you”
If someone was unaware of Steely Dan or a little cold towards them, what would you say to them when it comes to buying the book? Why should they go and get Quantum Criminals. Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan?
I would tell them to never cheat themselves out of an opportunity to read Alex Pappademas’s writing. He could write a book that was presumably about toilet paper and it would end up saving someone’s life because of its insights about the human condition. I have never read a more loving, playful, thoroughly researched, generous, hilarious, voicey book about any band in my life, and neither will you.
IN THIS IMAGE: Snake Mary from “Rose Darling”/ART CREDIT: Joan LeMay/University of Texas Press
An impossible question, but what would you say is your favourite Steely Dan album and song? Which would you say is the most underrated too? (My answers would be Pretzel Logic, Deacon Blues (from 1977’s Aja), and Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More (from 1975’s Katy Lied)…
Great choices - and there are no bad choices, and no right choices. My answer will, of course, change depending on the weather, but from where I sit right now on a Saturday morning at my best friends’ place in Brooklyn, hearing the birds chirp outside and sipping my coffee, I am going to say “The Boston Rag” and Gaucho. I think there is no underrated SD LP — there are ravenous fans of each — but I will say that Walter Becker’s 11 Tracks of Whack has perhaps not yet made the rounds the way that I suspect it will as the Dan fanbase deepens its exploration.
Finally, and for being a good sport, you can select a Steely Dan song and I will include it here…
I’m going to go for “Time Out of Mind”.