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In an interview given yesterday for the online music magazine Pitchfork, singer-songwriter-arsonist Fred Marsden said that he primarily focuses his attention on his songwriting.
Marsden, currently wanted by the police for starting a string of house fires which left several Warwick families homeless last October, spoke about his craft as he promoted his newly released album, “Gifts of Autumn.”
“I mean, I would say I’m equally talented in all three fields, but I just hope that I can use my musical performance as a vehicle to get my message out there,” Marsden said from a payphone that police traced to the greater Cincinnati area. “And I guess my arson is sort of the same way.”
Marsden also took some time to speak about his creative process.
“No one can really predict when a spark is going to catch,” he said. “You just have to be vigilant to wait for it to ignite. Once it does, you have to let it grow and hope you don’t run out of fuel before you’ve finished your work.”
The singer-songwriter-arsonist is a member of a growing group of musicians-criminals spreading their work through emerging technologies. Marsden credits much of his success to sites such as SoundCloud and BandCamp, which he uses to stay in touch with his fans and distribute his music, and Instagram, which he uses to instantly share photos of his arsons.
“The internet has made it so much easier to get immediate feedback on my work,” Marsden said. “Unfortunately, it also has made it so much easier for witnesses to share information with police about the crimes they see me commit.”
While many modern artists are speaking out against music piracy, Marsden said he likes the opportunity that file-sharing groups give him for greater exposure.
“If anybody wants to copy my music, remember to buy my stuff on BandCamp or iTunes,” Marsden said. “And if anybody wants to copy my fires, remember to pry open the valve on the main gas line and use a mosquito coil attached to a box of matches as a makeshift fuse.”
