Interview with Bill Wurtz
Note: This is an imaginary interview. The questions and answers were selected and arranged from Bill Wurtz’s questions page in 2017 by Laurel Schwulst and Hannah Street Elliott.
About
It’s hard to describe Bill Wurtz despite the abundance of material available on his website. Some days, it’s crazy and it’s raining. On others, the history of the entire world, i guess can be told in under 20 minutes.
“Interview”
What do you think about the internet?
i think it’s off to a good start
What it is that you like the most about being an artist?
the part where you get to think of something and then make it appear in someone else’s mind
How did you get out of your rut that presumably lasted 4 years?
i realized that if there really is infinite creative potential, then you can literally just start with anything, like rabbit snakes
I’m filled to the brim with original and creative ideas but I’m so lazy and also filled to the brim with depression and anxiety that I’m finding that it’s near impossible for me to apply these ideas and create things.
try starting a steady series of small things. it will give you a chance to try a lot of different things, and you can perfect your process
You wrote that you try to make every video your favorite while you’re making it. You also try not to let perfectionism get the better of you, that it’s “not the point” How do you combine making the current video your favorite but not let it be “perfect?” Or are these two different things?
ah, you have to compromise. it’s kind of like you have dirt and mud, and someone sets the timer for 10 seconds, and you have to just make the best thing you can, out of the dirt and mud
Please don’t categorize yourself into a genre, all genres do is restrict what the content creator can make and puts entertainment in neat square boxes stopping artists from exploring further ways to make their content, and I don’t want that to happen to you.
can you help me explain this to people on a regular basis, also be my friend please. why am i bombarded so frequently by people who don’t understand this, and never meet anyone who finds it reasonable and obvious, as you do
I produce the first bit of a song (usually 1–2 minutes) and lose steam because I don’t like it as much as I did when I started. I shelf it and dislike self for being bad at finishing songs. I rarely complete a song on my own unless I have pressure like school deadlines — where might I be going wrong?
i have learned to never start production on a song until i have written it to the end. i’m not sure if that will help your situation, but it might. then again you might also have that same problem with writing, or also the same problem with producing it even though it has been written. but it is something to think about
Will you ever collaborate?
i tried. it didn’t work. the bad news is, society told me it is wrong and sad to work alone. so i tried again to collaborate. it still didn’t work. i started wondering if maybe i could do this alone. society says “no.” “no one can truly make it alone,” “the best works of art are made in groups,” “a collaborative partner is the answer to life’s problems.” so i searched the streets up and down left and right for collaborative partners. no one even understood what i was doing. no one was interested in going anywhere near the direction i was going. i started to wonder again if it is possible to just work alone. ……. there was no answer. i continued to assume that working alone was the wrong answer for a little while longer. and then one day i decided to try it. surprise, it works
What is something you wonder?
i wonder how people find a reasonable workflow when exporting files out of blender. from what i understand, when you export a file, it drops into a certain folder with no prompt for name or location, and automatically overwrites the previous export. so if you are exporting a lot of files, you have to manually open up a window, and change the name to something else, and also there is NO prompt to warn you if you are about to overwrite. so even if you have the guts to go in and open up the window to choose a new freakin name every time, YOU are responsible for keeping track of what names you have used, or else you risk overwriting a file. the way i see it, there are 2 reasonable ways this could work: number append, or prompt and warn. prompt and warn would be like you have to name the file before save it and if you choose a name that has already been chosen it says WAIT hold on you already named something that. number append would be fine also, that’s what cameras do – it means it never asks you to name your pictures, it just automatically names them with a number after it, 1 number higher each time, so you are never bothered to name your pictures, and never risk overwriting. Now imagine this horrific situation: imagine if your camera names your first picture “picture.” and then you take a second picture and it names that picture “picture” also, and deletes the first picture. UNLESS you open up a window before you take each picture and come up with a name before you take each picture, and oh by the way it is not going to warn you if you are choosing a name you have chosen before. so you are responsible for keeping track of what names you have used, or else you risk wiping out previous pictures. From what i can tell, this is the behavior blender uses when exporting files. now i’m sure blender is fine, and many people use it, and i’m sure there is a reasonable way to work on projects and export files on a regular basis and not risk having them be constantly wiped out if you don’t manually name them something different each time AND keep a manual running record of all the names you used ….. but i don’t know how it would be done. i abandoned that program long ago because of this issue, but it still remains a deep existential conundrum as to how blender users actually would deal with this. that is what i wonder
I want to make a living off of creating abstract art, dance, poetry, and my own music. Do you think this is feasible? Should I have a back-up plan?
if you really want to make the kind of material you want to make, you will need to find a separate way to earn a living. it might be handy to try to use your special skills as an advantage in finding a job, but if you really want to be free to make the kind of material you want, you are going to want to eliminate the immediate pressure to have it earn money. otherwise you will be forced to completely change what you do in order to follow the money, and it might cause you to be mad at the world. so i recommend getting any kind of work you can, and then in the remaining time work toward exactly where you want to go
Why did you not put ads on your two long videos and get rich? Do you know how much money they would make?
i like that idea except for the ads being on the videos
i am aware that it’s a frighteningly huge amount. i receive offers on a regular basis from companies offering ridiculous sums of money up front to buy ad rights from me. and i also get harassed by the fans many times a day. so the pressure and guilt is enormous. but every time i see an ad, i am immediately reminded vividly that i will never rent out my audience to advertisers
You’ve brought up the importance of having “creative freedom” several times on your site. Is your creative freedom restricted in any way right now (or has it been in the past)?
if you are not working for anyone else, then you usually do have creative freedom. but it is easy to forget
What inspired you to start uploading your stuff to the internet?
because i wanted people to have a way to see it anytime they want without me having to send it to them individually
I’ve been making songs for a while but I recently forgot how. Will I be able to remember?
yes, as long as you are willing to start even before you think you remember
How do you keep your indelible creative spirit alive when the world is so dark?
the world is getting lighter all the time
How do you earn money?
you have to convince someone else to give you theirs
Where has the fun gone?
i will check
Extra
4 Bill Wurtz songs from 2017 as found on his website: