RFC Interview: William Ocean

Some people spend years perfecting guitar. Others spend years perfecting air. Air guitar that is. Air guitar has become a world-wide phenomenon lately, even spawning last year's documentary Air Guitar Nation. Fans at sold out venues go crazy for the guys and gals who have one minute to live out their rock star fantasies. Each competitor choses a song and has 60 seconds to prove their "airness." A second song is chosen by someone else and they must perform to the best of their ability. Each regional winner convenes at the national championship and the winner from that jets off to Finland to compete for the world championship.

Only one American (C-Diddy) has ever won the world championship, but last year's national champ, former Chicagoan and current New Yorker Andrew Litz a.k.a William Ocean, finished an impressive 11th in the world. This year, he sets out to claim the prize and make America proud. He gets to bypass the NY regional championship and go straight to the finals held in San Fransisco this year. Besides doing solo performances, he started his own air guitar band.

Litz got his start in the world of air guitar in 2005 when he entered Chicago's regionals on a whim. He won and the next thing he knew, he was on a plane to L.A to compete in the finals. He finished third. Ever since, he's been addicted. On June 12, Metro hosts Chicago's regionals of the 2008 Cuervo Black US Air Guitar Championships that promise to be quite a spectacle. Litz and I are old friends--we used to work together here in Chicago when he was just starting out in air guitar. So in honor of the event and because we hadn't spoken in a while, it gave us a chance to catch up about the wonderful and crazy world of air guitar.

Why do you think air guitar has become such a phenomenon? I think it’s mixed. I think people that have never been to a show are like, ‘I don’t get it.’ You can’t really picture it in your mind. I was trying to explain it to someone last night. ‘So you just get onstage and play nothing?’ Yeah, but it’s more of a performance than me getting up there and actually trying to fudge my way through a song. The great performers are the total package. They have a costume that works for the song, they  choreograph their moves. I’ve come to appreciate it more as theater than going to a rock show because there’s another perspective on this whole thing from actual musicians, ‘why don’t you learn to play the real guitar, man?’  I’m not trying to be a musician onstage. I’m a performer. While I may be embodying what a musician does onstage, it’s a performance.

What do you say to the people who ask why don’t you learn to play a real guitar? Back off, man. I rationalize it in different ways. If I were to pick up a guitar, start from square one and learn how to play guitar and become confident it, get in a band and try to play out in different venues, do you know how long it would take me to get to the point where I’m playing at the Bowery Ballroom to a sold out crowd? I’ve been doing air guitar for three years now and I’ve played at ridiculous venues that have been sold out.

What was Finland like? It was in a smaller city in Finland. But for this one week, the city is flooded with people. The air guitar competition is a part of this larger music festival. It’s the marquee event of the whole music festival. The city is flooded with people. It’s like going to Coachella or Bonnaroo. The air guitarists are treated like celebrities. These are people from 22 countries. I couldn’t walk through the hotel lobby without someone stopping me for an interview. It was the most intense competition I’ve been to. It was different being backstage with people from 22 countries. Everyone had the same air guitar mentality, that it’s a tongue and cheek thing. It was wild even down to the music choices. Half the songs I’ve never heard before but they were awesome.

How competitive is everyone? Any sort of Tonya Harding sabotages?  For the most part, the people in competitions are really friendly and just are in it for the story, are in it to go yeah, I competed in an air guitar competition and don’t take it seriously. There are a handful of people who bring makeup people with them backstage and have people put on makeup and get these elaborate costumes and they’re ultimately not that good when they get on to the stage. In conclusion they are very pissed off. I think there’s always going to be those ultra competitive people. With people that I know that have been in the game for a while and are good and have won competitions and keep coming back, I’d consider them good friends. I talk to a lot of these people once a week and share ideas. The whole community is people like that.

What do your friends and family think of all this? My mom comes to every show. She went to Finland. Actually both my parents went to Finland. They love it. It’s the story they tell all their friends. My mom clips out all the articles. And my friends…I’ve kinda turned them onto this world of air guitar. Some of my friends have now competed and loved it and the other friends who aren’t up for competing, they come to almost every show as well. I had four people last year not counting my parents, come to Finland. It’s cool. I have a pretty good support base. But this year, the US finals are in SF. I know some people in SF, definitely not as many as in NY whereas NY has had US finals the past two years. It’s all home court advantage when I come to NY and perform. It might be a different feeing this year than SF. All in all people liked it. They make shirts and come out and get into it because it’s a ridiculous night at end. You’re going to see an air guitar show. It’s entertaining and if you have someone to cheer for, it makes it better.

What are you going to do differently this year? I haven’t picked out my song yet for this year. I have a little while before I compete. I have until August 8. I think this year I’m going to focus on my costuming. It’s something I normally don’t do. I’ll wear a ridiculous pair of shorts or a sequined top. I think a genuine costume with a lot of thought in it can go a long way. You have your performance, you have your song and the third component that people are seeing is the costume. I think if I can do something special with that I can bring it full circle.

Where do you get your costumes? I look in my mom’s closet [laughs]. I go to a thrift store or a vintage store and I look around for weird stuff. And it ends up being women’s clothes that I find appealing as an air guitar costume. I’ve been in it for three years, I have this bag of stuff I’ve collected through random costume searches. I have quite a wardrobe. I will pick something different this year.

There’s been a lot of press coverage of you—how do you do handle it? It’s cool to talk about. It’s not like I get stopped on the street. People might recognize me at an air guitar competition. I like to talk about it because I think it’s interesting. I want people to get excited about it to either go to a show or compete. I really haven’t heard any negative feedback from going to a competition or even being onstage. I’m kind of a messenger of air.

Is your day job flexible? Yeah, my boss has been to shows before and loves. He is cool with the whole thing. With Finland, He just let me go for a week. At the end of the day it’s a hobby and people have hobbies. It’s a hobby and it’s one I’m very much into. So work has been cool with it. if I was ever asked by US Air guitar to go on the road for 2-3 months to do demonstrations or talk about air guitar, I’d quit my job. I think I’m that into it that I would take a sabbatical.

Are you sick of Sparks yet? Yeah, I think my teeth are going to fall off. During the tour, I drank so much shit of this. Now I’m officially sponsored by this, they deliver cases to my apartment.

Do you think that you're life has changed a lot since you started performing three years ago? I don’t think it’s changed that much because I still have regular job and regular things to do. It’s cool that I got the chance to go to Finland, and it’s cool competing in these contests because you get to go backstage and you get to experience what a rock 'n' roll musician might experience at these venues. That’s what I’ll remember the most. If it got to the point where US air guitar wanted me to be a MC or really dedicate some time to promoting, yeah, I think things would change, but there’s only two competitions a year so I still have to have a regular life. What I do notice that when I get into full Ocean gear, I act differently, but that’s just me in character and it’s fun. I don’t know if I could do it everyday. I think it’s more of a hobby than anything else.

How did you decide on the William Ocean persona? It’s been an organic alter ego. The first competition in Chicago, I had this ridiculous costume and wig that I decided to wear. When I was more comfortable onstage and more comfortable performing I started developing my own style performing onstage. It’s kind of balls out personality where you don’t know what I’m going to do up there. I’m usually bleeding after I’m done.

Do you have any pre-show rituals? I’m usually drinking Sparks before the show. I’m listening to the song I’m going to perform. When I go to the venue, I don’t wear the costume. I wait before I go onstage to put on the costume to put myself in the right frame of mind for the performance. Every performance except for my first performance, I wore an American flag Speedo underneath my costume. That’s my one lucky article of clothing. That’s something I always have to have.

If you win the world championship, will you quit or keep doing it? The last goal I had was win the US title. I’ve done that. The last goal was to win the world title so that makes sense. So I want to win the US again, win that, go to Finland, win that. Then I’d be invited back to Finland to defend my title. If at that point I win awesome, if not I’d retire. It’s been a blast but at that point I’ll have done everything I wanted to do in air guitar. I definitely like to continue in the world of air guitar being like a spokesperson for air guitar or a recruiter for air guitar. If I don’t win the world, I might come back. There’s not that many people that have been in it as long as me. There’s two or three people that have been in it for a long time. It seems like the turnover ratio for air guitar is high. I gotta win the world.

What advice would you give someone wanting to compete in air guitar? I would tell somebody that song choice is one of the most important things because you only have a minute onstage to make an impression in the audience and to the judges and even other air guitarists that are competing. The song has to be perfect. People go, oh, air guitar, you probably do Guns and Roses and AC/DC but those just aren’t the greatest air guitar songs. They are fun to do and everyone knows it, but it’s not that memorable. I would say song choice is very important. Pick a song that people know but do not expect. Two years ago, I did Prince’s "Lets go Crazy." It’s a song that everyone knows it, but they don’t associate with air guitar. It has a smoking guitar solo. So song choice is very important. And if you’re able to pull that off, you’ll do above average. There are other things like costume and moments in your routine and if you pull those off, you’ll likely win the competition. The other thing is don’t take it too seriously. You’re going there to compete for experience. Have fun. Have a sparks. Enjoy.