10,000-year-old musician is just getting started

Bob Schneider Tonight Diesel, South Side Older than 21 show Doors open at 7 p.m. $18-$20′ ‘… Bob Schneider Tonight Diesel, South Side Older than 21 show Doors open at 7 p.m. $18-$20’ ‘ ‘ Bob Schneider is a 10,000-year-old, normal-sized man with insides as big as the ‘Poseidon Adventure.’ These may seem to be odd approximations, but according to Schneider, the descriptions couldn’t be more accurate. ‘ ‘ ‘ He said that his inner ‘Poseidon Adventure’ (the old movie, not the new one) is crucial to his live performances because each time he plays, he loses a part of himself. Therefore there has to be a lot there in order for him to still be around. Also, the 10,000-plus years he has lived have somehow been calculated using a Theremin. ‘ ‘ ‘ Schneider is a singer-songwriter with a background in visual arts and a personality that is as chameleonic as the music he plays. He compares his sound to a blindfolded person throwing thousands of darts at a dartboard made up of Woody Guthrie, Michael Buble, Lil’ Wayne and many other artists. ‘ ‘ ‘ He admits that his music can be hard to pin down with one particular style or genre, but this suits his sometimes scrambled identity. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I’m a mix between Lucinda Williams, Lil’ Wayne and Englebert Humperdink,’ he said in a phone interview with The Pitt News. ‘I’m an iPod Shuffle kind of guy.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ This sentiment is evident throughout Schneider’s eclectic albums, but it’s in his live shows that he purposely mixes things up ‘mdash; whether it be his demeanor or his music. This sort of style discrepancy creates the confusion and intrigue that Schneider wants his audiences to feel. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I’m not a big fan of shows where it’s all one note,’ he explained. ‘The idea is that [variety] keeps shows interesting. I want [the audience] to be like, ‘What the f***?’ Most of the people who see me play are loyal, devoted fans, so they are expecting the unexpected.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Schneider is undoubtedly proud of his ability to transcend genre boundaries, but he also acknowledges that dismissing a common thread in one’s music can lead to less success and representation in the long run. And less success certainly can be bothersome ‘mdash; Schneider says he often feels like the children’s story ‘The Princess and the Pea’ ‘mdash; he’s laying on 10 mattresses, and the pea jabbing into his back is the ‘one-track’ bands that’ll be the ones that gain more fame. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I’m like the three-year-old with Legos, and what I build doesn’t last long, and it doesn’t really look like a rocket ship,’ he explained morosely. ‘Then there’s Radiohead, and they build these rocket ships out of thousands of Legos, and their rocket ships really look like one.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Schneider said that his influences range from Gary Newman to Sigur Ros. His main influence is his father, who taught him to play guitar when he was 3 and filled his household with music and entertainment. ‘ ‘ ‘ Though he can be disheartened by the music industry’s bias toward ‘genre-molded’ bands, he wouldn’t want to work in any other field.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I’m my own boss, I can play whatever and whenever I want, and I don’t have to set an alarm clock and go to a job in the morning,’ he said. ‘ ‘ ‘ Building up to the February release of his ninth full-length album, tentatively titled Introducing Bob Schneider, he is out touring the United States. He’ll be stopping by Pittsburgh tonight to offer a show full of mood swings and surprise. ‘ ‘ ‘ It should be expected from a man that enjoys breaking norms and making life into one giant metaphor, though.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I have a Da Da mindset,’ said Schneider, citing the post-World War I art movement.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I create it and destroy it, create it and destroy it.’