Since having formed a punk quartet (Chicago’s Verbӧten, featuring Dave Grohl’s cousin Tracey Bradford on vocals) as a precocious 10-year-old, multi-instrumentalist Jason Narducy has kept busy with other bands (most notably Verbow) and as an in-demand sideman with the likes of Bob Mould, Superchunk and Robert Pollard. He’s also releasing his first solo record under the Split Single moniker, Fragmented World (Inside Outside). Narducy will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Narducy: I went to grade school in Chicago with a girl named Sharon Paschke. We hit it off due, in part, to our mutual appreciation for Steve Martin albums and Monty Python movies. It was unusual for a boy and a girl in third grade to hang out, but we didn’t care. I went to her house to play and met her father, Ed. He was a painter, and his work was on display in their home. I recognized his style not only because it was so distinct but also because I had seen his work in my father’s issues of Playboy, which were sometimes left around our apartment (for educational purposes?).
Even at my young age, I was fascinated by Ed. He was quiet and moved slowly, deliberately. He seemed happy and confident, and he smiled at me in a reassuring way. It was the first time I had met someone who created art for a living. Sharon and I would also play at Ed’s work studio in the Eagle Cleaning & Dyeing Co. building on Clark Street in Chicago. It was a huge space, and he used all of it; many pieces in progress propped up throughout the workroom.
The last time I saw Ed was in 1995. I opened for Liz Phair at the Vic Theater, and as I walked out of my dressing room backstage, I ran into him. There was that smile again. By this time, he was an internationally renowned artist. He shook my hand and said, “I’ve been reading about you in the papers. I’m proud of you.”
—photo by Sharon Paschke
