May 28th, 2009
Part Two Of Our EXCLUSIVE MMM Interview With Reigning Philadelphia Air Guitar Champion WINDHAMMER
We’re just two days away from the Philadelphia regionals of the 2009 U.S. Air Guitar Championships, which go down at the Khyber on Saturday night [9pm/$15]. And coming back to defend his title as 2008 Philly Air Guitar Champion is Rob “Windhammer” Weychert, who last year claimed victory at the TLA and repped our city (and came in a respectable 7th place) at the National Air Guitar Championship competition in San Francisco, losing out to eventual world champion Hot Lixx Hulahan. Below is part two of our exclusive Make Major Moves interview with Windhammer (you can read part one here):
If you win the Philly regional competition, and then the nationals, it’s off to Finland for the world championships later this year. If you become this year’s world air guitar champion, what are some of the things you would do in that capacity? Are there certain causes or issues you would spotlight?
Umm, I haven’t really thought about it. I mean, bottom line, I think that being the world air guitar champion this is something you do implicitly, but I would just sort of encourage people to loosen up and have fun.
To follow their dreams…
Yeah, I guess the one guiding principle to all of this is that if you’re not doing something merely because you’ll look foolish, that’s not a good enough reason. And that’s what I wish more people would embrace. So that would be the cause I would embrace.
Do you feel like you’re misunderstood? Do your friends and family look at you weird because of this whole air guitar thing?
Nah, I think anybody that knows me, it was a no-brainer that I would do this. I mean, I pretty much do it anyway, this is just me doing it on a stage in front of strangers. I don’t think it came as a surprise to anybody.
Is there anything to say to the other competitors? Any message you wanna send out?
[laughs] Ummm, let’s see…
Yeah, see, now’s your chance to go all WWE on ‘em.
Yeah, ummm, how about: Windhammer’s coming…
That’s all you have to say?
That’s all I have to say.
Windhammer’s pretty stoic, huh?
Yeah, he’s pretty much…I think the best words to describe him are “uncompromising” and “humorless.”
That’s kind of interesting. A lot of other air guitarists seem pretty exuberant, happy-go-lucky, that kinda thing.
Yeah. My personality and my sense of humor and all that definitely has that same kind of over-the-top, flamboyant, crazy aspect to it. But for whatever reason, and I can’t say why, Windhammer just…it made sense that he would be this way.
What have you learned about yourself through Windhammer?
That posturing goes a long way. Seriously, like, one of the judges at the national finals last year gave me a higher score than he was going to, merely — so he says — because he was afraid I would beat the shit out of him after the show.
So fear and intimidation are part of your tactics?
I guess, yeah. Obviously nobody’s gonna be genuinely afraid of somebody who’s onstage doing air guitar, no matter how serious you look. Why Windhammer has evolved into that kind of character, I dunno. Because I’m not self-serious at all, really. I guess it’s ironic that I want to encourage people not to be afraid of looking foolish when here’s this character that’s so dead serious. You know what it is? I think for Windhammer, this rock thing is not a fucking joke. It’s his fucking job. That’s what it is. It’s his fucking job to do this and to rock your fucking face off. It’s his job. It’s not even so much job as his duty. It’s his sense of rock duty. And like, get the fuck out of the way if you’re not down, you know?
Just from the research I’ve done watching a lot of air guitarists and seeing a lot of their tactics, there’s so many ways you can go about it. Intimidation is one way to do it, confusion is another, humor … it’s not just the air guitar skill itself, you can do a lot of things on that stage with your persona.
Yeah. I like that about it. People bring so many different personalities and attitudes to it. If everyone was doing the same sort of thing it would get pretty lame and pretty boring.
How do you envision the future for air guitar? Can it get bigger, or has it already peaked in terms of a trend or a pursuit?
I dunno. It seems to get a little bit bigger every year. When that will eventually plateau or how or why, I’m not really sure.
Do you think entire air band competitions, as opposed to just air guitarists, might be a cool idea?
I don’t think so.
You know, like the Journey “Separate Ways” video?
Yeah, that’s a real inspiration, that Journey video. I’m still amazed that they not only had a career after that video, but a very successful career. That song was such a huge hit. It’s hard for me to imagine, even in the ’80s when people did a lot of ridiculous shit, that video…man.
Maybe that was the moment that truly legitimized air instrument playing, though?
Nah, I doubt it. But I think with regard to where air guitar is going and whether or not it’s gonna maintain popularity – if you wanna call it that – I think the bottom line is that what’ll give it its vitality is people continuing to do cool things with it. And you would think that it’s pretty limited with what can happen, but I’m continually surprised by what interesting stuff people come up with. Like my favorite performance ever, definitely from last year, was this guy named Awesome [formerly Shred Begley Jr.], and his performance was great and there were tiny little things that made it that much better. Like, at one point he did this air shotgun thing, and when his shotgun went off, somebody in the crowd had a confetti gun that went off at exactly the right time. That makes one little move ten times cooler. So as long as people keep coming up with little details like that to make it more fun and interesting, I think it will still be cool.
What song will you be competing to this year?
I’d rather not say.
You don’t want to reveal your choice of music? Is that an unspoken rule of air guitar competition — not to reveal your song ahead of time?
No, plenty of people do, but I don’t. Mostly it’s because [laughs]…the party line is that I don’t know what the song is, Windhammer’s just gonna show up and make it happen. Windhammer is not pantomiming to some pre-recorded track. He’s causing that shit to happen.
[All photos by Michael Alan Goldberg.]
5 Responses to “Part Two Of Our EXCLUSIVE MMM Interview With Reigning Philadelphia Air Guitar Champion WINDHAMMER”
By Jason on May 28, 2009
I had a girlfriend once. Then she left me for Windhammer.
By Greg Hoy on May 28, 2009
The photos are an inspiration to guys like me sitting behind a desk, beardless.
By Peter on May 28, 2009
True story: I met Windhammer once, and spontaneously grew a beard.
It fell off when he left, though.
By Ellen on May 29, 2009
Psshh, clearly they have not met your family…weird, hah!
By Baconshark on May 30, 2009
Former Pabst Blue Ribbon Philadelphia Rock paper Scissors City League Championhip Series Champion, Baconshark, applauds your success and brief return to our city. Team David Bowie’s Package wishes you good luck, and may the package be with you.
Also, your wristbands are slightly unconvincing.