Artist Recommends Paying More Attention to the Music
by Larry Weir
I did a double take when Elisa Peimer (pronounced "pay-mer") said, "Musicians have no place being role models merely on the state of them being musicians," because I always saw this New York City-based singer/songwriter as a role model. She was together with her career, image and—most important—music.
Since 1998, Peimer has released her own music. Her latest is called Transparent. She's working on her fourth CD; she's done most of her own outreach and kept together a band with the current lineup of guitarist Paul Cabri, bassist Irwin Menken and drummer Scott Miller.
So while she accepts people who look up to her for her musicianship, she says that musicians who try to be political spokespersons "shouldn't be given any more credence in terms of their opinions than business people, sanitation workers and people in other careers. Someone such as Bono, who uses his notoriety and money for outside interests, can be considered a role model due to his political activism, but the fact that he's a musician is beside the point.
"We'd want to listen more to someone whose profession is politics, someone who has studied it. I look up to someone who did good for others—like helping kids learn to read or working at a soup kitchen—without expectation or reward.
"There are artists who've been through a specific issue. If Whoopi Goldberg was homeless, I'd listen to her not as a celebrity but because she lived it. Because this is a celebrity-driven culture, we're apt to listen to her with all her media exposure."
Peimer explains that there is goodness when music can find its way to an audience member's soul. "I love creating music," she says. "I love the effect it has on people. I'm connecting something that was very personal to me when I wrote it. And that song has become personal to someone else. My music finds a life of its own when it becomes that personal."
So she and all musicians are inspiration for people who go after their artistic dreams. "Speaking as a singer, I can say, 'I'm just a singer.' Singers are not role models. We just have good voices. And some not so good voices—just singers! It doesn't make me any more relevant in terms of expressing an opinion."
There are qualities that many people have that can be impressive to friends or fans. I've seen myself as a role model to overweight people because I never waited till I was slender to have a career. Peimer, whom I've always considered to be a classic beauty, says she was a "late bloomer to performing original music because I assumed I wasn't pretty enough to be a singer." But once "I cared more about the muse, the 'beauty' didn't matter, and I worried less about what people thought of me. So if they want to look at who overcame a physical insecurity, I did that."
And it's happening more and more with the music world. She notes, "Taylor Hicks isn't exactly the typical-looking [rock star] guy. I think people are willing to go back to the days before MTV now, when rock stars didn't look like models."
In addition to positive reflections about her image, she focuses on the gig she has, which is writing personal songs "that create their own life." And that focus ends up helping her career. "With industry critiquing, I know that it's not a personal insult [if someone doesn't like my music]. No one is expected to like everything I do, just like I might not like everyone's music."
But as she builds her career and focuses on her music, people continue to respond to what Peimer feels is the best reason to respect her, and that is her music.
