Artist Interview: Chicago’s Influence on the Life and Work of Musician Sam Prekop

For over three decades, artist and musician Sam Prekop has been making rock music with his band The Sea and Cake.

Sam is based in Chicago and has found success as a visual artist and exceptional photographer, capturing everyday scenes with specific intention.

Now embarking on his first fashion collaboration with The Tie Bar, Sam sat down with us to discuss the deep roots his family has in the art scene, his own solo instrumental music, and how he maintains a specific voice throughout all of his work.

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The Tie Bar: Could you introduce yourself and what you do?

Sam Prekop: My name is Sam Prekop. I live in Chicago. I’m a musician, artist. I guess professionally mostly a musician I suppose, and a photographer as well.

I’ve lived here since I was like five. I went to the Art Institute of Chicago for a couple of years and also Kansas City Art Institute. I guess I’m most well known for being in a band called The Sea and Cake, which has been around for maybe 25 years at this point.

I was born in London, England. My parents were on a Fulbright Scholarship kind of thing — they’re artists, as well. And then they moved to Saint Petersburg, Florida, my dad got a teaching job. And so I came over on the boat, the Queen Mary back in the 60s.

And then he got a job teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago, actually. And that’s when we moved here and that’s where I’ve been since, basically.

TTB: I saw in an interview of yours that said you knew you wanted to be an artist since you were 5 years old. Is that true?

SP: I grew up in an artist family, so I think that’s a big part of it. We always had artists around the house, my dad being part of the Art Institute, the school, so it was a very vibrant home life with other artists and lots of people coming over and hanging out and stuff, so it was sort of instilled in me early on that it was something that people did. There was nothing unusual about it. So I was encouraged early on, but I sort of started thinking about and making art pretty early and it seems perfectly natural.

Now, I don’t know. I don’t think I said, “I will definitely be an artist at 5,” but I think definitely by the time I was in high school, I started to focus on taking as many art classes as possible, and it seemed pretty clear that that’s what I was best at doing.

Becoming a musician was kind of the fluke, because no one in my family is a musician. We’re all really into music and listening to music was a big deal in the house, and my dad has a huge record collection and all that, so it’s definitely important, but I’m not trained as a musician at all, and it’s sort of classic that, you know, “art school rock band” — that’s how I started music. Lots of art students start bands and that’s what I did basically.

TTB: If you weren’t working on music then, what was the main medium you were studying?

SP: I was in the painting department. So, the first two years it’s kind of like art school boot camp. I went to the Kansas City Art Institute, which is well known for its foundations program, you know, where you’re not supposed to know exactly what you wanna do yet and just sort of cover everything. And they work you really hard at it.

It was my first time leaving Chicago, actually, to go away to school so that was an important element to the whole thing. But then I came back two years later to focus on painting at the Art Institute in Chicago.

TTB: How would you describe your visual art to someone?

SP: I would start in broad terms. It’s sort of in the tradition of geometric abstract art, basically, but I would say that it’s the result of years of developing my own visual language, basically, and my drawings or paintings are just sort of displays of that invention — that sort of very personal visual language that sort of carries through into my photography, as well, a bit.

Hopefully I think it’s true that my sensibility basically as an artist in general, I think if you became familiar with my work overall, you would understand the correlation between all of them. I never set out concepts or prescriptions to fill, really. I’m always trying to be as in the moment as possible, but with all this baggage of having made work for so long that I’m interested in continuing to, you know, sort of refine and explore basically.

I’ve worked in a similar way, I feel like, my whole career kind of. Although in the music, when I started working with the synthesizer stuff, many people were dismayed with that in the beginning, but now — I’m as sort of known for that stuff as the more regular rock band stuff.

TTB: Why do you think that was early on?

SP: I mean, it’s been an ongoing interest. There’s a lot of electronic stuff in the music that I’ve made in bands, as well. The main difference is that I haven’t done any singing with that stuff, and I think it’s mainly because the vocals are such a potent instrument that they kind of obliterate all the other sounds in a way. It’s hard to get past them, so I was sort of interested in making music without singing for that reason, in a way, so that I could focus on the other aspects of music-making that I’m interested in.

TTB: You have released music as part of your band The Sea and Cake but also as a solo artist. How is collaborating different from your solo work?

SP: It is pretty different. I have collaborated with a lot of people over the years, but since I’m not, like, a real musician exactly, it sort of has to be my way or the highway, so I initiate most things and get it started just because my skills wouldn’t translate to someone else’s music so much.

You know, like The Sea and Cake, of course, everybody is absolutely important to the sound and whatever, but I have to start all of the songs and, you know, it sort of follows around the foundation I put out there first. And it’s sort of a limitation.

I mean, in some ways I wish I could work on somebody else’s stuff, but I think to get the best, most interesting work out of me, it has to be the other way around.

I recently have been working on a collaborative project with Laraaji. He’s 85 years old, he’s from New York, African American sort of new age pioneer, and he was discovered by Brian Eno in the ‘80s. He’s become a legendary figure in certain circles and so about two weeks ago or a week and a half ago, we played this show in San Francisco together and we play and we collaborate live. This is like our seventh show doing it, and I’ll tell you that I’ve had to adapt to have my stuff work with his material. It wasn’t the other way around, so that’s a different situation, and that’s been super rewarding, and it’s not something I would have ever thought that I would have ended up doing.

TTB: You also said this collaboration was something you never would have imagined a collaboration like this with The Tie Bar, right?

SP: As soon as [The Tie Bar President Michelle Kohanzo] mentioned it, I could see that working actually, but it’s not something that would have been on my radar previously.

I mean, I’m interested in fashion and clothing and all this, but it’s not something I’ve pursued ever, but as soon as she brought it up, it sort of made sense to me, you know, like, “Oh, I could see that working as a sort of perhaps idiosyncratic design for a tie.” But I think you know, they’re so linear and pretty clear that I could see where they could possibly translate well to a fabric situation.

TTB: These ties feature abstract, geometric cityscapes. Is there specific inspiration behind those designs?

SP: Some of the references are definitely urban, and you know, that stuff’s all around. I think that definitely gets in there. I think what got me interested in using these kinds of shapes is the way they’re built up and stuff. It’s so open that it’s kind of neutral. It’s kind of like taking photos in alleyways. It’s so open-ended that a lot of stuff can happen that you wouldn’t expect. And it’s kind of a similar situation with the drawings in a way.

It’s sort of like, “Oh yeah, they’re boxes and lines” on such a basic level that it becomes interesting to try to make them your own in a way. So I think that’s part of it, yeah. And even though I’m using those shapes, I feel like my signature is all over them.

TTB: All of your work does seem to have a very specific lens. Are you conscious of that when you’re making art or do you find that that’s just kind of how it happens?

SP: I think it’s a combination of the two. Occasionally when I’m out taking photos — I mean, I won’t avoid something exceptionally beautiful on purpose, you know, stuff like that. But William Eggleston has been a huge influence. I don’t know if you’re familiar with his work, but he’s huge. Most photographers on Instagram would say, “Yes, William Eggleston is, you know, a big deal.”

Basically, his concept, starting in the early ‘70s, was that anything is worthy of taking a photo of, basically. The subject matter is not necessarily the most important aspect of an interesting photo. So, I come out of that school. It’s sort of like, the less that’s there, the more I can make out of it, maybe in a way.

But also I feel like my photos are very much about Pilsen and Chicago, as well. And I think what’s so interesting is that, there’s no denying that they’re photos of Chicago, but hopefully it would seem like, “Who else would take this photo, but me?” So that’s sort of where it becomes truly on par with painting or drawing or making music.

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