THE DISCLAIMER FAQ

Q: Who is Disclaimer?
A: Chris Willie Williams. Disclaimer is a one-man-band sort of thing. I play guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums, as well as singing and producing and programming and everything else that you'd expect of a mercurial control freak like myself.

Q: What sort of music do you play?
A: Melodic, weird, eclectic indie-pop, basically. If you go to Disclaimer's page on CD Baby, you can listen to two-minute sound samples of every song from The Airbag's Lipstick Kiss. If you prefer reading about music to listening to it, visit the Press page and read some reviews. If it helps, assorted critics have said that Disclaimer recalls (on some level, and at various times) Radiohead, XTC, the Magnetic Fields, Guided by Voices, R.E.M., They Might Be Giants, Kraftwerk, Ben Folds Five, Mr. Bungle, Frank Allison, the Beach Boys, the Superfly soundtrack, the Smiths, Belle & Sebastian, Felt, Dee Long, Al di Meola, and Kitaro. Really! Those are actual comparisons! I don't even know who those last four are!

Q: Where/when are you touring?
A: Disclaimer does not play live. Ever. Touring options are necessarily limited for a solo act such as this one, and none of them would work. Disclaimer's densely arranged songs would generally not translate well to solo acoustic performances a la Mike Doughty (which is a fancy way of saying I really don't write songs so much as big wads of overproduced musical textures). Also, I'm not keen on the idea of playing to a tape, and hiring a backing band would be a financial and logistical nightmare. And also, I don't want to.

Q: What's The Airbag's Lipstick Kiss?
A: Just the best album ever made, is all! [Insert scornful cough/sigh noise that stereotypical sorority girls always make when they mean, "Duh."] Actually, it's the second album I've recorded, but the first to be commercially available. You can read some press release-style hyperbole about it on this page, and then you should go buy it on this page.

Q: What's Bombs by Night, Balloons by Morning, then?
A: It's officially the first Disclaimer album, recorded in 2001, though it was never released beyond copies I distributed among various Internet critics and my friends. It's not a great album by any means, but it's a fun, poppy one and it's got a handful of songs that I think hold up alright. Nonetheless, it will probably never see the light of day ever again.

Q: Has Disclaimer's music appeared anywhere else?
A: Well, the song "Hell" from The Airbag's Lipstick Kiss appeared on the compilation Locusts, Roaches, and Ants: The Music of the Web Reviewing Community, vol. 1. That's a free(!) compilation CD featuring music written and recorded by various members of the Web Reviewing Community (here are a couple reviews of it to better explain what's going on there: one and two). You can get yourself a copy of it by e-mailing me. Lots of great songs on there. "Hell" also appeared on MAGNET magazine's sampler number 34. "You Ruined Everything" from Airbag appeared on Shut Eye Records' compilation Buzzlighter 10: Direct Connections, but was incorrectly labeled on the back cover as "You Ruining Everything."

Q: How can I get in touch with Seether?
A: Seether has an album entitled Disclaimer. I'm Disclaimer the band. And you shouldn't be wanting to get in touch with Seether anyway.

Q: How can I get in touch with Veruca Salt?
A: Veruca Salt had a hit single entitled "Seether." Seether has an album entitled Disclaimer. I'm Disclaimer the band. You're very confused.

Q: How can I get in touch with Roald Dahl?
A: Get a ouija board and start shouting at it that you've got free opium up for grabs.

Q: Does Desiccant Records: Do Not Eat! need an intern or any other employees?
A: Fun though it might be for me to play the role of a sleazy Hollywood producer and take on a bunch of nubile ingenue "interns" more interested in "experience" than pay, I'm afraid I don't have any need for help with Desiccant Records at the moment. Thanks for the offer, though, Imaginary Question Person!

Q: What's the Disclaimer Music Review Archive?
A: It's a collection of music reviews that I've been writing since 1999. (Jenny Rydin used to contribute reviews as well, but I don't think she's done so since April of 2002, so I'm assuming she's retired from the game, unfortunately.) I think there are something like 800 reviews on there at the moment, and it's still active. I update it whenever I get a new CD that I feel like talking about. However, it really has nothing to do with Disclaimer, except for the fact that it's written by the same guy and shares a name and is located on the same web domain. There's plenty to read there, though, so hopefully it makes up for the paucity of relevant information on this site about Disclaimer.

Q: Who painted the cover for The Airbag's Lipstick Kiss?
A: The album cover is a painting entitled I'm Still Wearing the Outfit You Gave Me by Jon Chambers, a very good friend of mine and an amazing artist to boot. Hopefully, he'll have a site up at some point where you can check out his other work, because it's all every bit as beautiful and wrenching as the one I've defaced with the Disclaimer logo. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Q: What's your position on MP3 trading or file-sharing or whatever behind-the-times news outlets are calling it?
A: I'm all for it. Since the advent of Napster and the MP3-sharing boom, I've purchased a ridiculous number of albums due to the fact that I've been able to freely download virtually any song by virtually any artist at my leisure, thus testing out any album/artist I'd been considering investigating. As such, not only would it be tremendously hypocritical of me to be opposed to these services- technically legal or not- but I view them as a great promotional tool. My music will surely never be played on commercial radio or television (unless I sell out and license a song to a deodorant ad or something, which I am open to), so if you feel like sharing my album on Soulseek or your preferred peer-to-peer program, go for it because that's going to be my main outlet of exposure. Even if some people download the entire album without paying for it, which is a practice I'm personally not thrilled with for obvious reasons, I figure the potential "lost" income there is far outweighed by the number of people who will have a chance to check out Disclaimer on their own terms, and will therefore be more likely to buy The Airbag's Lipstick Kiss rather than having to go on the word of a critic.

Most people who buy albums really do buy albums on a regular basis. Most people who download entire albums wouldn't be paying for those albums even if they didn't have the option to download 'em for free. Musicians who oppose free file-trading are either (a) missing the point and the potential, or (b) ridiculously greedy. (And pay services like iTunes are a complete joke.)

I think that covers everything for now. If you have any other questions, e-mail me. I'll put the good ones on this page.