On Monday, Mount Eerie<\/a>\u2019s Phil Elverum posted a\u00a0lengthy Reddit AMA<\/a> explaining his reluctance to sign autographs for fans. The statement was originally published in a pamphlet<\/a> Elverum hands out<\/a> to concertgoers in search of his John Hancock. The statement is six single-spaced pages and nearly 3,000 words long. In it, Elverum not only questions the implications of autographing records, but instills the custom with philosophical weight. \u201cI believe in equality and I don\u2019t believe in god,\u201d Elverum writes. \u201cI believe that successful and well known people are regular people, of course, and I am made uncomfortable by our tendency as humans to elevate some people while not elevating others.\u201d Elverum feels that the second he takes a Sharpie to his work, he is drawing up a barrier between the genuine human-to-human exchange that took place before this request \u2013 such as having a conversation.<\/p>\n

Despite his unconventional position on this subject, the artist is quick to turn his argument against himself and examine the issue from every angle, particularly that of the fans. He goes into detail about a childhood collection of football cards that he sent to his favorite player Walter Payton when he was a boy. Payton signed every card and returned them, much to Elverum\u2019s wildest delight. The songwriter claims that these cards remain in his parents\u2019 attic to this day. \u201cThese little pieces of cardboard were important to me mostly because the boundary had been crossed and erased between this god-like football man from TV and me, a kid from the forest outside a small town in Washington,\u201d he says. \u201cThe autographs represented that breach to me, proof that this special man and I were inhabitants of the same world, and there was a real tangible line between us, with evidence!\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue of celebrity signatures didn\u2019t come fully into focus until later in Elverum\u2019s life, after average Joes (and fellow Washingtonians) like Kurt Cobain and Beat Happening\u2019s Bret Lunsford made their own mark on music history. The paradigm shifted for Elverum, who even then wanted to maintain relationships with heroes that didn\u2019t teeter atop golden pedestals. \u201cIt\u2019s not that I don\u2019t have long rich fantasies of the conversations and interactions I\u2019d like to have with my favorite artists, writers, thinkers,\u201d he wrote on Monday. \u201cI do. I want to personally know these brilliant people, and I enjoy hearing about their secret unglamorous regular life moments, the mechanics of their normalcy. I enjoy the reminders of my sameness with them because it reinforces the possibilities that lay open for me, always. An autograph is detrimental to all of this door-opening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elverum speaks of a particular day in his adolescence, when the brand new Beat Happening album arrived at a local record store where Bret Lunsford worked. For months Elverum and his pals had been hanging around this shop, \u201cbecoming more comfortable, acting cool (we thought), and earning trust and respect.\u201d After Elverum and his two buddies bought the new CD, his friends did something that horrified teenage Elverum. \u201c[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][They] took the shrink wrap off the jewel case right there in the store and asked Bret if he would sign it. I felt embarrassment wash over me\u2026I wanted it to be known that I didn\u2019t care if Bret signed my CD.\u201d<\/p>\n