Pop Quiz: Del Marquis

While many music fans know Del Marquis mainly as the power pop guitarist for the band Scissor Sisters, Marquis has been showcasing a deeper artistic approach in his recent solo work. Marquis’ newest project is a large scale release including three separate albums that dropped over the past six months starting with HotHouse, then Character Assassination, followed by Litter to Society and the final culmination Runaround (released tomorrow, September 22nd). The release is not just music minded, the entire four album set is meant to be viewed as one piece; a fully integrated multi-media project featuring music, short form video, and long form “intersode” videos such as The Third Rail. Promising to entertain fans of filmmakers like Fritz Lang, The Third Rail combines themes of oppression and a dystopian vision of the future with an abstract sci-fi feel. Here, Del takes our Pop Quiz.

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What were your career aspirations as a child?
A gymnast. I was training seriously from age 5 till 13, but quit when I became more interested in music.

Tattoos?
One. A safety pin drawn as if it’s puncturing the skin.  It’s in memory of a friend who had the same tattoo.

Are you superstitious?
Yes, I always avoid cracks in the pavement; hold my breath while passing cemeteries and touch clocks when they strike 11:11. 

First album you bought?
“You can do Magic,” by America, was my first single, and “Vacation” by the Go-Go’s my first album.

If you could have any super power, what would you choose? 
To be invisible. Not to disappear, but to see what happens when no one knows you are in the room.

What restaurant would you eat at every day if you could ?
Applewood in Park Slope. It’s not too showy but always exceptional.

How many times a day on average do you think about sex? 
Constantly. I look forward to the day when my libido cools down.  It’s distracting.

Ever been arrested?
I narrowly avoided arrest multiple times as a teenager, because I was so fast. This was for such things as, egging cars, lighting fires, stealing hood ornaments off of cars, blowing up garbage cans.  I can’t believe some of the things I used to do, without a conscience.  My friends and I used to make sticks of dynamite by sawing of the ends of pineapple firecrackers, and fusing the shells of gun powder together with wax.

What’s your guilty pleasure?
Sugar, and I’m not talking Madonna eating a piece of toast with jam and thinking it a guilty pleasure. I’ve been known to purchase and eat and entire cake. Sometimes it must look like an episode of Degrassi Jr. High, and I’m the girl with an eating disorder, but without the vomiting.

Ever been star struck?
Paul McCartney.

When you get good news, who’s the first person you tell? 
My best friend David, who also works in music.

What do you always watch if it’s on TV? 
The Real Housewives of New Jersey.  I spent summers on the Jersey shore, and I feel like I know that kind of women.  It’s riotously funny, and for the first time, it seems like there is a reason for reality TV.

What do you normally sleep in?
Briefs.

What’s on your computer wallpaper?
An image of Tony Ward from 1990’s Vogue. He’s peering through blinds.

If you could be any literary character, who would you be?
When I was a kid, Charlie McGee in Firestarter.  Now, I don’t know, honestly.

Where do you really want to be right now?
At my friend Mark’s party in Provincetown called FAGBASH.  It feels like the first and last bar/dance party on earth.

What’s the first job you ever had?
I was 8 years old, and spent summers at my fathers loft in Soho (Not the same SOHO that exists now). There was a street vendors’ market on Spring and Wooster, and one of the jewelry vendors would pay me 5 bucks on the weekends to organize the table for him.  I remember also getting paid in 80’s pins, the ones in diamante letters that said “PARIS” or “NEW YORK.”

Favorite Muppets/Sesame Street character?
The Cookie Monster, for obvious reasons.