Interview with Ernie Brooks of Arthur's Landing

moodgusic got together with Ernie Brooks of Arthur's Landing before their June 25th performance at Tramway in Glasgow. Long time collaborator and dear friend to Arthur Russell, Ernie Brooks talks about Arthur's music and the fandom surrounding it, the future of Arthur's Landing and his endeavours outside of the project.

Zach Layton, Steven Hall, Peter Zummo and Ernie Brooks Photograph by See-Ming Lee

moodgusic: Steven talked about how there’s a dysfunction when you’re all on stage, and how it’s a good thing.

EB: Yeah it means it’s a little bit, we’re not, you might say we’re paradoxically over-rehearsed and under-rehearsed. We all have our ideas and we’ve all played the songs a lot, but we never played them the same way. And we can’t agree on which songs to do, who should be in the band – things like that, critical things. Maybe we’re all inspired by Arthur’s spirit; he was one of the more difficult human beings. If something sounded really good he’d say “We’ve gotta stop doing that.”

moodgusic: Does it seem easier when you’re recording music with Arthur’s Landing – you’re playing Arthur’s music.

EB: Well that’s what I thought. I thought finally we could do Arthur’s music and you know, kind of record it in a fairly sane way and get it done. Maybe Arthur’s ghost in the wiring of the studio.

moodgusic: Does part of you miss that; the amount of takes, his control in the studio?

EB: Yeah, not that his control and creation of chaos. It’s true, Arthur did have a very weird vision of something he wanted. But because he never quite got there, he’d end up with many, many versions of songs. That’s sort of something which goes on now, I’ll find a cassette, like version of (This is How We) Walk On The Moon and bring it to rehearsal and it’s got incredible singing, and cello playing. So you know, I have several crates of cassettes from rehearsals and studio stuff. So sometimes I’ll listen to one and say “Shit, that really sounds better than what we’re doing” so it pushes you onward, but it’s difficult.

moodgusic: Do you all of the DAT tapes from the time? 

EB: A lot of DAT tapes, a lot of cassettes and a lot of reel-to-reel.

moodgusic: And do those formats deteriorate over time, or are they still listenable?

EB: DAT’s are very fragile mechanism, so some will break. I think all the tape formats are actually better than CD’s. CD’s are the worst, they get scratched, they suddenly stop playing. Tape is more gradual, and more forgiving, and I’m always surprised how great old cassettes sound. On a whim I just bought turntables that converts as a turntable and a cassette player and make CD’s from it. So I can at least take stuff and give it to other people, because I don’t want to give away the cassettes. I like the old format, I mean sometimes the tape, like that last album Love is Overtaking Me, we had to bake all those tapes. We made that from old reel-to-reel mixes. And as a precaution before playing it we’d out it in a convection over for a certain number of hours.

moodgusic: At least it was preserved, now it’s living another life.

EB: I’m really happy about how those records came out.

moodgusic: I think that’s my favorite release from Audika, the Love is Overtaking Me collection.

EB: Good ‘cause that was the one that everyone was dubious about. That was the one that I played on most of the songs and it was sort of from the era that I was doing the most work with Arthur. There was actually only one The Flying Hearts song, from the original Flying Hearts. There’s tonnes of that material that hasn’t come out. So I hope it does.

Ernie Brooks Photograph property of Mustafa Ahmed 

moodgusic: Hopefully. Steven was talking about his solo work, and you as well, you both are working on solo work, is that something you’ve considered putting onto an Arthur’s Landing release along with Arthur’s music?

EB: Not really. In fact, I sort of make a distinction. I mean maybe, it depends on what the future is. That’s another idea of Arthur’s Landing, we all do solo stuff and Arthur’s stuff just to bring it more into the present. And there’s a few songs that I co-wrote with Arthur, and there’s a couple of unfinished songs that I’d like to finish what we started. That would be another way of connecting it. The problem is there’s so much, Steven has a lot of songs, Peter has some amazing stuff. I don’t know if you know Peter’s solo work, it’s pretty cool. And Joyce is not here tonight, what can I say, it’s a big question mark. All I can say is yeah I like playing Arthur’s songs because I don’t know anybody who writes better songs. And I guess that in the rare case that we thought we’d written a song that’s as good as Arthur’s, then we could release it.

moodgusic: Do you think that it might prolong the life of Arthur’s Landing. Steven talked about how difficult it’s getting and that he can’t see the project too far ahead in the future, something along those lines. There was a line I read in Hold Onto Your Dreams, you had said Arthur’s music is something you’d like to be playing for the rest of your life. I’m sure the rest of Arthur’s Landing feel that way too, so maybe mixing the stuff you do with Arthur’s music and Steven’s or Peter’s. Do you think that would prolong the life of Arthur’s Landing?

EB: Well it might, or it could be another band that would do Arthur’s stuff with other personnel. Steven decided he didn’t want to perform with Joyce, and I like performing with Joyce so would there be two bands then? I don’t know, all I’m sure is that there’ll be some entity, whether it’s Arthur’s Landing or something else. It’s funny, I did a solo album, which was very obscure, a long time ago.

Elodie Lauten and Ernie Brooks Photograph property of Mustafa Ahmed

moodgusic: Was that on Moon Caravan?

EB: No it was a French label, New Rose Records. I did several of Arthur’s songs on that. So I was doing Arthur’s songs before.

moodgusic: Have any of you been approached by someone who’s looking to make a biopic or maybe write another book about Arthur from a different angle?

EB: Not really no, I’m always happy to do it. I’ve got to say that Tim Lawrence’s book is pretty exhausted, it really covers his story. I mean of course it doesn’t cover, I certainly said a lot of what I would say for that book. But that’s an interesting thought, that’s funny ‘cause I know a guy who’s a Princeton graduate student who’s writing an analysis of Arthur’s music for his doctoral thesis.

moodgusic: That should be interesting.

EB: And he asked me to play, so I did some of Instrumentals. I guess that’s one of the things he’s focusing on, the structure of that music. Because Arthur’s music does have a very, I’m not enough of a trained musician or know enough music theory to say exactly what it is or why it is, but it has to do with, I think his, it might have to with how he would often write down, that song What It’s Like. I remember he woke up one morning and it was in his head and he wrote down the melody and then tried to put chords to it and gradually evolve the chord structure around it, which is very complicated, it’s not an easy song to play. Because it was the melody which came first, and part of the words - but you know he had so many songs coming all the time.

moodgusic: What It’s Like and Close My Eyes were, I think two of the best moments on Love Is Overtaking Me. I really enjoyed them. I got Tim Lawrence mixed up with Matt Wolf – how exciting was it to be approached by this man who’s looking to put a lot of work, and he really did, how exciting was this interest, also with Tim Lawrence.

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EB: Oh it’s great because it’s a story that needs, I don’t know, everybody has a story when you start to examine it and you know, Arthur’s story is particularly interesting. He came from some place, of so much ‘not New York’ and then end up being such a creature of New York. That part of the Lower East Side, I mean I’ve got to say, in the book itself it’s got everything there, it’s hard – books about musicians and music I usually find hard to read, if I wasn’t so involved with it I might find that one hard to read as well. Some guy wrote a book about The Modern Lovers and I helped him proof read it, but I couldn’t read it. It was by Johnathan Richman, I did interviews for The Modern Lovers part. I don’t know maybe when you’ve lived something you’re always nervous to read about it again. It makes you nervous in the sense that you’re always going to find mistakes, not to mention how authors always want to know “Was that on Tuesday night 1974? Was so and so happy with this and that?”. So do you think that there are a lot of people in Glasgow that listen to Arthur’s music? I mean that’s another thing, everybody talks about this phenomenon and you find out that it’s such a big phenomenon; it’s a pretty small one. A really narrowly focused phenomenon.

moodgusic: Yeah, it isn’t huge, more narrowly focused like you said. People that love his music, truly love it. I think it’s that niche aspect that allows for there to be so much adoration for his music.

EB: I really thought that in the day people would hear the songs – that’s in the book, I took all those tapes to all those record companies and they looked at me with total incomprehension. So it’s gratifying to feel now that I wasn’t insane. That there was really something there.

moodgusic: It takes two to tango – you’ve to find the right label that’s willing to, not necessarily take a risk but put the support behind it.

EB: It’s also, for example when we started The Flying Hearts we were playing these soft melodic songs right when the punk stuff was coming in. That’s one of the things that made it hard, that it was not the right music for that time. But it’s more the music for this time.

moodgusic: What do you think it would’ve been like if you, Arthur and everyone else were getting your start up today with all the technology that people have to make music. What do you think it would’ve been like?

EB: Well Arthur I would say that he got so crazy with cutting up pieces of tape up, pro-tools would’ve made his life so much easier, but at the same time he might’ve just gone off and totally got lost in that and never come back. He would’ve welded his brain to a micro-processor and gone into cyberspace. Not to mention the internet, that would’ve made him completely nuts, as it’s made us all somewhat nuts. It’s funny, I’m not really into the digital stuff, I still really like going into a recording studio and recording in sort of an old fashioned way. It’s sort of a bargain with the devil with the ease in which you can make stuff on digital – I think often, songs get lost, they get cut up and endlessly reprocessed and layered. I may be old fashion but still what moves me in music is hearing words, melody and you know feeling the words, the meaning. Arthur’s words were beautiful, as poetry. That’s also another thing I was involved with to an extent, the poetry scene in New York, Steven was actually too. I knew a lot of poets, not just Ginsberg, but Corso and I was a fan of William Carlos Williams I actually think I dabbled that guy in one of the liner notes. Arthur’s lyrics were all tied into that. The idea of simplicity, poetic uses of language that were simple. 

moodgusic: Would you be able to tell me about some of the music you’re listening to now. Any new music this year, or old music you’ve picked up on?

EB: I started listening to vinyl, and I have tonnes of vinyl and periodically my turntable breaks, so I bought this new one and I listened to the first Pretenders record, which is a great record. Listening to the second Them album, a new group that Steven introduced me to called Warpaint. There’s so many bands in Williamsburg – I’ll tell you, another one, friends of my 20 year old daughter, graduated from Wesley and there’s a lot of Wesley bands one of them is called Das Racist, you know them?

moodgusic: Yeah, they’re a rap group.

EB: What is it, “I’m at the Pizza Hut, the Taco Bell”, that’s a genius song. What else, some of – I don’t know, I can’t think of anything else. I also play with this guy Gary Lucas, do you know him?

moodgusic: I think so.

Ernie Brooks Photograph property of Mustafa Ahmed

EB: He co-wrote with Jeff Buckley, who’s father I like, Tim Buckley. So me and Gary, we have a record we just did. It was produced by Gerry Harrison, it’s a good sounding record. I’ve actually been playing a lot. He’s also been doing a project with these versions of Chinese pop songs from Shanghai in the 30’s. Two weeks ago we were doing that at this big festival in Amsterdam. I’m trying to think what I heard there that I liked. I didn’t get to hear much music.

moodgusic: Have you been to many live shows lately?

EB: I go out in New York, sometimes, but not so often. I should go out more, I just feel like it’s overwhelming going to a club to hear many bands. Shoot, what’s another group that’s good, The Antlers, they were pretty cool when I saw them. There’s a group called The Double, I like them. I don’t even know if they’re still playing, bands come and go.

moodgusic: Thanks very much for your time Ernie.

 

Arthur's Landing's self titled debut release is out now on Strut Records.   

Unedited interview recording~ 

[audio http://moodgusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/0ce55-vn860013.mp3]
VN860013.MP3

 

*Special thanks to Philip Larkin for giving me shelter and bein' the best.

*Apologies to Ernie Brooks and Arthur's Landing for the delayed publishing of this interview.

 

 

Interview with Steven Hall of Arthur's Landing

moodgusic got together with Steven Hall of Arthur's Landing before their June 25th performance at Tramway in Glasgow. Long time collaborator and dear friend to Arthur Russell, Steven Hall talked about his solo project Bhuddhist Army, Arhur's legacy and how it translates into Arthur's Landing, as well as the projects longevity. 

Ernie Brooks, Steven Hall, Mustafa Ahmed, Bill Ryule and Peter Zummo

moodgusic: So Steven, how are you doing today? 

SH: Exhausted, but I am okay. 

moodgusic: And when did you get in? 

SH: We came yesterday morning. We stopped in Dublin, then we took another flight to Glasgow. Um, we were in yesterday morning. 

moodgusic: How was it all?

SH: The flight from Dublin was great because it was a small plane. So it was flying very low, we could see all the farmland, it was really beautiful. If I speak too fast is it going to give you a problem?

moodgusic: No not at all, not at all. So you grew up here in Scotland. Could you tell me about some of the memories, of your time growing up here?

SH: Drunkenness and gang fights.

moodgusic: You were quite young at the time.

SH: I wasn’t involved in them, when I was younger Glasgow was much more dangerous, and rough. I mean I know there’s a big heroin scene here but that’s not violent. But when I was growing up here there was a big gang scene, street gangs.

moodgusic: But you do have a fondness for this place, don’t you?

SH: Umm *a baby nearby screams lougly* that’s how I feel. No, I have very mixed feelings about it, it’s really weird to be back here.

moodgusic: Do you still play the bagpipes?

SH: I stopped playing the bagpipes when I was about 13 or 14. So I haven’t played them since, I do have a chanter but I don’t practce.

moodgusic: Do you ever think you’ll pick it up again?

SH: I thought about it, but I’m too lazy. It takes so much breathe and I don’t know if I have enough breathe for it.

moodgusic: Will you be performing with Zuni Zunique and Leigh Ferguson this evening?

SH: Well Leigh’s already here and she seems like she’s really ready to go. Zuni got cold feet, she was very nervous about it. She didn’t know if she could get things right and she’s supposed to turn up for the rehearsal. And if she feels comfortable she’ll sing with us also. We often add people – local people. Usually we look for a local cello player obviously because of Arthur, and then if anyone is hanging around and they seem motivated or interested, sometimes we invite those people to join us.

moodgusic: That’s nice, so it’s all relaxed and informal?

SH: Well usually the people who are interested are really fascinated and obsessed with Arthur’s music, so they bring with them – the same as our fans is like we have readymade goodwill. We don’t have to go out and like sell ourselves or try to get people interested in us because they are already interested in us, because they know Arthur’s work. So everything that’s happened has come to us rather than us going after it and trying to make something happen. That’s what’s unique about this project compared to other projects that I’ve done, including my own music. 

Steven Hall and Arthur Russell Performing at Piezo Gallery '84 Photograph by Johnny Fu

moodgusic: So Buddhist Army, are you still working with that?

SH: Yes, in fact we’ll have the first Buddhist Army release will be a vinyl EP on this new French label called Hollie, in Paris. So that will be coming out in September. It has one of Ernie’s song, that I’ll be singing.

moodgusic: I think you posted that on facebook.

SH: Yeah, it has a great long title: There’s a Word for Everything Over Here. It’s a great song.

moodgusic: You’re very active of facebook, you’re always posting remixes and songs you find interesting.

SH: My ex-boyfriend who’s the DJ Danny Wang, said that I’m like a 15 year old who craves attention. I keep on posting things and putting pictures up. So he thinks it’s like obsessive and unhealthy [laughs].

moodgusic: I was reading through your facebook, scanning through it and I saw something interesting, you said that you’re trying to get shows set up in London, Oslo and even Belfast.

SH: Yes, well we have a new booking agent called Isla. From No Menace agency and she – Wow. *A lady wearing an uncommon raincoat walks past * There’s some great raincoats in Glasgow [laughs]. I’ve seen some great raincoats and some great dyed hair also. It’s like still in fashion here but not other places. What was the question again?

moodgusic: Oslo, Belfast and London shows.

SH: Oh yeah, yes we have a new booking agent and she’s working on an offer we got from Fabric in London, the Belfast Music Club and Club Blaa in Oslo and a few other places.

moodgusic: I’d love to see you in Belfast, it’d would save me from having to travel.

SH: I’d love to, I think it will happen. Those guys seem pretty motivated.

moodgusic:  And you last gig, wasn’t that on June 4^th at Howl Fest?

SH: Yes that was the Howl Festival celebrating Allen Ginsberg which is this big weekend long festival they have every year. They use a lot of different venues and the main part is in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, we played in the park. The history of that links with Arthur because not only did both Allen Ginsberg and Arthur live thee blocks from there, but we used to hang out in that park together.  It’s like a gay themed, gay friendly kind of festival and that was a lot of fun.

moodgusic: Are you noticing that there’s a lot of young fans?

SH: No, our main fan base so far has been older. But we have two groups of people, there’s the older people like around my age who are in their 50’s who for this it’s like revisiting or re-evaluating. And then we have a bunch of younger fans, the younger fans tend to be more from a dance music scene. I think as we perform more we’re beginning to see more of a mixture. The only audience we haven’t really reached yet is a gay audience, which is really – because that’s where the money is [laughs]. No but I think it’s a vast audience which is untapped yet in terms of Arthur’s work even though the connection between the gay disco scene and Arthur’s music is very real.

moodgusic: I remember reading something Ernie said, that playing Arthur’s music is something he’d like to do for the rest of his life. You all share this thought I’m sure, but do you see yourself doing this?

SH: No, because I think that each member of the band - almost all of them are composers in their own right, or already have their own bands or their own projects so there’s a certain tension between your personal music and then working with Arthur’s music. So for me it’s very heavy because it’s like dealing with a legacy, and by default I’m like the official singer because Arthur trained me to sing in a particular way. He groomed me to be the singer of his songs because he didn’t feel like – he didn’t think he was cute enough to sing his own songs to be accepted. And so that’s why he trained Ernie and me to sing his songs because he thought Ernie and me would be good front men. And Joyce Bowden, she was like the main female singer, she’s not with us on this trip but she’s also in the band, sometimes. So for me I’ve often felt like giving up this project, Arthur’s Landing, because it gets in the way of my own music. It’s complimentary because my own music is kind of similar, but then every minute I spend working on Arthur’s music is a minute not spend working on my own. I have many mixed feelings about how long I will keep dong it. We’ve also discussed bringing our own material into the band, like maybe doing some of my songs or some of Ernie’s songs but we haven’t done that yet.

Steven Hall in Brooklyn Botanical Gardens Photograph by Take

moodgusic: I’m sure that could be something that would go down very well with the fans.

SH: I think later on we will get into that. The thing is with Arthur’s music is that it’s endless, it’s just endless. It’s like this perpetual motion, a machine or something. There’s so much stuff that’s not recorded and then there’s so much stuff that’s in manuscript that’s still to be discovered. A couple of the songs we do come from manuscripts that were never fully written out or recorded so the idea is that it’s kind an archaeology.

moodgusic: Do you feel a responsibility for maybe you and Steve from Audika records to almost keep putting out this material?

SH: No I don’t feel any responsibility, I think that the main thing about Arthur’s Landing is that I see it as a vehicle for Peter, for Peter Zummo. Because I think that Peter is like the greatest trombone player that every lived, and he’s this national treasure so to have him – and I think out of all of us he was the closest to Arthur musically, in terms of thought, musical thought. So the idea is that the band is a vehicle for Peter who basically improvises on Arthur’s themes and develops improv’ for um, I can’t think of the right word. So I don’t think of it in terms of a responsibility, I think of it in terms of celebration, and also to show since I’m still alive to show what I was taught. In that certain way of singing that I was taught, so to show that. So I don’t see it in any heavy terms of responsibility – we get pressured to do certain songs but we really resist that because we’d rather explore new material. I think that as time goes on more and more people will do Arthur’s music, so I don’t feel like we have to cover things, other’s will cover them.

moodgusic: Do you think Bhuddist army will be ‘stepping into’ dubstep soon?

SH: I really like dubstep and my new thing is techno-dubstep, I was joking about kind of doing a techno-dubstep tonight – I’m not really sure what dubstep is, except it has a lot of very wild synthesiser sweeps.

moodgusic: Yesterday it was announced that gay marriage is legal in New York where you all reside.

SH: Yeah, I’m the only queer member of the band so I share that very intimate connection – that part of Arthur’s life. And also, not so much now but when we were playing the music world was and still pretty much very macho, so even if you’re introducing a feminine sensibility, even if you’re a woman, into this macho scene it’s an interesting musical discussion. Also the word ‘gay’ is very interesting, usually I use the word ‘queer’. ‘Gay’ is more generic, I think ‘gay’ comes with a lot of baggage, entomological baggage.

moodgusic: Does it ever dishearten you as that queer themes haven’t really come into popular music. As with ‘Is It All Over My Face?’ you were adamant about it having male vocals.

SH: I think Arthur would’ve said that maybe that he would want it to apply to everyone, but when it was written he definitely had an idea about what it was but that’s an interesting question, I can’t come up with a full answer right now.

moodgusic: No matter how far the culture has come, it still hasn’t perpetuated into mainstream music.

SH: Yeah, and also an interesting question would be: would it be good to be mainstream? Because maybe it’s better to be something special that’s more on the outskirts of things.

moodgusic: Just one more question, what have you been listening to lately, any favourite records of the year or older stuff you’ve picked up on?

SH: There’s a really good singer, this discovery I made called The Boy Called Hedge. So I’m excited about him, I’m also listening to The Fania All-Stars CD which just came out on Strut. It’s like a survey of Porto Rican musicians in New York in the 80’s and 90’s, so I’m listening to that. That’s about it I mean the best comment in terms of listening to music I heard was, Bob Dylan stayed with the French Elvis. This guy Jerry… Ernie! Who’s the French Elvis Presley?  Like that guy ‘Jerry’..?

EB: Johnny Hallyday.

SH: Johnny Hallyday.

EB: Please don’t say anything good about Johnny Hallyday.

SH: I’m just saying a comment he made about Bob Dylan. Okay, Bob Dylan stayed on Johnny Hallday’s farm for a couple of weeks and Johnn Hallyday said: “The only thing that Bob Dylan ever listened to was Bob Dylan.” That made me feel much much better, because usually the only thing I listen to is myself, or Arthur’s Landing.

Steven Hall in Allen Ginsberg's Kitchen Photograph by Allen Ginsberg

moodgusic: Well thank you very much for taking the time to talk, I’m looking forward to the show. It’ll be the first time I see Arthur’s music performed live and I’m very excited about it. I wish you all the best – hopefully you can keep continuing the project.

SH: Yeah well we didn’t get into the difficulties of the band itself, that would be a whole other interview because three of the member are not here. There’s eight members in the band, one member [Joyce Bowden] has kind of quit the band because, Joyce and me were fighting all the time. The other member Elodie doesn’t really want to be in the band because she’s such a composer in her own right and it takes time away from her music as I mentioned earlier. So she only wants to play sometimes with the band, she doesn’t want to be an official member. John Scherman couldn’t get his passport renewed in time to come.

moodgusic: That’s unfortunate.

SH: That’s part of the dysfunctional aspect of the band, we’re supremely dysfunctional. It’s also part of the legacy of Arthur, because Arthur was very dysfunctional – so it’s like we’re dealing with this dysfunctional legacy, and then Elodie our keyboard player said: “The real difficulty about having a band like this is the 9^th member.” Which is Arthur, so we have like a ghost member in the band. So that’s what makes it really complicated as we always imagine Arthur’s actually there with us, or what he would want us to play. And then you also you’re dealing with – this agent friend of mine said – I asked him to be our agent and he said: “No way. I would never be the agent for old musicians they are all impossible!” [laughs] They’re all spoiled brats [laughs]. So that’s another aspect of it, musicians by nature are spoiled, so when you get to be 50 years old – our youngest member is me, I’m 53 and we have a couple members who are 60, Ernie’s 60 and Peter’s 61. So when you get older people set in their ways who are spoiled or dysfunctional it becomes like this carnival of dysfunctional behaviour – which on stage makes a great show. Because there’s all this hidden tension going on underneath and that helps when we get to improv’, that’s when the fireworks start.

moodgusic: Okay, thank you very much Steven.

Arthur's Landing's self titled debut release is out now on Strut Records.   

Unedited interview recording~ [audio http://moodgusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/caff8-vn860011.mp3]
VN860011.mp3

 

*Special thanks to Philip Larkin for giving me shelter and bein' the best.

 

 

 

Interview with Dylan Carlson of Earth

moodgusic met with Dylan Carlson of Earth in Belfast a few hours before their show at Auntie Annies on April 7 to talk about Earth's latest record Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1, Dylan's solo debut and Neil Young. Yep, good auld Neil.

moodgusic: So, how are you feeling today Dylan? 

DC: I feel great, I had a great nights sleep, enjoyed the boat ride, had a great show in Glasgow..

moodgusic: Before the release of Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1, you had a health scare – did that give you any reservations about touring the album?

DC: Um, luckily right after we did the album I got put on a medication that helped me, so yeah that’s why we’re doing such an intense six week tour with no days off. Then when we get back we’re doing the States so I’m pretty much healthy again.

moodgusic: So the tour hasn’t taken a toll on you at all.

DC: Well, I can’t have fat ‘cause I have a bad liver. So it’s a little hard in the British Isles [laughs], they seem to slip in fat, butter and cream and all kinds of stuff. But I’m okay.

moodgusic: The record was produced by Stuart Hallerman, who also worked on Earth 2, what ideas did he bring to the record and what was it like working with him again?

DC: It was really good working with him again, I’ve known him – I knew him for years before we did Earth 2, he lived in Olympia [Washington] at the time I first moved there. He’s really one of those like great, ‘just-get-it-to-tape’ as smoothly as possible - he’s not like a Phil Spector type y’know Wall of Sound sort of – it’s just very natural and trying to get the best sound to the tape as possible and he works really fast. He has an amazing attention to detail, especially with the pro-tools and stuff ‘cause I don’t know how to do any of that.

moodgusic: He was an engineer on Earth 2, was it a similar experience to the one back then?

DC: Pretty much similar, I mean obviously we’ve all y’know.. Like we were joking while we were doing this album about all the stuff we would’ve done different had we known what we know now, but of course it wouldn’t have been the same record. On that album we did a lot of kind of crazy things that technically were wrong I guess [laughs] or shouldn’t have worked but somehow it worked for that. But yeah this album just went really smooth, I think that’s why we got so much done, y’know recording two records in one..

moodgusic: So you’ve record all of Angels of Darkness 2..

DC: Yeah it’s mastered it’s all almost done.

moodgusic: So it’s mixed and everything, all that’s left to do is set a release date?

DC: Yeah.

moodgusic: Do you have any idea when that will come out - next year, yeah?

DC: No, actually originally we wanted to do them both this year but Greg [Anderson, founder of Southern Lord Records] wasn’t sure if he could do that so we had talked about pushing it ‘til next year. But now this one seems to be doing well and we’ve talked with Greg but haven’t figured out yet, but some time between October and the end of the year probably.

moodgusic: You’ve been making music for over two decades now, do you ever go back and listen to your older records?

DC: Not so much. Usually only if we’re going to like play a song in the set off one of the older albums, um but I don’t really like, I mean after I’ve worked on it and it’s mastered, and I hear the mastered copy that’s pretty much it. I’m not a big ‘oh, I love to listen to myself’ kind of person [laughs]. I mean I like what I do and I’m proud of it, but I’m always looking ahead, at least musically, I look in the past, in other ways.

moodgusic: You’re a fan of Neil Young, even with ‘Old Black’, the first track of the new album being a nod towards Neil’s guitar – I’d really love to hear your thoughts on his last release Le Noise?

DC: Oh, the doom record. [laughs] I’m still processing that record, I mean it’s funny ‘cause it looks and it seems like it’s an early Sunn O))) demo or something, the cover. And then it was kind of funny ‘cause it was like, even though it’s got all that heavy guitar and stuff it’s funny ‘cause it’s really at heart a singer-songwriter record like his old ones only it has this sort of weird thing..

moodgusic: It’s almost like the record that you both would’ve made if you collaborated.

DC: Yeah, [laughs] I was like joking: ‘‘damnit he’s staking his claim to everything now, now he’s going to be the inventor of doom!’’ Everyone will say oh he’s the father of grunge and now he’s the father of doom. Nah but I love Neil Young and Daniel Lenois’ a great producer, I would love to work with him someday but obviously I would never be able to afford it. [laughs]

moodgusic: You never know, stranger things have happened.

DC: Yeah. His take on it seemed a little more digital in a weird way. Maybe he didn’t want it to sound as warm, maybe he was going for that cold black metal sound or something. [laughs]

moodgusic: You’ve spoke about the idea of doing a solo record, and with Angels of Darkness 2 finished, do you think that’s something you’d like to do next year?

DC: Yeah that’s my goal, either when we get off tour this year, we have a couple offer for sort of festivals things in October and December. So hopefully, well Winter’s probably not the best time to travel around the British Isles, but I want to travel around England, Scotland and Ireland to record it. So either then or right after the new year is when I want to record the solo record so hopefully it’ll get out by next year.

moodgusic: Do you have any ideas right now as to what you’d like to tackle with the record?

DC: I do, but it’s something I’m kind of keeping secret right now.

moodgusic: Sure. What do you think about the name: under your own name, something else or even Earth?

DC: No it’ll be under my name. It’ll be something different, ‘cause for me with Earth like there’s certain things that need to be there like it needs to be slow and long, especially Adrienne [Davies] now has been in the band 10 years so if she’s not there I don’t really feel like it’s same. So if I’m going to do something different I don’t think I should call it Earth ‘cause I don’t think that would be fair. Like if I was going to do synth-pop and try and sell it as an Earth record that would be like, ‘cheeky’ I guess you would call it [laughs] or ‘cunty’. [laughs]

moodgusic: Curse away I don’t mind. [laughs]

DC: Okay I didn’t know if this was.

moodgusic: Nah, it’s fine.

DC: You never know what interviews you can swear at.

moodgusic: Fuckin’ curse away all you want. [laughs]

DC: [laughs] I’ve heard the Irish enjoy cursing.

moodgusic: [laughs] What do you think about the idea of a visual album, maybe you guys writing a piece of music for a film or someone making a film to a piece of your music. What are your thoughts on that? 

DC: I would love to do like, I mean we were lucky and that song got used in that Limits of Control movie, that Jim Jarmusch film and apparently he named the character of ‘The Driver’ after the song. But yeah I would love to actually get to do a soundtrack where you watch the movie and record something for it.

moodgusic: Have you heard any more information about the Swedish, or was it Norwegian filmmaker who made film with your music?

DC: Yeah our manager Clyde [Peterson] went and saw it, I missed it, he then met him and he makes animation films so he went to some kind of class with him.

moodgusic: Is there any information you can give just so those interested can look him up? 

DC: Uh, no I haven’t. I don’t know that much, other than he made that film and it’s inspired by our music and stuff like that. Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet him.

moodgusic: I watched a video online of your track ‘Seven Angels’ set to the film ‘Eraserhead’. It worked very well, both the music and film are really dark and slow -what kind of film could you see go along maybe with the latest record?

DC: Well the movie I was watching the most when I did this record was my copy of Pans Labyrinth, the Guillermo del Toro film. That movie Centurion about the Roman guys that get stuck in Scotland and they’re massacred.

moodgusic: Were you able to take influence from them for the record, ‘cause it seems to have a Western, desolate desert aesthetic to it.

DC: With this one, I was listening to a lot more English folk rock and reading a lot of Celtic myths and stuff like that so that was more of the theme I was going for although country comes from Celtic music so it’s all the same. It’s all the same ball I guess. [laugh]

moodgusic: What releases have you enjoyed the most so far this year?

DC: My favourite new band is ‘The Unthanks’ who are these Northumberiansisters that do like Scottish and Northumbrian folk music. And then there’s this band that we’re going to tour the East coast with, it’s one person it’s this girl Geneviève [Castrée] but the band’s called ‘Ô Paon’, she sings and plays guitar over like loops’ of her voice and the guitar. She’s French-Canadian. What else have I really liked.. ‘Mount Eerie’ we were going to tour the South-East with, they’re from Anacortes [Washington], they play a giant gong and then he picks random musicians to play with him. I really like ‘Sabbath Assembly’, yeah I really like their record.

moodgusic: When I was checking my ticket this morning, I noticed their name was spelt wrong.

DC: Oh really? [laughs]

moodgusic: It’s spelt A-s-s-u-m-b-l-y on the ticket. ‘That’s not the same band, is it?’ I thought. [laughs]

DC: [laughs] But yeah I like their record.

moodgusic: What records are you looking forward to being released?

DC: I sort of find stuff by happenstance, like that band ‘The Unthanks’ I just got some British magazine and read about them doing a King Crimson cover of Starless, which his one of my favourite King Crimson songs so that’s what sort of drew me to the record.

moodgusic: That's great, thanks for the interview.  

Earth's latest release Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light is out now on Southern Lord Records.

 

Unedited Interview recording~[audio http://moodgusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/afa4e-interview_with_dylan_carlson_of_earth.mp3]
Interview_with_Dylan_Carlson_of_Earth.mp3

 

 

This Will Destroy You call it day

Texan four-piece This Will Destroy You announced on their tumblr that they "cannot agree on the future of [this] band" and have decided "to take [our] side projects full time" but "will continue to release [our] b-sides in the future". The post surfaced three hours ago on TWDY's tumblr and it comes on the eve of their second studio LP Tunnel Blanket which is set for release on May 10.

The group still have shows scheduled, right now it is not known if they will fulfil these live commitments, they are nice chaps so we can at least hope that ticket holders needn't worry. But it's highly probable that they aren't going to make any more dates ahead of the four shows that are upcoming including three shows in Texas and a festival in Belgium. 

This Will Destroy You's music helped put themselves into the forefront of post-rock/instrumental music and they've been a steady favourite for fans of that yield of music. A look at past releases show how they created their own distincitive sound. From their debut EP Young Mountain to their latest release Communal Blood and looking forward to Tunnel Blanket, TWDY have created sonic soundscapes like Rituals off of Moving on the Edges of Things and memorably lush post-rock moments like Happiness: We're All In It Together from Young Mountain.

Hmm, glancing at the calendar and remembering what day it actually is today (which in part is also thanks to Rebecca Black). I'm going to stop the sentimentality and leave it at this: lets hope it's a cruel April Fools joke.

I, like many, will happily stand corrected.

New Explosions In The Sky track: Trembling Hands/Take Care, Take Care, Take Care now available for pre-order

Explosions In The Sky have released a new track from their upcoming studio album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. The three and a half minute track titled: Trembling Hands is reminiscent of the work EITS showcased on their second album Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever.

It's available for the small price of your email address at the bottom left-hand corner of the band's website.

 Take Care, Take Care, Take Care is now available for pre-order now, on EITS' website. When you're over there you can also get an idea of the vinyl packaging, showing interesting features.

Recording for EITS' sixth full length record took place on a pecan ranch in West Texas and was lead by frequent collaborator John Congleton. ETIS have stated: "The music on it feels different than anything else we've done before and we're very excited for you to hear it." So don't expect the music to be as repetitive as the title.

Artwork for Take Care, Take Care, Take Care by Esteban Rey can be seen above.