#james krivchenia

[thepermanentrainpress]

Gallery: Big Thief @ Orpheum - Vancouver, BC Date: August 3, 2023 Photographed by: Ray Maichin

[karmaalwayswins]

Big Thief performs "Vampire Empire" live on The Late Show in 2023.

Video Credit: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

[sinceileftyoublog]

Hayden Interview: Live With It

Photo by Christie Greyerbiehl

BY JORDAN MAINZER

For Hayden Desser, the past six years raised a lot of questions. He labored over his tenth record Are We Good (Arts & Crafts), finally out tomorrow, questioning everything from the quality of the album to the sequencing and cover art. In the meantime, he and his wife weathered the lockdown raising their two children, their son struggling with online learning and his daughter, who has developmental disabilities, unable to attend her school. As such, the phrase, “Are we good?”, whether referring to the royal we, Desser and his family, or the human race in general, became not just the title of the record, but a rallying cry whose answer was to embrace the uncertainty.

Much of Are We Good was written at home during lockdown and through various songwriting sessions with indie heavyweights like The National’s Matt Berninger and Feist. The National’s Aaron Dessner heard an early version of the title track, which made him want to work with Desser; he ended up co-producing a few tracks the tracks on the record, bringing in Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia and engineer Jonathan Low on “We Danced” and barroom piano jaunt “It’s Just Me”. Despite the many creative influences on Are We Good, it’s of course Desser’s lyrical and musical voice, his sly humor and earnest emotions that shine through. “East Coast”, “Nothing Wrong”, and “Can’t Happen Now” are familial devotionals, while the playful “On A Beach” and “Miss Fort Eerie” use clever wordplay and storytelling techniques to imagine worlds parallel to Desser’s, even if not far from the truth. And songs like “Terry Cloth Blue (Every Single Thing)” and “Window Washer Blues” offer levity in the way of a sometimes brooding record.

Nonetheless, there’s an unease behind Are We Good that makes the album immensely relatable. Speaking over the phone from his home in Toronto last month, in between dry jokes, Desser sometimes had trouble describing it. “I’m just starting to talk about this record, and I’m sort of trying to figure out how to talk about it,” he said. “I’m also trying to not be scared to say, ‘I’m not sure why this is that or if it works.’...In some ways, I was trying to finish something. It was sometimes easy and sometimes difficult. At the end, it didn’t make anything better or worse, just something I could live with.” It was that release of expectations, living with it, that ultimately gave Desser the space to reflect on the final project. “Thankfully,” he said, “I think it’s among the best things I’ve ever done.”

Read my conversation with Desser below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: This record was born out of multiple songwriting sessions, including one with Aaron Dessner. How did you whittle down the track list to form a cohesive whole from the 60 or so tracks in contention?

Hayden Desser: In some ways, for the first time in a long time, I was a bit lost during the making of the record. We’re talking about a 6-and-a-half-year period, so it was a lot of time, a lot of things going on in one’s life and in the outside world. Throughout that, I went through periods of being extremely creative and really inspired by what I was working on, and that would then turn into not really knowing what I had and what I could do with it, whether it was good or bad. It was all over the place. Things like Aaron coming on board at a certain point was helpful in many ways. Some of the new elements that came into the scene helped, and some made the record take longer. It was one of the hardest records I’ve ever made.

SILY: How would you compare writing during the pandemic to your previous writing experiences?

HD: I can’t speak for anyone else, but my particular situation, the isolation pandemic period was extremely difficult for my family. Our daughter has developmental disabilities, and it just created a situation that made it very hard to have concentrated work time. I wasn’t one of those people who started making sourdough bread and pottery. I had less spare time because my daughter wasn’t in her special school that she loves and needs so badly. My 7-year-old (at the time) son was struggling trying to do online learning while his sister was breaking things in the house. My wife and I were just losing our minds, to be honest.

SILY: On the song “Nothing Wrong”, when you sing, “There’s nothing wrong with you / You are still my favorite creature / You are my past as well as future / My sweet destroyer of car mirrors,” is that a reference to your daughter?

HD: [laughs] Every song is a reference to her since she was born.

SILY: Why did you release “East Coast” as the first taste of the album before it was even announced?

HD: “East Coast” was a song that came together later in the process in the final year of working on the record. There was something about the rhythm, lyrics, and feel of it that I felt was special, to be honest.

SILY: It’s also the opening track, and one that drops you into the world of the album without much preparation. It begins suddenly. Were you consciously thinking about that when ordering the tracks?

HD: The ordering of the tracks is an interesting one because I labored over several sequences over a three-to-four-year period, including incarnations of the record with songs no longer on it. I would go for runs in my neighborhood and listen to myself over and over again, different sequences and trying out different combinations. It was a bit of a worry at some point. Over the last 30 years, I always felt I would figure out the right way something should be, even if it was a struggle. On this record, I started doubting if I would ever find that. Finally, at the end, I got a tip that Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene, a friend and awesome fella, has a knack for sequencing records. [laughs] So I sent him all the songs in no particular order, and he had his way with the record. What he sent back was something totally unexpected. I didn’t dwell on it. I was just so done with figuring out how the songs should be. He came up with something he was excited about, and I thought, “That’s really interesting: Let’s just do it.”

SILY: So this was his order?

HD: Yeah, this was his order. 

SILY: That’s pretty cool.

HD: Yeah...if you like the order.

SILY: I do! But if anybody reading this doesn’t, they know who to complain to.

HD: I should have asked his permission to give away the fact that this is his fault or his good taste.

SILY: On “We Danced” and “Terry Cloth Blue”, the former a dedication to Leonard Cohen and the latter a first crush song, you refer to real songs by past artists. As a songwriter, how do you go about making that decision?

HD: Everyone always talks about the power of music and how it can bring you back to a particular time in your life and be a vivid memory. I have so many of those memories, listening to Phil Collins on the Lloyd’s radio cassette deck in my brother’s room. Growing up, we used to tape the Top 40 countdown and listen to it all week. Referencing [George Michael] in “Terry Cloth Blue” was a natural thing because those songs for years after made me think of that first crush. It’s nothing groundbreaking--just meaningful to me.

SILY: Everybody knows “Careless Whisper” and has a million different relationships to it.

HD: It has to do with my musical development. When I took saxophone as my instrument in school, I was not interested in notes or theory. The only thing I ended up doing with it was lifting that “Careless Whisper” melody off the radio. It was the only thing I ever played on the saxophone.

SILY: On “On A Beach”, what does the phrase “drinking income taxes” refer to?  It reminds me of that Wilco song “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”, because that, too, refers to taxes and beaches.

HD: That’s Jeff Tweedy using magnetic poetry. I can be accused of that myself. But yeah, it has nothing to do with that. [“On A Beach”] is a weird song because it was one of the few in the last few years where 80% of the lyrics came right when I was playing the bass riff for the first time. Usually, I’ll hum something or sing fake words over whatever chord progression I think is interesting, but on the semi-rare occasion, I start singing something and end up keeping it. That line just came out. If I’m gonna talk about it now, it would just be me trying to figure out why I said it. It kind of made sense after the fact. At the end of the tax year, for how my wife and I file our taxes, we end up making money back, so we’ll go out for dinner or drinks and end up celebrating our tax return. And I actually found out later that the Income Tax is a classic 1940′s cocktail, which I haven’t tried yet. It kind of works out anyway, even though it doesn’t need to.

SILY: What’s in the cocktail?

HD: I looked it up. It didn’t sound so hot. I’m more of a straight scotch whiskey kind of a guy. There was a time when everyone was drinking Aperol Spritzes and Negronis, and I would roll my eyes. It was always some hipster cocktail that everyone said was great. I don’t think they thought it was great.

SILY: The title track and title of the record, and the refrain throughout the song, is a pretty simple and powerful question. What does “Are we good?” mean to you in context of this record, and what about when you say, “Are we good enough?”

HD: Obviously, the multiple meanings that “Are we good?” can have appealed to me when I was thinking about the title. Sometimes, over the last 6 years or so, “Are we good?” was a general question referring to individuals in society, even people we think are doing good things for the world or people that everyone look up to. It was a pretty negative thought.

SILY: It’s definitely provocative in its simplicity.

HD: On a personal level, being in a 20-year relationship with a home life that’s very stressful, a lot of the time, it’s a huge personal question that is asked a lot. It’s a meaningful title for me.

SILY: The first verse of “Window Washer Blues” describes a story where your wife’s job gave her a drone and you played with it and lost it. Is that a true story?

HD: It is true. During the early weeks of the pandemic, everybody was going crazy and there wasn’t much to do. There wasn’t much joy to be had. My wife’s film work started up after two months, and I looked up really quick instructions on how to use the drone. I took it out back in my father-in-law’s house, and it went up in the air and kept going and disappeared. It was a good representation of what was going on at the time.

SILY: Listening to it, and putting myself in that situation, as a songwriter, I would think to myself, “This is a metaphor. This is a signal.”

HD: Yeah. It was both. It happened, and it was a metaphor. Oh boy. I picture it in a field, somewhere, rusting.

SILY: There’s something kind of beautiful about that.

HD: It struck me for sure.

SILY: “Miss Fort Eerie” is a funny song. It breaks the fourth wall towards the end and plays on that rock star life cliché, which I imagine is not your experience on the road.

HD: I’ve lived a very not debaucherous road life, personally. I guess in the 90′s, it could have been, but now, things are very different on the road for the “rock star.”

SILY: What made you want to get in the headspace of the song’s character?

HD: It was something my wife said. I had a habit of downplaying when I went out with my band in 2015 on my last record. I’d be like, “Yeah, we just went back to the hotel and had to get up early.” She said, “Listen, if I’m here with the kids, and you’re out there, you don’t have to make it sound shitty. I want you to be having a nice time when you’re out there.” The song came from that real conversation. I had the habit of saying, “Yeah, it’s not so great,” so she didn’t feel like she was missing stuff.

SILY: Have you toured since the pandemic?

HD: I did a series of solo runs in November this past year.

SILY: How did you find touring had changed since you were last on the road?

HD: It changed for me, and this might sound eyeroll-y, but I felt thankful I was able to do it and that people were showing up and my music still meant something to people. That was my overwhelming feeling. In some ways, I had a better time than I’ve ever had on the road in these little runs. 

SILY: Do you have upcoming tour dates with these songs?

HD: Yeah. I have a few, including my first true headlining show at Massey Hall in Toronto, which I’m very excited about. It’s a bit of a dream come true.

SILY: Are you playing with a band?

HD: I’m just in the process of putting together what I want to do. I did have fun doing these last shows solo. I always feel a great connection with the audience when I’m up there alone. I’m forced to engage, and you get down to the soul of everything. I want there to be an element of solo, but I want to put something special together for it as well.

SILY: On what instrument were these songs written?

HD: I’d say 90% of it was written on piano. Over the last 12-15 years or so, I’ve found the piano to be a more inspiring instrument for writing. 

SILY: Do you find it equally as artistically fulfilling to adapt songs like this, or any song, to a live stage as writing them in the first place?

HD: The pattern for me is that when I start rehearsing new songs with a band, I’m going back to the recordings and hearing the bass line that I haven’t really played since the day I recorded it. It’s always an interesting process and fun for me to dissect songs I haven’t heard the individual instruments for. When we start playing them and they’re coming together, there’s a certain elation for me. Sometimes, I’m sitting in the practice space with a shit-eating grin on my face because I’m happy to hear it come back with real live people playing it at once.

[taylor-on-your-dash]

Midnights Late Nights official credits

THE GREAT WAR

Published by Songs Of Universal, Inc./ Sony/ATV Times LLC

Produced by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner / Mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach, VA) / Assistant Mix Engineer- Bryce Bordone / Recorded by Bella Blasko, Jonathan Low and Aaron Dessner at Long Pond (Hudson Valley, NY) / Additional recording by Thomas Bartlett at The Dwelling (New York, NY) and Kyle Resnick (Buffalo, NY) / Taylor Swift Vocals recorded by Laura Sisk and Jack Antonoft at Rough Customer Studio (Brooklyn, NY) / Orchestration by Bryce Dosanor (Biarritz, FR) / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, NJ)

Taylor Swift - Lead Vocals / Aaron Dessner - Drum Machine Programming, Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Piano, Synth Bass and Synths / James McAlister - Drum Machine Programming and Percussion / Thomas Bartlett - Piano and Synths / Yuki Namara Resnick - Violin / Kyle Resnick - Trumpet

BIGGER THAN THE WHOLE SKY

Published by Songs Of Universal, Inc.

Produced by Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift / Mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach, VA) / Assistant Mix Engineer - Bryce Bordone / Recorded by Laura Sisk and Jack Antonoff at Electric Lady Studios (New York, NY), Rough Customer Studio (Brooklyn, NY), Conway Recording Studios (Los Angeles, CA), Sharp Sonics Studios (Los Angeles, CA) / Assistant Engineering by Jon Sher, John Rooney, Lauren Marquez, Megan Searl / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, NJ)

Taylor Swift - Lead Vocals / Jack Antonoff - Programming, Bass, Synths, Slide Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitars and Piano

HIGH INFIDELITY

Published by Songs Of Universal, Inc. / Sony/ATV Tunes LLC

Produced by Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift / Mixed by Jonathan Low at Long Pond (Hudson Valley, NY) / Recorded by Bella Blasko, Jonathan Low and Aaron Dessner at Long Pond (Hudson Valley, NY) / Additional recording by James McAlister (Los Angeles, CA), Thomas Bartlett at The Dwelling (New York, NY) and Benjamin Lanz (Paris, FR) / Taylor Swift vocals recorded by Jonathan Low at Kitty Committee Studio (Los Angeles, CA) / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, NJ)

Taylor Swift - Lead Vocals / Aaron Dessner - Acoustic Guitar, Drum Kit, Drum Machine Programming. Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion. Piano and Synths / James McAlister - Drum Machine Programming, Percussion and Synths / James Krivchenia - Drum Kit / Thomas Bartlett - Synths / Benjamin Lanz - Drums and Trombone

WOULD'VE COULD'VE SHOULD'VE

Published by Songs Of Universal, Inc. / Sony/ATV Tunes LLC

Produced by Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift /Mixed by Jonathan Low at Long Pond (Hudson Valley, NY) / Recorded by Bella Blasko, Jonathan Low and Aaron Dessner at Long Pond (Hudson Valley, NY) / Additional recording by Justin Vernon at April Base (Fall Creek, WI), James McAlister (Los Angeles, CA) and Thomas Bartlett at The Dwelling (New York, NY) / Taylor Swift vocals recorded by Jonathan Low at Kitty Committee Studio (Los Angeles, CA) / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, NJ)

Taylor Swift - Vocals / Aaron Dessner - Bass Guitar. Drum Machine Programming, Electric Guitar, Harmonica, High Strung Guitar, Piano, Slice and Synths / Justin Vernon -Slice /James McAlister - Drum Kit, Drum Machine Programming and Synths / Bryan Devendor I - Drums / Thomas Bartlett - Keyboard and Synths / Stu Tenold -Slice / Bryce Dessner - Electric Guitars

DEAR READER

Published by Songs Of Universal. Inc. / Sony/ATV Songs LLC

Produced by Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift /Mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach, VA) / Assistant Mix Engineer - Bryce Bordone / Recorded by Laura Sisk and Jack Antonoff at Electric Lady Studios (New York, NY), Rough Customer Studio (Brooklyn, NY), Conway Recording Studios (Los Angeles, CA), Sharp Sonics Studios (Los Angeles, CA) / Assistant Engineering by Jon Sher, John Rooney, Lauren Marquez, Megan Searl / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, NJ)

Taylor Swift - Lead Vocals / Jack Antonoff - Programming, Bass, Synths, Electric Guitar and Piano

HITS DIFFERENT

© 2022 TASRM Publishing, administered by Songs of Universal, Inc. (BMI), Ingrid Stella Music, administered by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC (ASCAP),Sony/ATV Songs LLC/Ducky Donath Music (BMI). All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.

Produced by Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner & Taylor Swift / Mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach, VA) / Assistant Mix Engineer - Bryce Bordone / Recorded by Jonathan Low, Aaron Dessner, Laura Sisk and Jack Antonoff / Assistant Engineered by Jon Sher, Megan Searl, Lauren Marquez, John Rooney, Bella Blasko / Recorded at Long Pond (Hudson Valley, NY), Electric Lady Studios (New York, NY), Rough Customer Studio (Brooklyn, NY), Conway Recording Studios (Los Angeles, CA) and Sharp Sonics Studios (Los Angeles, CA) / Sean Hutchinson's performance recorded by Sean Hutchinson at Hutchinson Sound (Brooklyn, NY) / Evan Smith's performance recorded by Evan Smith at Pleasure Hill Recording (Portland, Maine) / Thomas Bartlett's performance recorded by Thomas Bartlett at The Dwelling (New York, NY) / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, NJ)

Taylor Swift - Vocals / Aaron Dessner - Electric Guitar, Prophet X Synth, Electric Guitar 2, Bass Guitar, Yamaha Synth, MS20, Juno Synth / Jack Antonoff - Programming, Percussion, Bass Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Synths and Piano /James McAlister - Drum Kit, Synth Sequencing (Modular) / Evan Smith - Synths / Sean Hutchinson - Drums, Percussion / Thomas Bartlett - Prophet X Synth, OP1

YOU'RE LOSING ME

Published by Songs Of Universal, Inc. / Sony/ATV Songs LLC / Produced by Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift / Mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach. VA) / Assistant Mix Engineer - Bryce Bordone / Recorded by Jack Antonoff and Laura Sisk and Oli Jacobs / Assistant Engineering by Jack Manning, Jon Sher, Megan Searl, Remy Dumelz, Daniel Cayotte, Joey Miller. Jozef Caklwell / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, NJ) / Recorded at Rue Boyer (Paris, France), Rough Customer Studio (Brooklyn, NY), Sharp Sonics Studios (Los Angeles, CA), Conway Recording (Los Angeles, CA), Electric Lady Studios (New York, NY)

Jack Antonoff - Cello, Programming, Drums. Percussion, DX100. Juno6, Piano, Wurlitzer, Mellotron, PolySix / Bobby Hawk - Violin / Taylor Swift - Vocals

SNOW ON THE BEACH (MORE LANA)

Published by Songs Of Universal, Inc. /Sony/ATV Songs LLC /Universal Music Corp. Produced by Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift / Mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach, VA) / Assistant Mix Engineer - Bryce Bordone / Recorded by Laura Sisk and Jack Antonoff / Assistant Engineered by Megan Searl, Jon Sher, John Rooney, Jacob Spitzer / Bobby Hawk performance recorded by Dave Gross at Blue Plate Records (Hayworth, New Jersey) / Evan Smith performance recorded by Evan Smith at Pleasure Hill Recording (Portland, Maine) / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edtiewater, NJ) / Recorded at Rough Customer Studio (Brooklyn, NY), Electric Lady Studios (New York, NY), Henson Recording Studios (Los Angeles, CA)

Taylor Swift - Vocals / Lana Del Rey - Vocals / Jack Antonoff - Drums, Programming, Percussion, Juno 6, Mellotron, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Bass, Background Vocals / Evan Smith - Synths / Bobby Hawk - Violin / Dylan O'Brien - Drums

KARMA FT ICE SPICE

© 2022 TASRM Publishing, administered by Songs of Universal, Inc. (BMI), Sony/ATVSongs LLC/Ducky Donath Music (BMI), Sony/ATV Allegro/Beat Bully Spears (ASCAP), Keanu Torres (APRA) /Keanu Beats Publishing/Sony/ATVSongs (BMI). Jahaan Akil Sweet. published by The Sweet Life, LLC (BMI), administered by Songs ofKobalt Music Publishing (BMI) Dolo Publishing (BMI). administered by Songs of Universal, Inc. (BMD/Ephrem Lopez Publishing Designee (BMI) administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI). All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.

Produced by Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift, Sounwave, Keanu Beats / Co-Produced by Jahaan Sweet / Mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach, VA) / Assistant Mix Engineer - Bryce Bordone / Recorded by Laura Sisk and Jack Antonoff / Assistant Engineered by Megan Searl, Jon Sher, John Rooney, Mark Aguilar / Sounwave performance recorded by Sounwave at Sound of Waves Studios (Los Angeles, CA) / Jahaan Sweet performance recorded by Jahaan Sweet at The Sweet Spot (Los Angeles, CA) / Keanu Beats performance recorded by Keanu Beats (Melbourne. AU) / Mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound (Edgewater. NJ) / Recorded at Rough Customer Studio (Brooklyn, NY), Electric Lady Studios (New York, NY), Henson Recording Studios (Los Angeles, CA), Conway Studios (Los Angeles, CA)

Taylor Swift - Vocals / Ice Spice - Vocals / Jack Antonoff - Drums, Programming. Percussion, Juno, Omnichord / Sounwave - Programming / Jahaan Sweet - Keys, Pad / Keanu Beats - Synths

Ice Spice appears courtesy of Capitol Records/10k Projects.

[thelightyougavemetoseeyou]

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[musikblog]

MusikBlog präsentiert Mega Bog Wer da? Mega Bog, das Musikprojekt der US-amerikanischen Singer/Songwriterin Erin Birgy aus Idaho. Vor 2009 trat sie auch unter den Namen Little Swamp und Midi Marsh auf. Und was macht die so für ‘nen Sound? Rhytmische Meisterschaft wilder, perkussiven Geist von James Krivchenia (Big Thief), der die Platte mit Birgy koproduzierte, fantasievolle Texturen und schwere […] https://www.musikblog.de/2023/05/musikblog-praesentiert-mega-bog/ #MegaBog #Avantgarde #Experimental #News #SingerSongwriter #SynthPop

[double-croche1]

[INTERVIEW] WESTERMAN

Le britannique Westerman est de retour avec son excellent second album ‘An Inbuilt Fault’, notamment réalisé avec James Krivshenia, le batteur de Big Thief. Nous avons discuté avec l’artiste de la confection de ce disque, de l’air du temps et de son nouveau pays d’adoption, la Grèce.

Est-ce que tu avais des idées précises de ce que tu voulais au début de l’écriture ? Will : Pas vraiment. Je préfère ne pas me mettre trop de règles au début. Les deux seuls principes ont été que je voulais apprendre à plus jouer par moi-même et que ce soit plus organique, même si on a utilisé beaucoup d’ordinateurs pour cet album. Je voulais que le résultat soit plus brut, avec des percussions live. J’avais beaucoup écouté le groupe allemand CAN et ses multiples percussions. Je pense que cela est arrivé un peu en réaction au fait d’être confiné. Je voulais incorporer cela dans l’album. C’étaient les seuls éléments qui guidaient mon esprit.

Est-ce que tu t’es senti plus confiant dans ton écriture par rapport à ton premier album ‘Your Hero Is Not Dead’ (2020) ? Will : Je pense que j’étais surtout moins conscient de ce que je faisais. Cela n’est pas nécessairement en réaction au premier album mais plutôt à la situation des confinements. Je voyais si peu de monde à l’époque que je pensais que personne n’écouterait ces morceaux. L’écriture est d’abord véritablement personnelle pour moi et ensuite j’essaie de faire en sorte qu’elle soit compréhensible pour d’autres personnes. Cette période en isolation était si bizarre. Je ne sais donc pas si cela a à voir avec de la confiance ou un complet manque de relations sociales ! (Rires) En tout cas, cela s’est fait dans un environnement vraiment différent par rapport au premier album.

Comment s’est passé le cheminement de l’écriture à l’enregistrement ? Will : J’avais arrangé la plus grande partie du disque entre janvier et septembre 2021 et ensuite je suis allé voir James Krivchenia [le batteur du groupe Big Thief] qui vit à Los Angeles. On s’était rencontré juste avant que la pandémie ne débute. Je lui avais dit que je voulais travailler avec des percussions live. Je suis allé à Los Angeles pendant un mois en fin 2021 et on a enregistré la plus grande partie du disque en live sur place et puis on a continué à travailler dessus en 2022. Puis il est venu à Londres et on a fini le processus. La plus grande partie de ce qu’on peut entendre vient donc de prises faites à la fin de 2021 et au début de 2022.

Comment tu as rencontré James Krivchenia ? Will : On s’est rencontré au concert du groupe Pottery. Pottery, Big Thief et moi avons le même manager. Pottery jouaient à Londres la veille du concert de Big Thief [le 26 février 2020 pour Pottery et le 27 février 2020 pour Big Thief]. Je suis allé au concert de Pottery au Windmill Brixton. On est sorti avec James pour fumer une cigarette et on a fini par discuter pendant une heure et demi. A vrai dire, j’ai raté la plus grande partie du concert ! On s’est très bien entendu. J’ai beaucoup aimé lui parler, tout a semblé naturel et facile.

Est-ce que tu as pu faire la connaissance des autres membres de Big Thief ? Will : Je les ai rencontrés quelques fois mais je connais James bien mieux que les autres. Ils sont très encourageants entre eux, ils ont une très bonne dynamique de groupe. Ce sont des belles personnes.

Tu as mentionné que tu voulais plus de percussions live. Toutes les parties de batterie ont été jouées par James ? Will : Non, pas toutes. Il y a quatre batteurs sur l’album suivant les morceaux de l’album mais James était le principal percussionniste. James avait notamment fait appel à des batteurs qu’il connaissait. James a donné plus de texture à mes morceaux. Je lui avais envoyé mes démos sur lesquelles j’avais notamment fait les batteries avec des boîte à rythme et il a tout retravaillé en laissant quelques éléments originels.

Sur Give, la première chanson de l’album, les percussions sont étonnantes ! On peut même entrendre du verre qui se casse. Will : J’avais écrit cette articulation irrégulière dans l’identité rythmique. J’avais trouvé un ensemble de percussions sur internet pour faire cela et je ai ensuite incorporé le résultat sur un programme polyrithmique et je l’ai programmé de cette façon. Puis James a retravaillé dessus. Un des percussionites est brésilien, il s’appelle Gibi Dos Santos. Il a joué de façon libre sur la moitié de l’album. James a utilisé une prise de Gibi Dos Santos et il a fait un patchwork de cette prise sur l’identité rythmique que j’avais écrite pour le morceau Give. C’est comme cela que nous avons obtenu pour ce morceau ce contraste avec des textures très organiques et une articulation étrange.

On peut entendre des cordes sur certaines chansons. Comment as-tu travaillé avec le violoniste et les autres musiciens ? Will : Certains de violons sont joués par l’artiste Mat Davidson, qui a un projet qui s’appelle Twain. Mat est un fantastique musicien. J’avais écrit la moitié de ses parties et il a fait l’autre moitié. On a décidé d’enregistrer de façon live. Je trouvais que c’était une façon plus intéressante. Je ne trouvais pas de plaisir créatif à tout écrire et à demander à quelqu’un de jouer parfaitement ce que j’avais écrit. Je demandais donc juste aux musiciens de jouer à partir de ce qu’ils entendaient et d’y mettre leur touche personnelle. James et moi avons ensuite fait le travail de tri entre ce qu’on voulait utiliser et ce qu’on a mis de côté. C’est ce processus qu’on a suivi sur la plupart des chansons.

Quand tu écrivais les chansons, tu avais des thèmes spécifiques que tu voulais explorer ? Will : J’essaie de ne pas trop penser aux intentions en termes de paroles. Quand tu réfléchis trop, l’esprit peut se court-circuiter et créer un filtre ou un blocage. Néanmoins, je pense que plusieurs thèmes se sont dégagés. L’idée de la construction de la liberté est prépondérante, à travers le sentiment de ne pas avoir d’emprise sur elle. Il y a des raisons évidentes pour cela avec les confinements, mais je n’écrivais pas intentionnellement cela. Je suis arrivé à un point où j’ai écrit la chanson titre An Inbuilt Fault. Quand j’ai fini cette chanson, je me suis rendu compte que j’avais un album complet avec de la continuité. A partir de là, j’ai choisi les morceaux qui correspondaient le mieux à cette idée à partir des 20 ou 25 bouts de morceaux que j’avais.

Crédits photo : Siam Coy Qu’est-ce que veut dire ‘An Inbuilt Fault’ ? Will : Je ne veux pas définir nécessairement ce que ça veut dire parce que je pense que cela dessert le propos, mais il y a une lutte avec la notion de cause à effet et ce que cela veut dire dans la façon dont on considère notre liberté. C’est une réflexion autour de cette idée.

Nous aimons beaucoup la chanson Help Didn’t Help at All. Peux-tu nous dire comment tu l’as écrite ? Will : J’ai appris le piano et c’est la première chanson que j’ai écrite avec cet instrument. Apprendre le piano a été une des choses qui m’a permis de ne pas devenir fou pendant les confinements ! Cette chanson est une balade que j’ai écrite au piano. Cela a débloqué pour moi une nouveau mode d’écriture par rapport à la façon dont j’écris d’habitude à la guitare. Pour cette chanson, j’avais une image en tête que je m’asseyais sur la lune. Cette chanson m’a rendu heureux et j’ai voulu la mettre sur l’album.

La chanson CSI: Petralona est le deuxième single de l’album. Que signifie le nom de ce morceau ? Will : Petralona est un quartier d’Athènes en Grèce, où je vis. Et les trois premiers mots de la chanson sont « Close shave in ». ‘CSI’ est une abbréviation de ces trois mots ! Je trouvais cela drôle. Donner des titres aux chansons est difficile pour moi donc j’utilise parfois cela comme une blague. (Rires)

Tu es maintenant installé à Athènes. Est-ce que tu trouves que cette ville a eu une influence particulière sur l’album ? Will : Je ne pense pas parce que j’avais quasiment fini l’album avant que j’emménage ici. J’ai écrit la plus grande partie du disque en confinement et à l’époque, je voulais déjà partir à Athènes, donc je pense que le sentiment de vouloir prendre le contrôle et faire bouger les choses a influencé le cours du disque. Je ne pense donc pas que la ville elle-même a influencé cette collection de chansons mais plutôt le souhait de prendre les choses en main.

Crédits photo : Siam Coy

Le dossier de presse mentionne les films ‘Le Septième Sceau’ d’Ingmar Bergman (1957) et ‘Vivre’ d’Akira Kurosawa (1952). Tu peux nous expliquer pourquoi ? Will : J’ai regardé beaucoup de films durant cette période parce qu’on ne pouvait pas faire grand-chose d’autre ! Ce sont deux classiques que je n’avais pas vus. ‘Le Septième Sceau’ d’Ingmar Bergman (1957) en particulier a eu un grand impact sur moi. C’est une décision bizarre de regarder ce film au milieu d’une pandémie. (Rires) Ce film a beaucoup occupé mes rêves. J’avais commencé à le regarder avec mon père et il a arrêté en plein milieu ! Il y a un lien évident entre l’histoire et ce qui se passait dans le monde, mais j’ai aimé le combat intérieur du protagoniste principal de chercher le positif dans cette situation qui n’est pas nécessairement bonne. C’est quelque chose qui m’a beaucoup préoccupé. Selon moi, la musique la plus puissante que j’ai écrite a souvent été une réponse à une chose négative. C’est cette réponse qui est importante. Le film finit mal mais le combat du protagoniste principal est très beau. Après ce qui s’était passé autour du premier album, pendant longtemps, je pensais que je ne voulais plus écrire quoi que ce soit. Puis j’ai voulu répondre à ce que je ressentais et ces deux films sont passés par mon esprit. Comme je l’ai dit, je n’essaie pas d’utiliser consciemment des choses comme bases. J’ai souvent du mal à parler de ma façon d’appréhender la musique : ce n’est pas pour paraître mystérieux, c’est juste que je ne comprends pas vraiment moi-même. J’ai pensé néanmoins qu’il était pertinent de dire que ces deux films ont fait leur chemin dans l’album d’une certaine façon.

Sur le nouvel album, la dernière chanson s’appelle Pilot Was A Dancer. Les paroles pourraient ressembler à un film de science-fiction avec le dernier survivant sur la planète. Est-ce que tu avais des films de science-fiction précis en tête ? Will : Je trouve que cette chanson a un lien de frère et sœur avec Help Didn’t Help At All dont on a parlé. Je voyais cette personne dans un environnement de lunaire. Je voulais m’imaginer ce qui passerait dans la tête d’une personne se croyant la dernière personne en vie.

C’est aussi une chanson très rock, surtout dans sa dernière partie. Comment as-tu pensé à finir le disque comme cela ? Will : Aussi bien avec le début que la fin, j’ai voulu avoir quelque chose qui puisse être ressenti comme une grande libération. J’ai ainsi laissé les musiciens se lâcher. Il y a de la catharsis. Je n’avais jamais fait ce genre de chose par le passé et c’était excitant !

Quels ont été les films que tu as vus récemment ? Will : J’ai revu ‘Barry Lindon’ de Stanley Kubrick (1975). J’ai eu cette idée de faire un concert avec des versions alternatives des morceaux de mon premier album, éclairé à la bougie. Je pense que c’est mon film préféré de Stanley Kubrick. J’ai aussi vu un très bon film grec qui s’appelle ‘Digger’ [de Georgis Grigorakis, 2020]. Cela parle d’un ermite dans les bois. Quand on parle de la Grèce, beaucoup de gens pensent directement aux îles grecques, les batîments blancs, le ciel bleu et des rochers, mais la plus grande partie de la Grèce est en fait composée de forêts, surtout dans la Grèce du Nord, que j’aime beaucoup. On peut y voir des forêts de type tropical. Ma mère vit au Pays de Galles maintenant et ces forêts me rappellent ce lieu.

Es-tu prêt à rejouer des concerts ? Will : On a une tournée d’un mois prévue aux États-Unis et on devrait jouer en Europe en automne. J’ai hâte de jouer ces nouvelles chansons. Je pense qu’elles laissent plus d’espace à l’expression sur scène. J’aurai un groupe un petit peu différent, avec notamment un batteur. J’ai encore un petit peu de travail devant moi ! Crédits photo de couverture : Siam Coy Le nouvel album ‘An Inbuilt Fault’ de Westerman est maintenant disponible et hautement recommandé ! L’artiste se produira le samedi 28 octobre à la Boule Noire. Evénement : https://bit.ly/3HP9Sbz Billetterie : https://bit.ly/3LKb8xI A&B

[americanahighways]

REVIEW: Mary Elizabeth Remington's In Embudo

Mary Elizabeth Remington’s beautiful debut album In Embudo comes out today via Loose Music. In Embudo was recorded live onto a 4-track tape machine in a small house edged up along the Rio Grande in Embudo, New Mexico. Mary joined up with her incredibly talented friends, Adrianne Lenker and James Krivchenia of Big Thief and Mat Davidson of Twain to create a beautifully intimate, haunting and an…

[piasgermany]

[Album] Westerman kündigt neues Album "An Inbuilt Fault" an!

Westerman kündigt sein zweites Album "An Inbuilt Fault" für den 5. Mai an (über Partisan/Play It Again Sam)!

"An Inbuilt Fault" wurde gemeinsam mit dem Produzenten James Krivchenia (Big Thief) und einem erweiterten Team von Mitarbeitern aus Los Angeles produziert, wobei Westermans eigens in Italien aufgenommene Demos zu Sprungbrettern für gemeinsame Jams wurden, die die Songs in ganz neue Bereiche trieben. Manchmal wurde die Stimmung um Einiges düsterer, manchmal aber auch deutlich triumphaler. Das Ergebnis ist Westermans eigenes Mini-Epos über ein Leben in der Sackgasse mit Herzschmerz und Einsamkeit, das aus zerrissenen Songfragmenten und spontanen Momenten zusammengesetzt ist. Im Gegensatz zu dem in 2020 veröffentlichten Debütalbum "Your Hero Is Not Dead", ist Westermans Gesang auf der neuen Platte aber sehr viel rauer, auch verstärkt durch Ausbrüche von drei- oder vierstimmigen Gesangsharmonien.

Als erste Single teilt der in London geborene Songwriter "CSI: Petralona" - ein wunderschönes Stück Selbsterforschung, das von einem frühen Besuch in Westermans heutiger Heimat Athen erzählt und mit seiner Mischung aus verträumter Akustikgitarre und Handpercussion an Joni Mitchell aus den 90ern erinnert. „I went to Greece for a month to scope out if I wanted to move here, and a friend encouraged me to write about this strange day I had there“, erzählt Westerman. „It's the most literally autobiographical song on the record.”

Tracklist "An Inbuilt Fault": 1. Give 2. Idol; RE-run 3. I, Catullus 4. CSI Petralona 5. Help Didn't Help At All 6. A Lens Turning 7. Take 8. An Inbuilt Fault 9. Pilot Was A Dancer

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[yesnowhatno]

Fucking Christ this song is so powerful

[the--magic-never-stopped]

Big Thief 5/13/22 - The Observatory North Park

[tri-ciclo]

she was a shark smile in a yellow van she came around and i stole her glance in my youth, a vampire evelyn shown quiet as roses sting
 it came over me at a bad time, but who wouldn’t ride on a moonlight line? i had her in my eye, 85 down the road of a dead end gleam
 she said woo baby take me i said woo baby take me too
 it came over her at a bad time, riding through Winona down the dotted line she held us, gunning out 90 miles down the road of a dead end dream she looked over with her part smile, caught up in the twinkle it could take awhile and the money pile on the dashboard, fluttering
 as she said woo baby take me i said woo baby take me too
 evelyn’s kiss was oxygen, i leaned over to take it in as we went howling through the edge of south des moines it came over me at a bad time, she burned over the double line and she impaled as i reached my hand for the guard rail, the guard rail, the guard rail 
 she said woo baby, take me i said woo baby take me too

[rairun]

lol

[musikblog]

Westerman - An Inbuilt Fault Knapp drei Jahre nach seinem Debütalbum “Your Hero Is Not Dead” kehrt der britische Singer/Songwriter (William) Westerman mit “An Inbuilt Fault” zurück. In Co-Produktion mit dem Big-Thief-Schlagzeuger James Krivchenia gelingt ihm ein ausdrucksstarkes Album zwischen schlurfenden Beats und Krisenmanagement. Der Opener “Give” ist in der Tat a gift that keeps on giving, denn Westerman beschenkt […] https://www.musikblog.de/2023/05/westerman-an-inbuilt-fault/ #BigThief #Westerman #Album #FolkPop #IndiePop #SingerSongwriter