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sinceileftyoublog · 2 years

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Hundred Watt Heart Interview: A Prayer for Humanity

Photo by Alexander Fischetti

BY JORDAN MAINZER

It’s mind-boggling how The Roots as a collective have time to balance their basically daily gig as the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with live shows, tours, and recording new music. That any of them have time for solo careers on top of that seems next to impossible. Earlier this year, it was lead emcee Black Thought releasing Cheat Codes, his excellent collaborative album with venerable producer Danger Mouse. Now, “Captain” Kirk Douglas, the band’s guitarist and singer since 2004′s The Tipping Point, has resurrected his Hundred Watt Heart project for New Unknown, his second album under that moniker.

Recorded at home during the pandemic, New Unknown expands beyond Douglas’ debut LP Turbulent Times, traversing the spectrum of rock and guitar-based music, from prog and country to funk and Southern rock. Likewise, Douglas penned lyrics that aimed to emphasize connection, bridging the space between people who couldn’t be in the same room as each other during the COVID lockdowns, or perhaps even folks who couldn’t otherwise stand to be in the same room as each other, victims of our divided sociopolitical climate. It begins with the languid “Breathe In”, a peace-inducing ode to a certain drug whose appeal certainly transcends divides. “Together, we create a space that’s home,” Douglas sings on the gentle “Illuminate”, his voice upfront in the mix over echoing guitar. The album’s funky, horn-laden, Afrobeat inspired lead single “We Can Be One” acts as another collective hymn of healing, while the desert blues-like guitar licks that pervade instrumental jam “Breath of Fire” suggest a collective, expansive groove.

Before you roll your eyes at any suggestion of appeasement with the enemy: New Unknown is not a hippie idealist mindless exercise into compromise with Republicans evil. Rather, Douglas’s sophomore LP is just as much about self-love as community. Throughout my phone conversation with him a couple months ago, he repeatedly referred to the album as “a gift to myself,” and it’s useful to think of the album’s aims in this context. On the penultimate “Alone”, Douglas sings, “Leave the light on for me,” atop acoustic strumming. “Love is the thing that helps me feel more alive.” As wordless harmonies and layered vocals take the song to its conclusion, you’re left reflecting on his use of first person. Love works for Douglas. Will it work for you? New Unknown challenges the rest of us to be better.

Read the rest of my interview with Douglas below, edited for length and clarity.

Photo by Forest Erwin

Since I Left You: How would you say New Unknown expands upon your debut?

Kirk Douglas: There’s definitely an expansion. It’s another rock album, but world music’s explored a little bit. There are some more percussion aspects that are explored. [Also,] the previous record was done at Electric Lady Studios, and recording [New Unknown myself] gave me more artistic freedom. I was able to record more comfortably. Every aspect of the recording was done at a place where I was feeling most at-home, because it was done at home. When you’re able to record that way, it comes through in the performance. I was really able to nurture it in a way I wasn’t able to do previously.

SILY: The world music influence is pretty apparent on the first single, “We Can Be One”. Is that why you released it as the first taste of the record?

KD: That’s not necessarily the reason. The reason is because for the last record, the first single was a big, heavy rock song, and I didn’t want to do that a second time around. With the title of the song being “We Can Be One”, I wanted to put out an energy that was suggesting more of a convergence with people as opposed to the division we’ve experienced. Basically, putting out that intention for people to be on the same page in terms of humanity and how people want to be treated and empathy towards one another. There are a lot of instruments on it; it’s the most dense song on the record as far as instruments are concerned. It’s got members of The Roots on it: James Poyser playing keyboards, Ian Hendrickson and Dave Guy playing horns on it. It’s basically my intention, my prayer for what humanity could be and should be. But because of our given circumstances, it’s very difficult to be. All the instruments are doing their own thing, having their own identity, but playing towards one rhythmic and harmonic goal. When people go to shows, there’s a unity there despite whatever a person’s political opinion may be. This song is sort of a sonic utopian snapshot of how I wish the world could be and how it very well is at times. So that’s why I put that out as the first single. There are other songs on the record that are more rock-influenced, which is where I gravitate towards because I love the primal power of three-piece rock and roll, guitar-bass-drums. I’m a big fan of that. But I like to hear other flavors mixed into an album experience as well.

SILY: From a rock standpoint, as compared to your debut, this album is more progressive. There are a lot of tempo changes and switches between subgenres within the same song. Were you consciously trying to make songs that bounced around like that?

KD: Nothing was really conscious in the whole process. [laughs] The only thing that was planned was, “Let’s make some music.” This wasn’t set out to be an album. This was just to record and to express what was going on internally musically for me. A song like “Land Of Look Beyond”, I like the album to take you on a journey, so I love when a song is able to take you on a journey as well. That’s something I’ve always been interested in. Having more control over the recording process organically allows that to take place.

SILY: When I was listening to “Land Of Look Beyond” for the first time, I felt like it was a logical segue from “Breathe In”, albeit more melancholy and slow-burning. But it turns on its head midway through. Was there a general approach you took to the sequencing of the record?

KD: You toy around with different ideas and sequences of the record, and ultimately, you just arrive at a sequence that feels right. It’s like a movie for your ears. "Breathe In” is moving, but it’s not necessarily a heavy song. I thought it was a good introduction, the concept of breath, “Breathe in, breathe out,” and also a slight nod to anybody that enjoys cannabis. There’s that subtle suggestion. And then, that sets you up for “Land Of Look Beyond”. I think of an album like Dark Side of the Moon, an album that’s cinematic in scope. You can think, “I wanna make something that sounds like Dark Side of the Moon,” but when you start to create, you take a step back and start to think of your own musical experiences and the things that have musically touched you throughout your life. This record is made for me, ultimately. You just present it in a way that you enjoy it, the person that has helped to birth it. I’m like my own fan. You get to a place where you listen to it and enjoy it. This was recorded with mostly myself and the drummer Ricc [Sheridan]. It’s about our friendship; we enjoy playing and creating together and sitting back and listening to what we’ve done and surprising ourselves. That’s so much of what our friendship has been for so long. The record’s inviting others into that experience, if it touches them the same way it touches us.

SILY: That celebratory nature is on tap in the video for the first single. I love those casual, almost old-school videos that aren’t straight up live but show performances and dancing with a lot of movement. How did the video for “We Can Be One” come about?

KD: I didn’t do a video for the last record, and I knew that if I did another [record], I’d have to do something I hadn’t done before. All the planets were aligning to make it. This guy in my building, Brandon, we’re both part of the Park Slope Food Coop. We were both shopping there one day, and he was driving home, and he asked if I needed a ride. This is mid-pandemic. He asked how the pandemic was treating me, and I said, “I did make an album during it.” I noticed he’d be schlepping around a lot of video equipment because of his job, doing a lot of videos and commercial shoots. I mentioned that I’d be interested in making a video at some point, and he mentioned he knew a director that was really talented and that it might be a good idea to talk about collaboration. That’s what we did, and he and the director, Alex [Fischetti], came by, and I played them the song and told them what I’d want to see from the video. Like you said, the song has a lot of movement in it, and it’s the song where an image came to me more so than the other ones. We had a meeting, and I told them my concept, and they said they could bring it to life. We were able to make it happen, in Prospect Park, and utilizing Brooklyn. I wanted to utilize where I grew up, too, so a lot of the video is shot in the home, bedroom, and family basement I grew up in. A lot of the outside shots, I discovered that Alex’s parents lived 10 minutes from my parents, and we shot a lot of the outside footage at night outside his parents’ place. It was a lot of fun. The whole time, I was thinking to myself, “Why am I even doing this?” [laughs] But I was still having a good time doing it. My only hope was that the experience of filming it and the experiences we had on the shoot, with a cool, easygoing crew you enjoyed spending time around, somehow could translate into the final product. At the end of the day, it turned out to be like that. Once I got over having to look at myself so much, I was really pleased with the outcome. I’m really glad we did it.

SILY: That’s cool it became a generational look-back for both of you. What was your relationship to music growing up?

KD: Basically, it goes back as far as I remember. My parents were always singing, playing reggae music and classical music. When I started to go to school in Long Island, I was surrounded by kids playing a lot of hard rock. My dad was really into ballads and funk. He had a wide array of interests music-wise. One of my really close friends, his older brother had a guitar, and when I saw the guitar up close, I was completely hooked. I had to have that as part of my life.

Photo courtesy of the artist

SILY: What came first on New Unknown: the music or the lyrics?

KD: Definitely the music. The first song was probably “Illuminate”. It’s generally like that: There’s a melody or groove that gets into your head. That’s the most fun part and a big motivation, having something rhythmic pop into your head that becomes this inner mantra. Something that at first was inside your heart and mind is now coming out of speakers powerfully. It’s a very life-affirming process. Once that happens, you step back and listen to it and think, “What is this music saying to me?” Then, it’s time to go inward and put lyrics onto it. It’s an emotional crossword puzzle. You have these melodies and think, “What words can I fit into this melody that conveys what I’m feeling?”

SILY: I was talking to somebody yesterday who compared songwriting to solving a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t exist yet. You’re both making and solving the puzzle.

KD: That’s a really good way to describe it.

SILY: Speaking of mantras, some of the most prominent lyrics on the record, whether “breathe in, breathe out” or “we can be one,” are mantras. What about that type of writing is so powerful to you?

KD: Something that you can say over and over again is somewhat of an affirmation, a prayer. We can be one whatever condition the world is in, no matter what energy or intention you can put in the world. To me, that’s a positive effect, for one to contemplate how these things can be possible. What needs to take place for these things to be possible or realistic? When it’s set to music, it gives an extra energy as a way of making sense of things. “Breathe in, breathe out,” it’s just a meditation on the impermanence of things. Nothing really lasts forever. But it goes on to say, “Within, without, it all begins again.” When one door closes, another door opens. There’s always a birth, a start of something new. The idea of letting go and breathing through things, no matter how difficult things get. Just remembering the breath and the practice of non-attachment is what can help us get through life at its most difficult times. They’re not bad mantras to have. They’re coping mechanisms, if you will.

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

KD: I saw an artist on Instagram whose work I thought could possibly convey what I was trying to do. After agonizing over what the cover should be, I thought, “You know what, let me do this: The album is done, I’m gonna reach out to an artist I like and commission them to create for this album a gift to myself. If it works out that it can be the album cover, then that’s gonna be the album cover.” I found the artist Sarah Stewart. Her project is Rattlesnakes and Rainbows. I contacted her out of the blue, slid into her DMs and told her I was a fan and asked her whether she’d be interested in creating album cover art. She agreed. I asked her to do it if the music resonated with her. She did, and when she first sent it to me, I was kind of taken aback, like, “Woah, this is a lot.” But the more I listened to the music and looked at the album cover, the more I thought they supported one another. It brought me to a place of disbelief that this art exists as a way of me contacting her and asking if she would do it and her agreeing to do it. It was like a cosmic wink: “Keep going with this. Take this out of your experience and try to keep going with others.”

SILY: Are you playing these songs live?

KD: Not as yet. I haven’t thought about playing my own music live in a long time, and I’m realizing it’s something I’m probably going to be doing as another gift to myself that I can share. [laughs] [The album] wasn’t really created with the intention of playing it live. Now, I’ve created another puzzle for me to figure out. That’s also another part of the fun: Taking something that only exists on recording and bringing it into the real-time, in the air, in your ear experience live. That’s a whole other experience that’s going to be exciting--and involve a whole lot of scheduling. I’ll do at least some of the songs live.

SILY: Anything next for you in the short or long term?

KD: I’m hoping to do some more recording. I’m hoping it’s not going to take another pandemic to happen. It definitely took one for me to realize I can record myself. To be able to record oneself without the use of a studio is the ultimate freedom. There’s definitely been a lot more music written since the recording of this, so I look forward to tracking that and bringing these new songs to fruition some way, some how. Next summer will bring more Roots touring. [I always have] The Tonight Show. I also have a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old. All the life that exists outside of music, too. It’s a very full life.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

KD: I really do love the band Khruangbin. I’m enjoying their live shows and find them really inspiring. It’s been fun to sit with the family and--with many grains of salt--look at The Secret Language of Birthdays. Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, I’ve been returning to that recently.

Nothing else is jumping out at me. I’ve been trying to write a lot. The winter is when I get into listening to a lot of other people’s music. Last time around, it was a lot of early Peter Gabriel and Genesis, at the end of last winter. I was discovering a lot of things I hadn’t heard.

SILY: When you’re writing, do you tend to block out other music?

KD: It’s sort of random when it happens, but winter time is when I’m more inside listening to stuff. Over the summer, I like listening to reggae. Now that summer’s ending and [it’s] fall again, it’s time to go record shopping because [listening to music is a] more indoor activity. I just got the new Kendrick Lamar on vinyl, so I’m looking forward to getting into that.

But when I’m working on music, I have a phone full of ideas, so you could play “phone message roulette,” and part of the fun is listening to things you’re separated from in time and hearing what sounds like a whole other person creating.

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comiccrusaders · 7 years

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The Rhode Island Comic Con was the weekend of November 10-12, 2017. I was fortunate enough to attend ALL 3 days of the BIGGEST Con in the smallest state. This year it once again lived up to that! On Friday, energy was in the cold NE air, a lot of folks had a day off, so the lines looked like it was Saturday! I was shocked, as last year it was busy but not swarming as it was on this first day of the con. It was a great sign that many folks were ready to party with the rest of comic geekdom.

The ribbon cutting ceremony with Martha Sheridan, CEO of Providence Visitors and Convention Bureau,, Providence Mayor Jorge Alorza and special guest Elijah Wood. There was also a military presence, it was Veterans Day weekend, it was a nice ceremony to open up a fun filled weekend. The crowd was anxious to get in and once they did, the house was packed! Like last year the main corridor and convention area was utilized for vendors as well as outside the rink area. The rink area housed the A-list stars.

The setup was great, traffic flowed a tad better than last year, but still there was traffic! Vendors that sold weapon, knives, swords, etc..actually had them displayed in protective cases, a concern I had last year. Security was tight all around, you felt safe in this convention, there were even snipers across the street from the venue! Being that liquor is served at this convention it really is a good idea to have a lot of security.

There were plenty of vendors on hand, mostly selling paraphernalia such as T-Shirts, Pops, hand made goods etc… The comic vendors that were there did have great collectibles, the prices however were steep BUT you could haggle with vendors especially on Sunday and come off with a great deal!

Venue:

Celebrities/Cosplay:

As always Cosplay was great, all sorts of costumes from old school to new school. From the Citadel of Rick’s to Dc and Marvel and more, the love of comic charters was ever present and did they act their part!. The celebrity line-up was uber nostalgic! We got the chance to speak to Lou “The Hulk” Ferrigno, Steve and Marcy Darcy from Married with Children (David Garrison and Amanda Bearse), Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds (Donald Gibb), Connie Lin (Jade Wu from Luke Cage), and tons more……

The big stars that everyone went to see were the Stranger Things cast as well as cast from Marvel’s Luke Cage and The Walking Dead cast and quite a handful more. The majority of them were extremely approachable. They all looked sincere and happy to be at the show among fans! There was a bump in programming when the walking dead guests were not able to be at the show due to re-shoots. Hmm, what had to be re-shot, will a death or two be teased? The other no show was Mark Ruffalo, unsure of reason. But who needs them when you got Rock n’ Roll Legend Gene Simmons at the show signing and also performing.

So best day to go for deals is Sunday, Saturday is photo op time, be prepared for long lines, Friday is a great day to for first dibs shopping. I think they need to add Thursday to the mix in the future! Overall this show is amazing! Lots of fun, lots to do and a lot to see! If you’re in the northeast, make this a MUST GO TO SHOW! 4/5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

RICC Special Podcast by The C.A.P.E.S.

TDC has 3 Exclusive Interviews with Top DC Talent

Thank you Altered Reality Entertainment for the press passes to the show! Shout out to the crew/staff they weer all awesome! Special shout out to Susan Soares, PR Mgr. of Altered Reality.

Convention Review: Rhode Island Comic Con 2017 The Rhode Island Comic Con was the weekend of November 10-12, 2017. I was fortunate enough to attend ALL 3 days of the BIGGEST Con in the smallest state.

#altered realilty #comic con #comics #cosplay #omni hotel #providence #providence plae

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