Bill Callahan, Smog, or (smog) is an amazing musician. I think he is one of the greatest lyricists of the times- funny and true, narrative and precise. I remember the first time I heard him in high school, on the local college radio, a crescendo of strings, reaching the line "I'm gonna be drunk, so drunk at your wedding" and I knew exactly what he meant, just like I always feel I do with his music.
Q: So…what have you done today so far?
A: I drove home from Dallas today where I was mixing a live LP with John Congleton. I stopped at Starbucks about 45 mins. into the trip and got a coffee and a Power Protein Meal or something like that. One free range hard boiled egg, a cute little whole wheat bagel that didn't taste very good, a bit of cheese, 9 grapes, two slices of apple and a packet of peanut butter. I ate it all but the peanut butter. Peanut butter is for kids.
Q: Was being a musician always what you wanted to do? Always what you were aiming for?
A:When I was a little kid I wanted to be a record producer, although I wasn't sure what one did. I thought you just organized people and told them what to do. Which is fairly correct but I wasn't sure what sort of things I would be telling them to do. Being a musician is a way to be on the outside of society and right in the heart of it at the same time. I wanted to do it since I was 16 or so.
A: I just write them. You can feel some sort of story under your skin and know it's time for it to come out. So you just have to work on getting it out and not adulterating the form it was in when it existed before it was told.
Q: Do you write other things besides songs?
A: I'm working on a book. It's an epic poem in the form of letters. It's called Letters to Emma Bowlcut. Been working on it for several years. I finished a draft the other day and sent it to my editors. I think it is near to being ready.
Q: I read somewhere that you have your albums planned out far in advance, what do you mean by that? I like the idea of you figuring out what you want to sound like or what words you want to say into the future regardless of whatever music and everything else is doing, and will be doing, around you.
A: You get a feeling, something vague and distinct at the same time. Like it is looming on the horizon but you can't quite make out what it is. You figure out how to get closer to it. You pick good people to work with so when they play something you like you can say, "Yes, that's what I wanted you to do!"
Q: A musician you work with said that each time they go into the studio with you your songs would change completely- the lyrics and melody would remain the same but everything else supporting them would be completely different- what is your musical process like? Has it changed over time?
A: A song is wriggling and amorphous. I like the songs to have enough openness about them, musically, for them to continue changing even after they've been recorded. I used to record much quicker and the band would never hear anything until we got in the studio and I'd play it once for them, then we'd do a few takes and that would be that. I've experimented in more recent times with cluing the band in in advance. For Dongs [ of Sevotion] I think we had one day of running through the songs once. For A River...[Aint Too Much To Love] I went on tour with the band before recording. We worked out the songs on the road, then went into the studio a day later. Which meant we laid down all the songs in 2 days. With the new album we worked out the band parts in 3 days while recording. Then the arranger had a couple months to work on the rest. I like the immediacy of not knowing, not planning. Because I have an idea in my head and as long as I'm firing on all pistons in the studio, it works out fine. So, the new album was a good mix of spontaneity and considered composing. The very first thing I usually imagine when planning a record is what sort of combo it will be, who will be playing, who will be recording,what sort of environment we will be in. This is all before writing the words. I think this helps make sure the songs match the method.
Q: Your voice is really distinct, Sometimes I Wish I Were and Eagle showcases it a lot- the
growling, gruffness on My Friends, the meditative drone of Faith/Void and other times it is just this simple cascading pleasantness as in Rococo Zephyr. What is the nature of your singing voice? Where is it coming from? What effects it?
A: I don't know the answers to that. You just try to sing in a way that is true. I can feel it in my gut. I can feel when I'm copping out or lying. It's a nauseous feeling. When you get it right, it feels right.
Q: Woke On A Whaleheart was co-produced by Neil Michael Hagerty and I’ve heard you liked having the distance between you and the final product, having an in-between in the form of a co-producer. How was Sometimes…produced? Why do you like the distance? Why’d you start giving up some of the control since you started working under your actual name as opposed to
the name smog…? [I wasn’t gonna ask about the name change…. but I figured people who don’t know need to read about it somewhere so they can all go buy Wild Love and fall in love with Limited Capacity like I did when I was a teenager).
A: I described the process above. It was different this time, as Neil wanted to be and I wanted him to be in full control. Just to see what would happen and I trusted him. I gave Neil only the slightest of guidance, but even that he didn't want. That's why he insisted I take a co-producer credit. The new album, I gave all my ideas to Brian for him to mull over. And we had several meetings where I could hear and discuss his mock-up arrangements. I became interested in giving up some of the control because I have made 13 albums now and thought maybe it'd be a way to make some different sounding records, to take them to a place I may not have gone. It was just a little vacation for a part of myself. But I'm back now and wanting to be in control.
Q: You’ve said the D.C. hardcore scene influenced you early in your career, what was it that affected you? Did you find the same kind of feeling in the Chicago indie rock scene? Scene is a terrible word- community… How did these communities affect you?
A: With hardcore it was the closeness of it. I liked Classic Rock a lot too, but it seemed so far away. The way those records are produced makes them sound far away. Maybe that is where the term rock star came from, because the people seemed so far away. Hardcore was just like seeing
the Wizard (the one from Oz) behind the screen. It made it something I could imagine doing. But I wasn't really making music then. I tried a little but it was malformed. By the time I'd got to Chicago I was already settled in to my methods of making records so I don't think it affected me much.
Q: Are you still in Texas and what the hell made you move to Texas? Never been to Texas but I think guns are issued to you when you cross the border into the state, any shooting happening?
A: There are some great road signs out here that say, "No shooting for 250 feet," along the highway. But I saw and heard more guns in Chicago than Texas. I had to duck behind my car because someone was shooting across the street in Chicago. I crept in and drove off without looking over the steering wheel.
Q: Seems you’ve lived all over the U.S., are there any places outside of the U.S. you’re fond of? [There are rivers and horses and teenagers driving around aimlessly and sex in most places I think…]
A: No, I like USA the best. I would maybe live in a huge teeming city like Rome for a spell. Just to shake myself up, but I'm happy here.
Q: All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast off the new album has some swelling strings that remind me a lot of old film scores, Ennio Morricone maybe. Even though Brian Beattie did the strings on this album, older songs like Your Wedding and Stalled on the Tracks have the same kind of narrative emotional swell. Do you think your music is influenced by film or soundtracks? Seen any good films lately [and don’t say Night Of The Hunter, everyone always says Night of the Hunter, I mean unless you did just see it, then say it if you have to. It’s an amazing film but it is always seems to be the indie-rock fallback answer]?
A: I'm not influenced by soundtracks. If there were any type of influence from a film onto my music, it would probably be impossible to explain. I find influences to be like that game in the arcade where you roll a penny onto a moving shelf and sometimes the penny pushes a bunch of coins over the edge. If you looked at the shelf of pennies, you probably couldn't find which penny caused the jackpot and all the pennies sort of contributed anyway by being in a certain position to cause the fall. I am saying that that is what these things we take into us are, the influences and how they work together. I hear you on Night of the Hunter. Robert Mitchum's got some way better movies than that. Last good movie I saw was The Wrestler. I liked Synechdoche, NY , too. In the hotel in Dallas when I couldn't sleep I watched: Girlfight -- I liked the girl in it. I think her name was Michelle Rodriguez. Knocked Up -- which I'd seen before but found it quite touching this time around, especially the end when they're driving away with the baby and then they show all the births of the crew members kids during the close credits. I was bawlin'. Some movie with Kevin Bacon in a Death Wish role. And Good Advice with Charlie Sheen as a male chauvinist who gets his comeuppance. Oh, boy does he ever!
Q: What’re your plans for the rest of the day? You’re welcome to come over if you want, I do live in the woods and there are eagles.
A: No harm in guessing. Rest of the day, a friend invited me out for Indian food. There is also
a Bill Hicks documentary at 9:45. I'm not sure I'll do either. Didn't sleep well the past couple nights (mixing the record), and the drive home wiped me out for some reason. That PowerPack breakfast, they need to rename it.
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