Singer-songwriter Bill Callahan: “I’m not a craftsman, I’m a drunken professor who loves chance and mistakes” | Bill Callahan

We got married [Smog’s] Our anniversary. When you write songs, do you think about how your listeners will listen may Carry them into their own lives, or do the songs cease to be yours after you’re done with them? Fanerl
When I wrote [2019’s] Watch Me Get Married, I thought maybe people would consider it their wedding song. But it’s often unimaginable what people will do with a song. I don’t think about it too much because there are 100,000 places he’ll live. Have you ever heard of any inappropriate uses of songs? I think “Our Anniversary” as a wedding song is a bit surprising, but maybe realistic.

As estimated for DubIf you can spend a week in the studio collaborating with anyone Dub An artist at his peak, who would you choose? com. albertoayler
I have to say “Scratch” Perry just because he was so crazy. He was like a little kid – just infectious excitement. I think he was easy to hang out with. But also, King Tubby was so simple, I’d be interested to know how it timed enough – investing so much power into so few elements. Enjoy with God [the 2014 dub remix album of 2013’s Dream River] It was very traditional – all the moves were taken from 1970s Jamaican records. Maybe once is enough. But I like the idea of ​​recycling recorded stuff to make something else, and that’s what initially attracted me to dubbing. If you do [a new remix album]I may make a clip and pin recording.

I heard you live in Knaresborough, North Yorkshirealmost between Age 12 And 15. What did you do for fun at that time? com. pinballfilms
I wasn’t quite a teenager, more like 7-12 years old. There was a lot of farmland that we weren’t really supposed to be in, but we couldn’t help ourselves. There was a certain farmer who owned the largest area of ​​land, and he had orchards. I loved being in the apple orchards where all the trees were lined up. The farmer often comes to chase us. Mostly it was climbing walls, going places we weren’t supposed to be, exploring the river and fishing. The last year I was there, I started practicing music and going to record stores. Coming from Maryland, the biggest culture shock was that when you’re in America, you’re just one of the guys, but when you’re in 1970s England and you’re an American, you’re kind of from another planet. Lots of [popular] Music and television were American. People were watching Dallas, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and Starsky and Hutch. somehow, [being American] It was like being a movie star. England at that time was a tough place compared to what I was used to, like in Kes’ film. There will be gangs of bad guys running around causing trouble, like A Clockwork Orange.

What do you think are good ways to support musicians besides going to concerts? In other words: Is it time to leave Spotify? fredrikstai
I heard you watched The Sopranos during lockdown. Is working in the music industry like being in the mob? ekaterinanovia
Obviously, purchasing merchandise or records. Is it time to quit Spotify? We don’t really have a choice. Someone else asked if it was like mob action. I was on an independent label [Drag City] All my life, he avoided the mafia. But then streaming happened, and it basically forced us to put all our music on streaming services. Drag City has been around for 10 years or something. Then finally, with all the teams agreeing, they gave up – and would have been out of business by now if they hadn’t. This to me sounds more like coercion or mafia techniques. Somehow, they were forced to cooperate with this new thing where someone else was in charge of the money. That was the first time I felt a little like a soprano.

Your records have been released In drag city chicago for more than 30 years. What do you think makes this brand a good fit for your music and the way you work? Visitor
I always think we grew up together. We both started at the same time and figured out what we wanted, what our standards were, and what we were willing to do and do together. Especially in the beginning, they would consult me ​​about all the next moves and growth they were thinking about. As I made more records, there were new situations I was getting into where I was becoming a little more popular, and those were all things we worked on together. I basically feel like it’s my mark. In a very broad sense, I have complete control. If you give them a silent record and say, “Take this out,” they will do it without question. I think this is extremely rare. No one can give me more freedom, and there’s no reason to go anywhere else.

Who are some of the funniest lyricists or song lyrics to you? bertisg
Randy Newman, and songs like Love Story (You and Me) where he sings: “One day he might be president / If I take it easy.” I heard that song decades ago and that was a very poignant line, just to know that you can put a lot of humor into a song, and it’s not just a laugh — it has meaning, too. I remember being a kid and hearing Short People – this is the kind of humor that many people are offended by. His sense of humor is very sly, but it’s also a social commentary. [Pavement’s] Stephen Malkmus is very funny in an off-kilter way – he has some downright humorous songs, but a lot of his lyrics make me laugh because they’re verbal acrobatics.

Over the course of your career, you seem to have deepened your understanding of how to use your tools. Can you relate to the idea of ​​being an artisan in how you work? Your business approach? Saval
I’ve always hated that word when it comes to music, and it doesn’t apply to me. If this person could see me in my life, he wouldn’t even dream of calling me a craftsman. I imagine a craftsman is a guy who puts all his tools in boxes and shelves and knows where everything is. I’m more than a drunk professor. I love coincidence, serendipity and mistakes. I don’t know anything about synthesizers, but I’ll pick one at random, turn it on, and start recording. I press some buttons, turn something on, and somehow try to make it work. I’m only precise in writing the words and then the rest is more like: throwing it at the wall. I don’t know anything about chord progressions. He is more open and receives things from wherever they come from. I feel like a mediator. The craftsman builds something from nothing. I believe I receive things that are already built, and I make sure the reception is accurate.

In the song of partition [from 2022] You sing, “Meditate, ventilate… Small dose, change your clothes / Do what you gotta do,” which stuck with me. Do you meditate? ventilation? Micro dose? Change your clothes? I meditate too, and I feel the space in your songs in a way. Imzo_d0t
Yes – I think exercising, socializing, interacting with others… these are all the things that ensure that everything flows properly and nothing is blocked or hidden. Meditation is crucial to me. Right after I moved to Austin around 2004, I think that’s when I started meditating. It was the first time I had a house and it was quiet enough. Until then I lived in apartments with thin walls. I was trying to reinvent my whole life, so meditation was part of that. I wanted a backyard, a driveway, and a piano. A kind of stability. I was a late bloomer, so once I hit my twenties, I wanted to explore the country and have fun that I didn’t have in my teenage years. Then I had enough of that.

Do you allow your voice to be licensed for AI-generated songs? Nicens_boi
No. Does it scare me? It is. It’s sad to me, really, the way people devalue everything with AI. I mean we are here. We are humans on Earth. That’s the fun of being a human being who doesn’t know everything and tries things out and explores them. Being able to do everything without any effort is not fun. When an artist you love puts out a new record, it’s exciting – maybe they did something better than last time, or maybe they really messed up and it will be really interesting and give a new dimension to that person. AI will never create anything worth thinking about. You can create 100 Frank Sinatra records without a quote but… [sighs] …He’s not human. Creating things requires growing as a human, and that’s not what AI is about.

Have you ever written the perfect song in your dreams, as it happens in… [2009’s] What’s wrong with you?? Be positive
Yes – I have heard the most wonderful heavenly melodies and I try to keep them in my subconscious. They’re never there when I wake up. I heard amazing lines disappear, like invisible ink. I’ve been trying to be in closer contact with my subconscious – before I go to sleep, I ask my dreams to show me something. It works sometimes. Dreams and music are very close, they are intangible things that hit you hard. They are both spiritual things. It’s crazy that we dream and pay so little attention to it, as they used to say: “Oh, it’s just the brain cleaning itself.” There must be more to it than that.