Our PR-savvy culture has grown
so accustomed to false modesty
and calculated answers that raw
honesty comes as a surprise.
So when Bill Callahan, formerly known as Smog, joins typically circumspect indie artists like Paul Banks (Interpol) and Britt Daniel (Spoon) in singing their own praises in interviews, it raises an eyebrow.
Of course, many fans agree with them, and Callahan has arguably earned a measure of self-satisfaction with his voluminous, sublimely varied output. His resolute music veers among folk, indie rock and that undefinable stretch of Americana that can only be described as bleakly poetic.
After nearly 20 years of recording under the Smog moniker, Callahan released the first album under his own name, “Woke on a Whaleheart,” recorded with veteran rocker Neil Michael Hagerty (Pussy Galore, Royal Trux).
We recently chatted with Callahan via e-mail in advance of his Sunday show at the Walnut Room.
Q: “Woke on a Whaleheart” features more exotic, almost world music, flavors than we’re used to. Was that conscious or a product of recent listening habits?
A: I don’t see any world music on the album. I wrote the songs and had some hand in culling the bass and drum parts. The rest of the arrangements were by Neil Hagerty. He said the demo I made for him was “without influence, without genre.” He said he tried to arrange the songs in that manner. To steer them in no particular direction, but only to propel them forward. To let the lyrics color things.
Q: The record also sports elements of funk among the dusty, Western- style melodies. How important to you, overall, are overt rhythms?
A: I’ve become more interested in rhythms as time goes on … so hung up I was on words in the past. I find if you have a good rhythm, it just gets into you, into a non-cerebral part of you. Some songs just have everyone’s head and feet moving from the start.
Q: Apart from the name change, did you take a different approach
engineering it over previous Smog
albums?
A: The idea was to hand over the reins. So Neil produced and arranged it for me. That was the idea of the name change. To just be an individual in a crowd of collaborators. As opposed to Smog, which was something like a cloak or poncho that covered all things.
Q: You’ve been on the same label (Drag City) since 1991. Why have you stayed with them for so long?
A: Complete freedom and understanding or at least trust in what I do. I can release a record and say, “I’m not touring or doing any interviews for this one.” And they’ll say, “Cool.” It’s respect, I guess. And they pay on time.
Q: Did moving to Austin, Texas, influence your music? You’ve said in the past that Chicago felt too crowded and removed from nature.
A: Don’t think it changed a lick. Music is created not on Earth, really. It’s like religion, it shouldn’t be staked out like the North Pole.
Q: In a recent interview you more or less said the ease of making music these days isn’t necessarily a good thing, but in fact you started out lo-fi, recording at home on a four track. Is that an implicit indictment of the methods you used when you began?
A: Well, I was talking about other people. Other people shouldn’t be so free to make music. I make good music, so I should be able to. And the digital is something much larger than a few people with four tracks. That was real recording. Digital is a false replication. Digital is replacing recording. There will be no more recording, it’s just ones and zeros. Mostly zeros.
Q: Your humor and sincerity sometimes do a little dance with each other. Do you ever feel “on” sometimes, and completely sincere at others?
A: I think the things I say are pretty self-explanatory. I write. I consider how I express myself and decide what to say and how to say it.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642
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bill callahan
Indie/Americana. The Walnut Room, 3131 Walnut St. With Sir Richard Bishop. 8:30 p.m. Sunday. $13. 303-830-8497 or
