A recurring narrative runs throughout Shirley Hurt. It’s a catalog of recollections, some are challenging and others provide bursts of exuberance. She joins us to discuss it.
Category: The AD Interview
Robert Pollard :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
2023 was a fantastic year for Guided by Voices. The trio of records that came out – La La Land, Welshpool Frillies, and the late-year Nowhere to Go But Up – are some of the best the band has put out in the seven years its most recent incarnation has been together. Founding member Robert Pollard seems just as chaotically creative as ever, whether it’s the pure volume of songs or the developing shape they take. Over the holiday break, Pollard caught up with Aquarium Drunkard via email about the latest trio of albums, how the writing process works for the band 7 years and 16 albums in, the challenge of writing lyrics for music that already exists, and the transformative power of a Glen Campbell cover of your own work.
Thandi Ntuli :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Rainbow Revisited was recorded over the course of two sessions in 2019, between Ntuli’s grand 2018 epic Exiled and last year’s shimmering Blk Elijah & The Children of Meroë. An accomplished bandleader, Ntuli might never have recorded a collection of solo tracks had percussionist/producer/sorcerer Carlos Niño not reached out after seeing a video of her warming up.
Catching Up With Ilyas Ahmed
It’s been a busy couple of months for Ilyas Ahmed. First, Grails (the long-running band Ahmed joined a few years back) released the awesome Anches En Maat, which was quickly followed up by an extensive European tour. Then in October, the Portland, OR-based artist released his excellent new solo record, A Dream of Another. Recently, we hopped on the phone to get his thoughts on a variety of topics.
David Grisman :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Mandolin legend David Grisman spoke with AD about jazz, mandolin, his long partnership with Jerry Garcia, when Bob Dylan hit him up for lessons, and the new edition of the Garcia/Grisman jazz collection, So What, on vinyl for the first time.
Hardcore Iconoclastic :: Mark Lightcap on the Woozy Drifts of Acetone
Ahead of the career-spanning collection i’m still waiting. guitarist Mark Lightcap joins us to discuss the evolution and mythology of Acetone, his Southern California trio. “We’re just stirring this cauldron of musical information waiting for the flavor to congeal in a way that we like.”
Bex Burch :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
On her International Anthem debut There is only love and fear, xylophonist Bex Burch creates a world of sound that jumps between jazz loops, found sound, ambient soundscapes, and propulsive, rhythmic “messy minimalism.” But those individual components equal something more than the sum of their parts. Burch joins us to discuss the choice between love and fear, her “messy minimalism,” and welcoming the sounds of nature into her record—and realizing that her record was in and of itself a natural sound: “I am part of nature singing my song.”
Beirut :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
For Zach Condon, the music is a record of the transformative period he spent near the Arctic circle. He explains, “The whole album was supposed to sound like that place. The drums sounding like the outside elements and then the organ in the middle being like the warm fireplace that you get to sit by that keeps you warm through these harsh moments.”
Daniel Villarreal :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
We recently caught up with Daniel Villarreal backstage before his show at Yoshi’s in Oakland. His new album, Lados B, came out last month on International Anthem — its nine tracks drawn from sessions from his first album, Panama ‘77, a tribute to his homeland. A truly epic trio of Villarreal, guitarist Jeff Parker, and bassist Anna Butterss improvise around compositions originated by Villarreal, mostly live with minimal overdubbing.
PAINT :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Pedrum Siadatian has been on a tear in 2023, creating and releasing two albums that speak to his continued artistic stretching: Zuma 85, which finds Allah-Las, the California rock band he founded with his collaborators in 2008. exploring shambolic and rhythmically dynamic art rock; and Loss For Words, a mostly instrumental jammer by his solo project PAINT. He joins us to discuss kosmische sounds, musical production, and the perils of DIY.
Bill Million (The Feelies) on The Velvet Underground
Cut live at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City in October 2018, The Feelies Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground, is a full-throated homage to one of the indie pioneers’ foundational influences. Founding Feelie Bill Million joins us for an all-things-Velvets chat, with digressions into The Beatles, The Willies, future plans, and more.
Morton Subotnick :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick has achieved more in his 90 years than could be covered in days of conversation — from the San Francisco Tape Music Center to the Buchla synthesizer to his groundbreaking electronic albums to his works for theater and dance. He shared an hour of his time and the conversation dove in the deep end, straight away. Still far ahead of his time, Subotnick is currently on his final run of performances – the “As I Live and Breathe Tour.”
Modern Nature :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
“It’s a lot to take in… It’s impossible to see,” Jack Cooper sings on Modern Nature’s No Fixed Point In Space. The limits of language fascinate Cooper, who spends much of the album guiding his collaborators, including members of The Necks, This Is Not This Heat, and Julie Tipppets, to a place where words aren’t required. But sometimes language does come in handy, which is why we rang Cooper up at his space near Cambridge, UK, to discuss the album, how the natural world informs his creative process, and the nebulous zone between composition and improvisation.
Video Age :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
New Orleans duo Video Age are associated with rhythmic, dream pop pallette, but with their latest album Away from the Castle, songwriters Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli augment new wave gloss with a heavy dose of tuneful, guitar-based pop—think Real Estate in a particularly sunny mood or Whitney on a heavy Beatles kick. With all that jangle and strum comes a rededication to their core friendship, complete with “Better Than Ever,” a number that works like a platonic love song.
Joseph Shabason :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
If you’ve ever stepped foot on a skateboard, you’re in the club for life. For Toronto-based saxophonist Joseph Shabason, this revelation provided the inspiration for his latest project: a new album-length score for the classic 1996 skate video, Toy Machine’s Welcome To Hell. With the blessing of company founder, pro skater, and visual artist Ed Templeton (who also provided album art), Shabason’s Welcome To Hell is a passion project dating back to his formative childhood memories.