“All I want to do is make little songs” – ps goner on his country alter ego, the cost of independence, and doing it anyway
Peter Sagar, the solo artist behind ps goner and Homeshake, calls me from his home in Toronto. He’s been based there for six years now, after nearly a decade in Montreal where the music scene he was a part of had already begun to dissolve.
At first glance, ps goner feels like an unexpected turn. Homeshake, the bedroom pop, R&B, and jazz-tinged project that earned Sagar a loyal cult following across nine albums, strayed into ambient americana with its last two releases, while retaining his signature groove. However, ps goner sees him step straight into steel string territory.
Sagar says the side project came from a mix of impulses: reflections on his Edmonton upbringing, a desire to stretch beyond his own expectations, and a case of creative block.
“I was working on another album and hit a wall with it for a minute. I was very frustrated because I didn’t want to not be recording, so I just decided one day to record a song that ended up being the first track of this project. And then I just kept doing it until it felt finished.”
In keeping with his preference for listening to albums front to back, there’s an atm inside is recorded entirely on cassette and follows a fictional narrative told through eight tracks. It made the process of choosing the singles, he admits, “very hard.”
The story follows an alternate version of Sagar, “who lives in the bathroom mirror and switched places [with me]. And then he recorded all of it and it’s his life story.” I won’t spoil it, but his alter ego’s misfortunes involve gambling debts, the threat of violence, and a deer in headlights.
The singles wind on the horizon and disappear slot neatly into an emerging strain of dark indie country. In disappear, Sagar murmurs, “they’re gonna break my legs / if I don’t deliver 20k in a week.” Languid, wailing guitar lines invoke dusty roads and the unsettling stillness of American suburbs in the summer.
Despite the sonic parallels, he shrugs off the comparison.
“I don’t really listen to that,” he admits. “It’s sort of like an imagined memory of what I think that music sounds like: 90s Neil Young, Harvest Moon, Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska.”
At the time, he was actually listening to something else entirely, ambient electronic music, “music that sounds like dirty air,” he chuckles.
His first stop on his there’s an atm inside tour is in Montreal, a city he’s played “more than anywhere else on earth.” Surprisingly, he tells me he is really nervous to play here.
That’s partly because the setup will have Sagar at his most stripped back yet. “It’s going to be me and my guitar and I’ll be wandering around playing a couple different instruments,” he tells me. “I’m not even going to be having a buddy touring with me. I’m going to be driving all by myself. I can’t remember why I decided to do that.”
He will be standing on familiar ground, though. “I’ve seen a lot of shows [at Bar le Ritz PDB]. Played there before it was that venue. The stage was on the other side of the room. It was really gross,” he grins.
In fact, Sagar has managed something increasingly rare: a lengthy independent career on his own terms. He’s worked with his manager for nearly a decade, leans on the support of his partner, and operates a small team running his label, SHHOAMKEE.
But with that freedom comes isolation. “It’s lonely, especially after I left Montreal it got lonelier. There was a scene that I was part of that was super important to be around.”
He admits he feels somewhat removed from his peers. “I’m not close with a lot of artists that aren’t doing it the same sort of way as me.” To him, the structure of the industry widens that divide. “I am not used to seeing solidarity run downwards. Over the years I’ve seen what it takes to get into that zone. When you get to the other side I don’t know how much of you will be left to pull anyone else up.”
Self-releasing has not immunized him from the mounting pressure to generate commercial hype, either. “I think just in general for artists, more and more gets dumped on our shoulders, all the pressure and expectation. Like, I’m not just making music. I’m also the promoter, for some reason.”
“All I want to do is make little songs.”
With time, he’s gained a far-reaching view of the music industry. Although he’s comfortable with getting older, he’s realised “I’m old enough that I can say it’s getting bad.”
“One thing that makes me really angry about it is that nothing gets easier. The things you do over and over again. It’s hard to deal with them. I was expecting everything to get easier. It doesn’t.”
He lights up talking about the next generation of young bands. “I feel proud to see them just do it because you have to do it for the sake of it, that’s the only way any of it can work out. It’s spiritually whole.”
“The optimism of the kids is contagious. I feel it because of them.”
His CD release is another clue. He gets up to grab a CD from the back of the room and holds it up to the camera; his background blur filter blotches out the sleeve. Sagar designed the sleeve with his friend Thom. It mimics classic discount CD reissues, down to the fine print.
The edge of the disc is etched with a message: “Unauthorized duplication is highly encouraged.”
“I do a lot of piracy,” he admits, unfazed. He’s comfortable with others doing the same to his work if they can’t afford it. “I’d rather nobody made money than streaming giants.”
Although his release is in a few days, he tries to stay away from following public opinion and still feels anxiety around releases. He is surprised when I tell him I’ve seen genuine enthusiasm online about the singles. “I can’t pay attention to that. Everyone always tells me I read too much into it. It’s all very personal.”
Still, one thing remains certain. “I’m not going to stop making Homeshake records.”
there’s an atm inside comes out April 3.
ps goner plays at Bar Le Ritz on April 7.
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Interview by Irene Wang
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