Astral Swans‘ “All My Favorite Singers Are Willie Nelson” album is a collection of stark psychedelic folk from the unfiltered neuroses of Calgary’s Matthew Swann. Set for release on Dan Mangan’s Madic Records on February 24th, these twelve songs lavish in Swann’s startlingly sardonic reflections, in his own words, “confronting our strange ways of experiencing personhood, in the moral gorge between ideals and inadequacies”. He plays Montreal’s Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre with Dan Mangan on February 21st. We caught up with Matthew ahead of the record release and live shows…
MR: Congratulations on your first album. I’ve listened to it a few times over the past days and it has really grown on me. I really enjoy the eloquent simplicity of the whole thing as well at the raw live feel.
I guess my first question has to do with the title of the album. “All My Favorite Singers are Willie Nelson”. As far a I could tell there were no mentions of singer/animal rights activist/grandaddy of all “hipsters”, Mr. Nelson on the album. What is the thinking behind this title and what is your favourite Willie Nelson song?
AS: To answer your first question – the one about the title … I honestly love Willie Nelson. My favorite songs are: ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’ (which he did not write, but made famous), ‘Darkness On The Face Of The Earth’, ‘Time Of The Preacher’, his version of ‘Blue Skies’, ‘Me and Paul’, ‘Pancho and Lefty’, ‘Beginning Of The End’, ‘September’ … oh wait, those last two are my songs! Hmmm – the title is something I said to myself once ages ago. I suppose it’s an absurd statement, but one that is meant to evoke a certain romance. I guess in a sense I’m motivated by some search for beauty, sincerity, and humility, like how ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’ makes me feel. Someday there may be a way that I can allow you to feel those feelings immediately, through some sort of psychic, robotic, mind interface or something – but till then I just have symbols, imagery, my singing voice, yada…
MR: There is some really interesting word play going on throughout the album. Lines like “Cross your fingers, that you were born with luck” and “I never let go even when there’s nothing to hold”. I call them poetic paradoxes. Can you tell me a bit about your writing process? Do lines like this come spontaneously or are you an over thinker who obsesses over every syllable?
AS: Thanks, for noting the wordplay, and lyrics. I genuinely appreciate that you have listened to my humble record so conscientiously. My writing process is very spontaneous. I write a lot, but refinement can take a while. I also tend to write songs, and forget them, so I’ve taken to recording them on my iphone 4 – p.s. not bragging that i have an iphone 4, btw – just stating a fact. Ya i’m iPhone 4 rich, whatevs.
MR: As I mentioned there is a very raw, almost “live” energy to this album. A refreshing change from a lot of the overly produced radio GAGA there is out there today. Were a lot of these tracks recorded live in one or two takes?
AS: You nailed it with the recording process. My good friend, Brad Hawkins (he recorded Ghostkeeper, and does a ton in our experimental improv community), tracked the guitar and voice together, live, in my apartment. Essentially, the basis of each song is an unedited live performance of me playing guitar and singing. We didn’t do lead vocal overdubs, or punch ins, so what ya hear is how I sound live playing comfortably in my living room. That’s right, those pitchy, vocal parts are actually me, and not some computer program that edits your vocals till they’re in key – obviously that type of technology doesn’t exist yet, right?… oh wait, it totally does.
MR: I find echoes of Early Neil Young in the guitar sound and on the vocal tracks of this album. Was he an influence of yours? Who are your favourite Canadian recording artists of today?
AS: I love Neil Young!!!! Absolutely one of my all time favs – Harvest, After The Goldrush, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Come to think of it I’m gonna put that last one on now. I wish I had a Pono to play it on, mostly because they’re $400, and if I had one it would likely mean that I had more money in general than I do. Why would i have more money in this imaginary scenerio, you may ask? Because of the 150,000 records that my imagination says I would have sold – not bad for a debut, hey?!. I have a lot of fav current Canadian recording artists. I love Godspeed and Sandro Perri, and really anyone off of Constellation Records, and Tim Hecker, and Mets. I love Julie Doiron, and Jennifer Castle, I love Viet Cong, and Chad Vangaalen, and my friend Rena who plays under the name ‘Cats’, and Rae Spoon, and all the sweet folks that Arts&Crafts put out (A&C are helping me in conjunction with Mangan), and Halifax bands like Quaker Parents, and Dog Day, and a bunch of those Calgary ex-pats in Mtl doing that Egg Paper Factory record label, and those Arbutus bands, and all my pals in Calgary, like Night Committee, and shit, and all the rad experimental improv folks in my city, and pretty much everything that I’ve heard on weirdcanada.com, ever! And of course Dan Mangan who is kind enough to start a label and put out my record, and bring me on tour. There’s way more too.
MR: Despite its ominous title, the song “Beginning of the End” has one of the most upbeat feels on the album. Admittedly it is my favourite track. Gives my head that extra bob when I’m walking down the street with headphones on. I even got my old acoustic guitar out and jammed to it a bit. It’s a really fun song. What songs do you most look forward to playing on this tour? Is there a particular song people have been responding to as shows?
AS: Thanks!! I like playing ‘You Carry A Sickness’, hmm – I might bust out a cover of ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’. I recorded a version recently, but I’m unsure what’s happening with it.
MR: Due to the eloquent simplicity of all the songs on All My Favourite Singers Are Willie Nelson, there is a great jam-like feel to the album. Do you plan to expand on any of these songs during your live performance and jam-out on stage?
AS: If i ever get around to being able to afford to bring a band on tour I will for sure! In the meantime it’s just me.
MR: The album thematically seems to have a constant scream from the disenfranchised youth of today. “Nature doesn’t notice you at all” and “We’re like smoke, we are like blackouts”. Do you feel like the youth of today is more disconnected than ever before despite being constantly connected through social media?
AS: Hmmm – interesting question there. I hear that assumption frequently (i.e. youth are currently more disconnected than before, in spite of increased ways of connecting technologically). Interestingly, I mostly hear it from members of older generations. . … given that point, I often wonder if the question itself is a product of a generational clash between an older group’s concept of ‘connection’, as informed by the behaviours and technologies of its day, vis a vis a more contemporary definition of ‘connection’, informed by the social, and technological trends occurring throughout the development of the current generation. I sometimes imagine a time when books and letters were seen as corruptive to ‘in person’ communication, followed by telephones, televisions, the internet, ad infinitum. My personal view (and i don’t know anything, categorically) is that humans are always searching out meaningful connections, frequently falling short of attaining them, and have been throughout history, regardless of the interface. However, you’re also asking a dude who frequently wonders if the face looking back at him in the mirror is a hallucination!
MR: “My ideas are old, and my conscience doesn’t work in the new world”. This is another line that really stuck in my brain. It is amazing how fast paced everything has become in the internet era. Things like manners and respect often seem to have little place on social media. What are the some of the beliefs you once held that you now consider dated?
AS: Oh my! Extension of tricky question #7. hmmm – I’m constantly in a state of chaotic moral flux. I just wanna see everybody happy all the time – I’m a hippie like that. I’m also impulsive, and frequently doing stupid, self-serving shit. I don’t like the fact that suffering exists. Even more than that, I don’t like my own contributions to it. Ya – hmm, as I get older (and I’m no kid by any means), I see that there is no general prescription for life. I like manners personally, haha, but expressing kindness (which presumably manners are for) isn’t just about following a set of rules. As mentioned previously, those rules change. I guess I used to believe a lot of things about the world … now I don’t – certainly not because I’m a nihilist, but everything just feels up in the air all the time. I really do believe in kindness, and equality, and doing the best you can for others … genuinely, sincerely – I just don’t always know how to do that. Worse than that, sometimes I do know how, and I still don’t do it. That’s the worst.
MR: So you will be playing with Juno Award winning fellow Canadian Dan Mangan. I think that his fans will respond very well to your sound. Have you had a chance to listen to his new album yet? And if so what did you think?
AS: So I ended up in this crazy lucky situation, where Dan Mangan emailed me, sorta outta the blue, after hearing a couple of Astral Swans songs (this was before this record was a finished thing). He really liked them, and ended up starting a record label in conjunction with Arts&Crafts, and giving me a deal. Anyway, as a result of that, I’ve been in pretty steady contact with that dude for the past year. Last march, he sent me the first mixes of the album, and I listened to them with my pal Paul while we were on tour. I was expecting more of the classic folky Canadian indie stuff that he’s come to be the ambassador for. As the record went on I was really surprised and impressed by the change of direction. I think it’s a really great record, and I really admire that he’s ballsy enough to risk alienating his fans, and a cushy role, as the nice indie guy, in order to challenge himself, and his fans, and make a deep, complex, political record. It’s been great, really getting to know Dan, and to have this wonderful opportunity to tour with him.
Thanks a lot to Matthew for spending time with us. Catch Astral Swans opening for Dan Mangan + Blacksmith at Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre on February 21st. Tickets HERE
Interview – Myles Beeby
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