Film is one of our primary cultural reference points for instrumental music.
There’s also lots of directors, like Godard and Truffaut and people like that.ĪD: So often, when people talk about largely instrumental music, they refer to it as “cinematic,” so I’m always careful about not resorting to that cliche. I really love Taxi Driver, it’s always something I return to. River’s Edge was really big for me-so much atmosphere. I think a lot of the things that have hit me really heavily have some of those filmlike qualities to them.īill MacKay: Right off the bat, I think of Tarkovsky’s Solaris. C inemas always been important, and music that has that cinematic edge to it especially interests me. Now that you mention it, I think the title might refer back to those days. A miracle was just the organizing: they had all sorts of great stuff coming through there, music, film, dramas, thrillers, foreign, and experimental stuff. It was one of those special, amazing theater buildings, and they had a different film every night.
#RYLEY WALKER MCKAY MOVIE#
That’s the cliche, to say “there’s no net,” but it’s sort of like there’s nobody to support you, but there’s also no limits in a way.ĪD: One of my favorite songs on this record is called “The Movie House.” Are you a theater-goer, or more of a “stay home and watch a movie” kind of guy?īill MacKay: One of the things that I used to do in Pittsburgh with my partner was going to the Pittsburgh Playhouse, which is sadly gone. So yeah, there’s lots of collabs…If you’re recording solo or playing solo live, it feels like you have this tremendous space, and yet there’s a lot of responsibility for where you’re guiding yourself. Then I have a duo with a cellist in town here, Katinka Kleijn, among other things. Then I have two albums with Ryley, Land of Plenty and SpiderBeetleBee. Do those two individual practices, solo and group or duo, require different headspaces?īill MacKay: I had this group, Darts and Arrows, which flowed into other bands after that band ended. The looser you get with it, the more often things seem live and real.ĪD: You’ve made a lot of collaborative records too. You know yourself so well, it’s easy to unconsciously remember what you did and follow it.īill MacKay: I think when I’d start out tracking, I would say, “Oh, I have to keep it really close, ’cause the natural inclination is that it’s gonna be drifty.” Because I’m alone, I somehow have to do that, but it’s sort of the opposite. I’ve found in the past that I would, years ago, do something where the tracks were almost too together.
The weird thing is, you can that it’s even you if you get immersed in the tracks enough. There’s this thing of responding to yourself. You’re sort of hearing things as though you’re listening to a band.
Does it feel like you’re having a conversation with yourself when you make a record like this?īill MacKay: I suppose there is an element of that. Listening to this record, I found myself attracted to the idea of conversation. And speaking of which, MacKay steps up to the mic for two winning vocal numbers, including the pleasingly Jansch- esque “Bird of May.” Best of all, however, is the woozy slide guitar workout “Arcadia,” which lasts for just three-and-a-half feedback-drenched minutes, but you might want to put it on a hypnotic loop for a half-hour.Īhead of the album’s release on March 22, MacKay joined Aquarium Drunkard to discuss his shifting approaches, cinematic inspirations, and establishing his own musical vocabulary.Īquarium Drunkard: Though you made it on your own, Fountain Fire doesn’t sound like a solo guitar record necessarily. “Welcome,” meanwhile, sounds like an early Fairport Convention tune waiting for Sandy Denny to add her voice. Opener “Pre-California” has a propulsive rhythm and divebombing guitars. The record, Fountain Fire, sneaks up on you its songs are unassuming at first, with a loose, conversational feel to them.īut as you dig in, the colors grow more vivid and the details get sharper. This week, Chicago guitarist Bill MacKay (a close musical companion of Ryley Walker) returns with another winningly eclectic solo LP for Drag City.
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