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MATTHEW HOUCK’S DARK GLOW Phosphorescent releases stunning new LP
B Y K A TH ER INE C O P L E N KCOPL EN@NU VO . N ET
I phoned up Matthew Houck –– the man behind Phosphorescent –– in late February at his place in Brooklyn, where he’s lived for six or seven years (he can’t remember). Houck was gearing up to begin a spring tour for the new album Muchacho, a hauntingly beautiful new collection of songs he wrote, mastered and produced completely solo. That’s not new for Houck, whose experimental indie folk is created largely solo. What is new is the parade of musicians that accompanied the recording –– more than 20 in all, who came in one by one to layer their instruments and voices over Muchacho’s 10 songs, which were conceptualized largely during a solo trip to Tulum, Mexico, a town along the Caribbean coast. You can hear that locale in Muchacho; I imagine crashing waves, the bright white sun, swaying palms in every track. This is an album that rewards multiple listens, and standout tracks “Muchacho’s Tune,” “Song for Zula” and “A Charm/A Blade” are addictive, with looping synths, horn choruses and muted, haunting guitar. Houck will return to Bloomington for the third time in five years for a show at The Bishop with Strand of Oaks on Thursday, March 28. NUVO: I’ve seen you twice –– both in Bloomington, where you’ll play again in a few weeks, once at the Waldron and once at Russian Recording. MATTHEW HOUCK: I remember that recording studio place; that was great. I don’t know if I have any pearls of wisdom to drop about Bloomington, but I have spent time there because of Secretly Canadian. I used to live in this town, Athens, Ga., and it seems like a similar kind of vibe. A nice little artistic enclave in sort of a other-type of state. NUVO: A dot of blue in a sea of red. So, let’s talk Muchacho. I love this album. I’ve been playing it over and over, making the people in my house a little crazy. It’s … so sad. HOUCK: It’s a bummer, I know. It’s a rough record. NUVO: It’s so beautiful and so sad. The first question I actually wrote down when I found out I was going to interview you was, “Are you OK?” HOUCK: [laughs] You know what, with a little bit of distance from the record, I’ve asked myself that same question. Yeah, I think I’m OK. But it’s a rough record and I’m kind of –– I listened to it maybe a few weeks ago. I hadn’t listened to it since I had finished it and I kind of got a little distance.
LIVE
PHOSPHORESCENT WITH STRAND OF OAKS
THE BISHOP, 123 S. WALNUT ST., BLOOMINGTON THURSDAY, MARCH 28 9 P.M., $12 ADVANCE,$15 DOOR, 18+
little bit uninhabitable. I just got out, I wanted to get out of it and just write these songs. They had been starting organically, but I wasn’t able to work on them. So, I figured, [the trip] would be a dual purpose: getting out of town, getting away from my own life, trying to focus and do some writing and finish up these songs that were brewing.
HOUCK: It’s weird. In the past, I’ve always allowed the live band to be a separate thing from the recordings. To just let the songs be what they are for that given night, for whoever’s playing them. But for this record, I do think we’re going to be able to recreate the album. We played one show to test the waters a bit. It was at the old CBGB’s space. It’s going to be flexible; some of the dates are going to have a few more members than others. But I think we’re going to be able to recreate this record live. Minus the horns; I’m not bringing any horns out. The songs are sounding really full and rich. This is the first time I’m trying to be true to the versions on the records and bring them to the stage. And so far, it’s working! It’s sounding really, really good.
NUVO: I’ve actually been lucky enough to go [to Tulum] –– HOUCK: Oh, you know this place? NUVO: Yes, it’s so beautiful. I feel like I’m transported back every time I cue up this record. I feel the airiness and the physical beauty of that place. And a lot of your lyrics feel like you’re bringing the outside inside. How did the physical beauty of the space you were creating in affect your songwriting? HOUCK: I understand what you mean, because it’s a thing that I don’t know if you’re really conscious of what you’re doing while you’re doing it. You know, I can say for sure that being there while writing was definitely influencing the lyrics, but that stuff kind of happens subconsciously. I can say for sure that it wouldn’t have been written like that if I had been in my apartment –– well, I can’t say for certain, I guess. But that stuff happens –– it’s an ephemeral thing that happens behind the scenes in your mind. Hopefully, if you do your job right, you can sort of capture it. So I’m glad to hear it did that for you. It’s really good to hear. NUVO: You open and close the album with a sun invocation. Why did you choose to do that? HOUCK: That was something that was a conscious choice. It was a conscious decision to end it and start it that way rather than starting with a sunrise and ending with a sunset, which may have been the logical way. It seemed important to me to start it with an ascension and then end it with another ascension. It’s rising –– I call it a cone. It felt very much like that. Part of it is because the record is so bleak, so it’s [to say] it’s not all bleak. Maybe saying to myself or maybe to the listener, it was a conscious decision to focus on the light instead of the dark.
NUVO: I think “Muchacho’s Tune” is my favorite track on the record, I think. You told Spin you made this “in the middle of a freakout.” Can you tell me more about how the songs came together in that hut in Mexico?
NUVO: You tracked and mastered this yourself, and, I assume, wrote it all yourself. I know you’ve produced entire albums solo before –– I think Pride was like that. But on this one, you called on 20 different musicians to add parts. Tell me about the production and recording process.
HOUCK: The genesis [of the tracks] came together a little bit before that. I actually went down to Mexico to get away from my own life a little bit. My own life had become a
HOUCK: It was a bunch of folks! I had an idea to get a big, live thing together, but it didn’t work that way at all. Because of schedules and everyone being so busy, I ended up tracking this stuff
28 MUSIC // 03.20.13 - 03.27.13 // 100% RECYCLED P APER // NUVO
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Matthew Houck
“My own life had become a little bit uninhabitable.” — MATTHEW HOUCK by myself, when I came back to New York and set up the studio again. And then, I ended up bringing in each musician one at a time. There was a never a point when we were all playing together. The process was like a sculpture or painting or something. Everyone on the record, I had them basically for one day, which speaks to how good they all are. I am lucky to have found such an amazing crew of people. They all came in and were able to record everything in one day one at a time. Then I would take those tracks and work with them and spent a long time carving spaces for each instrument and, yes, building up the songs from various places. NUVO: That’s interesting that you refer to it as a sculpture –– I just heard this quote again the other day. Supposedly Michelangelo said something to the effect of, “David was always inside of the marble, and I knew he was, I just had to carve him out of it.” Thinking about the intricate pieces and layering that went into this record –– I’m thinking of the chorus on “A Charm/A Blade,” those horns and building that one by one. It doesn’t feel like something that was put together piece by piece, it feels like a full live group. That brings me to my next question –– how are you going to do this live?
NUVO: Spin described your words as exhibiting “lyrical nudity.” What do you think when you read things like that? HOUCK: I’m OK with most of it. Even from the very initial stages of doing this, I called this thing Phosphorescent as opposed to calling it Matthew Houck, you know? There’s an intrinsic layer of protection there. I know there’s a healthy mix of truth and fiction in this stuff. A lot of times, I’ll be really concerned about a line or a part of the song, and oddly enough, no one will ever mention it. But then people will be really affected or concerned about me personally [laughs] based on a lyric or something. And the funny thing is that [lyric] may be a toss-off line for me. I think there’s a healthy distance between the work and myself. I don’t sweat it too much, even though there’s a tendency with musicians and songwriters specifically, to put everything out like it’s your diary or something. And to some degree, it is, because you can’t escape your own thing. But I feel OK about that –– people can project whatever they want. I am a little bit jealous about filmmakers and authors of books –– I don’t think that people assume that it’s such a direct line to your personal life. I don’t think people watch a David Lynch movie –– Mulholland Drive or something –– and assume he’s a lesbian with amnesia. They’re not concerned about David Lynch. NUVO: I do worry a bit about David Lynch sometimes. HOUCK: Yeah, you might be right, maybe. You might be right.