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Interview: Brad Allen Williams Goes Deep About Creating his New Album 'œconomy' | Hype | LIVING LIFE FEARLESS
LAUREN DESBERG

Interview: Brad Allen Williams Goes Deep About Creating his New Album ‘œconomy’

Congrats on the release of your impending album, œconomy. What’s your feeling as the official release is finally upon us? How’s the response been to the songs you’ve released thus far?

Thank you so much! It’s a good feeling, because I’ve already accomplished what I set out to do: I’ve made something that I would enjoy listening to.

The response from artist-peers who have heard the work has been validating, in a sense. Even though I don’t make stuff to impress or please others, it’s always nice to be able to say “okay, I’m really proud of this work, and these brilliant people are reaching out to me, unsolicited, to tell me it’s great… so I must not be totally mis-calibrated.”

The wider response has been somewhat encouraging; enough to build on. I’m a new artist at a chronologically-later stage than is typical, which comes with its own challenges—but being proud to stand behind the work on an artistic level is its own validation. If the scale of its reach continues to grow, it’ll be on my own aesthetic terms.

How’d the album come together? How long did it take to complete?

Pete Min approached me about doing a record for the Colorfield label, so I just showed up and we started making stuff. All of the compositions started out as improvisations in the studio that were later developed, curated, and expanded.

I played most instruments myself—that felt like the path of least creative resistance. As things started shaping up, there were a few tracks that I thought would be cool with strings, so I took them away and wrote some arrangements. Then we brought label-mate Mark Guiliana in to play some drums on a few things to really put them over the top.

The album was made in a pretty small number of hours, but spaced out over the course of about six months.

2022 was a crazy touring year for most of us, and I was working extensively with a few different artists and rarely home. Sessions were scheduled for whenever I happened to be in Los Angeles, and all of the string arrangements were written on long-haul flights. It turns out that writing for strings is a great way to pass the time on a long route from LAX to CDG!

What’s the biggest differences/challenges between creating work for others versus for yourself?

When collaborating, the job description can vary wildly. I may be asked to play every instrument myself, write, record, arrange mix—very hands-on. Other times I mostly stay out of the way and facilitate. Sometimes being an instrumentalist means playing very little (or not at all!) and at other times means pushing myself beyond my own limits of virtuosity.

The objective in every case is to serve and strengthen the artist’s vision in whatever way I know how. I like to work from a space of extreme empathy—to read where the artist coming from, what they’re hoping to get across, and to use my abilities to help flesh out a technicolor manifestation of that.

Some musicians have one set way they do things; one sound or personality that they bring to every project. Others espouse a broad-based craftsmanship and try to add what they feel is “idiomatic.” The former risks a bad fit; the latter risks reducing all art to superficial stylistic tropes.

I aspire to a third way, which is also the hard way: to effectively contextualize my truthful artistic point-of-view within disparate landscapes. I don’t want to brute-force “my sound” on someone else’s vision, but I also don’t want to play or produce in a manner that’s dishonest or affected.

In other words, my central ethos is to use my honest voice, but challenge myself to figure out how it fits in—how it can be a strength in this moment; how it can be relevant to this specific piece of work.

That’s a much more difficult balance, because it requires finding and following threads. If I’m proud of anything I bring, it’s the understanding that superficially-unrelated elements and traditions almost always intertwine if you peel back enough layers. And there’s so much expressive potential to be found in exploring the more-remote connections.

Working on my own music, there’s much less of that balance-seeking. It’s so much easier, in a way—if something seems interesting to me, I get to follow it through without considering whether it speaks to someone else’s truth. If I’m the artist, it’s my truth at the center.

What do you want listeners to take from the project? Any specific themes?

When I was very young… five or six… I remember finding and putting on an ancient Strawberry Alarm Clock record and wondering who the hell could have possibly made these sounds. Like… what did they look like? Were they from another planet? I was just trying to picture what kind of creature would create music that sounds like that.

If someone very young hears this music and it elicits a similar reaction, that’s about as optimal a response as I could imagine.

Do you have a favorite song off the project? If so, why?

I don’t pick favorites, but I really love how the strings on “an artifice” came out; The Section Quartet played my arrangement beautifully, and Mark Guiliana played drums the only way he knows how—impeccably and inspired.

I also think “boomer” is interesting—we spent the whole record shying away from typical electric guitar vernacular, and Pete suggested we make one where we do the opposite: dare ourselves to stare directly at the sun in the naïve hope it wouldn’t blind us.

So he asked me to play a riff on distorted guitar, but instead of using an overdriven amp we plugged into a Moog synthesizer and overloaded the auxiliary input. Then I improvised what felt like the dumbest rock riff cliché, but put it in an odd meter. Then when it felt sensible, I went to the IV chord—the most obvious move—and improvised a different riff before going back to the first.

If you listen for it, you can hear that when I recapitulated that IV chord theme, it ended up in a different meter… I think I added or removed a beat. This wasn’t intended to be some clever device. The whole thing was totally improvised, and when it came back around the second time I just didn’t remember what I’d played exactly. But I really love that it ended up different! That embodies the spirit of how this record was made—maybe start with some kind of prompt, play the first thing to come to mind, then run with it and develop it.

The album is such a trippy ride! There’s so much going on in all the little details that make it feel so big and cinematic. I could really visualize the soundscape. I wonder, are you a big fan of the movies? Is film an inspiration for you? Any thoughts of soundtrack composition in the future?

Well, music has always been pretty visual for me. I’m about one degree away from literal synesthesia at all times, and it’s been that way as long as I can remember.

I don’t watch a ton of film relative to some other people, but I have some very strong niche interests: anything surreal, psychedelic or with a well-defined visual aesthetic. I mentioned being obsessed with 20th century visions of 21st century life—The Andromeda Strain is a favorite. I love the 1972 Solaris by Tarkovsky, I love both Panos Cosmatos films. Sun Ra Space is the Place is another evergreen—I think it’s so compellingly-photographed.

As much as the films themselves, I’ve always gravitated to older film scores, especially by all the usual suspects—Morricone, Schifrin, etc.

The only semi-conscious music-for-picture inspiration on the record: when I was writing the strings to weave in and out of the rhythmic synths on both “tecnologia” and “an artifice,” I was trying to achieve a particular effect I associate with John Carl Parker’s writing on themes for 1970s serial television like CHiPs and Trapper John, MD. There’s always this insistent, pulsing rhythm with these lush-but-deadpan strings on top; strings that somehow manage to be angry and cloying at the same time. It’s wild! It’s all in the writing, I think.

I don’t know whether the effect was intentional in his case, but my takeaway is this complex clash of layered emotion that I really wanted to reach for.

What can people expect from you in the future? Shows?

No immediate plans to tour this music, but I’ve got another full-length already finished and ready to release. Then I’d love to follow that up with something fairly quickly. Consistency-of-output is so important, I feel.

Being exclusively a recording artist isn’t really feasible in 2023, but making records is my life. I essentially live in recording studios and breathe music recording and production, but people need to be able to get out and see you, so that’s this other piece. I’ll address that once I figure out who is actually listening!

Damaged City Festival 2019 | Photos | LIVING LIFE FEARLESS

CULTURE (counter, pop, and otherwise) and the people who shape it.

Damaged City Festival 2019 | Photos | LIVING LIFE FEARLESS

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