8 minute read
Charlie Nieland
[ Interview with Charlie Nieland by Diego Centurión. Photografs: Nancy Nieland and Jason Geering ]
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I first encountered the music of Charlie Nieland with his Lusterlit project and now it is time for his solo stage, although I wasn’t aware that he had actually started in 2013 with the album “Under Dark”. His new album, “Divisions”, released on March 5 brings us a group of 13 songs where we can see the finest and most accomplished work of his entire career. Elegant pop and flawless production. Thanks to Shameless Promotion PR we have the opportunity to ask Charlie some questions and this is the result.
Hi Charlie, thank you for agreeing to answer these questions. To begin, I would like to know how this lockdown affected you by Covid?
As the first wave arrived here in New York City a year ago, I was sheltering safely with people I loved. But we were all caught up in the surreal horror of so much suffering. Then came the rising tide of Black Lives Matter protests marching across the Brooklyn Bridge every night. All against the backdrop of the previous president mounting an attack on democracy and callously botching the response to the pandemic. The helplessness fired my urge to record this album. It was the only way I could respond.
Your first solo album is “Under Dark” in 2013. Tell us how was that first album under your own name?
I was in a band called Her Vanished Grace with my ex-wife Nancy Nieland for a couple decades. We made 16 albums of post-punk and dream pop between 1991 and 2012. I didn’t realize it at the time, but by 2013 the band was over. As a replacement for some gigs we’d canceled, I did several solo sets of improvised music using loop pedals and an array of instruments, including guitar, guitar synth, lap steel, trumpet and transistor radio. I edited the rehearsals for these shows into a collection and called it Under Dark. All the pieces were spontaneous and have an unpredictably weird and cinematic feel. I would like to get into doing that again. It takes a lot of practice.
A lot has happened from that first album to your recent album “Divisions”. Tell us how you think your way of working and composing grew?
In 2013, I started to participate in a performance series here in Brooklyn called the Bushwick Book Club. Each month, a book is selected and a rotating group of artists write songs in response and present them all at a show. At that time, I was slowly working on an ethereal acoustic EP called Ice Age and was looking for another approach to writing. I became more involved, eventually producing an EP of songs for the BBC founder, Susan Hwang, and an album of my own songs about books called Hopeful Monsters. I found it liberating to allow styles of music to arise that suited the songs rather than concentrating on writing from a genre. Since 2016. I co-produce Bushwick Book Club with Susan and we also have a band called Lusterlit. We’ve done events from London to New Orleans to Los Angeles. So I write new songs every month and have learned to trust my process. Something real always comes through even if it sounds bad
at first. I’ve loosened my grip and I feel more creative.
We are in a time of uncertainty and I think the best way to cope is to move on as you have with your new job. Tell us, what was it like to record in such a strange situation?
I was able to try new things. One of the drummers on the album, Brian Geltner, recorded his tracks at home and sent me the files. It was unusual for me not to be in the room with whomever I’m working with, but we developed a nice method of him sharing early takes and me giving a few notes before he finished recording. I was able to record Billy Loose, the former drummer from Her Vanished Grace who played on the other half of the album, at my studio after things started to open a bit in September. We both get COVID tests right before and wore our masks. I prepared tracks for both of the drummers, first, at my apartment, with guitars, vocals and programmed drums. The vocals were not meant to be final takes, but I used them anyway because they had a nice energy that I knew I would struggle to recapture at the studio, even if I could use a better mic there. So I allowed the limitations of the strange situation to shape the recording process and I think that gave it a kind of urgency. It’s a document of this weird time.
How long did you work on “Divisions” beginning from the moment you conceived of this album?
Songs from the past two years make up the material that became Divisions. Some were written in 2018, but most of them were written in 2019 and 2020. While I write in response to books, the songs always stand on their own. I often let the books suggest a backdrop or an idea that correlates with what I’m thinking and feeling at the time. As my reaction to the dehumanization going on in the world grew, these songs began to appear as a cohesive group to me. The production process was an interesting challenge. I’d initially performed all of them in a stripped down setting for Bushwick Book Club, but as I began fleshing out the arrangements I had to discover what was the best way to extract the most feeling and color from each idea. For instance, the title track, inspired by The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, was composed with a lap steel guitar as accompaniment. It became obvious after I tracked it, that the dense sound of the steel guitar was too much for the whole song. “Twisting on the brink of what’s to happen.” That feeling of anticipation led me to drop the steel from the entire first half and build it up slowly with electric piano, quietly pulsing synths, atmospheric electric guitar and lots of space over Brian’s tribal drum beat. When all the feedback guitars and keyboards arrive by the end, it’s shattering. The way I rebuilt the song Divisions became a template for the method of producing the rest of the tracks.
Tell me if there is a concept behind “Divisions”?
While the songs come at it from different angles, I feel that this album is about exploring the duality of our nature even as we are actually just a wave of energy. As we dive so deep in our silos that we feel justified in demonizing anyone we think of as opposing us, we are still made of the same stuff. The dust from stars. From the first track’s seeds in Brooklyn concrete to the last track’s murder to the sounds of trumpets, we have to embrace it all even as we fight for humanity.
They often compare you vocally to Michael Stipe from REM. Do you like comparisons or do they bother you?
Oh, I find them wonderful. Everyone hears something different. I love to encourage that by refusing to stay within the guardrails of genre. I love finding new combinations of styles. I definitely wasn’t thinking of Michael Stipe when I sang Tightrope. I won’t even say who I thought I was channeling, but after reading that reaction, I can hear what they mean. It really travels somewhere else by the end of the song though.
I know you are very active with videos. Do you have any way to present the new album in mind?
We are still in this live show-free zone for at least a while longer. So I will be doing some livestreamed shows each week while experimenting with the presentation. Maybe mingling electronic and acoustic sounds, and messing with the visuals sometimes. I do plan to make a few more music videos as well. I can hopefully bring some attention to more of the songs that way.
What has it been like to promote this new album and the advance singles?
I’ve known Shauna McLarnon since we crossed paths promoting our bands ten years ago. She was always the best and has really honed her skills over the years as she formed Shameless Promotion PR. So it’s been a pleasure working with her on this. I would have just flung it over the wall and tried to somehow get people to listen. She helped me see that being patient and slowly revealing the material was going
to get a much better result. And the most gratifying thing is the wonderful connections I’m making along the way, getting to know so many amazing people who take the time to curate all these diverse and cohesive radio shows and music sites. Look – I get to talk to you today too Diego!
Thinking back to 2021, what do you have planned for your solo career or what will be your next step?
I’ll keep writing, playing and recording and find some new way to meet the moment.
Thank you for the time you have dedicated to answering these questions and to close this interview, please tell our readers why they should listen to your new album “Divisions”? and tell them where can they find your music?
I think these songs have a bit of the sound of the wheels turning. The sound of the earth and the sky. The sound of a story being told and broken down only to be told again with a new vocabulary. I was just the medium. Everyone can buy the album on Bandcamp or stream it at Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon or the many other places.
Thank you Charlie!!!
Thank you Diego!
