Marc Byrd clues us in new music that is coming as well as discussing the fluidity of the music that he makes.
I tried to get a hold of Marc Byrd several times before it actually happened. I had started to get a little bummed thinking that I might not get a chance to talk to him, and then I heard from his manager. I was stoked! I am a fan of Common Children, the band that Byrd fronted for roughly five years back in the later part of the 90’s & early part of 2000. Common Children’s last release, The InBetween Time, has always been my favorite. That record is where you can really hear the sounds of Hammock forming. I knew that Byrd had also recorded a record with his wife Christine Glass called GlassByrd, and I own both of her solo albums as well as I have always thought she had an incredibly unique and delicate voice. I was also aware that Byrd has been a member of alternative pioneers The Choir for some time now, but I was unaware of Hammock until recently.
I was talking to a friend on my favorite message board, and he mentioned Hammock in a thread that he started and that was my introduction to these guys. I wonder how some bands slip by my radar, especially bands this good that are also members of outfits that I listen to regularly. Anyway, I am happy to be in the Hammock fold now! I first picked up their Stranded Under Endless Sky e.p., followed by Chasing After Shadows…Living With The Ghosts and then I just bought a limited edition release called North, West, East, South (which is a limited release package that comes with the Chasing disc, a 4 song e.p. only found here, and an amazing hardbound book with pictures by Thomas Pertillo of various shots that he has taken over the years as he took four trips with the band). The pictures are beautiful and a work of art that is the visual equivalent of the sonically stunning brilliance of Hammock.
The interview with Marc was really cool, he was super gracious and it was interesting to learn how he does what he does. Definitely give these guys a listen and pop by their website to learn more, see more and hear more. Their releases are all available through the website, and if you get downloads from them directly, the music comes straight from their masters. Thanks for taking the time, and thanks for supporting great music!
Can you give me just a little background and tell me when Common Children broke up, and when did Hammock formed?
Common Children broke up after we did our 3rd album In Between Time. We brought Andrew in for that and it went more spacey and trippy than our previous records and the other guys in the band weren’t that happy with that. So it was around 2000 that we officially called it quits. Once again with that last record we had a horrible distribution experience and we lost the distribution right before the record came out. Really by that time we just didn’t have the emotional strength to go through yet another musical industry trial.
After that I started writing and producing for other people, Andrew and I continued working together and eventually I started coming over here to his basement studio and making music.
So Andrew played on the last Common Children album which means you guys have been playing together for about 10 years?
Yeah, and before that he joined Common Children and did a couple of live gigs with us when we were on tour. He was actually in a different band then, but we’ve probably known each other for about 13 or 14 years.
How do you describe the music of Hammock?
I think it’s probably a mixture of ambient, shoe gaze, post rock and then in some places it has neo-modern classical stuff thrown in as far as the strings go. I would say it’s a mixture of those things, I don’t think we’re traditional ambient drone band, nor do I think we’re a traditional post rock band like Explosions in the Sky. Whereas they do the ‘soft, loud, soft, loud’ type of thing, I think we’re more melodic but we don’t use a lot of distortion or anything like that. The use of the strings and horns is influenced by listening to minimalist classical music, so we’re kind of a mixture of all that different stuff.
I grew up listening to typical shoe gaze bands like My Bloody Valentine, but as a newcomer to Hammock, and to this unique style, can you explain how you approach the songwriting process? In addition, the music is so powerful and full of emotion, how do you go from the sounds that you hear in your head to getting them down on disc?
It’s a lot of writing, a lot of starting songs and a lot of throwing stuff out. For this last release we had over 50 tunes that we messed around with, we narrowed that down the 12. Then we took those and had 4 songs for outtakes, 4 songs that we released exclusively if you bought our book package and those songs were a strictly ambient release.
There’s beat-less ambient and rhythmic ambient and we do both, and I would say that if a song has staying power and it keeps us in an emotional place after repeated listens we will go with it. When we’re in the studio we create very much on the fly. A lot of time we’re inspired by sounds first and foremost, and then we start creating parts and song structures based on that. So it’s very much about getting the proper sound up first, being very inventive in the studio and then writing a song that’s based around a sound.
It’s actually hard to describe, but I will say that because we’ve been doing music so long and we’re not enamored by our own sound, so we do a lot of self editing and we do a lot of throwing out. We have what we call an out pile and for every release we have tons and tons of songs left over, or pieces of songs and ideas that we don’t use. It’s not that they were bad either, they just didn’t fit the record and where we were going or what we wanted to express.
Our records are all different ya know; Kenotic is electronic and then Raising Your Voice is more of a “Sigur Ros-ey” polished and icy sound. Then we did Maybe They’ll Sing For Us Tomorrow which was all beat-less ambience because we were asked by Jonsi of Sigur Ros to come down and do an after party at his Riceboy Sleeps art exhibit. We had to create music for that particular release that was something that the two of us would be able to pull off since it was going to be just a small gathering. So we came back and made a record out of it that was completely beat-less. Some people loved it and it created more fans, and some people didn’t like it as much as the ones with drums. With the newest record, Chasing After Shadows…Living With The Ghosts, we incorporated real (not just programmed) drums. It’s also more organic as we added a string quartet and a horn section.
I just think the way these albums come about is usually when we stumble upon a consistent sound and we feel like the songs are staying consistent with the vision, then the other songs just fall by the wayside.
How long did it take for you guys to put together Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow for the art exhibit?
It took awhile, ya know we were really nervous because Jonsi is huge as far as an influence for us and he’s also a serious, serious artist. We were extremely nervous and wanted to do it right and we needed to make a lot of music that could last through the after party setting of an art exhibit. Honestly it didn’t turn into a party either, nobody moved, nobody said a word… it was like being at church. It was just the two of us playing but we have a huge sound live, very big and very expansive. So, we probably wrote for 3 weeks to a month to come up with that material, then we started rehearsing it. We realized we had enough material that was consistent enough to be an actual release, so we asked to use the name Maybe They’ll Sing For Us Tomorrow because it was a piece in the Riceboy Sleeps exhibit. Jonsi said we could use the name and asked if we would like them to design the artwork which was a really cool thing.
What are your favorite songs from Chasing After Shadows and why?
Let’s see… I’m very fond of Tristia because I like the strings, the horns, and how “big” it gets in the end. I love You Lost the Starlight In Your Eyes because I’m able to sing on that and that has horns… I think the ones where we did more full blown strings and horns probably hit me the most. In the song The Whole Catastrophe, the string arrangement and the string sound is amazing. Also I think I probably really like Breathturn too. I mean I like them all but as far as my favorites I would pick those four. Those hit me really hard emotionally and they’re a little different from what we usually do on the previous recordings which was a challenge, but I think we pulled it off.
How often do you guys get out to play live?
Not often enough. This year we were planning on playing more but then my house got hit in the Nashville floods and I lost the whole first floor. I was really consumed with that for about three months and was trying to get that in order because I didn’t have flood insurance. So, we haven’t played out much at all and we would like to do more. We use Matt Slocum for cello and what we do live is we build loops with our loop pedals so it sounds very massive, and Matt’s able to create the illusion of a string section by making loops with his cello where he can create the bass note, the middle harmony and the high octave and it sounds really cool. Playing out more is something we’re really trying to take a look at next year.
What are you guys working on now and what’s in store for fans?
Well, Tim Powles (from the band The Church) who mixed most of our last record, came to Nashville and we made some music with him. We’ve also been working with an artist named Matthew Ryan here. We did a remix for an artist named BT, and we’re probably going to do a remix for an artist named Helios.
Right now we’re trying to finish an e.p. that we hope to release around Christmas, and that will be beat-less ambient, but it’s a lot different from Maybe They Will Sing… it’s a little more aggressive beat-less ambience. It’s going to be available as a very limited hard copy and as digital. You’ll get your monies worth too because our songs are so long it will be almost like a regular release. It will probably be around 6 songs… anyway, that’s the plan right now, but you know with making music it could change tomorrow.
Any chance that “GlassByrd” will be re-released?
No man, I don’t think so. That was another one of those horrible record company experiences. Right before the record came out everyone that we had been working with got fired while we were mixing the record. Christine did that record (GlassByrd) and her two solo records and she pretty much had a horrible record company experience with all of them, so if there’s anything that has to do with Christine she might do a solo album sometime on the future. She talks about it occasionally, but right now she works with special education kids at a middle school and she’s very happy doing that.
For right now though, artistically my focus is Hammock. I mean I still work behind the scenes in music and write for other people, but Hammock is a comfortable place for me. With Hammock I don’t have an agenda or any type of message that I have to get across, it’s just about the music. People judge it solely on the music too and not on whether it’s spiritual enough or whatever, you know what I mean? It’s just music and honestly it’s the most gratifying thing I’ve ever done. It’s opened up doors for me to meet people that I’ve respected in music for a long time. I still play guitar in The Choir, but as far as music outlets go, Hammock is it for me right now. Plus it takes up so much time… it’s been critically well received and we’re very happy about that, we’re also with Red Eye which is a huge distribution company. So it’s rolling along and opening up doors.
Did you play on all the tracks on Burning Like The Midnight Sun?
I played on all the tracks except for the song “Old Man Byrd” which was the song about me. (laughter) I didn’t really feel comfortable playing on that one, but I’m on all the other tracks on that record. Derri and I work really well guitar wise and he’s been a big influence on me for years. The chemistry between the two of us is very natural. Steve and I are like brothers, I’ve known him for years and he wrote the “Old Man Byrd” song for my birthday party and played it in front of everyone acoustically.
I know you touched on it earlier, but how are you recovering from the floods that hit Nashville?
Actually it was me, Steve Hindalong, Andrew from Hammock and Thomas Petillo our photographer, and we were in Atlanta seeing The Church on their 30th anniversary tour. We were picking up the drummer Tim to come back to Nashville and do some work, and that’s when the floods hit. Obviously I was out of town and Christine was alone so family came over and helped move everything from the first floor up to the second floor. Water completely came in through the first floor and garage. We had to tear out everything from the bookcases to the cabinets, the duct work, water heater and everything else, then we had to have it all professionally dried out to be free of mold. We just finished redoing the floors as well, so all in all it was a three month process getting it all back together.
Because all out furniture and everything was moved upstairs, Christine and I just lived in the bedroom basically for three months, so I guess we realized that not only do we love each other but we actually like each other as well and being that close together like that was not a bad thing. Plus where we are in Nashville and where we are in our neighborhood, everyone was really helpful and generous in helping each other out. Looking back on it now it’s one of those things where I kind of think, “Wow did that really happen?”
What artists are you currently listening to?
The new one by Max Richter which is called “infra”. Andrew and I have seen The National four times and I love the new National record which isn’t that new anymore. I really like the new Arcade Fire… let’s see, what else… I’m always listening to instrumental stuff and ambient stuff, but the ones I seem to go back to the most right now is Max Richter and The National.
Anything else you would like to add?
I do feel like because we don’t play out that much and stuff… but if people could just buy our records instead of illegally downloading them, I would appreciate it. If you look at Last FM and there are millions of listeners, and you have however many people there are on MySpace and Facebook, it just makes one think, “Wow, what if these people were buying our music!” It’s different now I know, and because we don’t play out live as much because it is such an undertaking, and Andrew also is a designer, so it makes it a little harder to get out there. If people would just support us through buying the music it would be awesome. We’re kind of old school too, we still think that buying albums matter and not just single tracks, we like to take people on a journey and I hope people have the patience to really immerse themselves in our music. I really do think there’s an emotional payoff if you can take the time to do it.
Hammock discography
- Kenotic (March 2005)
- Stranded Under Endless Sky ep (July 2005)
- The Sleepover Series, vol. 1 (February 2006)
- Raising Your Voice….Trying to Stop an Echo (November 2006)
- Maybe They Will Sing for us Tomorrow (May 2008)
- Chasing After Shadows… Living With the Ghosts (May 2010)
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