Music Blog

Portland's Neal Morgan steps out from behind the drumkit-- figuratively if not literally-- on his new drum & voice album In the Yard. These days the drummer in the bands of both Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan, Morgan ups the experimental ante on his own sticking rigidly to a formula that, for all its implied limitations, achieves an unexpectedly wide sonic palette. Unsurprisingly for the drummer by trade, it's percussion (and HUGE percussion) that often takes center stage on the collection. What isn't as expected, however, are the vocal elements, which range from sung falsetto lines weaving in and out of one another; to straight ahead and detached singing (both a capella and backed by other elements); to spoken word.

We queried Morgan a bit on the new record and release show, and he was good enough to respond:

opbmusic: Most of the songs seem tied to specific instancs of time and place, as the titles might indicate. Can you describe how that premise informed the collection?

NM: I tend to write about moments from my life and the larger curiosities/concerns related to or anchored to those moments - there is a zooming in and zooming out that tends to occur.

opbmusic: You’ve stuck to a drum & voice formula for your first two releases now. What’s the reasoning behind this and how has that limitation helped or hindered your songwriting and recording?

NM: I began drumming when I was 9 (1988) and played in friends' bands growing up. In high school I began to want to make my own songs, but not knowing any better, I thought I had to learn guitar to do that. A drummer, in my mind at the time, couldn't do that. This set me off on a very circuitous path. I learned some chords on guitar and piano and made 4-track recordings throughout high school and college. Long story short is that I decided around 2005 that I wanted to get back to being a drummer first and foremost, after focusing on a number of pursuits simultaneously for years that kept taking me away from drumming; from doing what I most loved. At the same time, those 4-track compositions were just naturally purging themselves of guitar and piano slowly, until the compositions were mainly drumming and singing with a few chords here and there. The decision to try to make songs just drumming and singing - finally completely ridding myself of instruments like guitar that I had no business using, and working with only the two forms of expression I truly love and truly enjoy - was an incredibly freeing and inspiring experience. I love drumming and singing, I'm very limited - through those forms is how I want to express myself, it's the music that I hear in my head when I imagine my ideas. The limitation has been everything for me. I can just do what I love to do, that which comes most naturally and gives me the greatest sense of freedom and that which is the purest communication of my ideas/impulses and I don't need anything else.

opbmusic: Who and/or what do you consider to be the main influences behind your music?

NM: Main influences right now are Philip Guston, the American painter, and his post-1968 figurative work. I grew up listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin. I have many friends whose work ethic, risk-taking, and songwriting inspire me, including but certainly not limited to Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan, Robin Pecknold, Zach Hill, John Niekrasz.

opbmusic: What can we expect from the release show this weekend?

NM: Great sets from Marisa Anderson, PWRHAUS, White Hinterland, and a beautifully-done video from Sean Pecknold. I'll have a few guest drummers, something I've always wanted to try.

Neal Morgan plays a hometown release show for In the Yard this Sunday night at Holocene, along with White Hinterland, Marisa Anderson, Pwrhaus, and Sean Pecknold (who'll be screening his new video for Fleet Foxes' "The Shrine/An Argument"). In the meantime, In the Yard was officially released yesterday-- listen to the whole of it below. UPDATE: The window for streaming the full record has ended, but you can still hear "Fathers Day" from In the Yard below.

 

Audio Files

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