Mekons member to grace the Garibaldi with the Silos' Walter Salas-Humara
Jon Langford
Jon Langford is a talented painter and a talented musician, so when he decided to revisit his first solo album, 1998's "Skull Orchard," he thought it would be an opportunity to combine the two skills.
"It's more fun playing music than sitting on your own and painting," Langford said during a recent phone interview in advance of his show Friday night at Club Garibaldi with his longtime pal, Walter Salas-Humara of the Silos. "So I always try to nail the two things together. They come from the same part of my brain and address the concerns I have."
With "Skull Orchard Revisited," the main concern is South Wales, where Langford grew up. He added a book filled with paintings, photographs and reminiscences of his homeland, and also added a handful of songs.
In the book, he has the assistance of his brother and father. On the album, his revamping and expanding of the music features the Burlington Welsh Male Chorus, a large Canadian ensemble that carries on Welsh musical traditions.
"Having the choir on it suddenly gave me all this vocal power, and it was awe-inspiring," Langford said. "I realized that with 40 guys singing the songs, it reminded me of all the singing in Wales, from going to rugby and to church, and it was an element that really benefited the songs."
It also adds depth to an album that was essentially Langford's first attempt to take full control of a musical project. Until "Skull Orchard," his music came out through groups, including the pioneering art-damaged punk rockers of the Mekons and the barroom-country outfit Waco Brothers.
"I didn't really know what I was doing when I was solely in charge," Langford said. "It was a stripped-down rock album. The main crux of expanding it was to sculpt the stuff in a slightly different way."
Between that first try and the second one, Langford has added to his solo catalog with sharply observed and gently conceptual albums like 2006's "Gold Brick" and 2010's "Old Devils."
He's also continued to collaborate with other musicians on projects such as the three-volume compilation "The Executioner's Last Songs" and "Ancient & Modern," a new Mekons album due out in late September. The disc plants another signpost along the road of a band that has been recording and touring since 1979.
"It's been a factor constantly in my life since I was 19," he said of Mekons. "We wouldn't do it if we didn't think it was worth something - I don't mean financially. Sometimes it's really hard to get everything going, but when we're not doing it, we're thinking about when we're going to do it next."
His very next thing is his annual tour with Salas-Humara. "Every year we take a little trek around the country," Langford said. It's yet another entry on Langford's busy artistic schedule.
"I don't think it's restlessness," he said. "I just think I work a lot of different ways. Music is a very collaborative art form, and I'm a common link between a lot of these projects. I'm really privileged with a healthy situation. Just trying to get through modern life to have some time to work is my problem."
没有评论:
发表评论