Sound artist Tim Hecker has held our ears ever since we heard him with Daniel Lopatin at Roulette. His lastest incarnation, though, hears him in the same vein as guitar legend Loren M. Connors and, yes, Arcade Fire and The National.
Case in point: Mr. Hecker plays a big part in Richard Reed Parry and Bryce Dessner's Black Mountain Songs, a massive choral piece at the Brooklyn Academy of Music that celebrates the collaborative spirit of that Appalachian institution.
Classicalite caught up with Hecker to chat about working with legends Conners, Dessner and Parry and to catch a glimpse of what he's up to next.
Classicalite: Let's get started talking about your involvement with the Tinnitus Music Series, which focuses on composers or works of extreme sound.
Tim Hecker: It's kind of fun to be part of a concert series that is unabashedly titled like that. I wouldn’t necessarily think of myself that way, however. I think it’s kind of relative, in terms of the aspects of noise or intensity I used compared to other people. But I think that maybe in comparison to Britney Spears, it’s legitimate.
Clite: Ha, that’s a good one. And you're on the same bill will Loren Mazzacane Connors.
TH: For sure, definitely awesome. It’s a really cool lineup. Sometimes, bills are a little more formulaic. This is something a bit more special and not as linear, I guess, put together.
Clite: Your last album, Virgins from 2013, garnered you an 8.3 from Pitchfork, enough for the coveted Best New Music laurel. What would you say was different about Virgins, as compared to, say, something like Ravedeath, 1972.
TH: It’s hard to say how I got an 8.3 on Pitchfork. I can’t really think about that kind of stuff because it’s something you can’t factor into making music and composing--how it’s going to turn out, what critics will think about it. You have to just do it for yourself and for a purely self-exploratory kind of thing. It’s great that people like that. I feel blessed and lucky, but it doesn’t guide the thought. And it’s not involved in when I make work.
Clite: That’s how it should be--do it for yourself.
TH: Definitely.
Clite: Nico Muhly and Nadia Sirota, they’re Classicalite favs, and I’m really interested about shared relationships via the Bedroom Community. How did that start?
TH: Well, I haven’t worked with Nico or Nadia directly. They’re both involved with Bedroom Community, but I’m in a kind of small group of people that work in the same studio. So I use the same resources, and we have some friends in common. Basically, there’s Valgeir Sigurðsson and Ben Frost, who both work at Greenhouse Studios, and I’ve been working with them off and on for three albums in different ways. I’m going back in a few months to work again; it’s a place I enjoy going to and working.
Clite: How does that differ from your work with Majical Cloudz and Hundred Waters?
TH: I mean, those are remixes, it’s different than album collaboration.
Clite: Than actually composing together or side-by-side?
TH: Yeah, totally.
Clite: You’re working on the Black Mountains Songs project with Bryce Dessner and Richard Reed Perry at BAM. Have you ever been to the Black Mountain College?
TH: I’ve been to Black Mountain. I understand that the college is kind of dissolved now. There’s no physical place left, but I’ve been to the area around Asheville and where Black Mountain historically was. And the town called Black Mountain.
Clite: Was that experience why you wanted to jump into this project?
TH: Yeah, it just seemed like a fun thing to do. I like the premise behind it.
Clite: Is there any one artist or musician you can say that you’ve really drawn inspiration from that came out of the Black Mountain scene?
TH: There’s tons of people: aligned people, experimental musicians, composers. It was kind of a fantastic cluster of art and people working in this really out of the way place, quite some time ago. And it’s definitely a cultural cluster, but there’s no kind of point in particular time.
Clite: What was that collaborative process like, the one at BAM? Were you in the same room at the same time working with Bryce and Richard, Jherek [Bischoff] and Caroline [Shaw], etc.?
TH: I’ve been working with Bryce just remotely. I’ve been sending him pieces, and I haven’t actually been physically present on the piece yet. Bryce kind of wrote a piece together with me, and he’s at BAM right now putting it together--writing the final arrangement. For me, it’s a small motif, probably a four-minute piece or something.
Clite: It’s interesting that you called it a motif, that's a good descriptor.
TH: In which way? As opposed to what?
Clite: I just think it sounds nice in the sense that there’s eight of you guys working together on different pieces of this one big project.
TH: Yeah, motif just kind of isn’t like composition. It has this weight to it that’s not as [pauses], it’s constricts things too much. It’s better to think about things in terms of smaller, little sketches. Without saying it’s draft work or experimental or tentative.
Clite: How about any new upcoming works you’ve got going on? I know you’re going on a pretty extensive tour.
TH: Yeah, I’m going out on a two-week tour, mostly in Europe, after I play New York. After that, it’s pretty much traveling, while I work on material and do other things. Touring is hard because it’s difficult to maintain a working rhythm--seeing ideas through, which takes time, repetition and daily practice. It's not as easy when you’re taking trains and planes everyday.
Clite: Yeah, I'd imagine.
TH: And just sleep-deprived. You’re kind of in a foggy state half the time.
Clite: Do you think that takes away from the chance to fully engage in the area you are touring in? Or are you even taking an inspiration from these places?
TH: Yeah, for sure.
Clite: Keep it up, I think your work is phenomenal.
TH: Thank you. No diss to Britney, I could’ve used something else, but I was trying to make a point that I’m not as extreme as others.
Clite: Well, you don’t have to be too extreme. Your work mostly speaks for itself.
TH: Thanks, have an awesome day!
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