Austin Sound

To get the “inside scoop,” as we professional reporters say, on the new Sunset album The Glowing City (which is due July 15th on Autobus Records) I emailed Bill Baird asking him if he wouldn’t mind talking about it with me. He agreed, and suggested we do the interview on Google Chat. Unsure of which emoticons most accurately reflected the professional aura of seriousness I maintain when conducting all my interviews, I was at first hesitant, but reluctantly assented. So late one night, after we had each returned home from work (and made a stop by the refrigerator), Bill Baird and I met in “cyberspace” to talk about the two latest Sunset albums, Baird’s lyrical influences, thunderstorms and more. What resulted was, naturally, something of a disaster.

blondebill: dude

Austin Sound: hey

blondebill: shoot away

Austin Sound: wasn’t sure if I was working this thing right

Austin Sound: haha

blondebill: yeah

blondebill: just got home from work

blondebill: drinking a beer

Austin Sound: perfect

Austin Sound: let’s do this:

Austin Sound: So before we launch into The Glowing City, I wanted to talk about Bright Blue Dream a bit, if that’s okay with you

blondebill: sure

Austin Sound: Specifically, when I first got the thing, the cover blew me away. Something about the whole “TV Eyes” concept hit me hard. Can you explain the cover a little bit?

blondebill: Well

blondebill: the references are numerous

blondebill: there’s lyrical references

blondebill: the song “zombies”

blondebill: “your life is a sitcom starring you

blondebill: with candlelit television eyes”

Austin Sound: right

blondebill: nam june paik

blondebill: as well

blondebill: perfect flames

blondebill: i don’t know

Austin Sound: Ha, I suppose I picked up on the references, and am wondering more about the concept of it throughout the music?

blondebill: it’s all kind of tied together

Austin Sound: Ha, naturally

blondebill: concept of the cover?

Austin Sound: Or at least the TVs

blondebill: well

blondebill: i’m fascinated by televisions

blondebill: people spend most of their day staring at screens

blondebill: i guess televisions are a bit outdated now

Austin Sound: Actually, my girlfriend and I were talking about this on the phone today, we hate when people leave the television on as just a background noise to their life. And it just represents comfort to people, the comfort of fake reality. Do you see it being something like that, with you saying people spend most of their day staring at screens, a background noise?

blondebill: definitely

blondebill: people find all sorts of distractions

Austin Sound: Music included, ha

Austin Sound: Now

blondebill: yes

blondebill: my primary one

Austin Sound: “TV That Were His Eyes” is the shortest song on Bright Blue Dream, and if I remember right you included it to make “Moebius” a perfect looping song?

blondebill: yes

Austin Sound: That to me was a little confusing, in that it seemed to separate “Moebius” from the rest of the album, was that intentional?

blondebill: how did it separate “moebius?”

Austin Sound: Well, normally I suppose I see an album as a continuous flow, but if you can loop one of the songs indefinitely, it’s almost like a disruption to the traditional flow of an album.

blondebill: o.k.

Austin Sound: I guess I’m asking you to prove me wrong.

Austin Sound: Ha

blondebill: well

blondebill: i saw it as part of the flow

blondebill: felt natural to me

blondebill: when mastering the song, i decided to make the song a perfect loop.

blondebill: it was not that way originally

Austin Sound: What made doing that seem natural though?

blondebill: i thought it would be a cool thing a clever listener could discover

blondebill: well

Austin Sound: Of which I must admit I wasn’t at first…

blondebill: what makes anything natural feeling?

blondebill: it’s a feeling

blondebill: it felt natural

blondebill: felt like an extension

blondebill: felt like leaving a secret surprise for somebody to discover

blondebill: although the clues were perfectly plain

blondebill: and i wrote about it online

Austin Sound: Right, I read that actually.

Austin Sound: I think I know what you mean when you say it felt “natural,” and that brings up another topic, this concept of a song cycle.

Austin Sound: To me, a song cycle, at least classically, is a group of songs that are really more of a collective whole than individual songs. That term has been used a lot to describe your albums, do you think it’s accurate, and how would you define it?

blondebill: well

blondebill: i don’t examine myself closely enough to judge something like that

blondebill: i mean

blondebill: i intended the songs to go together

blondebill: but

blondebill: they were all coming from the same set of images in my head

blondebill: 2 very specific images

blondebill: that directed the songs

blondebill: it wasn’t like

Austin Sound: being…?

blondebill: “let’s do a song cycle”

Austin Sound: Ha, of course.

blondebill: images were driving the lyrics

blondebill: like a compass

Austin Sound: Which two images in particular?

blondebill: well

Austin Sound: (not to give away too much, of course)

blondebill: i hate giving it all away…

Austin Sound: Ha, right.

blondebill: it was very specific

Austin Sound: We can skip that one, I hate that too.

blondebill: i mean

blondebill: there are two parts

blondebill: expansion and contraction

blondebill: so

blondebill: think of life as moving between those two places

blondebill: think of an individual living that life

blondebill: that’s as specific as i can get

blondebill: or as i want to get

Austin Sound: I think that works just fine

Austin Sound: So as I understand it, The Glowing City is a collection of older songs along with some new ones?

blondebill: well

blondebill: i think there’s one older song

blondebill: and one way older song

blondebill: the rest are new

blondebill: new = post 2006

Austin Sound: Were they all recorded together?

Austin Sound: Or rather

Austin Sound: What I’m asking is, should we consider them as one “project” or more as a “collection?”

blondebill: both

blondebill: what’s the difference?

Austin Sound: I guess the distinction between a proper album and, say, a B-sides collection, or something like that

blondebill: it’s an album

Austin Sound: one of those “unreleased tracks” compilations

Austin Sound: okay

blondebill: conceived and consummated as a whole

blondebill: the song origins span over 3 years

blondebill: but a song can originate and then hang around for awhile

blondebill: like, a melody

blondebill: the lyrics came later

blondebill: as a whole

blondebill: in the method i discussed earlier

Austin Sound: right

Austin Sound: I suppose it’s just surprising/exciting to have a release so quickly after Bright Blue Dream,

blondebill: they were being done simultaneously

Austin Sound: Oh I see. Did you consider them separate the whole time?

blondebill: yes.

Austin Sound: But there are, as we discussed earlier some references between the two.

blondebill: yes.

Austin Sound: But anyway, a couple of things about the album itself

Austin Sound: I really like all the field recordings you have on there, and I think they’re incorporated extremely well with the rest of the music

blondebill: yes, the lightning

Austin Sound: Especially Loud Green Lighting

blondebill: right

blondebill: the unerwater

blondebill: undrwate

blondebill: r

Austin Sound: I think that’s probably the best “lighting” recording I’ve ever heard, it gets all the things I really like about the rain, when did you record that?

Austin Sound: Or where, I suppose?

blondebill: at night

blondebill: at big orange

blondebill: out the front door.

blondebill: vivid storm

Austin Sound: On a side non interview-y note, I really love that part, I was listening to th ealbum driving to Austin a week or so ago

Austin Sound: I really like the sound of rain, but it just sounds so cheesy sometimes in songs, or something

blondebill: well, it happened spontaneously

Austin Sound: Kind of like “Thunder Road” or something…

blondebill: those songs were all connected on tape

Austin Sound: That and Perfect Flames Expire?

Austin Sound: It sorta segues into that, if I remember.

Austin Sound: Or overlaps

blondebill: yes, and “glowing city”

Austin Sound: About those sounds though, how did you go about incorporating them into the music?

Austin Sound: Was it part of a plan at any time? I know you mentioned it being spontaneous, was that the recording of it or how you brought it to the music as well?

blondebill: which sounds?

blondebill: the storm?

Austin Sound: Yes, there are some city sounds in The Glowing City as well right?

blondebill: yes

blondebill: i wanted city sounds for that.

blondebill: the storm happened spontaneously

blondebill: i would not have planned that.

Austin Sound: I think that’s the best part!

blondebill: thanks.

Austin Sound: Anyway, couple last questions

blondebill: as many as you need

Austin Sound: Don’t want to run you out of beers…

Austin Sound: Anyway

blondebill: 3rd beer

blondebill: there’s plenty more

Austin Sound: Ha, you might need them…

Austin Sound: Okay

Austin Sound: The Glowing City feels like it has more of a pop side to it, at least in that it’s a little more accessible to the passing listener than Bright Blue Dream, was that intentional?

blondebill: i separated the songs according to feeling

Austin Sound: What do you mean by that?

Austin Sound: Like, the feeling it gave you listening to them? Or writing them?

blondebill: well, i guess it was intentional

blondebill: the feeling of the song.

blondebill: the feeling running through it.

blondebill: which can’t be separated from the writing, anyways

Austin Sound: Right

Austin Sound: Well, I think that’s all I’ve got

Austin Sound: So thanks again

blondebill: o.k.