An interview with myself

Here’s a snippet of an interview I did with myself, talking about my upcoming album with Nick Power. The album will be out in September, but, for now, you can listen to the title track, ‘THROAT’, on all those platforms you get your music from.

How did THROAT come about? Had you always wanted to work together or was this a unification for a single purpose?

It came about by accident. For the past 20 or so years, we’ve always sent each other songs and ideas, and always loved what we were hearing. But with THROAT, something else instantly clicked. It opened a door to a room we were never in before. Without really talking about it, almost by pure instinct, we immediately started digging for more gold once we struck that first nugget. Something was awoken. A monster was born. Before we knew it, we had a full album.

And how did you come up with the name?

I think it was a typo autocorrect when we were texting each other. And then we just thought, ‘Yeah, that’s actually great’. We never really intended for anyone else apart from us to hear it, so we didn’t think too seriously about any of it. It was for our own amusement. A joke that only we would ever get – even though I don’t get it myself.

How would you describe your music?

Theres an episode of the ‘Incredible Hulk’ called ‘Prometheus’, where Banner remains in transformation between human and beast. THROAT is a bit like that. It’s neither here nor there. It’s either the most incredible thing you’ve heard in your entire lifetime, or completely unlistenable.

It depends on the listener, but either way it leaves an impact.

The people who get it seem to really love it. The people who don’t just seem confused.

I like either reaction just as much. It’s beyond convention, so I don’t expect everyone to get it. It’s also bringing certain people out of the woodwork that wouldn’t usually listen to my more standard stuff.

It speaks from and to the unknown. I can’t really explain it, so I’ll stop trying.

What’s the story behind this new musical aesthetic? Was it breaking with the old or something deeper?

It’s kind of the album I think we both always wish we had the nerve to make. Recording it for me was pure expression; like an emotional release.

I was writing a lot of other stuff at the same time, and I felt like I was treading water. It woulda been the easy safe option to keep putting everything into a nice little folk song package, but any time I picked up the guitar, it would just fall short and it wasn’t doing anything for me.

Its almost like we need a new language nowadays.

The world is different.

People are different.

I’m not the same person I was five years ago.

Nobody is.

Why pretend and go on like everything is normal?

It’s not.

It woulda been phoney to keep going in the same old direction when the entire landscape has changed so much.

There’s definitely a sense of shedding old skin, but I only realise that now looking back..

It was never once thought out or planned. We never set out to make something different. It’s just what fell out when the record button was pressed. It was a very natural thing.

How did the songwriting work between the two of you?

It was very easy and fun. For my part, I kind-of only played instruments I can’t really play.

I barely touched the guitar on this album. I’d record something and send it across to Nick, just as if to say.. “What the heck is this?”

He would write words over it and send back his voice, which was recorded into a broken dictaphone from the ‘80s.

The cassette went in-and-out of time and wonky in parts, which only made it all the more surreal and great. We never tried to correct any mistakes or get a perfect take. Technically the album shouldn’t work. But it somehow does. It was very 50/50, and we both vibed of what we were sending each other, which kept us going and moving.

You’ve kept the project on the down-low. Why?

We thought we were just making it for our own bemusement, and it would never see the light of day. But eventually we let our close friends hear it and to our surprise they loved it. Then we let our labels hear it and they actually wanted to spend money and put it out. I’m still waiting for the punchline and Jeremy Beadle to pop out.

What’s next?

We’re gonna take it to Japan and get a few soap commercials. We’re also working on a film soundtrack. After that, who knows.

The album, ‘THROAT’ by McKowski & Nick Power will be released on vinyl and CD and digitally on Deltasonic Records in September.

More news soon.