Fulton Lights Interview
Figuring out the actual ‘stage time' of the band you're going to see has become a game of Russian roulette. Too early? You waste money. Too late? You miss your band. But sometimes Russian roulette leads to happy accidents, like seeing the fantastically talented and aesthetically daring Fulton Lights, or Andrew Spencer Goldman. Pacing the stage like a caged animal, or a crazed intellectual (a caged intellectual?) with his laptop, he was putting out something like Panda Bear producing backing tracks for a Stones Throw rapper's delight. Huh? After hearing the terrific new Fulton Lights album, it was clear - I had to talk to this dude
Wilfred Brandt: So what brings you down to Australia?
Fulton Lights: Well, I've been traveling for about five and a half months. I went through Europe, then took some time off for myself and went through Egypt and Southeast Asia. Originally I was just gonna make a little pit stop in Australia before heading back to the U.S. But in Europe I met up with this band called Royalchord (from Melbourne), and we hit it off. Now I'm helping them produce their album. That made it an easy decision for me to stick around here an extra couple weeks.
WB: Awesome. It's interesting, seeing you play in Sydney, and listening to THE WAY WE RIDE a lot, and then going back and hearing your other stuff (former projects Maestro Echoplex, John Guilt), I didn't realise it's very different from even the Fulton Lights debut album.
FL: Yeah, it's very different. It's very very different.
WB: I liked the debut a lot, but it was much more subdued.
FL: Yeah, that was a different sound, a different thing. I was trying my hand at writing arrangements for strings for the first time. And the songs all revolve around city life in New York in some way or another.
Then on THE WAY WE RIDE, it was like, "OK, I've done the debut - these other batch of songs are different, and I just gotta roll with and see where they take me". And it definitely took me to a very different place. I'm proud of the debut record. But THE WAY WE RIDE really just kicked the doors down for me. I don't feel restricted by anything anymore. I'm not afraid of anything musically - which is a really great feeling.
WB: It seemed like it would take a lot of courage to do something that's such a departure from anything you'd done before.
FL: (laughs) I don't know if courage is the word. Maybe nerve (laughs). Because by all practical measures, it's not the brightest thing to do. It's not like THE WAY WE RIDE plants me firmly in any musical scene. It kinda puts me a little out on a limb.
WB: What's your recording set-up like? Is most of your music recorded at home or is it recorded in the studio?
FL: I guess just as much as the music is a this-and-that hodge-podge of things, so is the recording process. I do some recording at home. There's plenty of things I wouldn't dare try to [engineer myself]. So for those things I have gone to studios or leaned on friends who are more talented technically. I just kinda piece things together. It means that it takes longer than if I were to go to a studio for three weeks. But on the other hand, I like working with a little bit more leeway. It allows for a little more experimentation.
WB: One thing that really impressed me about THE WAY WE RIDE was that, even though there's a real variety in the sounds and emotions, it's got this overall theme. And it's very much like this High Plains Drifter, Ennio Morricone meets low-fi hip-hop thing. Was that theme something you had in mind going into it, or was that something which developed as you were writing and recording?
FL: Lyrical or musical themes sometimes don't reveal themselves to me until I'm a good chunk of the way through the process. And then, if I recognize that a theme exists on its own, and that it's something that's just been trying to poke its way out, I will try and make some conscious decisions to make sure that they come through in a way that reveals itself to the listener. But it has to always be honest, y'know. Like I didn't set out to write like a concept album. And neither was the first record.
WB: I was wondering if you use different characters as devices when you're writing songs.
FL: Y'know it's funny, this was the first record where it felt OK to me to try that. And again, going on with what I was just saying, I recognize that there are a couple songs in there that are sort of narratives, and they're not necessarily coming from the same perspective. But they're related thematically. That was sort of a happy accident.
WB: I know you said the debut took three years to write, and that when you did this one you set out intentionally to make it much faster, and finish it quicker. What did you learn from that experience?
FL: I think that for me, my own psychology, it was very good to make a record and embrace flaws. And say, ‘I may make mistakes and things may not sound perfect, but that's OK'. I can be a complete perfectionist and spend three years, four years, whatever. But at the end of the day, there's more music to be made. The bad side is wrapped up in the same answer. I think if you're working too fast there is the risk that things just won't be as good as if you take extra time. And I think it's a project-by-project thing, I wouldn't necessarily set out on my next recordings to go [even] faster. I'm dying to get home to the States to start recording stuff, but I'm not gonna know until I get started what's a good pace.
WB: So you're ready to start on another album already?
FL: Oh, I've got so much stuff stored up. It's ridiculous. This trip has been fantastic for my writing.
WB: Great.
FL: Yeah, it's been interesting. In Europe I didn't write anything. I think it's just because I was busy livin' in Europe. When I got to Asia and I was by myself, it just started pouring out of me. Lyrics were coming at a really fast rate. And for me, sometimes that can be like pulling teeth. So that was really exciting. I have enough for at least another whole full length, if not more, and probably an EP on top of that. Now I just need to find a sugar momma who can help me afford to record all this stuff (both laugh).
WB: I've only got one last question. What have you been really into lately, like, books, or music or art?
FL: I just saw THE WRESTLER, and that destroyed me. I thought it was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. And I'm reading Moby Dick, and that's really a whopper (laughs).
WB: Somehow MOBY DICK seems like a good book to be reading while you're traveling the world.
FL: (laughs) Yeah, it is. It's appropriately epic-sized.
Keywords: Fulton Lights, Interview
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