Interview: Carter Tanton

October, 06, 2011 , by Whitney Ayres Kenerly

I’m still not entirely sure how Carter Tanton managed to fuse classic singer-songwriter melodies and guitars with modern electronic production styles, but his first solo album, Freeclouds, has some of the most intriguing songs I’ve heard in a long time. Tanton has a big, fizzy voice that breezes along over a mix of familiar guitar strums and unexpected pockets of fuzzy psychedelic feedback, and is occasionally punctuated by the taps of a drum machine or synthesizer progression. It’s like if Nick Drake and Matthew Dear allied on an album by working in different rooms – but yet it works.

There are a lot of interior monologues about yearning, but they are so serene that the pensive atmosphere seeps out like smoke and makes the songs spacious, occasionally epic, and hazy around the edges.

I spoke with Tanton about his upcoming tour with The War On Drugs, how he started out by playing in the New York City subways, and some of the artists who inspire him.

New Raleigh: I’ve really been enjoying your album, Freeclouds.

Carter Tanton: Oh cool! Thank you! Thanks a lot.

NR: I read that you started out performing by coming down to New York City from Boston and playing late night in the subways. What prompted you to do that?

CT: I played at the 6th Avenue L-line subway stop. And I would only really play late at night because I wanted to make some money doing it, but what really motivated me was that I was living in a small apartment, and somehow I felt more privacy singing in the subways than in my own apartment. I guess because it was in front of total strangers instead of a roommate or somebody, you know. So my motivation was split between wanting to make a little bit of money, but more so to keep my voice strong, and to have my own version of privacy.

NR: Do you have any crazy stories of things that happened to you while playing in the subway?

CT: No, no. I mean, the memorable moments for me were kind of smaller, more peaceful moments, nothing crazy.

NR: I think you could probably walk down the streets in a chicken costume in New York and people would still not bother you.

CT: It’s nice how people kind of leave you alone. That’s what I mean about the privacy bit. People are so busy and so consumed with their own thought processes and there are so many people that I’m just like one in the sea. So that’s where the privacy comes in I guess.

NR: Free Clouds reminds me of some of the 1970s-style singer/songwriters, like Nick Drake. Were those types of singers an influence when you were making the album?

CT: While writing it? I mean, I love John Cale, Richard Thompson, and Nick Drake. Those are some of my favorite songwriters right there. I did feel like the last track [on Free Clouds], “Pitch Bent Flute”, was probably the most John Cale like song I’ve ever written.

But I don’t think during the course of making this records I was listening to those guys. I was really listening to bands like The Durutti Column and listening to J Dilla, which, I don’t know that comes across at all.

But I do love that stuff, but I’ve loved that stuff for 10 years now and I think I tried to not listen to it because it’s already in my DNA.

NR: I know that you’ve worked with George Lewis of Twin Shadow, and he has such a dark, sexy, electro production style, and you hear a bit of that on Free Clouds. How were you able to mold such a classic singer/songwriter approach with that sort of contemporary sound?

CT: Yeah. Yeah, that is a struggle because I love production. I don’t think it was anything too intentional. It was just a merging of all of my interests. For the year prior to starting to record the record, I was just completely immersed in drum programming, working with MIDI, working with making entire songs out of samples and synthesizers, and figuring out how synthesizers are routed and I just got really really into that world, and listening to a lot of dance music.

But when I sit down to write a song, it’s almost like nothing changes. I still sit down with an acoustic or at a piano and the songwriting never changes. My demos that I record onto my phone’s little speaker sound that same that they sounded from my old band, Tulsa, but I just want to put them into different clothes. I guess I was just very very sick of a rock band sound so I was just interested in different things.

NR: You mentioned loving production. What are some contemporary albums with production that really strikes you?

CT: Egyptrixx. Do you know them? He’s like a dance dude. This big thing for me was this compilation put out by this London label called Night Slugs. It’s like the Night Slug’s all-stars compilation album [Allstars Vol. 1]. So Jacque Greene, Egyptrixx – I was just really into that. I really loved Martin Hannett’s drum-beats on that first The Durutti Column album – taking really simple beats and feeding them through sloppy delays and just creating a really fluttery sound.

And I was really inspired by George [Lewis]’s record, Forget, so that was huge. And that might have been the most impactful because George is a friend of mine and I really saw him find his voice and so that was inspiring to me on a creative and personal level, and seeing somebody achieve that.

NR: Twin Shadow played at Hopscotch this year and I thought that George was extremely charismatic.

CT: Yeah, I’ve actually played at Hopscotch both years now, and it’s an awesome festival.

NR: You played with Lower Dens, right?

CT: Yeah, and then the previous year with Marissa [Nadler]. It’s a really nice thing.

NR: I know that Marissa Nadler makes a cameo on Free Clouds, how did that collaboration come about?

CT: Well, I was touring with her for a few years and I kind of did a lot of the arrangements and stuff on her last record, and we just talked a lot and were living in the same town so just stopped by her apartment one day and brought a microphone. It was like; smoke a few cigarettes, drink some wine, record a vocal.

NR: After playing in bands, what has it been like for you to record and perform solo now?

CT: I don’t know yet. The record hasn’t come out and I haven’t gone on my first tour yet so that’s a lot of unknowns at this point. We’ll see. It’s been a year and a half since I’ve played a show as my own band so I feel pretty rusty, and I’m not sure.

NR: You’re touring with War On Drugs, you are you anticipating touring and possible collaborating with them?

CT: I’ve actually collaborated with Adam [Granduciel] before, but it was 10 years ago. Well, more like seven or eight years ago, with a very old band of his. I don’t know if they ever even put anything out, but we’ve made music in the past. I would love to do that. I know that we used to have the same tape machine, Tascam MS-16. I relate to a lot of Adam’s recordings so that could be cool. I love their first record, Wagonwheel Blues. It’s such a fucking classic! I love that record.

NR: Well we’re really looking forward to having you in Raleigh.

CT: Yeah. It’ll be my first show for this record! So, it will be fun.

Carter Tanton opens for The War on Dugs on Tuesday October 11th at Kings Barcade. Click the album image below for a chance to win a copy of his new album Freeclouds.