songs are teased, and at one point Crowd-
ed House bassist Nick Seymour joins via
SkypefromthewestcoastofIrelandto
playbasson“AsSureAsIAm”,from1991’s
Woodface.Onlywhilerecordingthefour
takesof“MoreThanOneOfYou”doesthe
mood turn slightly more serious.
At 11.30 the following morning, Finn is
sitting at a long wooden table in the stu-
dio’s dining/kitchen area, feeling a little
worse for wear. “I had a really late night
and ended up drinking a lot of whiskey,”
he winces. His head was soothed slight-
ly upon checking his e-mail – “More Than
One of You” was mixed straight after last
night’s session and sent to Bob Ludwig in
New York to master, and the fi nished ver-
sion was sitting in his inbox when he woke
up. “That was pretty exciting,” Finn smiles.
“That’s never happened before.”
Out of Silence will have a similarly quick
turnaround – at the time of print, the plan
is that it will be released a week after the
August 25th session. In the past Finn has
often started recording albums with songs
half fi nished, developing them in the stu-
dio with the aid of ProTools. To pull this live
streaming idea off , however, has required a
level of preparation foreign to the songwrit-
er. “Everything about this album is almost
the opposite of what I’ve been used to over
the past 25 years,” he says.
He had the idea to record this way in
2015, but probably didn’t envisage the
songs containing some of the most com-
plex vocal and string arrangements of his
career. Yet when “all these songs emerged
that suggested vocal arrangements” and he
began thinking about adding strings he fi g-
ured, “How exciting would it be to have ev-
erything happening at once?”
“I didn’t want it to feel like a studio ses-
sion,” he says. “I like the idea of it being the
most sophisticated sounding record, like it
had been laboured over for weeks, but all
done completely live. I just thought to up
the ante in every area possible, [and] to let
people in on the process and let them dis-
cover it during the time it’s being made.”
The process hasn’t been without its
stresses. Prior to last night’s recording the
musicians and singers had only three re-
hearsals, and he describes “two panicky
days where I was like, ‘I’ve got so much to
do’.” Come the completion of mixing on Au-
gust 28th, however, he’s on holiday. “There’s
absolutely no plan beyond releasing it,” he
smiles. “Which is maybe quite perverse.”
October, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 25
“I like the idea of it being
the most sophisticated
sounding record... but all
done completely live.”SOLO LP
“I was giving too much of a shit,” says Kim
Churchill, describing the decision to scrap
the follow-up to his breakthrough 2014 re-
cord, Silence/Win. That album had propelled
the songwriter to new heights, and the pres-
sure to produce something as compelling
was immense.
“I was recording this music, and it was
good,” he says of his initial attempt. “I
thought it was a really strong album... but
there was [this] pressure I was putting on
myself, which was evident in the music.”
Not long before the slated release,
Churchill scrapped the album and wentOld-time guitar virtuoso and master singer-
songwriter David Rawlings’ third solo release,
Poor David’s Almanack, expands upon the
trad-folk acoustica that has long dominated
his output, importing some meaty rock heft
with electric guitar-propelled tracks “Cum-
berland Gap” and “Guitar Man”.
“I’d honestly intended initially to have
more of the record have an electric feel to
it,” Rawlings says. “But the acoustic sound
was very welcoming and seemed to suit the
material better.”
Joining Rawlings, longtime creative part-
ner Gillian Welch and established Machine
cohorts Paul Kowert (bass), fi ddler Brittanyback to the drawing board, and a week later
emerged with what’s become his sixth LP,
the solid and worthy Weight_Falls.
“There’s a levity to it,” he explains of why
Weight_Falls fi nally worked. “And it was that
that allowed me to say things honestly, to
sing things honestly, and that makes it an
enjoyable listen.” As does its roots-pop nous,
admirably carrying on where Silence/Win
left off. SAMUEL J. FELLHaas and guitarist Willie Watson (ex-Old
Crow Medicine Show) on the album are Old
Crow’s Ketch Secor and Taylor Goldsmith
of Dawes – aided by legendary engineer
Ken Scott (Bowie). “It was a great thrill,”
Rawlings says of working with Scott. “We
found some new sounds working with Ken.
He’s just made some of the best sounding
records ever. He’s probably as excited now
as he was in those fi rst days, when he’d step
into the studio with the Beatles.”
Scott was the perfect fi t, given the
impressive array of vintage gear housed at
Welch and Rawlings’ celebrated Woodland
Studios in East Nashville, and the pair’s
devotion to analog recording techniques and
formats. “When you’re making art, you’re
always looking for that process that adds a
little bit of magic,” Rawlings says of his love
of acetate and vinyl lacquer. “There’s one
compressor that I have, a really nice piece of
gear, but it’s not exactly the same one they
had at Abbey Road – it’s a 670 instead of a- Ken would sometimes say, well, the 660
sounds a little better!” GARETH HIPWELL
The singer-songwriter scrapped an
entire album before arriving at new LPU.S. performer was in good company
while making his new solo albumREBOOTSecond Time Lucky
for Kim Churchill
David Rawlings’
Little Bit of Magic
Rawlings, with
collaborator
Gillian Welch