What do you consider to be the darkest piece of music you’ve ever heard?
Unquestionably Pornography by The Cure. It is the heaviest, darkest, album ever made. There's not a lot that even comes close for me. Heavy metal albums sound like kids music to me in comparison to that. Black Sabbath is fine but it's comical in comparison. I can only listen to it every few years. Siamese Twins and The Figurehead are violently bleak.
PJ Harvey's White Chalk album and Times of Grace by Neurosis are also on that level of rare listens for me as well but nothing is as dark as that Pornography record.
How would you characterize your own music?
I'm not sure how I'd characterize listening to it but making it usually feels like trying to build a sandcastle underwater. After I'm done I look down and it's blurry but I know something's there, at least for a while.
What are your musical aspirations?
This album is checking some boxes of my aspirations. I kept trying to make something that felt like it was fully me and not influenced by some expectation I had or outside motivation, and this one has done that. I've never heard something like Reasoning with the Guards or Almost Like Oblivion before. I guess I can see the sandcastle underwater quite a bit with this record and it's going to hold against the tide slightly longer. I've never got tired of touring either so that's an aspiration.
What are your main musical inspirations?
For better or worse the words and melody are usually my favorite part. To a fault I can overlook the other elements.
What are your main goals in life?
For most of my life it's been to make the album and go on the tour. Just the next one of both those things. I've been incredibly driven to do that. Now, while I'm still motivated by those goals I've found myself wanting to be more present for my friends, most of whom are other musicians, and help support them with their goals too.
What motivates you to create?
I always have some music in my head. Always. I've no idea what writer's block is like. Unfortunately they're not always good songs but they're always there. No motivation needed.
Are you more of an early bird or a night owl?
Everything good happens at night, nothing good happens in the morning.
Besides music, what other art forms would you like to explore?
I'm one dimensional, I could try to say something cool like sculpting marble, but it's just music. How could I want to explore anything else, there's so much to listen and re-listen to?
Which is the very first record that had a big impact on you?
At first it was songs I'd hear on the radio driving in the car with my Mom when I was a kid. I was thinking about this a few weeks ago and I started making a list. I guess they were just about oldies at that point but there were a few individual songs that really hit me very young. "Here You Come Again" by Dolly Parton really made me emotional, "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS felt majestic, somewhat inexplicably the song "Footloose" and definitely "Nobody's Gonna Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder both felt so free. Full conceptual albums came later but those songs were really waking me up. One of the biggest was Ana Ng by They Might Be Giants. That song is a masterpiece and around then I discovered full albums but I can't remember which full album hit when.
What is the best decade for music?
2020s.
What do your future plans include?
For my friends and I to make this our best decade of making music.
Loving the Void comes out on June 17th, 2022
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Wild Arrows
Artist photo by Lindsey Law
All questions answered by Mike Law
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