Resonance | Interview: Hammock
Keith Kenniff chats with Marc Byrd from the long-standing shoegaze/ambient mainstay, Hammock
I’ve been a fan of Hammock’s music since their first album, Kenotic in 2005. We both started out around the same time, with our paths often seeming to orbit each other. I’ve always had a profound respect for their vision, and their music has been a big influence on my own development, especially as a guitarist. They’ve mastered a finely woven tesseract of shoegaze and ambient music that is uniquely theirs. Many bands have tried to emulate this sound, but it’s a testament to the subtlety and depth of their craft that no one has can capture the emotional complexity they’ve created. Their music stands firmly alongside the work of Robin Guthrie and Robert Fripp as historically important to the movement of ambient music, and it has further elevated what can be done with the guitar as a vehicle for expression.
Their new album, Nevertheless, is out now.
There’s something about your music that is endlessly appealing. You’ve managed to create these gigantic, bold walls of sound that float between various stages of experimentation, shoegaze, and ambient, connecting with a wide range of people both within and beyond those communities. Whatever it is, it feels specific to the way you play and craft your sound. Is there an intuitive nature to how these sounds come together, or is it something you carefully pore over and shape with intention?
(Marc Byrd) - Thank you for saying that. It usually begins as a sketch, hopefully without overthinking or trying to be clever. Overthinking usually comes later. The norm has been that if we struggle with a song or a piece of music for a prolonged time, it doesn’t end up staying around. If we struggle with a piece from beginning to end, we usually end up losing the foundational and original inspiration in the process. But… sometimes there's something worth staying with and fighting for. That’s a rare occurrence. Usually, I’m the one that finally says, “I don’t know… it’s an interesting piece but I think you can hear us thinking.” But then that can lead us to the other side of the creative spectrum, where we completely deconstruct, dismantle, reverse or change a piece by only using a small section of it in order to completely start over. So it’s a mixed bag.
Guitar is such a ubiquitous instrument, in our lifetimes it has been a vehicle for so many of the sounds we hear almost on a daily basis. What pulls you to guitar as such a centerpiece of your sound and way of expressing?
M- I’ve never lost my original love and wonder at playing guitar. Andrew and I are both from the South. He grew up on a farm in Tennessee and I was raised in El Dorado, a small town in south central Arkansas. Our collars were not white growing up. We mostly had classic rock and metal as an influence in our much younger years. As I got older I discovered the Smiths, the Church, the Cure, New Order, Psychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode. So many shoegaze bands… Slowdive, Curve, Cocteau Twins, the Verve’s first EP and first album, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, Ride, etc. Add to that the strange tunings of Michael Hedges, William Ackerman and bands like Low, Idaho, Red House Painters. Also as cliche as it is… David Gilmour and the Edge (early U2). What all of these players/bands have in common isn't speed or flashiness, it’s mood and space and effects/ambience. When I discovered pedal effects my whole world opened up. I had two nicknames growing up… “Dark Marc”, mainly because of my musical tastes and moodiness… and “Marc, Marc, Marc” because of how much delay I used. I’ve always been more interested in sculpting a soundscape or a mood rather than being a technician. For both of us, the guitar still remains an emotive outlet and the best means of expression. We will always have respect for the really great virtuoso type players who made us wanna pick up the guitar when we were just two young kids wanting to escape our surroundings.
Your new album, Nevertheless, features no rhythmic elements, which kind of ebb and flow in your previous releases. How did that decision come about? Is it challenging, or more liberating to not have that element at hand while writing?
M- This album just flowed out of us. It’s a pure expression of our essence. Kinda like when we used to play live. This approach began as far back as our Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow album when we had to create songs that just the two of us could pull off. Mainly through the use of guitar loops and effects. This came about because we were asked to play Jonsi and Alex’s art show after party (Riceboy Sleeps). It was our first show ever and we wanted to create some new music that no one had heard in honor of their work. We found that way of working to be really pure and free.
How do you feel about playing live vs working in the studio? Do you have a preference?
M- I think we both prefer the creativity of working in the studio. We expect a lot out of ourselves, so we rehearse a ton before we play shows. I have so much anxiety when it comes to playing live. However, when we do play live it's almost always rewarding. We get to see the immediate effect our music has on people. It reminds us that we’re artists, not just two guys stuck in the studio. Also, Andrew and I don’t want to exit this world without having played some more Hammock shows. We’re in some discussions right now with some very cool people about the possibility of making this happen in the future.
Your writing is unique in the world of what would be considered “ambient”, because I feel like when I listen to your music, these are really “songs”, rather than a more droney or building-block like approach present in a lot of ambient music. Do you approach writing in a more structured context, or is there a lot of room for experimentation and improvisation?
M- We live in Nashville. We’ve been here for years. Some of our closest friends are really amazing songwriters. People in this town live for the art of songcraft. So it’s just a part of who we are. However, I don’t like it when things sound overwritten. If the emotion of a piece needs only a repetitious build into a wall of sound or even a slow disintegration into silence… so be it. It’s all about emotional connection. We will always prefer that approach over trying to make a song more interesting just for the sake of song structure.
“…we’ve always tried to be kind to each other and respectful of each other’s ideas and differences. Over time that’s naturally evolved into a deeper trusting of our process and of one another.”
In writing instrumental music, there can be an inherent vagueness in messaging, when people don’t have lyrics to instruct them. Do you find that you have a specific vision/story you want to tell so that you present a tangible narrative, or is the presentation a sort of mirror so that they extract the meaning they want from it?
M- We pay a lot of attention to the titles of our songs/albums. As a matter of fact, the song titles on our new album, Nevertheless are meant to be read as a stanza. The titles flow into each other, almost like a poem… The poem is titled, Requiem for Johan, which is the first song on Nevertheless. It’s not about Johann Johannsson, although we love his music and are immensely sad he is no longer with us. Instead, the background of this album is a dedication to Andrew’s friend who lost two kids within three of four years of each other to addiction and suicide. Her son’s name was Johan. We did this stanza approach with the song titles on our album, Oblivion Hymns. So yes, we hope to always give a context of where we were at the time of making an album. We provide the context through the use of album and song titles, but at the end of the day we always want our listeners to have their own experience with the music.
You guys have been working together for over 20 years; how do you find that process of collaboration to have evolved over the years? Do you find each other coming from similar places, or is it an instance of playing off each other’s different perspectives and stylistic viewpoints?
M- I always say that it’s a good thing there is only one of me in the band or else we would’ve ended a long time ago. We are different… for sure. But, we’ve always tried to be kind to each other and respectful of each other’s ideas and differences. Over time that’s naturally evolved into a deeper trusting of our process and of one another. We've worked together for so long and have been through so much together… it just is what it is now. I’m way more intense and always thinking about the overall vision of an album. Andrew is truly kind and patient. It just works. What matters most is that we respect each other’s talents and honor that ineffable magic that keeps us working together so well, even after all these years
What is your writing process like? Do you both create with each other in the room, or do you send things back and forth remotely?
M- It’s Both/And… However, Andrew and I still work together three to four days a week and it's been that way almost from the beginning… since 2004. Wow, that’s crazy to think about.
I will resist the urge to nerd out about gear, but you both have a very specific sound that you have created. Many people have tried to recreate this sound, but it is very unique to you. It’s not just an amalgamation of reverb and delays, eqs and compression; there’s something in your playing style that is Hammock. What do you think about your relationship to crafting sound vs how you play the instrument?
M- It’s everything… and having a signature sound has always been a dream of ours. Whether it’s one of our more post rock/ shoegaze albums or one of our more orchestrated albums or one of our more ambient albums like Nevertheless… we just want to sound like ourselves… like Hammock. Despite stylistic variations, it’s always the two of us making the music. And knowing how each other plays is crucial to complementing each other’s parts and ideas. Our friend from Australia, Tim Powles, from the band, The Church, used to say that there are a lot of baby Hammocks out there now. Tim mixed Departure Songs and most of Chasing After Shadows… Living With the Ghosts. He also put together and mixed the collaboration with Steve Kilbey. All that to say, he’s been inside our sound. So when he says some folks are trying to sound like Hammock but that they're all missing something… I guess we’ll take him at his word.
What kinds of things are inspiring you these days to create?
M- Our aging parents, the death of my father, the unending human need for love, my religious upbringing and the ongoing challenges that can still come from it, getting older (both of us), the decline of our country, the impermanence of everything, the unending longing for beauty and permanence, Mark Rothko, our southern roots and upbringing, the strength of empathy, the fleeting moments of ecstatic connection, the strangeness of existence and the sense of vastness that flows from the emptiness of space.
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Hammock is a favorite band of mine. Their music inspires me when I write my books.
Wow, two (or three, to be specific) of some of my absolutely favourite artists in one place. :) A really nice, inspiring interview, Keith! Big up for having Marc and Andrew over at Resonance. :)