For those not familiar, Hamilton’s brand of power pop rates high on the melodic scale, often with a good healthy dose of Americana stirred in. As worthwhile as that mix is all by itself, Hamilton’s songwriting is what really makes the music pop. Hamilton’s observational insights, a heaping dose of poetic language and a dash of self-deprecation has garnered much praise for his craft.
Recording on Little Steven Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool label, Hamilton has also been a frequent flier on Little Steven’s Underground Garage, contributing several songs designated as its weekly “Coolest Song in the World.”
For the Garagerocktopia interview, Hamilton remains cool as he answers our queries despite gunfire raging in the background.
Well, OK, not real gunfire, but Hamilton talked to us by telephone from a patio near the Ft. Worth Stockyards, which frequently presents historic re-enactments of wild west gunfights, one of which was blazing away during our interview.
But the real target of the discussion was Hamilton’s latest album, 1221. Before rushing to buy a new collection of Ryan Hamilton tunes, know that 1221 is, quite literally, a work in progress – and will be until December. Hamilton will release one song per month for the duration of 2021. At the posting of this story, the single for May, “Babies” had just been released. The full collection will be released at the end of the year.
The album title refers to, of course, 12 songs for the current year, but Hamilton picked this way to do it largely because of that dumpster fire of a year known as 2020. With the covid-19 pandemic, music, both live gigs and recording sessions, like so much of everything else, has been shut down, and nearly all touring stopped. Even gathering just enough personnel to make a song is often not doable. Hamilton figured out another way to make music, one that benefits both his fans and himself.
“If I can’t tour, what else am I going to do?,” Hamilton recalled asking himself. “This album is a way to feel creative, and not feel trapped and isolated. It was borne out, really, of feeling stuck from covid and wanting to scratch that itch that nobody’s really getting to right now as far as touring goes.”
The closest thing to scratching was to make a record-as-you-go album, an idea which Ryan says was enthusiastically embraced by the label.
“When I talked to the label, I said ‘I think I want to record and release a song a month. Should I do this by myself? Would you guys be OK with it?’” recalled Hamilton. “Wicked Cool said ‘not only are we OK with it, we think that’s genius. Why don’t we do 12 songs, make it an album and release a song a month digitally, then put it on one album when everything’s done?”
While more or less being forced by the pandemic to do it this way, it didn’t take long for Hamilton to see the advantages to making an album in this manner. Most notably, it offers him, as an artist, a luxury few very few ever get – tons of wiggle room to tinker, abort, initiate and change his mind along the way, as well as to adapt and adjust to the various pressures and considerations in making the album.
“I’m trying to keep it fresh,” Hamilton explained, “but we do have to stay a month or two ahead of the game, just so everything is prepped and ready for release. Otherwise, on purpose, I didn’t go in with material.”
At this point, most of the album will likely primarily be Hamilton originals, but he has already chosen a couple of covers. In fact, the first song released from 1221 was Hamilton’s evocative take on The Spin Doctors tune “How Could You Want Him (When You Could Have Had Me?).” Hamilton said he will also cover a song by British alt-rockers The Catherine Wheel, and has contacted members of the band to invite them to participate.
Talking about his choice of “How Could You Want Him…,” Hamilton confessed an attraction to songs by artists and bands who explode from the gates with one or two big hits, but see that inevitable next hit fizzle out short of the mark.
“There’s always that second or third single from a band that had just had a huge hit that never became so big,” said Hamilton, “the next big radio single that didn’t quite do it. I don’t know why, but I gravitate towards those songs that should have been much bigger for the original artists.”
The previous two albums Hamilton recorded were with The Harlequin Ghosts. Both albums were well-received, but over his body of work, Hamilton has never shown an adversity to changing things up. While Hamilton, the only American in the group, stopped short of officially announcing he would no longer be working with the Harlequin Ghosts, he did say that both he and other band members appear to be moving in different directions, both personally and artistically.
“Everybody has kind of gone off and done their own thing, and found new platforms and hobbies and things they love that they wouldn’t have found before. There’s definitely going to be some sort of conversation where everyone sits down and says ‘OK, who’s still in?’”
“I have to say I have really enjoyed doing stuff on my own. I do still talk to those guys and we’re super close, but doing stuff on my own has been very, very rewarding, because it’s just me and Dave doing all the instrumentation.”
We’ve never been shy about admitting that Little Steven’s Underground Garage was perhaps the number one inspiration both for this blog and for our radio show. And we’ve interviewed more than a few artists who have worked in some way or other with Little Steven, and none had anything less than glowing to say about him. Ditto that for Hamilton, but was clear that Van Zandt, as a collaborator, a producer and especially as the owner of the label, can also be quite demanding.
“He’s hardcore with all of his artists, and he doesn’t let anything go into the world unless he’s happy with it,” Hamilton revealed. “As much as I’ve learned from him and as great as he has been to me, co-writing songs and collaborating on records, I do feel a sense of pride in delivering these songs and having his part be signing off on them.”
“It makes me feel like I’ve taken what I’ve learned from him and used that to make these songs, and now he’s noticing that and giving me that Little Steven approval -- I want to say it’s a pat on the head but really, it’s more a kick in the a** -- and then telling me ‘alright, get it out there.’”
Van Zandt’s has been less hands-on with 1221, which Hamilton takes to be a sign of confidence.
“His involvement (for 1221) is signing off on it at the end,” said Hamilton, “or, saying ‘naw, it’s not quite right, keep working’ if he’s not happy with it. On previous records he would have gotten right there in the studio with me and played guitar, or co-written, something like that.”
For all of the music Hamilton has released, there’s much, much more that he has composed that didn’t make his own personal cut. He is quite a prolific songwriter, and up to now, once the album is made, the left-out songs would drift into song purgatory. But of late, Hamilton says he has revisited a composition or two.
“I’ve got a hard drive of songs, and it has to be in the hundreds, with demos and ideas that have never gone on to anything,” said Hamilton. “The only time I’ve ever revisited an old idea and put it on a record was on the album Nowhere to Go but Everywhere, and the song ”Let’s Go Slow” That song was 10 years old.” Hamilton said there are also others that may yet exit their musical purgatory.
Amongst the awfulness of the pandemic has been the near-total cessation of live gigs. This has been a real drag to fans, but in a lot of ways, it has been even worse for artists. Obviously, the financial hit that many have taken is bad enough. That artists like Hamilton can’t share their creations in all the ways they normally would, and that they can’t have that interaction with their audiences has also been devastating.
To counter this, many artists have done some form of gigging online, performing a variety of virtual shows to stay in touch with fans, to give people something to look forward to, and maybe to raise a few extra bucks. But Hamilton makes zero effort to conceal that the virtual gigs have also been for himself.
“It has kept me sane,” said Hamilton. “For a lot of artists, touring is like exorcising demons, and for a lot of us, we didn’t realize how hard not being able to tour was going to be. And being able to record and playing online shows definitely kept me sane and feeling OK. I don’t know what I would have done without that.”
For some of his virtual shows, Hamilton has invited fans to pick the setlist, which he said has had its fair share of surprises, and it also gives him latitude to try some things he might otherwise not be able to. All of this has made the virtual gigs both a load of fun and a serious challenge.
“I’m always surprised at which songs they prefer,” Hamilton disclosed. “It’s been really fun so far. One gig was just ridiculous on purpose and I wore an Elvis wig; another one was acoustic; so they’ve kind of been all over the map. I like the challenge of seeing what songs they’re going to pick, and to see, one, if I remember all of the ones they picked, and two, figuring out a version that’s going to work in that context.”
One recent show featured the music of Tom Petty. From where we sit here, Hamilton’s music, aside maybe from some superficial resemblances, is plenty different from Petty’s. Still, Hamilton understands the comparison and is not terribly put off by it.
“The Tom Petty thing happens a lot and I think it’s because I’m from a certain part of the country,” Hamilton surmised. “I have a higher voice, and anyone with a southern voice like that is going to get grouped in with a certain set of artists. I don’t mind those comparisons, and actually I’m very flattered. I always consider it a compliment, and I've been lucky enough to get to know Benmont Tench from The Heartbreakers and to have his support. I know Tom liked my music, and we were going to meet but then he died. That just destroys me.”
“He’s been a hero of mine since forever. I grew up listening to classic rock with my dad, and the Heartbreakers were a part of that. Petty and Bob Dylan would be my two musical heroes if I had to pick.”
The pandemic has forced changes and adjustments for just about every artist on the planet, and Hamilton’s musical evolution over his body of work is not at all hard to spot. And there’s no reason to believe that Hamilton’s music won’t continue to evolve going forward, something he hopes fans will keep in mind.
“This is a new venture, me doing all this stuff alone,” Hamilton acknowledges. “Everything in my musical world is still happening and we’re all one big awesome family and we’re there supporting each other. At the end of the day, it is still me, there, writing and recording the songs, and I hope -- and it seems to be happening -- that everyone will embrace this project the same way they would embrace a full band album or a band tour.”
“It always seemed silly to me that people will support a band and then say ‘no this is a solo thing, it’s different’ but no, it’s still the same guy and pretty much the same people. I’m super proud of it, I’m really excited, it is keeping me sane right now, and people’s response is making me want to continue writing songs and eventually go back on tour. It’s fueling me as an artist and I hope people will continue to embrace it in a fun and exciting way.
Like everyone else, Hamilton looks forward to the day when we’re not shuttered in, where we can all safely gather at clubs and other live gigs and when we can all commune around wonderful music without risking potential fatal illness for ourselves and others. The silver lining is that solo recordings and virtual gigs have forced Hamilton to rise to a new level.
“There’s nowhere to hide, and if something goes wrong, it’s totally on me,” said Hamilton, “but I welcome that and I’m totally trying to up my game.”
We have some other features already in the works here at Garagerocktopia. Artists have been sending us some very cool stuff. As always, we don’t make any guarantees in stone but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten a lot of very promising music sent to us, and we’re always happy to spread the word about about bands that are playing the way-out kinds of music we profile here. Send us a line and we’ll talk.
Also, we do have a Facebook page for this blog. We don’t put personal stuff on it – no pictures of grandkids (which we don't have anyway) or our dinners or politics or anything like that. What we do post are announcements about upcoming features, maybe extra stuff about the bands, and any cool music, movies or TV Shows we stumble across that might have even the most tangential connection with the music featured here. While we don't spend all day thinking about it, we do like "likes" and "follows" on both Facebook and Mixcloud if you're so inclined ...
No comments:
Post a Comment