Catching up with Nesey Gallons

Records made by Nesey Gallons don’t belong in any specific category of music, but would fit better along side antique photographs and dusty tea kettles. Melancholic tones and sorrowful lyrics transport the listener to a nostalgic world of lost loves and former lives. When the record is over, the memories linger, making it impossible to listen only once.

Gallons first publicly revealed his talent when he began working with the Elephant 6 Collective, a small group of bands based in Athens, Georgia. He performed with musicians such as Jeff Mangum, Will Cullen Hart, and Julian Koster, but it wasn’t long before Gallons began to shine on his own.

Thirteen years later, Gallons has left the collective to pursue his own musical career, and explore other realms of art. Most recently, he branched into the world of acting when he starred in the independent film Present. In the past six months alone, he has released three records, and is currently touring festivals with the film.

Heather Rose: How did you first become involved in the Elephant 6 Collective?

Nesey Gallons: Initially because I met and began corresponding with Will Cullen Hart, I suppose. That was in 99/00.

HR: While on the 2008 Holiday Surprise tour, you did not play many of your own songs, but some say that you had a large part in the whole thing coming together. Is this true?

NG: Yes. In early 2008, I spent hours one night persuading Julian that he should follow what I called my “evil plan”, and in the morning he began making phone calls to the others and to Jim Romeo (Elephant 6 booking agent fella). I felt it best to conceal the truth in those days because it would be more inspiring to the others and the fans if Julian had seemed inspired to do it rather than reluctantly shoved by some obscure stranger! I did not wish to participate directly but he insisted that I come.

Nesey Gallons performing with the Elephant Six Collective, during the 2008 Holiday Surprise tour.

HR: You seem to have separated yourself from the whole circle of musicians, working mostly on your own or with entirely new artists these days. What caused this change?

NG: A number of things, some unpleasant. I’m still on friendly terms with some of those guys. Others not so much. I never felt like I was part of Elephant 6. Just someone who could be useful to them for a spell. Will and I have a deeper connection but it’s not something that really has a place in our normal lives. It’s more like a comet that comes around and has its season and then disappears again.

My own creative work has always been separate. I didn’t grow up with friends so collaboration doesn’t come naturally to me.

HR: The mood of your music usually feels quite melancholy or nostalgic. It’s obvious that there is great meaning behind what you do. Is it difficult to bear your soul in such a way to complete strangers?

NG: No. It never really has been, but I’ve been really disassociative or something in the past. There’s a disconnect that happens that makes it easy, but maybe if I’m emotionally healthier it will actually get more nerve wracking. It’s been a while since I’ve played a show. It might be terrifying now!

HR: You were working on on When I was an Ice Skater for over ten years, correct? Do you find that the mood or meaning of your songs has changed over time?

NG: I’ve found new dimensions with some but for the most part “Ice Skater” is a record that I knew the shape of even before I had the cloth to cut, if that makes sense. That’s part of why it took so long. I already knew the colour of a sound or verse but life had not yet placed the word or instrument on my palette.

HR: Tell us a little about your process with this record.

NG: Originally it was just a “shrug pile” …the songs that didn’t fit with the current project or that I couldn’t quite finish because they were beyond the scope of my experience. Gradually I came to see an album shaping. Parts of the recording date back to 2002 but I didn’t begin working on it in earnest until 2007. It wasn’t 10 years of continual work or anything. More like 10 years of patience. I didn’t pressure the album. I let it finish itself slowly as it was ready.

HR: The videos you have made for your songs, (as well as videos you made for the Music Tapes), all have a very similar look to them. Do you film and edit these yourself? You feature a lot of artwork and home-movie style footage; is there any significance in these things? How do the videos relate to the songs they accompany?

NG: I tend to like it when a record is tethered to reality by something really human and commonplace/familiar. I like documenting moments. So I end up with quite a bit of home movies or film diaries and the sort. The music videos tend to be made of these things partly because of money. I never really have money set aside to make art happen with so I just edit together things that are around. You know. You need lights and assistants or whatever to make real films.

HR: You’ve hinted a few times in the past to Ice Skater being the last “Nesey Gallons” record, and now you’ve released Blackout Era under the name “Smouldering Porches”. What is the significance in this name change?

NG: Smouldering Porches is kind of an imaginary band. A few years ago, I played a show at the flicker theater and the front steps caught on fire and Eric Harris and I joked that my project should be called “Smouldering Porches.” A couple months later, I made an album called “Southern Winter” under the name. I just wanted to make something simple and easy with a different aesthetic. I wanted the material to be viewed separately from my Nesey Gallons albums. Maybe parallel, but on different tracks. There’ll hopefully be another Nesey Gallons record. I’m just starting to wonder whether or not I shouldn’t go to school to be a person who can make a living from anything. That’s part of what has motivated my muttering about “last” records… concerns about how I’m ever going to have health care, dental, be able to provide for children. That kinda stuff. You gotta be able to bring home the fake bacon. That starving artist stuff is all well and good for the young but older folks know what it’s like when it starts hurting just to have a body and the true terror of poverty begins to reveal itself.

HR: Blackout Era is considered to be the soundtrack to the film Present. How many of these tracks are featured in the film? Were any of them written specifically for the film?

NG: Not really. Blue Brunswick sort of was. I had this unused piano track Patrick from Hot New Mexicans did for “Southern Winter” that I imagined being all echoey and out of phase with itself… it felt like it would be really cinematic, so I turned it into a song. I think there are just two songs from “Blackout Era” in the film. Joe used some stuff from “Eyes & Eyes & Eyes Ago” when he was editing while waiting on my soundtrack and we ended up deciding to keep some of it. I think “Nicholas My Dear” and “Wooden Whispers” are in the movie.

HR: What is the story behind the title of this record?

NG: I was deteriorating mentally in 2008. That’s why I hadn’t wanted to go to Athens and do music stuff. I felt I should stay in Maine and focus on repairing whatever was wrong with me, but Julian said I had to come because it had all been my idea. I tried to self medicate with alcohol and just turned into a drunk which sped up the inevitable crumbling that was happening in my personal life. I spent a few years drinking myself to death. Imploding and behaving abominably. During that time I wrote “Southern Winter” and the material that “Blackout Era” is made of. As I’ve sobered up and gotten my shit together I’ve referred to that whole period as my blackout era. It seemed like it might be an appropriate name for the album so I looked it up to make sure that Steely Dan or the Arcade Fire or whatever didn’t already make an album called that and saw all this Britney Spears stuff. Apparently she made an album called “Blackout” and proceeded to have a meltdown. That sealed it for me. Our culture likes to conceal the suffering of women by ridiculing it as if it isn’t legitimate, like somebody just had too much of their daddy’s whiskey and now they’re out of control; because they’re a dumb whore, not a complicated, tortured human being. I wanted to call my album that because it’s appropriate but also to make a statement about that stuff. My suffering was not any more profound than hers. Male suffering never is.

HR: Do you plan to play any shows to support either of these albums?

NG: Not presently. I’m moving back to Portland, Maine later this year. Maybe when things settle down I’ll be able to play some shows regionally.

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Tags: blackout era, elephant 6, indie, maine, Music, nesey gallons, when i was an ice skater