#dualtone

Photo by Kate LaMendola

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When I called Langhorne Slim a couple weeks ago, he picked up from a Hilton Hotel in Carrboro, North Carolina, having left for tour from his home in Nashville at the tail end of a ferocious ice storm that left hundreds of thousands without power for weeks. "It [sort of seems] like, pick your poison where you live these days with natural disasters," Slim said. "With the tornados and now with this ice storm, when it gets hit, it's kind of a doozy." His nonetheless laid-back demeanor when talking about the relentlessness of nature is unsurprising. The tornados he referred to occurred in March 2020, a mere two weeks before COVID-19 shut down the world. During that time, he also happened to be in the midst of getting sober. The overall experience, from the introspection and newfound clarity to being forced to hunker down, led to his 7th studio album, the barebones, 19-song 2021 release Strawberry Mansion, a career highlight two decades in. How, then, would Slim follow it up? By taking his time.

Last month, Slim finally released his 8th record, The Dreamin' Kind (Dualtone), marking what's by far his longest span of years between albums. The gradual pace made sense, as Slim not only got into a relationship and eventually married, but had a child, became a stepfather, and stayed active as an advocate in his recovery community. In the meantime, his tour dates opening for classic rock revivalists Greta Van Fleet yielded a musical camaraderie and friendship between Slim and GVF bassist and keyboardist Sam F. Kiszka. The two, neighbors in Nashville, would take afternoons to riff on acoustic ditties Slim had written in the morning; at times, Kiszka would invite GVF drummer Daniel Wagner to come jam, completing the ad hoc garage rock trio. When Slim realized he had the makings of a new record, he decided to go all-in, trading his sparse arrangements for epic, overdubbed rock and folk songs. The resulting The Dreamin' Kind is unabashedly arena-ready.

From the get-go, The Dreamin' Kind makes it clear it's not your typical Slim record. Lead single and opener "Rock N Roll" is a slice of soaring power pop, sporting a chugging rhythm as Slim waxes poetic about keepin' on: "It's like living on a dog as a flea / Some days you got nowhere to be / And other days you get carried away." By the end, he's screaming, Kiszka and Cameron Neal pounding on pianos, Hannah Wicklund ripping a J Mascis-esque outro solo. Second track "Dream Come True" appears at first like a back catalog Slim standout, rife with acoustic guitar, Mat Davidson's spritely banjo, and Kiszka's accordion, but gives way to ornate strings. The album continues to alternate aesthetics from song to song but ties it together with constant layers, the spirit of collaboration incarnate. Even a galloping country western track like "Rickety Ol' Bridge" finds room for psychedelic Mellotron. Still, at the center of it is Slim, asking for devotion and promising it himself, all the while knowing when it's appropriate to look within. “We’re gonna dive into cosmic waters / All the way down / Under the sea," he sings on closer "Engine 99", "With nowhere to be / And no one around.”

Tomorrow night at Thalia Hall, Slim will bring the songs from The Dreamin' Kind to life, with his core band of guitarist Marlon Sexton, bassist Jeff Ratner, keyboardist Casey McAllister, and drummer Malachi DeLorenzo. Doors are at 7:OO PM, with openers Laney Jones and the Spirits on at 8. Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Photo by Savannah Lauren

Since I Left You: Strawberry Mansion was so much of an opening up, after your struggles with addiction. The Dreamin' Kind is, at times, unflinchingly optimistic, and it feels like you're honestly moving forward. Do you think that the transition from Strawberry Mansion allowed you to make this kind of record?

Langhorne Slim: Certainly, the personal path that I've been on has led me to this record. Being a sober dude now, some things I've gained in my spiritual existence made it possible for me to collaborate with other people, have more faith in taking some chances that I haven't taken in the past, and show up for that. For me, sonically, I really love beautiful acoustic music equally to loud, thrashing, rock and roll. I just love raw music that makes me feel something...What happened during the pandemic [was] me getting clean and making a record that I had no plan of making. I just wrote a bunch of songs during, in retrospect, a healing period, [even though] the pandemic was brutal for so many people. I never mean to dismiss or diminish any of that. For me, it was this forced time to start to heal and work on my sobriety and come into myself, find my light and myself again and, in ways, for the first time. A bunch of songs started to show up for me around that time, and I made a very stripped-down acoustic record, partially because that's what those songs called for, and also because I didn't have access to studios and my band and all that kind of stuff to make more of a band record out of those songs.

For years, there's been a fire within me, wanting to play some louder music and write some rock-and-roll-leaning tunes. So I think that, yes, you're correct in your assessment that perhaps Strawberry Mansion led to this, but in both, I think in a personal, spiritual way, and also sonically, I've made a couple records that were more folky, and I just knew I needed to make a joyful rock record. You never know by the time a record is coming out what's going [to be going] on in the world, but I will say it's been a lot of fun in the current state of our country and world to go out and...bring that into the rooms.

SILY: For sure. Playing joyful music right now can feel kind of audacious and radical. Have you noticed that on this tour so far?

LS: Yes, I have. And it does feel radical, and it does feel rebellious. To try and spread a feeling of not optimism, but togetherness. A message that I hope we're learning--and maybe this is my foolish optimism--[is] that a lot of the things we look to lead us and to guide us are not qualified to be our leaders and our guides. In my view, looking within and looking toward each other as our guides and our teachers is a noble pursuit and a rebellious act unto itself. Music and art always can provide that. When it's working, it seems to level the playing field. You might be worried about what kind of shoes you're wearing when you get into the venue, but hopefully, once the music hits, you're not thinking about that. You're not thinking about the perceived differences between you and the person or people standing next to you. When the music hits, all are one on the dance floor. At least for that hour and a half, that can be a rebellious act, to try and achieve that as a band with your audience. I don't do that by trying to beat people over the head with any kind of message. But while we're talking about it, that's one way of how I see it. [laughs]

SILY: You're not being pedantic in your songs. You're inviting your audience to join in.

LS: I was just talking to some people down in the lobby when I was getting coffee. They were at the show [last night,] this real sweet couple. They were talking to me about anxiety, and we were talking about some of the news and their personal stuff and living in your head more than living in one's heart. I said how I can certainly relate, and they seemed to think it was surprising, because they only know me from on stage. I think if I'm any good at what we're talking about, it's because I'm often so very challenged with the thing that I'm trying to break out of or break through, which is that anxiety, negative thinking, all of that sort of stuff. I've gotten to experience what it's like, particularly in music, when you kind of transcend out of that sort of nitpicking, gross thinking that a lot of us can exist in through our day-to-day. There's just so much to the whole system that I think doesn't set us up for a great deal of success in our souls and spirits.

I might be losing the plot here a little bit. I'm not reaching a direct message of, "Fuck that politician," or, "Do this thing," or, "Do that thing." It's a message to myself that I hope can connect to a larger audience.

SILY: That more general type of goal gives the songs the potential to not be pigeonholed or just a product of their time. Like you've said, this album was written before what's going on today. The best music can transcend when it was written.

LS: Absolutely.

SILY: How do you feel your older songs fit within the set?

LS: We're only playing a few of the older songs in the set. This set is 95% the new record, which is super fucking exciting. Part of what I was talking about before--the nitpicking, scared part of my mind--was scared about that. I've got not a huge but a medium-sized loyal, loving fanbase that's followed me up until this point. I hoped not to ostracize them, but knew I needed to spread my little Langhorne wings and try something new. [laughs] It's been really cool to see and hear their reaction. I'm definitely seeing old friends and fans who have been with us for a long time, and a bunch of new folks, too. That's been really cool. For 20 years, I've been plugging an acoustic guitar into an amp and playing it like an electric guitar, and now I'm playing an electric guitar through an amp, as it is intended. It's been super fun. We're fitting in some of the older songs we still love to play, that we know our people hope to hear.

SILY: This might be hard to answer, but do you see this new record as a rebirth, or a set new chapter in your career?

LS: Yes.

SILY: So it was a very easy question for you to answer.

LS: Yeah, well, you know, the beauty of trying some new stuff and having it feel good is that it gives you the confidence to keep trying new stuff and seeing if it feels good. I really dig the record. The record was done with a different band. Only my keyboard player [in my regular band] performed on the actual record. Now, I'm on tour with my regular band that's been with me for a long time. I wondered how that would translate. I wondered what the experience would be like to cut a record with different people, have my band learn it, [and] go out on the road. How would that feel? How would it gel? It's all felt really fuckin' natural and fun.

I still love writing songs on my acoustic guitar, but how I made this record is that I would write my folky songs by morning, and by afternoon or early evening, I would pick up my electric guitar or a different instrument, and put my hands in places they don't normally go. The way I always think of it is--and I'll try to be concise, though you can tell I'm not always the most concise--every creative person has all kinds of things they're capable of making and creating. For a musician and a songwriter, I started writing songs a certain kind of way. I met a certain amount of success in doing that. I definitely tried to continue to write great songs. I didn't become bored or tired at any point with it. But before you know it, you're in a particular world. That's fine and great, but if you are eager to see what else you might have under the hood, you kind of have to bust out of that and see how it feels. At this stage in my game, I just want to keep trying different things and see what works, what doesn't work. I love so many different kinds of music and so many different kinds of art, I'd feel like I'm limiting myself by doing just one sort of thing.

SILY: How long have you been playing with Mat Davidson?

LS: Mat's been playing with me for...I'm real bad at time, for a bunch of years. He's been on two...of [my] records and has toured a bunch with me. He's one of my best friends at this point. I was a huge fan of his, and that's how I met him...A bunch of people kept telling me about him and that I would love him, and I went to see him at this little place [in Nashville] that's no longer there, and it was one of the most compelling shows I'd ever seen. I invited him and his band over to my house afterwards, and they ended up staying for a few days. We became dear friends.

SILY: His contributions to the Big Thief world have gotten him known in the indie rock world of music.

LS: He, in my view, should be known in every world of music. Talk about a creative force who can do it all, and do it all so well. [He wouldn't like this:] People throw around the world genius too frequently, but he truly is musically. He's just a little closer to the source than most--not that it's a competition, necessarily--and his playing is unique and soulful and wild. He's one of a kind.

SILY: As much as I love Americana and rock, I'm also a big ambient music fan. I was looking at your past collaborators, and I had no idea David Moore of Bing & Ruth was in your band.

LS: Yeah. I've played with a bunch of beautiful freaks, man. David played with me for a long time. He played his ass off on keys and banjo, which is a love of his. He loves old-time music. Then, he left to do Bing & Ruth. [It's] another example of when you're horny for music, man, there isn't just one path to follow. I listen to and love so many different types of music. I don't reminisce much and look back too often, but something that I did love when I was just coming up, before I had any name at all, was the types of shows you would play would be with a punk band, and there'd be a performance artist doing some crazy shit, and maybe a hip-hop artist. Whoever was around to do the damn thing. A comedian. The whole crowd was just there to be a part of and moved by the performances and the experience. It wasn't yet a monetized thing. It wasn't a genre-fied thing, which I thought was really cool.

SILY: One of the things I was struck by on the new record was the sequencing, because you said you wanted it to be like a mixtape. However, when I saw on the credits sheet that "Strange Companion" started side 2 of the vinyl, I couldn't help but wonder whether that was a conscious decision. The song just seems very side 2, track 1!

LS: Well, then, we succeeded.

SILY: It's a vibe shift from "Rickety Ol' Bridge".

LS: Honestly, the whole recording process was making two records in one. All of the core recordings before any overdubbing I did with Sam and Daniel from Greta. My band came in for this whole other slew of tunes I had written. Initially, it was going to be one record that was totally left-field for me or what people would expect from me, and the other record would be songs that would maybe fit in with my previous stuff. Then, making all of that music and [those] recordings, what wound up happening was [we got] all the songs that would fit the best on the first record, and we'd handle the next record down the line. When I started getting the rough mixes back, I would walk around the neighborhood, and in a very mixtape kind of way--I'm not very tech savvy--I'd go from the recordings on my phone from one song to another song and see what I felt like fit the best together. "Strange Companion" definitely seemed to set the tone for Side B. I'm still hoping people [will listen to] the record from front-to-back, and I'm still remembering that's not how it will be listened to by most.

SILY: What can you do, right?

LS: You can't do anything other than try to make great records, try to make great songs. Let the chips fall where they may.

SILY: Do you have a favorite song on the record? I know sometimes people say that's like picking a favorite child, but maybe people do secretly have a favorite child, so I'm asking.

LS: I've always wondered whether people have a favorite child! I would assume some people probably do. I really love "Dream Come True". I think that's a song I'll play for a long, long time. I love "Dance On Thru". I think that's a song I'll play for a long time. Live, I love playing the more rockin' stuff, too. It's hard to pick a favorite quite yet. "Dance On Thru" is a special one, because my son really likes it. I'll catch him singing it around the house, which is the most powerful shit, to hear your two-year-old singing your song. "Loyalty" has been a favorite to play live.

SILY: How much have these songs--already very layered and lush--taken on a new life live as they've become stripped back or more raw with your band?

LS: Strippin' em back to have them be more raw gives them their own power. Prior to this tour, this band had never played these songs together, other than in rehearsals in Nashville before we hit the road. I've been super stoked that the songs have been coming together. Right now, the guys are playing the songs as they've learned [them] from the record. What happens, as I'm sure you know, once you get out on the road for a while, they'll take on their own form as they open up more.

The Dreamin' Kind cover art by Kate LaMendola

SILY: Can you tell me about the cover art?

LS: It's beautiful: That's one thing I can tell ya. We were fans of this one photographer in Nashville named Kate [LaMendola]. Do you remember those old photographs of [people] in crescent moons? I wanted to recreate that and be this man in the moon, and my partner, [Alyssa Spyridon,] was like, "I don't think that's the move." Our friends and family are a real artistic bunch, and she said, "We should have [Kate] make this moon and stars, and you should be on stilts reaching for the moon." I thought, "That's fucking cool." Alyssa was the artistic director, and we hired our friend Kate to put it together. I love it, man. I feel like all the artwork for this record came out really nice.

SILY: Before this album, you were essentially the type of songwriter to make songs the way Strawberry Mansion was made, by sitting down with your guitar and writing songs at any time. Do you think making The Dreamin' Kind, where you had to find time to work with the Greta Van Fleet guys, will change the type of songwriter you'll be in the future?

LS: No, because it was different, but also the same. I was still sitting down and writing and working on songs that hadn't been finished. Then, I was coming up with new song ideas. I've read this from other writers and songwriters. I can go months at times without even writing anything. Something breaks open, and there's a flood of ideas, and you're living in that world where you're constantly hearing ideas and melodies in your head and picking up lines here and there.

My band [members live] in different places. My fantasy for years has been to have a couple people in Nashville, where there's no pressure to create a record but be loud with a drummer and a bass player in somebody's fucking living room or garage. When [the Greta Van Fleet] guys had time off, and Sam and I started hanging out with the idea of making some songs together, that's what was going on. I'd go in with some ideas, plug in his guitar, and we would play a little bit and get excited. He said, "I gotta get Daniel." That's the beautiful thing about Nashville: We all live 2 minutes away from each other, at least at that time. Daniel would come over, and we'd have our garage living room band, and that felt so raw and exciting that more and more ideas were coming to me. Those guys are so lit up and inspired and inspiring that they would naturally offer ideas, or if I didn't have a part here, we would work on that. Very quickly, we would start building tunes. So I don't know that it will change the way I naturally write songs, but when you have collaborators you adore and trust, it flips the script. You can take an idea and bring it over, and something would happen that I wouldn't have thought of on my own. There are certainly examples of that on the record, of things that would not have come from me sitting on the couch by myself.

SILY: You seem like someone who is continuously inspired by other artists and constantly taking in stuff. Is there something you've been listening, watching, or reading that's caught your attention?

LS: I do like that band Geese, I gotta say. Honestly, I haven't been listening to a ton of music. A lot of times when I'm in this mode, I kind of don't. Last night before the show, I was listening to this guy who used to go by Entrance. We played some show with him a long time ago. His name is Guy Blakeslee. Lucinda [Williams,] I'm definitely listening to her new record. I love her. She can do no wrong, and definitely for me in my music and career, I'd cite her as a hero.