After recording under the name Smog for nearly two decades, lo-fi singer/songwriter Bill Callahan surprised, if not shocked, fans by announcing that he was dropping the familiar moniker in favor of his own name. On his twelfth album, Woke on a Whaleheart (Drag City), Callahan infuses folk, country, and gospel sensibilities into one of his best efforts to date.
So what’s in a name anyway?
“You could say I just got tired of the name,” he says. “It had come to mean nothing, and it’s a terribly ugly word. It was a fun thought to have a band name. And the one-man bands of the time, like Big Black and Body Without Organs, they had names. Having a band name is a way to deflect and enhance one’s public face.”
In shedding the alias, Callahan is signifying a new stage in his musical journey.
“Smog could always be anything it wanted to, but it would always be Smog no matter what I did. By using my own name, it is even more open. It’s beyond Smog!”
Keeping in stride with his newfound openness, Callahan brought on Neil Michael Haggerty, known for his work with Pussy Galore, Royal Trux, and The Howling Hex, as a song arranger. Callahan was clear on key elements that he wanted on the record, such as instrumentation and vocals, but the end result was not collaborative.
“At some point in the process, I stop listening to the records.” – Bill Callahan
“Neil’s an ‘old school’ producer who would have liked it best if none of the players spoke a single word or moved their eyes away from their instruments.”
It can be challenging for any artist to relinquish creative control to another person, let alone someone who has a long history doing everything on their own.
“I needed to live with this album for a year or so. I didn’t like the record at first. I had to listen to it fifteen times to start to like it. Neil said at one point, ‘I am here to make the record I’ve always wanted to hear you make.’”
Despite all of the changes, Callahan’s initial songwriting process remains the same.
“You get a few words in your head or a ‘song color’ and then just live with it for a spell. I always have different inspirations. I use them like food to feed the music. I will fixate on a few different albums. Get my mind blown by them… At some point in the process, I stop listening to the records. I’m on my own then and I make a record that does not bear the influence. I take the little bits that no one will notice, like a bird building it’s nest.”
Although his creative juices may still be stirred in part by the songwriting of others, he believes that as an artist progresses, his/her music reflects less and less of other people, giving way to the artist’s own unique voice.
“Look at Willie Nelson; his very early stuff shows a Hank Williams influence. He lost that over time and developed his own voice. That is a real beauty in music, I think. The way it gets passed from soul to soul.”
– Story by Jamie Ludwig, photo by Joanna Newsom