The Whiskey Priest

Some weeks ago I reviewed The Whiskey Priest’s latest album, Wave And Cloud. It was something beautiful. Touching. So I decided I would try and arrange an interview with Seth, the singer songwriter from The Whiskey Priest to found out, first of all, where he got this amusingly bizarre name from.
Where does your name come from?

The name "the whiskey priest" comes from graham greene's novel "the power and the glory." I read it on a trip to san fransisco in 2004, and it really grabbed me, the novel and the character of the whiskey priest. shortly thereafter, I started playing shows under the name, singing a lot of the songs I was writing that weren't being used by my band, sad accordions. in 2006, my friend Alex Dupree and I drove around america for three and a half months, playing shows as "hooch dupree and the whiskey priest." It was pretty ingrained into my identity by then.
Tell us about your origins, where you come from and when you started singing.

I think I started singing as soon as I possibly could. Early favorites included the Star Wars, Superman, and Indiana Jones theme songs. I was in various choirs growing up, in school and church. I started singing in front of people on microphones when I was in high school, also in church for the high school worship band. I started writing my own songs in high school as well, but it wasn't till college that I felt like they were starting to be good enough to play outside of my bedroom. This was in 2000 / 2001.

How would you describe your sound?

Oh, I hate that question! I feel like all the words I use to describe it conjure up the wrong ideas for most people: "acoustic," "folky," "singer-songwriter." I guess you could call it "indie-folk" maybe. I'd probably say that it's mountain music you can sing by the sea, or sea songs you can sing in the mountains. That's what it feels like to me. Or maybe songs to sing in the city when you wish you were out on the road, in the desert, on a train.

What were your expectations with your first release?

I don't know if I had many expectations. I feel really fortunate to be working with Rainboot (my label) and Owen (the guy who runs the label). I wasn't really planning any sort of official release outside of Austin, maybe some shows in surrounding Texas towns. So to be working with someone else who believes in what I'm doing, who likes the record and wants people to hear it, that already exceeds my expectations.

Wave And Cloud has had really positive reviews. How does that feel?

It feels great! Again, exceeding all my expectations. The negative ones are interesting too. It's nice to get a little bit of critical feedback. So much of what I do is just in my head and really just for me and no one else, so it's good for me to hear when people don't agree with the voice in my head!

Take us through your process of writing a song.

Hmm. Well, it's a little different from song to song. Sometimes all the words come first, and then I go back and find some music to fit. I think that doesn't happen as often these days, and I tend to not like those as much anyway. Though that is what happened on "the way of the future," and I was really pleased with it. There's a video on youtube of me playing that in a forest somewhere while on the road with Alex, a week or so after hammering it all out.

I think I like it best when the words and the music happen in pretty close proximity to one another. The other night I was driving home, and started singing this song to myself, kind of just singing words as they came to me, for fun. I pulled up to my house and decided I kinda liked what I was singing, so instead of eating dinner I went to my room and kept working on the song. It had a chord progression and a beat and a verse and chorus pretty quick, but then it took another couple hours to get much more of the song. I think it's called "meanie," as in "sorry for being such a meanie." It's not done yet.

I think one of the hardest things for me is making the time to work on a song. They don't really come as easy as that one most of the time. And even that one wasn't just automatic. I had a spark of something that came from my gut instead of my mind, but it still needed me to make time for it, to sit down and use my heart and mind and fingers to give it flesh and bones. Inspiration is precious and important, but all the inspiration in the world wouldn't get me very far if I didn't give it room to expand.

Give us the best and the worst moment of your musical career so far.
Ooh boy. There's been a lot of great moments. And they're all totally different than how I thought they'd be when I was fifteen! One of the best moments I've ever had in my life, associated with music or not, was on tour with Zookeeper, another band I play in. We had played in San Fransisco the night before, and ended up sleeping outside, across the road from a lighthouse on Highway 1. We weren't really supposed to be there, so when I woke up around 5 a.m., I got everyone up and we hit the road. I was driving, and the sun was coming up. I was listening to "Cymbal Rush" by Thom Yorke, and I looked around me in the van at all my sleeping friends. I was the only one awake. And I was so overwhelmed by a feeling of gratefulness for my life, for getting to make music with my friends, for getting to drive around the country with them, for just getting to listen to and have love for great music. It was one of the most divine experiences of my life. That whole tour, and other tours I've been on, all fall in the top five category.

I guess the worst moments of my musical career have been when the relationships I have with the people I make music with aren't going well, either from hurt feelings, lack of communication, or other external or internal conflicts. Relationships are one of the hardest things about living life, and making music, but they are what makes life worth living, and music worth making. Sort of a "can't live with ‘em, can't live without ‘em" kind of thing. Those moments are far worse than the time Sad Accordions played Beerland, and nobody stayed to hear our set, including the bar tender!

What have you got to offer the music panorama right now?

Wow, um... I guess just myself, my songs, the way I see the world, the way I hear music, which is naturally not going to be exactly the same as anyone else. I also have a lot of amazingly talented friends who are kind enough to play with me, and I think they are a priceless treasure.

Who are your biggest influences when it comes to making music? Who do you look up to?

I know everybody loves Radiohead, but I do too. Dylan, the first handful of Van Morrison records, R.E.M., U2. I think Guided By Voices are super impressive, especially in the volume of their creative output. David Byrne, with Talking Heads and without, Daniel Lanois, Laurie Anderson - those folks all inspire me in how they push themselves to express things in different and unique ways.

I mean, there's a huge list of people I could give you whose music really means a lot to me, records and songs that have made their way into my subconscious. But I think the folks that have had the most direct influence on my own musical life are the people I live with, who I get to make music with, and who play in bands in and around Austin; people that are just so gifted that it's silly. Frank Smith, Zookeeper, Zykos, Fivehead, Alex Dupree and the Trapdoor Band, Monahans, Baruch the Scribe, Royal Forest, Balmorhea, The Narrow Escapes, Meryll, Krista Vossler, The Cocker Spaniels, Mothfight, all the dudes from the Gloria Record, everybody in Sad Accordions, everybody that plays in The Whiskey Priest band... These are the bands and the people that influence my music in really real ways.

What music did you grow up listening to? What music could we find on your ipods right now?

The first stuff I listened to on the radio of my own accord were oldies. Then it switched to country western ("Song of the South" by Alabama was an early favorite). It wasn't till grade school that I started listening to pop music. "Cherish" by Madonna was the first pop song I ever heard. I thought it was the best thing I'd ever heard. I also listened to a fair amount of musicals thanks to my mother (I still love "big river" and "cats").

I listened to "alternative" radio all through middle school and high school, and pretty much loved anything I could get my hands on, from Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana to Weezer, Sponge, and Counting Crows... It was all pop music to me, I think. Even though I knew that guitars were cooler than keyboards, bands were cooler than pop singers. The music was the same.

Half way through high school I started seeking out, buying, and listening to records, regardless of what the radio had for me. "Little Plastic Castle" by Ani DiFranco, "No Code" and "Yield" by Pearl Jam, "Clarity" by Jimmy Eat World - those all stand out to me as early records that I loved AS RECORDS, and that I didn't hear on normal radio programming. I loved Greg Brown and Patty Griffin through Emmylou Harris, Steve Earl and Wilco. I finally "got" radiohead - I heard it as brilliant for the first time, instead of just strange or noise.

I moved to Austin early in 2003, and started delving into more indie rock stuff: Okkervil River, Shearwater, gbv, Crooked fingers, Calexico, Sufjan Stevens. Also discovering older stuff I had never heard, like Van Morrison and Tom Waits. Some of that stuff really stuck, some not so much.

Lately I've been listening to the new Walkmen album. They're so good at using just a few simple things so well. There's a record called "Ciao My Shining Star" that's a benefit album of Mark Mulcahy songs. I just got "Meat Puppet's II" which I really dig. The new Arcade Fire record won't leave my brain alone.

The record that has stayed with me the longest is "Graceland" by Paul Simon. We used to listen to that cassette in the car as we went on family vacation to New Mexico in the summers. It's one of my favorite records of all time.

If you had to choose an artist to collaborate with right now, who would that be?

I'd love to learn from Thom Yorke, or anybody from Radiohead. I don't get all that technological stuff they do, but I'd love to learn how to use some of it for myself. I would say Laurie Anderson for the same reason, but I'm afraid she'd leave me behind in the dust and not realize it. Daniel Lanois or Brian Eno would be sweet too.

I'd love to make a record with Balmorhea and/or Monahans, but I'm too self-concious to ask them. And I'm broke.

What lies in the future for The Whiskey Priest?

Oh, I hope more songs, more recording, some touring. We just had the cd release show here in Austin for "Wave and Cloud," and it was very very fun. I haven't played these songs with a band ever really, outside of recording them. The folks that are playing with me are so great, most of them were on the record. I'd love to play more shows with them, both in town and on the road.

Perhaps some uk shows? That'd be pretty great...