Greg Weeks is the producer of (and co-songwriter and musician in) Philadelphia psych folk outfit Espers, and is due to release his brand new solo album The Hive next month on Wichita Recordings.
In Gregs words
Frustrated with new methods and mindset in recording technology I threw up my hands and built my own analog recording studio. My last album, Blood Is Trouble (as well as the first Espers record) was recorded on a 1⁄2″ 8 track machine. Eventually I was able to upgrade to an MCI 2″ machine and professional recording console which have allowed for better sound quality and greater experimentation. Having a home studio has allowed me to record and produce albums at a comfortable pace consistent with my own levels of inspiration.
Key to the albums sound was the acquisition of a vintage Mellotron keyboard. The Mellotron is doubtless my spirit animal in instrument form and is certainly one of the main inspirations behind The Hive. No other instrument conveys the characteristics of hive insects as well as this legendarily warbley tape based sampler. Its an instrument used by most all of my heroes: Robert Wyatt, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, The Pretty Things, Krokodil, Canadian band Harmonium and all nine trillion Italian prog bands that I love!
The Hive is primarily a response to the atmosphere of apocalypse that permeates the lives of those who are open and receptive to their environment (not to mention the general global condition). Thats not to say the albums entirely about misery and despair. Quite the contrary; I have a good amount of fun trolling through the backwaters of my own dank grey matter (often darkly comical), and each of these songs have multiple meanings, so glean from them what you will.
The Hive also contains a cover of Madonnas Borderline, my first recorded cover since tackling Cat Powers King Rides By on Fire In The Arms Of The Sun. This was meant to be a future Espers release but I got antsy waiting for the next covers record to come about so here it is (after three years of simmering on my mental back burner).
I dont consider myself a musician so much as a musical thinker. Ive never been great at playing instruments but I havent let that prevent me from realizing the sonic ideas that bounce around inside my brain. Whats saved me from utter technical despair is my producers mentality. For me, great music isnt about what can be done by the individual so much as what that individual can accomplish alongside others. Thus I surround myself with folks who either have a great amount of talent, an excess of inspiration or a valuable combination of the two. In the end its the collective energy that cements my recorded ideas and elevates them during performance. My biggest thrill is derived from guiding or shaping that energy.
Its ironic then that my most successful solo composition happens to be one of the few on which all instruments and their parts were written and performed entirely by me. Im speaking of Made, a melancholy slab lifted from the bedrock of my second full length Awake Like Sleep. This song was made most prominent by photographer Charlie White as soundtrack to his Addicolor instalment Pink (a short that went viral to the tune of over a million views). More recently Made was featured on the current season of Showtimes popular original series Weeds.
Made, like most of my songs, strikes a very personal chord with listeners. My music is not of the high octane party variety. It exists to help folks work through what troubles them. Its personal and, unlike my work in Espers, very specific to my own life. Thus anyone who has been run through societys ringer and come out flattened (frustrated, angry, depressed) is likely to find something here to help them make sense of things, or at the very least commiserate with.
Greg is coming to Europe with Festival, a band on his Language Of Stone label. Festival will be the support act and will also double as Gregs backing band when he plays.
November
21 – Cube Bristol
23 – Luminaire – London
24 – Tin Angel – Coventry
25 – Dulcimer Manchester
26 – Crawdaddy Dublin
27 – Auntie Annies Belfast
28 – Hare and Hound Birmingham