This series of blogs is called IN PASSING, and in it I'll be interviewing bands/artists I love and trying to shed further light (in the small ways I can) on their music to give anyone who may come across this a reason to listen to them. I want to focus on smaller music that deserves more attention than it gets. All blogs in this series will include an unabridged (yet, slightly edited) interview with the artists and a small write-up from me. As always, send music, shows, suggestions for artist interviews, and anything ever that you want to talk about or see covered to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
In March of 2024, Kiva and I, alongside Dead Mothers Collective were honored with the incredible opportunity to document a really beautiful show at Non Plus Ultra in Los Angeles, California, featuring Apesma, August, Sad Gods, and Big Brown Cow. We interviewed Jonathan Atchley, AKA Sad Gods, about his atmospheric, hypnotic, and beautiful soundscapes. This one is going to be a little shorter since everyone was unbelievably tired.
Since Kiva and I both asked questions (her many more than I)--my lines will be right-justified and hers will be left-justified.
 |
| photos courtesy of Sad Gods. |
What role does your environment play in how you write?
Yeah, it's everything, I guess. I'm kind of like a child when I make art--it's just whatever's in front of me. I actually live in the Cleveland National Forest, which is on the back side of Orange County. It's just kind of up into the forest, so there's a creek that wraps around the house and I take field recordings all the time--frogs, thunder the other night.
When someone leaves a Sad Gods set, what do you hope they feel and what do you hope they think about on their way home?
Something... I have my ideals, you know. It would be awesome if they like the same stuff I liked when I made it. I make stuff that I like and I want other people to feel that. But, once it's out of me, I have no control. However it hits them: positive, negative, whatever, as long as it does something.
What aspects of experimentalism are you excited to dip your toes into? Are there any specific instruments or techniques you're excited to play around with?
I was kind of doing some modular synth stuff for a little bit last summer. I just don't really think it's for me. I don't know. Beyond that, not like crazy music. I've kind of been wanting to do something very simple and slow and drawn-out and long. I really like ambient music. I might be starting a new project. I played guitar and piano for a long time. Sad Gods is kind of a newer thing. I've been kind of wanting to play guitar again, so probably just some guitar-based, super long, slowly evolving, lots of delays, lots of reverbs. Might start another project for that. I have like a million bands. Might as well start another one.
What do you find there is to gain in letting your listeners sit in the same space for prolonged periods of time?
I'm not very patient. Taking time with music is something I'm trying to get better at. I like doing things pretty quick. I have a lot of albums out under different projects. People criticize me a lot for not focusing or editing, I just kind of put out a trillion things. I think it'd be fun to--I'm also getting older--but just to slow down and take my time more.
What other projects are you involved in?
There's one under my own name which is what I mostly have released music out of in the past--under Jonathan Atchley. I've released a couple albums, pretty old, under The Odd Lamb, which are maybe 20 years old. They're more similar to the Sad Gods stuff probably--lots of instruments, lots of layers. But, they're more like happy gods, I don't know. It's almost like a psychotic five year old genius made music. I'd layer in Thundercats and cartoons and tons of beats and it's just pretty wild. I kind of got obsessed when home recording was first coming out, it blew my mind. I was like, "I can make any sound I want to," and it just was so fun to do whatever I could imagine. Then, I realized I like writing lyrics and singing, performing and playing guitar more than producing and layering stuff and doing that. So, I did that for a pretty long time, but now I'm back to layering stuff and producing again.
There's Brother Dragon, which is what I'm starting with the guitar-based ambient music. Sad Gods, Ninu Nanu is one that's like, I'd hit record and just freestyle stuff and maybe come back and add some stuff sometimes on top of it, but it was kind of an automatic writing approach. That was a really fun project to save my interest in making art because I kind of got burned out when I first started and I was just not into the art world and the industry. I moved to New York and I was doing a lot of visual art and music and I got kind of bummed out on the scene. I'm just not very good at schmoozing and stuff. It's who you know for getting galleries or to play shows and that whole world just really depressed me. I was like, "well, I guess I'm not doing that," but then I can't stop being an artist. I'm just a creative person. I started just freestyling stuff. I had so much fun doing that and it kind of changed my perspective on making art and that's kind of a special project, even though it's like the least known project for sure. And I have my nephews--little kids singing on it and stuff.
My daughter actually also sings on Sad Gods. Before she could read even. We were recording it in little chunks because she could only read so much at a time. There's a song called Broken Circle Swimmer on the Ocean Mask Whispers album. That was a really cool one with her. I actually started tonight's set with her.
Do you record those onto tapes and then use those as loops?
A lot of times into DAW or into logic and then onto tape or the other way around--just whatever's called for. Sometimes things sound better going into tape for certain things but I'm not a tape Nazi or anything. It's just whatever anything calls for. Just do that.
Thank you, Johnny, for your time and words, and thank you everyone to reading. Keep doing the fucking thing, keep showing up.
-Foster
Continuing Dead Mothers Collective's live series, check out Hernia's new video on YouTube.
Comments
Post a Comment