With attention-grabbing lyrics like “Are you love or are you pain, or everything in between?” from Michael Compton‘s next single “I’m Here to Help” (out August 18), it shows an emotional intelligence and spiritual maturity often missing in music these days. “I would compare it to the ‘Free Association’ model of accessing the unconscious mind,” Compton explains. “For this project, I let ideas come naturally, rather than trying to manufacture ideas.” It is one of the key tracks on Wooden Spoon, which Compton is releasing on his own label missingrecords.com on September 23.
‘I’m Here To Help’ is a stand-out and a favorite out of his first time collaboration with legendary independent producer Steve Fisk. “Musically, it started as a challenge. I was hanging out with a jazz musician friend who was giving me a hard time about the simplicity of my ‘indie’ music. I was advocating that music doesn’t have to be complex to have impact. She ended the conversation by giving me a playful little jab saying she could never be satisfied playing ‘three chord music.’ I thought that was funny because my music typically utilizes a few more than three chords — but I also thought it could be a fun songwriting challenge to write an actual three chord song! I wondered how you could make the song engaging with that type of limitation.
Wooden Spoon’ is the singer/songwriter/guitarist’s new album, originally created as gorgeously homemade, drum-looped anthems from his bedroom, and then becoming a collaboration with Fisk (The Posies, Harvey Danger, Nirvana), bassist Yuuki Matthews (Shins, Crystal Skulls) and drummer Michael Musburger (Posies, Fastbacks). It also includes performances by Lori Goldston (cello) and Jacquie Dillon (vocals).
About the composition of the song itself, “‘I’m Here to Help’ is three chords in the same progression for both the verse and chorus. I experimented with subtle ways to create dynamics and played with the arrangement. Lyrically it explores subconscious thought and the voice inside our head. What is that voice that guides us? Is it separate from us? Is it morally superior to us or is it our moral guide? I also played with the notion that maybe it is an outside force that inhabits and guides us.”
The sweetness at the heart of both the song conceals a very personal melancholy that Compton experienced in its inspiration, reflected upfront in the album Wooden Spoon. “The title of the album came about through meditations on life, current realities we are all facing, as well as personal experiences I was going through,” he says.
The record is Compton’s 20th independent release for his label missingrecords – “and definitely the best work I’ve done to this point,” he says. Through this collaborative recording process Compton has evolved these soul-seeking, open-hearted tunes into a part-live and part-virtual indie rock solo project, combining recorded drums, bass and keys with his lushly strummed, shimmering guitar work and crisp rhythms built around dynamically soulful vocals.
LINKS:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MichaelComptonMedia
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Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/missingrecords/
Bandcamp:
https://michaelcompton.bandcamp.com
Photo by Ernie Sapiro Photography
