A Conversation with TW Walsh

T.W. Walsh is a musician. Though he is no longer so by career, he continues to make great music and make it available for free under the name The Soft Drugs. TW was half of the band
Pedro the Lion along with David Bazan. Walsh also contributed to Bazan’s synth and drum only side project Headphones. Before all of this however TW made several excellent solo efforts. Below is a conversation with T.W. from November 17, 2006 and some tracks from 2006’s In Moderation and 2001’s Blue Laws.

[mp3] T.W. Walsh – Gullwatching
[mp3] The Soft Drugs – Brand New Name.mp3
[mp3] The Soft Drugs – Defending the Paint.mp3

*The Interview*

Caleb (HTFAF): What has the transition been like from making music for a living to going to work at a “real job” everyday?

TW: Hmm well overall, my stress level has probably decreased. When I was making music for a living, I was working for Dave (Bazan: of Pedro the Lion). It was fun in a lot of ways – the touring and the camaraderie, but there was a lot of instability and that career path really lacked a sense of purpose and identity for me. Now I feel a lot more like myself again…and being able to provide a higher standard of living for my family is a big plus.

Caleb (HTFAF): Has it sort of made it easier in a way to make music, now that you don’t have that pressure of, “This is my job I have to get such and such done today?”

TW: Well in pedro the lion the goals were always changing on a day to day basis. Dave likes to explore a lot of different options. He’s a bit scatterbrained…I’d be switching instruments every day at his request. I learned a majority of the band’s catalog on 3 or 4 instruments, and was able to play it all convincingly. But it’s tiring and it’s not really sustainable because your sense of purpose and momentum is always being uprooted. Now I can just be myself and when I write and record a song, i can do it more or less on instinct, rather than following someone else’s suggestion.

Caleb (HTFAF): Just so people don’t get the wrong impression, you are still very good friends with Dave, right?

TW: Well, it’s quite a bit more complicated than that. I don’t have a biological brother, but i think of Dave as my brother.It sounds terribly mushy; there’s a lot of pain but there’s a lot of love too. When i was in the band, I spent a lot more time with him than with my own family. We had to spend almost every minute together on tour. On tour you sleep 2 to a bed too, so we had to literally sleep together a lot. It’s a pretty intense lifestyle

Caleb (HTFAF): [Laughter] So you mentioned that it was nice to be able to “Be yourself” when you write and record a song. What exactly does that look like? Is there a certain time of day you like to write? Do you usually write on piano or guitar? What’s your writing process like, Tim?

TW: Well I’ve been trying to start this schedule where i wake up before six to work on music for a couple hours before work, but I haven’t really been able to get
that off the ground. Usually I come up with little ideas while just fucking around on the guitar or piano, and i record the little rough ideas and then go back to flesh them out later. I probably write 2/3 on guitar and 1/3 on piano. I am a terrible piano player

Caleb (HTFAF): While we’re on the subject, who would be at the top of a list of YOUR top songwriters?

TW: My favorite songwriters kind of line up with a lot of the paste (Magazine) top ten actually, but you gotta qualify it because each of them have written lots of shitty songs right beside the greatest songs. John lennon, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Al Green, Elvis costello, those are the biggies.
I don’t know, it’s weird to talk about influences. There’s so much music i like and songwriting is only part of the picture with making records. there’s a lot more to it.

Caleb (HTFAF): I know you record your own music and do most if not all of the mixing and mastering. Is that something you enjoy, or is it more out of necessity?

TW: I’d say I do enjoy it but it is more or less out of necessity. I engineered other peoples music for a long time, but I kind of can’t stand it, now.

Caleb (HTFAF): Why is that?

TW: Well there are aspects of mixing and stuff that people really obsess over that just kind of don’t matter or they’re just a matter of taste. I’m just kind of impatient and cranky, it sounds awful, but i can’t be bothered to tweak the reverb on someone’s vocal. It just annoys me. But that’s ok…I’m just not cut out for it

Caleb (HTFAF): Art is so subjective, it seems like having someone else say “I don’t like the way the snare sounds here” or “I think it could use less mids there.” Ya know, what most people would consider the little stuff, about something YOU created would just cause a whole mess of problems. I guess some people are more attached and involved with what they do than others.

TW: Yeah, and in the past I’ve worked either with people who were paying me, but weren’t my friends, or people who ARE my friends but WEREN’T paying me and each scenario has it’s own set of complications and difficulties.

Caleb (HTFAF): I’m sure. I gather that you waste no time in the studio

TW: Well I just try to minimize those situations where I think time is being wasted. I essentially waste a lot of time working by myself, but it rarely has anything to do with how something sounds or how well something is being performed. It just takes time to come up with a part that I like sometimes. Usually i’ll just throw up some mics and start. Ive been doing this long enough to where I just have a thing that I do, which works great for me, but if someone else comes in and wants to make a song sound like coldplay or something I just don’t know where to start. I’m just a dude in a garage with a $200 drum set, you know? It just happens to be my taste at this point in my life that I don’t like a lot of clutter. I think if you have good parts and performances that just a few elements can have a lot more impact. So, I don’t really believe in “layering” as a production style right now, but that may change.

Caleb (HTFAF): So we shouldn’t expect any 3/4 power ballads with delay drenched guitar and 8 vocal tracks on the next soft drugs project?

TW: No, but you CAN expect guitar solos.

Caleb (HTFAF) Are you working on anything new right now? I know you’re planning to release alot of free music song by song on your website.

TW: Yeah, I have a new song called “Family of Four” which I’m going to release in December. I played everything on it… I’m pleased with it, which is interesting.

Caleb (HTFAF): Is that Not something that happens often when you play everything on a record?

TW: I have done it a lot, but I didn’t really do that when I had Dave around all the time, we tried to be more of a traditional “band”…but I enjoy the process and I’m usually happy with the results. There’s a couple more songs around that I have recordings of already. One is called “Badge” and there are a few versions. One with Dave on vocals and drums, ken on guitar and background vocals and me on bass, and another one called “Build me a Ballpark” which I had up on youtube, and I’m still trying to nail down that song, I’ve done like 3 full-band versions but none of them made the cut yet. Dude, there are SO MANY tw walsh recordings from after pollensongs….dozens, I was going to release them all, but i didn’t want people to get confused about what was new or old

Caleb (HTFAF): You mentioned one of the new songs has Dave on vocals. I know you wrote Start Without Me on Achilles’ Heel, and Dave did the vocals on that one. Is that something you enjoy? Writing and let someone else take the vocal duties

TW: Yeah, it’s fine. Dave has an AMAZING voice. It’s funny though because no one ever reads credits, and I think a vast majority of people assume he wrote that song. I guess that’s the danger…just a blow to your ego

Caleb (HTFAF): Do you think you will have any involvement in the next Bazan or Headphones record? Writing, playing, anything?

TW: No…[Long Pause] I think we had our chance, it makes me sad actually, so much potential…[Long Pause]…really I had almost nothing to do with the actual Headphones record, and Achilles’ heel was really thrown together. But there was a lot of other work we did that will never come out that just made it clear ultimately that dave needs to work things out himself. His working style is very “solo”, I guess…

Caleb (HTFAF): [Laughter] Before you go, let’s play fast money.

TW: Okay.

Caleb (HTFAF)What Have you been listening to lately?

TW: Herman Dune, The Complete Rolling Stone John Lennon interview, This American Life, Cold War Kids, Milo Jones, and The Roots

Caleb (HTFAF): What was the last book you read?

TW: I’m currently reading “The Nomad of Time” by Michael Moorcock…it’s a collection that follows an English time traveler from the early 20th century named Oswald bastable. I’m a sci fi nerd.

Caleb (HTFAF): Who could fault you for that, Tim? Finally, what was the last film you saw?

TW: Borat! With Dave.

[Links]
Download The Soft Drugs Entire debut EP In Moderation completely free HERE