Tell me about your new album.
It's called Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, and it's once again on Ghostly International. I did this one a bit differently – usually I go for a feeling without editing or getting too precious about it. For this one, the songs took me a little bit longer to polish up. I recorded in my home studio and then took it over to producer Rob Schnapf [Tape Op #9] here in L.A. at his Mant Sounds studio. We took a couple of days to add overdubs, synths, and tidy up the songs before it was ready to be mixed.
Who mixed it?
I mixed it with Trevor Spencer at Way Out Recording Studio near Seattle. Alex [Scally] from Beach House suggested him, and we worked remotely. He didn't really do anything heavy-handed, but I told him where to bring out different instruments and he understood what I was going for. We got along great, and I'd love to work with him again.
Are there any guests on the record?
The first song is my friend Meg Baird [of Espers] singing and Walt McClements [of Weyes Blood] playing accordion through effects. It's really droney, and saturated with gorgeous colors. I visited Meg at her magical place in Arcata, California, and Ben Chasny [of 6 Organs of Admittance] came over to record her vocals. The second song, "Arrivederci," features synths from a hero of mine, Lol Tolhurst [of The Cure]. He said the song reminded him of being a child on the beach. "Blender in a Blender" features New Zealand guitar player Roy Montgomery. We became pen pals when I was in Wyoming at an artist residency. We'd sent files back and forth, but I lost the stems and only had this unfinished demo. Rob and I filled it out – I'm grateful to him for digging in with me and helping me get it into a good place. Rachel Goswell [of Slowdive] sings on the closing track, and Samara Lubelski plays some cool droning violin. I met Samara around 2010 when we were playing with Thurston Moore. There's even a bonus track (for Japan) featuring Bill Nace, who's a really mind-bending guitar player.
Wow, that's a lot of legends!
I often think about little teen Mary in her room, or awkward college age Mary, what she was listening to. Man, she would be happy! To hear how her harp is mixing in with her heroes' voices is the ultimate beautiful dream come true.
How did you first acquire your harp?
I don't want to sound like a brat, but I have two. [laughs] I've had the 47 string Lyon & Healy since I was a kid, and that will always be my baby. I won a Pew Fellowship in Philly in 2014, and I decided it would be a good investment to buy a harp in Europe, so that harp lives in Brussels. I put a nice pickup in it, and I use it when I tour there. It's made it so much easier because harps are so precious. For the person who owns it, it's probably their favorite thing in the world, so asking to borrow one or rent one from another harpist was not sometimes possible. I got tired of scrambling, and I knew that this was going to serve future Mary well. It's also there if other harpists want to use it. I'm just trying to spread around good karma.
What exposure did you have to music in North Carolina? Were you inspired by the traditional music of the Happy Valley?
I grew up in Asheville, but went to high school in Shelby, which is where Earl Scruggs is from. When my grandad passed away, my parents moved to his farm. My dad is now a cattle farmer, and my mom has a harp studio there on the farm, and she teaches a lot of students. That flat farmland part of the state outside of Charlotte must be what they call the Happy Valley. There is that traditional music, bluegrass and folk, that's all woven in there. I started taking harp lessons at age 11 and my mom gave me this harp when I turned 18.
Was she your teacher as well?
We thought there would be too many arguments, so I took lessons with Elizabeth Roth from the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. She's amazing.
Were you starting to mix classical with indie music when at Eastman School of Music?
I worked at two really cool record stores up there, absorbing a ton of music, but I never thought that I could blend the two. I had my very serious classical harp world at Eastman, and then I would ride the bus to the University of Rochester to work at the radio station. That was my other world. When I moved to Philly, I met some great musicians who were like, "Let's add some harp to the record," or, "Be in our band." "Are you sure? I have this giant 85-pound thing." But the timing was right.
When did the Line 6 DL4 delay come into play? It seems like you're always cradling one live, and it's such a crucial part of your sound.
It is. I'm so attached to it now. I feel like it's such a basic thing, but it's like another instrument and I know it really well. When I started playing in Fursaxa with Tara Burke and Helena Espvall, they both had Line 6 loopers and I thought Helena's cello sounded so cool through it. "What would the harp sound like going through this machine?" I started messing around and getting to know it. I spent a lot of time experimenting and failing with placing piezo mic pickups on the outside of the harp. I finally found this Seattle company, Dusty Strings, that makes a pickup called the Dusty Harp Pickup [P30]. It's the one that I put in both of my harps, and I even put one in one of my mom's harps on the east coast.
What did she think?
She was happy, because this harp belonged to one of her former students. This older lady loved her harp so much that she even had a golden crown put on the top of it. She named it Princess; and when she passed away she left my mom the harp. My mom thought that, rather than driving back and forth across the country, I could use Princess. She allowed me to put in the pickup, and I took "her" on the road with Beach House last year.
You recorded your first album, The Withdrawing Room, at Uniform Recording with Jeff Zeigler. Was that a big deal for you?
I had just finished playing with Thurston Moore on the record cycle for [his album] Demolished Thoughts. That was one of the highlights of my life, being invited to play on that record and then touring in a band. He went on to make another record without a harp on it, and I was sad. My dream had come true, but now it was over! So, I spoke to Jeff and we both decided I needed to come into the studio and work out these feelings. I sat and played for hours as he added studio shimmer to the harp and enhanced the colors. He also added sounds from his Korg Mono/Poly synthesizer as we were jamming together. Jeff is very professional, and we've done exact and precise work in the studio, but there's also a freedom and FUN working with him where there's room to experiment. Our brains are good at being weird together, and I think that he has done that with a lot of Philly musicians. Nurturing these one-of-a-kind recording environments that have carried our little scene across the world in a crystallized form.
You were awarded a Pew Fellowship in 2014, preceding At The Dam. The first song, "Otis Walks into the Woods," features some cool effects and echoes.
I was working four different jobs at that point in Philly, really hustling. I decided to give myself a break and take my harp across the country. I house-sat for some friends in Marfa, Texas, and recorded there. I made some songs at a mini residency in Joshua Tree [California]. I'm sure I made something at my parents' place in North Carolina. It felt like a searching record – exploring places with just me, my harp, and my car. Seeing what I could do with a laptop and an Apogee Duet [interface]. I had the pleasure of working with Rob Laakso, a much-missed, much-admired musician I met through touring with Kurt Vile. I was using a weird pickup in the harp with a ground hum and hired Rob to go through and excise the noise and save the song. He also recorded my harp parts for a documentary film about radical nuns [Radical Grace]. A very special dude.
You settled in L.A. and found an outlet playing for film and TV soundtracks.
I've been doing some of that, and also playing on people's records out here. For scoring projects, I'm either sending files or going to someone's home studio. A great friend of mine, Heather McIntosh, is a very accomplished film composer. She'll come over with her mobile setup and record me. We've been doing that for years. There are cool opportunities here in L.A., musically, that I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't moved. I also love to tour, so the hard part is when schedules don't line up.
Your album Hundreds of Days was written at an artists' retreat. Did you record yourself?
It was at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. I made it in this redwood barn that was my studio. Drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and then there's this wild coastal landscape with old Victorian military housing turned into a residency. It's very vibey, and one of the greatest things was that there wasn't much cell phone reception. It was nice to check out after a day of working on the record; to come back and not look at the phone. I'd read a bunch of books, eat good food, and get to know these other artists that were there.
Neil Halstead of Slowdive produced the 2020 follow up, Silver Ladders. How did that come about?
Neil was very surprised when I asked him, because we didn't know each other at all. I could have gone over and been afraid to give up control, but I felt immediately comfortable with him. He has this little studio on Newquay Airport in Cornwall, England. It was a challenge to rent a harp in such a remote place, but we found a lovely harpist named Tim who was willing to bring a harp for a week, and we spent eight days there. Some songs I had demos for, and some were just sitting down and improvising. It was cool to give him the reins to help structure and add to the tracks. I trusted him, because I admire his music so much. The whole point of it was to hear what someone else would do. Sometimes I just get sick of myself. It was an experiment to work with someone who hadn't worked with a harp before. It was so dreamy and fun, and we had the greatest time. When I listen back to it, it feels like fate… and then the whole world shut down.
I'm hearing things that sound less "harpy" on that record. Are those Neil's guitar textures?
We were adding a lot of synthesizer parts, and Neil played his beautiful guitar. I stick to a few different pedals, including a Strymon BigSky [reverb] and a variety of Moog pedals. Moog has been kind to me as an Asheville native, and I use their Moogerfoogers and [Minifooger] MF Delay among others. EarthQuaker Devices have also been supportive and have sent me a few cool pedals that sound great on the harp. I love using their Avalanche Run delay/reverb combo and the Aqueduct vibrato.
"Painter of Tygers" from Ghost Forests, with Meg Baird, is a great vehicle for harp and a vocalist.
We've been friends since Philly, and I've admired her music, from Espers to her solo work. Her voice is such a silvery and singular instrument that I'm lucky to be able to collaborate with. She's the real thing. We always talked about making something together, and it finally came true. We made the record here in L.A. with Thom Monahan. Cory [Rayborn] from Three Lobed Records really pushed us to make it a reality. In July, we opened for [Tuareg songwriter and guitarist Mahamadou Souleymane, known professionally as] Mdou Moctar at SummerStage in Central Park [New York City], and previously we toured Europe with Kurt Vile and the Violators. Julianna Barwick also has a beautiful voice, and she and I have talked about making a record. I like saying "yes," so if there are other vocalists that want to do something, I would definitely be down!
The album West Kensington, in 2021, incorporated some rougher guitar textures.
I made that with my friend Paul Sukeena. He and I had mirroring apartments in the same building, and we were making food together with his wife during the pandemic, sharing a yard, and hanging out a lot. At some point, we realized we should make music instead of just being depressed and watching Friday Night Lights. [laughs] Cory from Three Lobed also encouraged this collaboration, since we had the ideal situation for making a duo happen during a pretty isolating period. Paul had previously been on tour with Angel Olsen, so we were finally both home and it felt like a positive opportunity to grab in a paralyzing time.
You mentioned sitting down and improvising on The Withdrawing Room. Is that how you typically write?
That was my initial way, just to improvise and say, "Fuck it," because I didn't know how to edit. Jeff [Zeigler] was helping me with that one, but, for a long time, I would just use [Apple] GarageBand and I didn't know how to use the scissors. I didn't know how to edit at all. Now, I use [Apple] Logic and I'm getting better at it. But in the beginning I was like, "Okay, one take and then that's all it is." I couldn't wrap my head around using the computer very well. I just played this ancient wooden thing – if a take isn't good, I'll make another one. I'd start loops, see what happens, and then build upon that. I still do that a lot. If I play a note that doesn't sound great, I'll play it over and over and over again until it morphs into something else. I'm kind of primitive that way, where I'm just figuring out how I'm going to get out of this problem. I have fun doing that, but I don't like working on the computer.
John Fahey didn't edit in Logic, right?
I've been getting into film scoring, so that has made me learn how to edit better. It's a new adventure for my brain. The songs on the new album were approached more like typical songs. I'd sketch it out, then I'd record it and perfect it. I like leaving a lot of room for improvisation, especially playing live. I've never played it the same way twice. The bones are there, but I like being able to channel the feelings of the day or the place I'm playing. Just the freedom of knowing how to use my instrument and the [Line 6] DL4. Feeling confident that I can rearrange something that doesn't sound the way I want it to, like using feedback to my advantage. It keeps me on my toes.
Tell me about this gig you played in Malibu, [California,] with the chorus of frogs!
You know, those frogs were so loud that I thought, this being Hollywood, someone must have piped that in as a sound effect. They sounded so perfect, but they were real! This was on a ranch in Malibu for a Source Family event to coincide with the anniversary of the documentary [The Source Family]. They used to have a cool psych band [Ya Ho Wha 13] that was affiliated with the group, and some of the members were there. I'm scoring a new documentary by the director, Jodi Wille, that's more glittery and new age '80s.
And so goes another typical day in the world of Mary Lattimore. Goodbye, Hotel Arkada is out now on Ghostly International.
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