Throughout Quietly Blowing It, Taylor brings his keen eye to our “broken American moment”-as he first sang on Hiss Golden Messenger’s critically acclaimed, GRAMMY®-nominated Terms of Surrender-in ways that feel devastatingly intimate and human. “We’ve all spent so many years traveling all over the world, but in that moment, it felt cathartic to be recording those particular songs with each other in our own small hometown.” “We all needed to be making that music together,” he recalls. In July, the group of musicians, with Taylor in the production seat, went into Overdub Lane in Durham,NC, for a week, where they recorded Quietly Blowing It as an organic unit honed to a fine edge from their years together on the road. And being in my studio, which is both isolated from and totally connected to the life of my family, felt appropriate for these songs.” Between March and June, Taylor wrote and recorded upwards of two dozen songs-in most cases playing all of the instruments himself-before winnowing the collection down and bringing them to the Hiss band. Having spent so much time on the road over the past ten years, where writing consistently with any kind of flow can be tricky, it felt refreshing. “Writing became a daily routine,” he explains, “and that was a ballast for me. Quietly Blowing It was written and arranged by Taylor in his home studio-his 8’ × 10’ sanctuary packed floor to ceiling with books, records, and old guitars-as he watched the chaotic world spin outside his window. “I got way more time than I needed, actually.” And I got the time required in order to do that.” He pauses and laughs ruefully. Maybe I had the presence of mind when I was writing Quietly Blowing It to know that this was the time to go as deep as I needed to in order to make a record like this. “It’s not exactly a record about the state of the world-or my world-in 2020, but more a retrospective of the past five years of my life, painted in sort of impressionistic hues. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger about his new album Quietly Blowing It, out June 25, 2021, on Merge Records. Both would be amazing.“I went looking for peace,” says songwriter M.C.
Maybe Little Feat circa Sailin’ Shoes or Bob Marley & The Wailers at the Roxy in 1976. If you were able to choose one artist from before your time and see them perform live who would it be and why? The Consolers, Brother Joe May, Sister Lucille Pope. I was heading to the record store one day and thought, “I’d love to find a copy of that Sunset Travelers record,” and when I got there it was just about the first record I saw and it practically jumped into my hand. My number one for a long time was On Jesus’ Program by The Sunset Travelers. I found a CD of it in Harlem maybe 15 years ago, and found a vinyl copy in the last couple years. The Jackson Southernaires’ Save My Child is a great record. I find that gospel music often has that thing that I’m looking for more often than other types of music. But I am drawn towards musical expressions that sounds genuine and vulnerable. When did this genre enter your life and what are some of your favorite albums and artists? Tell us about your love of gospel records. In the past few years, though, I feel like I’ve crossed over into listening to reggae music year-round.
I tend to deal with music seasonally, so I’m often listening to more reggae and Tropicalia in the warmer months, and folkier music in the cooler months. Do you have any other songs that you love to listen to, or songs that you’ve written, that enliven your sense of smell (or maybe taste?)
You mention a fresh cut grass smell associated with this song. In your excerpt from the book, ‘One Last Song’, your song of choice was Ronnie Lane’s ‘Anymore for Anymore’.
We caught up with Mike recently via email… Fresh off a Grammy nomination for his last album Terms Of Surrender, new record Quietly Blowing It – due June 25th – continues the Americana soulful rock sound that has caught the attention of many fans. Mike Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger did not let the COVID-19 pandemic halt any of his plans to pump out LP #12.
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