Dunedin guitarist and songwriter David Kilgour has put music to the words of poet Sam Hunt. The album collaboration has been harmonious, Shane Gilchrist discovers.
Rewind . . .
. . . to 1972. David Kilgour is 10 years old and living upstairs at the Captain Cook Hotel, which is managed by his father . . .
"By chance, one day I meet Sam Hunt while he's visiting the hotel. I knew he'd been spotted at the hotel and about town. He is dressed in white denim, head to foot. I'm impressed.
"He looks so bloody cool and, even at this stage, I know who he is.
"He asks me `How are you going?' I tell him `Good'. Meeting over."
Fast forward . . .
. . . to October 2007.
Kilgour is flying from Dunedin to Los Angeles to meet up with his backing band, The Heavy Eights, to begin a tour of the United States promoting new album The Far Now . . .
"Genevieve took me to Dunedin Airport and there's Sam Hunt being cornered by an elderly lady in the bookstore. `Mmmmm', I thought to myself, `maybe today's the day I get to meet Sam again'.
"Genevieve brings coffee over to the table we are sitting at.
"I look down and notice I've dropped my boarding pass.
"I pick it up and see that it's Sam Hunt's boarding pass, the pass he has used to get to Dunedin.
"I get seated on the plane and then I'm moved to another seat due to some mix-up.
"And then once I'm seated, they move Sam next to me due to some mix-up.
"Sam leans over and asks me if I'm David.
"Before we know it the flight's over and, on parting, I mention to him that back in the late '80s, while making Here Come The Cars, engineer Nick Roughan and I talked about making an LP with Sam.
"Sam immediately suggested that we should still give it a go."
Pause . . .
. . . late April 2009. Kilgour is explaining how the mid-flight conversation with Hunt came to fruition and resulted in the dozen or so songs that comprise the recently released album, Falling Debris . . .
"A few people have asked about how Sam and I actually collaborated . . . There were lots of phone calls and emails.
"I must've sent him 20 CDs over the six months leading up to recording. Sure, he did suggest the odd old poem that would work - he does say that all of his poems are songs.
"He sent me a lot of brand-new poems, hot off the press, some of which made the LP, like Chord and They Are Clouds.
"We also traded CDs and compilations of other artists.
"Sam also played me a lot of spoken-word recordings from some of the greats like Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden and Ted Hughes.
"The more I heard this stuff, the more I felt that none of it needed music. To hear the author perform his words seemed way good enough."
Record . . .
. . . Kilgour describes the relaxed and rapid-fire methodology he employed to translate Hunt's poetry into songs . . .
"I don't think there was any set way in selecting the poems. I started off with about four or five songs and then got feedback about them.
"I didn't like the idea of just doing it and throwing it back at Sam and saying `look I want to put this out'.
"I wanted him to want me to make the record, to like the stuff. That was the motivation in making the music - I hope this one turns Sam on, so to speak.
"I didn't really give it too much thought; I made it quite naturally.
"If something didn't work quickly or naturally within the first few minutes, I'd just move on. I was definitely respectful of the work and I wanted to get it right.
"There were some that didn't make the album. I just couldn't get them right: maybe two verses would be absolutely spot-on and I'd love them, but there would be another two that I just couldn't get to fit.
"There were problems like that.
"With this album sometimes I might hit a chord, say a G, then go into an A-minor and I'd think `well, I've done that before'.
"Normally, I'd say `I'm not going to do that this time'.
"But on this album I thought `I'm not even going to think about it. I'm just going to open up the poems, hit a chord and if it works, go for it'.
"We just worked along slowly. I'd get feedback and Sam suggested poems as well. Actually, not many of those worked out.
"I certainly looked at a lot of poems, for sure."
Play . . .
. . . Kilgour explains the home-spun approach to capturing the mood at his villa in Northeast Valley, Dunedin . . .
"Most of the album was recorded by Thomas Bell at my house over three days in September 2008.
"Me and the Heavy Eights [Tony de Raad on guitar, Taane Tokona on drums, Bell on bass, keyboards] sat around my house playing instruments and kept overdubs to a minimum.
"All the vocals, bar one, are live. The basic set-up for most of the songs was two acoustics, drums, bass and vocal.
"The drummer and bass player were in the lounge while me and Tony, the other guitarist, were in my bedroom, which is quite large.
"We had the studio set up in the music room. The loudest things were the drums, but we didn't record too late.
"But, yeah, I have very understanding neighbours, thankfully.
"We also talked about the demo version of songs as opposed to the band recordings.
"Some demos were used on the album. Some of the quieter acoustic numbers we actually cut as a full band, but didn't use.
"We are trying to book a date for Dunedin. We hope to do a show with Sam in May.
"We've been a bit late in organising that: one, this album was delayed a couple of weeks and two, Sam has a new book out in a couple of weeks - but that's been delayed so it has been hard pinning anyone down to dates."
Skip . . .
. . . Kilgour describes the project with Hunt as something of a surprise detour from his work on a forthcoming solo album, which he suggests will be a bit more more playful, less song-based than previous album The Far Now.
"It was a bit of a curve ball. I wasn't expecting it. I was halfway through making the next solo album.
"For me, it usually takes a couple of years to record an album. Falling Debris took a year so I was pleased about that.
"I'd say I'd be lucky to get the new solo album in the can by the end of the year. At a guess, I would say early next year.
"We've recorded some of it; it is under way. You could say it's been written."
Scan . . .
. . . Kilgour points to a new studio work by his other band, the Clean.
Due out in September, followed by a tour of the United States, where it will be released by Merge, the album will again feature the results of jams with brother and drummer Hamish and bassist-keyboardist Robert Scott.
There will also be more personal material . . .
"Believe it or not, we've just finished it. It's different every time, but this time we each brought more to the table individually."
Bonus material . . .
. . . the cover art for Falling Debris features a painting by Kilgour. Visit his website www.davidkilgour.com and there are others. They are for sale, too . . .
"I wondered if I could sell paintings via the website and straight away I started selling them, so I've kept it up.
"It's purely a financial thing, but it's a diversion from music. It pays the electricity and phone bill for the month.
"I've sold one every six weeks or so."
Stop . . . repeat ?
. . . Kilgour ponders a future collaboration with Hunt . . .
"I did record quite a lot of Sam talking and reciting and put some music to a couple, which I quite liked.
"We do talk about doing another LP some day, but next time the talk is of recording it with Sam.
"It's nice that this one worked. It really was one of those encounters: `we really must make a record together'. And what do you know . . ."
