Ryley walker facebook4/5/2023 ![]() Chicago, it’s this big iconic, world-renowned city, and the things it’s known for, I haven’t seen them or done them. My entire life, I’ve never been in that goddamn building. And you know what the stupidest fucking thing is, about living there so long? The Sears Tower…I’ve never been in that fucking thing. I’ve lived in Chicago for 11 years in August. That was more of an influence than anything.ĪD: How long have you lived in Chicago? Before you moved there, were you interested in the sounds coming out of the city? That has more influence on this record than a bunch of Bob Dylan or Neil Young songs, you know what I mean? The out, improv thing going on in Chicago - which the city is well known for - it kind of bridges a lot of musical forms for me. Ryley Walker: It’s a personal record - it’s composed, but at the same time, I do a lot of improv shit in Chicago with my friends. ![]() Was there anything scary about making this record? In the notes, you also talk about wanting to get away from being a “jammy acoustic guy.” Was there anything scary or frightening about doing that? I was like, that’s a record title.ĪD: That film scared you. For years and years, I had these stray memories in my brain, thinking, “What was the name of that fucking scary movie that scared the shit out of me?” 15 years later, I’m thinking, “What the hell was that movie called?” And I came upon it, and it was Deafman Glance. You know how they have those viewing rooms, to show a movie or whatever? I sat down with my mom and watched this movie - a really fucked up, scary movie. I’m not really into theater either, but when I was a little kid, maybe nine or ten years old, my mom took my sister and me to the Museum of Contemporary Art, in downtown Chicago. Ryley Walker: It’s the title of a movie by this film and theater director from the Lower East Side, Robert Wilson. Ryley Walker: Like any other paranoid, fucked up artist, I loathe what I do one minute and love what I do the next. Recently, AD caught up with Walker on the road, to discuss how Chicago influenced the new album, honing a poetic voice, and why saying “stupid” things online can be a folk-rock boon.Īquarium Drunkard: In the notes that accompanied the release of Deafman Glance, you wrote about how making it stressed you out. ![]() “It’s not very fun/Being a fun person,” Walker sings on “Can’t Ask You Why,” and then as if acknowledging a tendency for overthinking, adding “And I can hear you sigh.” ![]() But somehow, his new lp, Deafman Glance, makes space for the whole of Ryley, a young dude whose early records felt like lost Britfolk artifacts, but whose ubiquitous social media presence feels pretty damn modern.Ī proggy, intricate, and often deadpan chunk of jazz-folk, it’s also Walker’s most personal record, one that finds the singer/songwriter opened up in unexpected ways, obsessing over debt, bus fare, and the lack of a master plan. Catch Ryley Walker one day, and he may be forecasting his future as a bald, ponytailed guitar shredder catch him another, and he’s sketching out a scene from the mid-2000s, scheming to pick up a book of pop theology and some blog rock. ![]()
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