Tag: Hunter S. Thompson

BGS 5+5: Arlo McKinley

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Arlo McKinley
Hometown: Norwood, Ohio
Latest Album: Die Midwestern (Oh Boy Records)
Rejected Band Names: Hatchet Wounds, Black Locust Inn, Thousand Dollar Car

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

With so many influences I could name, I always go back to Blaze Foley. His ability to put so much feeling and emotion into a simple song without ever taking himself so seriously. He always influenced me in my writing, and has been a reminder to always be myself.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I would have to say that performing and knowing that one of my heroes, John Prine, had taken the time out of his day in the middle of the week to come see me play would probably top the list. He came to watch the band play at the High Watt in Nashville. That was a night I’ll never forget.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I read a lot when not listening to or writing music. Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, Greil Marcus, Ted Chiang and many others. Ted Chiang writes very smart, socially-conscious science fiction that really stands out to me. I highly recommend checking him out if you haven’t already.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

That would have to be growing up in the Baptist church. Seeing that music could be so much more to people than just a sound and evoke real emotions in people appealed to me in a way that is hard to put into words. Along with that I grew up constantly surrounded by so many kinds of music that my family would be listening to. Country, punk, bluegrass, folk, metal, hip-hop, etc. It’s the only thing that I ever thought that I should be doing so I’d say the simple answer is, from the moment I discovered music I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

It would be to keep pushing myself to grow as a musician, always pushing myself to never create the same album twice. It would be to also keep creating music that people can correlate to their own lives in one way or another.

Photo credit: David McClister

BGS 5+5: Jesse Dayton

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Artist: Jesse Dayton
Hometown: Beaumont Texas, but been in Austin forever.
Latest Album: Gulf Coast Sessions, out July 24
Personal nicknames: AKA the Beaumonster, AKA Country Soul Brother

What other art forms, like literature, film, dance, painting, etc. inform your music?

Books and film have been the biggest inspiration outside of listening to other folks’ music. I remember seeing Ralph Steadman’s subversive art in Rolling Stone magazine when I was a kid and then reading the words under it, which were Hunter S. Thompson’s words. I had read some of the classics at this point, but that was my first introduction to outsider, almost punk rock-like, literature. Then I got into the Beat writers and after that it was the Russian writers, then then Irish writers, up until Latino surrealist like Márquez.

I always gotta a book going. Right now it’s On Tyranny by Timothy Snider. The biggest thing I learned from the writers I love is sometimes the narrative of your story/lyrics don’t have to be perfectly defined. When people digest art, the only thing they usually remember about it is how it made them feel. Same with films. Truffaut, Scorsese, and PT Anderson have all made me think, “Wow, that’d make a great lyric.” I directed a horror B-film that starred Malcolm McDowell called Zombex on Amazon. I’m writing a book for Hachette Book Group/DaCapo Press which will be out 2021.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I bought a house in South Austin about 18 years ago and we have access to a beautiful greenbelt forest that runs outside of town next to a flowing creek and that’s where I trail run. Besides the mental health benefits I get from defeating the shitty committee in my head that’s always trying to talk me out of exercising, I get lots of song ideas out in the woods that I wouldn’t get running on concrete. Besides, country music is not just a genre, it’s an actual place and sometimes ya gotta get out in the woods away from folks to receive clear messages about your work. I’m buzzing at a different frequency when my feet are in the dirt.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Well, as long as we’re “dreaming,” I can’t think of anything better than having a big plate of Cajun seafood, oysters on the half shell, Fried red fish stuffed with crab meat, and a shrimp cocktail, circa 1955 at Antoine’s in the Quarter in New Orleans with the father of American music, Louis Armstrong. What’s not to love? By the way, I rarely eat seafood anymore and eat mostly a plant-based diet so I don’t keel over like all my other relatives did in their 50s from clogged arteries. But I will go fishing and eat my catch from time to time.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song are use “you“ when it’s actually “me”?

I’m guilty of doing this sometimes when I write personal and vulnerable lyrics that couldn’t be about anyone else but me, but I write it as “you.” I do like the idea of creating characters vocally though. All my favorite singers have created them throughout their careers, whether it was Mick Jagger’s country voice on “Wild Horses” or his blues voice on “Midnight Rambler.” Everyone from Jerry Reed to Bob Dylan to Howlin’ Wolf all create characters in their lyrics and in the vocal booth.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Try to give back more than I receive and keep my expectations lower than my gratitude. The more I do this, the better I feel.

Photo credit: Ray Redding

BGS 5+5: The Band of Heathens

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Artist Name: The Band of Heathens
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Latest Album: A Message From The People, Revisited

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Literature has been a strong influence on music and life in general. I really fell in love with reading at a young age, devouring everything from Inside Pro Football 1985 to The Three Investigators series. I had a great 20th century literature course in high school with a teacher named Chuck Wettergreen, who really encouraged me to fuse my love of playing music and writing songs with literature. We tackled everything from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible to As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Writers such as Kerouac, Burroughs, and Hunter S. Thompson have been life-long companions that have inspired me in the songwriting process.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I think I always knew that I wanted to play music. The first time I performed in front of an audience was in pre-school. My teacher somehow got Ella Jenkins (The First-Lady of Children’s Folk Songs) to visit our class and play music for us. I somehow ended up with a guitar in my hand at some point during the presentation and performed for my class. I was hooked from that point on!

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Paul McCartney + Lebanese Food in Beirut. I am of Lebanese descent and grew up loving the cuisine. Additionally, I’ve never been to Beirut and I understand that’s it’s a magnificent city. Oh yeah, I’ve also never met or dined with Paul McCartney, so it would probably be cool to talk about The Beatles and some other stuff.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Independence. The whole idea of making music and living my life as a creative person is based on an idea of freedom. The freedom to be independent to live a life of your choosing; from the hours you keep, to the friends you have, to the way you look and the clothes you wear. I know we live in a country where we are free to pursue anything we want, but I’ve always felt that this lifestyle was a way for me to manifest that idea and truly live it.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I’ve been living in Asheville, North Carolina, for about 5 years now and we are sandwiched between two national parks and have access to all sorts of natural wonder and beauty. I really enjoy hiking and exploring in the Pisgah National Forest, it really offers me a great opportunity to deep-breathe some fresh air and escape the everyday sounds of life. I’ve found that it really clears my head and makes room for creating song ideas. So many of my best initial ideas have come while I’ve been walking through and old growth forest, in the morning as the fog is lifting.