Talkdemonic’s long-awaited fifth full-length, ‘Various Seasides’ was released about a week ago. It’s a project by Brooklyn based composer Kevin Timothy O’Connor.

“‘Various Seasides’ is a nod to the album being of the water,” O’Connor admits. “Instrumental albums’ meanings should be vague in that it brings the listener to a place or soundtracks a time, or a moment in life that becomes personal to that individual. It shouldn’t be thrust on them. That’s the advantage of no lyrics, no voice, just the feeling of the tune, which can be even more special to the listener or turn them off completely.”

O’Connor played all the instruments on the album, including the drums, bass, acoustic guitars, synths, Wurlitzer piano, and percussion. ‘Various Seasides’ is thus a return to the band’s beginnings, once again a solo creation sharing its origins with ‘Mutiny Sunshine’ (2004). “I always meant for Talkdemonic to become my own thing again one day, and this album is the definition of that notion,” he explains. “I’m obviously not objective, but I believe that the album is the most focused to date, in that the instrumentation and sound is meant to remain in the same room for the entire record. There aren’t any sampled drums, it’s my drum set from start to finish. The Wurlitzer piano remains the center of most of the songs, and the synthesizers propel us through. It’s meant to be about the ideas and not the stage tricks.” It was also produced, recorded, and mixed by O’Connor at Talknumeric in Brooklyn, New York. Then mastered by Gus Elg at Sky Onion in Portland, OR, with vinyl lacquers cut by Elg as well.

“The intersection of melody and sound”

Your upcoming album ‘Various Seasides’ was released October 28th, would you like to explain the main concept behind it?

Kevin O’Connor: The main concept behind ‘Various Seasides’ is the intersection of melody and sound. I intended for the album to contain a finite number of songs that were meant to be completely stripped of any pretension, in that the expression lies in the melodic interplay and the sparse, laid bare songs. For me the album functions as a love letter to the city of New York. The aim was to channel all of the intensity of a very challenging time; to make an album that reflected my personal experience. I wanted it to be personal and delicate for the listener, not a projection of my themes and ideas. I think you can actually do this with instrumental music. I’m not forcing a concept or idea, but allowing the listener to move freely through that space. To allow the music to become a backdrop or a soundtrack to one’s experiences.

Do you feel that you opened a new chapter in your career with this release?

Without a doubt. I would be remiss not to mention my former bandmate Lisa Molinaro, whose contributions to Talkdemonic are immeasurable. We were a team. We loved playing together live. We spent so much time together on the road. Over a decade, we became a family of sorts. When I moved to New York in 2015, Lisa and I had put Talkdemonic on indefinite hiatus, not playing a “final show” or anything like that. She went on to become a full member of Modest Mouse and was busy touring with them and recording new music which was exciting. We had talked about making a new Talkdemonic record but being on opposite coasts didn’t help. When I started recording ‘Various Seasides,’ I didn’t fully intend for it to be a Talkdemonic album. It wasn’t until after I finished that I realized that was exactly what it was.

The new album is meant to be a bridge of sorts to the debut record ‘Mutiny Sunshine.’ Even the artwork is a nod to the washed out cover of ‘Mutiny Sunshine.’ When I started the band, I toured with a laptop, drums and a synth, played solo, generally doing my own thing. Over the years, I had it in the back of my mind that Talkdemonic would return to a solo entity. It’s possible that Lisa and I will collaborate again, but this record marks the beginning of a new era. Whereas before the melodies could sometimes be overcrowded, on this record they stand alone. The drums are paired back. There are zero samples, no drum machines. Just the songs. Of course the new record is also influenced by my film work, and hopefully enhanced by this experience. I think I learned more about recording over the past decade.

Tell us about the effect, pedals, and electronics you used on the album…

Oooh the fun part! Gear geeking alert section. Whenever I start a new project, like many other musicians and composers, I try to upgrade my studio (if I have any money). I bought a used Universal Audio Apollo x6 to serve as the switchboard, which was a leap up from my RME soundcard. I was lucky enough to get a Dave Smith Prophet Rev2 16 voice synth at the beginning of the recording process, which is all over the record. My Roland Chorus Echo analog tape delay had been collecting dust for 5 years and I finally found someone to fix it in Brooklyn. I basically ran everything through it, all of the synths sound like they’re coming from another warmer world via that tape delay and spring reverb box. This is the piece of gear that Lee Scratch Perry used on all of the dub and reggae roots records of the late 70’s. At the time I was obsessed with that genre, and definitely ran my drums through it to get that subtle reggae/dub vibe that you hear on many of the tracks. It broke down a few times during the sessions, but actually some fun tape warble and disintegration sounds made the album.

I also dove into the UAD plugin world. The legendary SSL Bus compressor is incredible and is all over the record. I also used the AKG BX-20 spring reverb plugin which was also a go-to for reggae/dub producers in the 70’s like King Tubby and Augustus Pablo. The API 560 eq was indispensable, that thing is nuts. You can literally transform sounds with it. I also used the Ampex ATR-102 and Studer tape machine plugin to warm up sounds. During the mixdown, I ran all of my tracks through a Warm Audio Bus Compressor hardware unit, which is an SSL type clone.

The synth lineup for this record includes the Moog Opus 3, Korg MS-20, Realistic Concertmate MG1, Moog MicroMoog, and the DSI Prophet Rev2. I’ve probably bored everyone with all of this talk just fantasizing that this was a Tape Op article haha…

Where was the album recorded?

The album was recorded over a span of 7 months at Talknumeric in East Williamsburg Brooklyn. I rented a cozy space with a window in a music suite building near the Brooklyn Steel venue to challenge myself to make a new record. I was coming off of a two year stint working as a branded content composer, and I had about 6 months to decompress from that exhausting and artistically draining experience. I wanted to see if I still had it in me to make something that I cared about.

The first three days I set up camp in this building that was 90% vacant, my only neighbors were a hairdresser and a massage therapist. During the first week ‘Dream Silver’ just popped out of nowhere and for me it was a sacred moment, confirmation that I had something to say. The process began there, focusing patiently on each new song for about 2 weeks, starting from scratch on the Wurlitzer electric piano mostly, sometimes on an acoustic guitar or synth, gently channeling the feeling of existing in abandoned New York City, living in a space where only my art and music mattered, sort of blocking out everything else. It was a process of getting to know my melodic voice again, and hoping to express myself in a way that was much more sparse than past records.

I would love it if you can make some comments about the tracks on the album…

‘Night Walk’ is the most near and dear to me. The only song that existed before I rented the new studio. I would work on the piano part at the Soho studio I was working at, imagining a day when I would record it and make a new Talkdemonic album. It has a very melancholic tone to it that marked that time for me. It was a candle burning for ‘Various Seasides.’ ‘Song for Meagen’ is for a friend of mine who passed away mysteriously in 2021. She was a beautiful person that really had an inner glow. She was planning on moving to New York and had visited in 2019 to set the stage. Unfortunately, that never came to be. I wanted to send her a message through music. That I won’t ever forget her. ‘Film Wave,’ ‘Abandoned City’ and ‘Various Seasides’ are all melodically ambient tunes inspired by my scoring experiences and beyond. I’ve always wanted to release a strictly ambient album, hopefully someday. ‘Film Wave’ is about as stripped down as it gets. Everything is there for the listener. A score for a film that hasn’t been shot. A washed out grainy world about something intense. ‘Abandoned City’ is really about walking through deserted Bushwick streets. The intensity of a time when everyone left a great city to rot. ‘Catskill Autumn Blaze’ is about escaping to the Catskills to record with Vandiver aka my talented songwriter friend Andrew Hammond. We recorded the EP in a sweet barn studio called Basement Floods run by Alex Wernquist, in the summer of 2020. The experience inspired me to record a new Talkdemonic album.

You played all the instruments on the album, including the drums, bass, acoustic guitars, synths, Wurlitzer piano, and percussion. On which instrument do you feel the most comfortable?

Leading up to the pandemic I took music theory courses at the Y on the Upper East Side. It took me back to my days on trumpet in middle school, though I’ve always thought of myself as a self-taught musician. Most of my classmates were well to do upper class New Yorkers looking for some entertainment. For me it was a chance to sharpen my piano skills and understanding of chords and theory. I think it really benefited me, in that I now understand more about what’s going on formulaically, but without polluting my independent musical spirit.

Of course I’m most comfortable behind a drum kit, as it’s my go-to in live situations and am truly myself there. I wanted the drums to be very subtle on this record though. More straight forward “serve the song” kind of vibe. So the drumming is more streamlined than on the first four records. That being the case I really spent a ton of time writing on the Wurlitzer electric piano, and of course dressing it up with analog synthesizers. Unlike past Talkdemonic records, the instrumentation on VS is very focused and unchanging, a deliberate choice on my part.

Would you like to elaborate on the backstory; what was the music scene when starting in Portland and your collaboration with Arena Rock label?

In the early to mid 2000’s the Portland music scene was kind of untapped and undiscovered. The city was kinda sleepy with cheap rent and an abundance of musicians. For example, I paid $300 for a room and basement studio in the heart of Southeast. It was a very supportive and community driven scene. Basically all of my friends were musicians. As a collective we went on to form Lucky Madison, a label putting out our friends’ music. The scene was so vibrant that outside labels and booking agents started moving to Portland, which benefitted us a ton. When you live in a smaller city, everyone knows everyone and things tend to happen organically. I don’t think I fully realized it at the time, but since I’ve been living in New York for 7 years I see it more clearly.

Our collaboration with Arena Rock was very fruitful. Greg Glover was a seasoned vet of the music industry and had just moved to Portland from Brooklyn. He was very good to us and worked hard on promoting Beat Romantic and Eyes at Half Mast, and provided a model of how to run a label, which I applied to Lucky Madison when I started managing the label in 2006. Though we had one more record on our contract, he gracefully let us move on to Issac Brock’s Glacial Pace label for our fourth album ‘Ruins.’

What are some future plans for you?

I actually just started a Masters program at Queens College! I’m studying Library Science and my first class was last week. I haven’t been a student in many years and it’s been so fun thus far. The school is incredibly diverse, kinda radical politically, and has a forward thinking motto of aiming to serve the community, which is what I’m hoping to do with my degree. I could see myself splitting time between a New York Public Library position and my studio working on film and documentary projects, and of course another Talkdemonic record. As a former English major, I obsess over reading the classics and new literature and filled a couple hours a day during the pandemic catching up on all those books that I hadn’t read on my shelf. To be able to share this passion with others is my dream outside of music. I spent about three weeks cataloguing my vinyl collection on Discogs, which made me think about archiving and collections. Mostly, I’m certainly in the lifelong learning category as many of us are, I’m excited to continue to change, make myself uncomfortable in new circles, and try to thrive in these new directions. That was my aim when I moved to New York and it has certainly been a ride. I’ve learned so much about myself.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

My pleasure! For me it’s always divided between new music and old music discoveries or blind spots. I’ve been completely obsessed with GOON’s new album ‘Hour of Green Everything’ and Aldous Harding’s beautiful chameleonic ‘Warm Chris.’ She was a way of sounding old and new at the same time. GOON sounds like if Alex G had Pinback and Deerhunter backing him up. Last summer I realized that dream pop has always been my favorite genre, listening to Cocteau Twins ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ on repeat, and the albums of Mazzy Star, especially ‘She Hangs Brightly.’ I also had a redux full on love affair with My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless’ and all of its noisy layers and pure brilliance. It’s quite possibly the greatest album ever made. Shoe gaze is a genre that never ceases to be interesting.

I’m always a sucker for a good songwriter and spent much time with Daniel Rosen’s ‘You Belong There,’ Twain’s ‘Adventure,’ and Steve Gunn’s rich, gorgeous timeless ‘Other You.’ I also got stuck in a loop listening to drug rock like Spacemen 3’s ‘Forged Prescriptions,’ Brightblack Morning Light’ self-titled, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre ‘Their Satanic Majesties Second Request,’ is there a better three to space out to?

One of the first shows I attended in two years was Cate LeBon performing Pompei at Bowery Ballroom this past February. She literally looks like an icon on stage, so comfortable in her own skin. It was an incredible performance. During the pandemic, I obsessed over roots reggae and dub classics, a major hole in my canon. Augustus Pablo’s ‘East of the River Nile’ is instrumental music at its best, so expressive. Anything King Tubby touched or Joe Gibbs ‘African Dub’ albums. Reggae was the cheeriest genre that seemed to lift me out of the noise.

Thank you. Last word is yours.

The second single from ‘Various Seasides,’ ‘Glass Tower’ was released September 30th and is accompanied by a new video directed by filmmaker Nick Capezzera. We shot it in Long Island City on the shorefront of Gantry Park across from midtown on the East River, and on the beach at Jacob Riis park at the Rockaways, on a very magical summery New York Sunday.