AM Black and White
On the record Viva Terlingua by Jerry Jeff Walker, the last song is “London Homesick Blues,” and in that absolute Texas corker Gary P. Nunn (the singer) says he’s got to put himself back in that place.
Besides this being the only synthwave blog post ever to reference this record, it’s a good reminder that you do—if you’re going to do something, it really helps to put yourself in that place. Here they were having to re-record the song due to some problem (I can’t remember what), but when you’re sitting down to make 31 songs in 31 days, getting yourself to that place is essential.
So I picked a loose theme, which is AM Black and White, as most of this music will be played or created in the morning. And I don’t know—morning’s just kind of black and white for me. Nothing’s really woken up yet. It’s dark. It’s moody. Maybe it’s hopeful. Maybe it’s full of possibility. Maybe you wake up grumpy and it’s unhappy music on whatever day. But this idea of having something in mind, it’s always been really good to me.
It’s almost like the mental side of the template I talked about yesterday. Getting ready to go and having the band ready is one thing, but I guess the modern kids these days would call it the vibe. Setting the stage for me is a really important part of all this.
And when I think of AM, I think of black and white, for whatever reason. That just kind of puts me there—just like when I’m playing acoustic folk music, inevitably (and probably wholly un-uniquely), you picture New York: downtown, candles, shitty lighting, stuff like that.
So, as you follow along and go through these songs—if you or anybody else is going to—keep that in mind. The idea is that this is going to be a release. It needs to be a cohesive release, one that just kind of flows, because it’s made to start and play through, just like my other January records.