100 Musicians Answer the Same 10 Questions

Part Thirty-Four: Paul Duncan

instigated by dave heaton

Paul Ducan's second album Be Careful What You Call Home (Hometapes) was one of my favorites of last year - an exploratory, abstract album of experimental pop music that at the same time felt as intimate and as reliable as your favorite '70s country/folk record, the one you played again and again for years, the one you dubbed onto cassette and listened to as you drove on highways and dusty backroads. Duncan lives in Brooklyn, by way of Georgia and Texas. For more information on him and his music, visit his website and Hometapes.

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What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?

Boss guitar pedals.

What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?

The business side.

What are you up to right now, music-wise? (Current or upcoming recordings, tours, extravaganzas, experiments, top-secret projects, etc).

I'm recording a new record in late July in Chicago at John McEntire's Soma studio. 10 songs. It should be done and waiting to come out by mid-August. Other than that I'm finishing up a more electro-acoustic/noise/fingerpicking/laptop funk project with Connor Bell. It may be called Blood Harvester.

What's the most unusual place you've ever played a show or made a recording? How did the qualities of that place affect the show/recording?

This isn't necessarily unusual, but I played a show in Iowa City at a place that, thankfully few people showed up to, because the folks we were staying w/ got us completely drunk on cheap beer and bourbon before the show while they grilled us BBQ. It was the worst show I've ever played, but the best strangers I've ever stayed with.

In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived), affect the music you create, or your taste in music?

The music I'm currently writing is so influenced by my friends and what I've been into lately ... film, art, and music-wise that I don't know where to begin. It's so much more of a big quilt now. My music means more to me now than it ever has and I think I owe a lot of that to what and who I'm exposed to.

As far as taste goes, you just get exposed to more / different things when you move around, but especially when you move to a larger city. My taste has seemed fairly consistent to me for a while now, I'm just finding more of what I like. When I moved to NY it took a while for it to sink in that so many things are at your disposal and then it's just now sinking in that there's no end to those things. Not just what's happening or what's contemporary, but this place is an archive of art and music history. It's surely affected what I do, although I don't spend too much time stepping back to look for things like change or progress. What's the point? I can do that when I'm 50.

When was the last time you wrote a song? What can you tell us about it?

2 days ago. It's about a black Jesus.

As you create more music, do you find yourself getting more or less interested in seeking out and listening to new music made by other people...and why do you think that is?

I go through phases. I'm always interested in other people's music, but not always actively seeking it out. Friends play records for me all the time anyway. Last month it seemed like all I wanted to hear was 60s-70s dub and if I wasn't listening to that, I was working on my own music. There are definitely times when I feel like I'm being more studious with what I listen to, like you never stop learning through music just like anything else, so I know that comes from a place of desire. The desire to be influenced or the desire to catalog ideas.

Lately what musical periods or styles do you find yourself most drawn to as a listener? (Old or new music? Music like yours or different from yours?)

To answer the question specifically w/ an era and style of music... some of the 17th century English folk music I've heard lately is amazing. Really morosely beautiful imagery, some of it at least, and I've just started digging in. Another era of music I feel like I've only scratched the surface of is delta blues. There's just so much of it and so much of it is great. I listen to a lot of stuff, so I listen to like minded music, things that have nothing to do w/ what I do and things in between. Something most people don't know is that I've made a handful of minimal/electronic/experimental stuff, but never released any of it. I have a full length drone-ish record I just finished and I think I'll end up shopping it soon.

Name a band or musician, past or present, who you flat-out LOVE and think more people should be listening to. What's one of your all-time favorite recordings by this band/musician?

I'm not too good at knowing what people have or haven't heard, but ...

Present: James Blackshaw - "O True Believers" (2005) absolutely my favorite in the finger picking guitar game right now. he proves that "genres" don't get old, "styles" get old. He's completely made his own. Americana. English folk. Dark. Bright. Amazing to see live. The title track is probably my new favorite song.

Kinda new: For Carnation - "s/t" (1999) apparently this record didn't do very well. One of the many injustices in the world of music. Someone should be arrested.

Past: Gavin Bryars - "The Sinking of the Titanic" (1975). Two lengthy tracks. The 2nd track, "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" is an amazing 25-minute horn and string arrangement based around the melody and rhythm of a lo-fi tape recording of a drunk British street musician singing. This record sounds different every time I listen to it. It's alive.

What's the saddest song you've ever heard?

That's really situational. Depressing or sad?

I don't know about sad, but I think the song that used to get to me the most was "Man in a Shed" by Nick Drake. Recently it's been Bobby Darin's "If I Were a Carpenter." A song has to have its own little universe, an overall mood to get to me like that. I never just feel sad because someone sings some sad words. Maybe I'm not really answering the question.

I think the most depressing song ever was "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart playing in a grocery store under bad lighting while some lady was smacking her kid with a rolled up Ebony magazine ... forever young.

To check out the rest of the Q&As, click here.