Kenneth James Gibson (Interview)

Good morning.

Today we’re listening to Kenneth James Gibson, a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Southern California. Born in Canada and raised in El Paso, he set out on his musical career in the early ‘90s, starting with noise rock and expanding to electronic, psychedelic, folk, pop, and ambient, including a band he formed with the late great Brian McBride.¹ For around a decade he’s been putting out ambient records under his own name, of which today we’re playing two. Murals for Immersion, which came out this past May, features saxophonist Paul Carman. Its slow-moving instrumentals have the air and gravitas of a film score, which may not be surprising given space OSTs occupy in his personal rotation (detailed below). We’re also playing the 2016 record The Evening Falls, which was partly influenced by Daniel Lanois’ ambient country and features pedal steel by David Cuetter. A conversation with Gibson follows the streaming links.

Murals for Immersion - Kenneth James Gibson (40m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

The Evening Falls - Kenneth James Gibson (50m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

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What's your earliest memory of music?

My dad playing songs on acoustic guitar. They also played Leonard Cohen, Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, and Abba records. Those are the earliest that I can remember.

You mentioned your first two ambient albums were inspired by country music – which artists/albums in particular, and how'd you channel their sound into those records?

I’d say they are more influenced by country pedal steel in particular, especially [my 2016 record] The Evening Falls. The steel guitar makes one of the most beautiful sounds in the world to my ears. I am a huge fan of older country music. Steel players like Loyd Green, Red Rhodes, Lloyd Maines, Norm Hamlet, Pete Drake can def make me shed a tear. Lloyd Maines’ solo on Joe Ely’s “Because Of The Wind” is one of my all time favorites. Also can’t go wrong with Lloyd Green’s rendition of “Farewell Party”… too many good ones to name.

Up until I made The Evening Falls, Daniel Lanois was really the only steel player I had heard mixing the instrument with ambient music. I’m a huge fan of Belladonna and of course all his work with Eno. I think “Deep Blue Day” was the first big influence for that stuff. My old pal David Cuetter has played all the steel on my ambient stuff. For the majority of it, I would send him a few sounds to record over and he would track in his studio and fly over sounds. We just worked on some stuff in my studio together recently – some jams that will hopefully turn into something soon.

For Murals for Immersion, how'd you get connected to Paul and how did you two collaborate?

When I moved up to Idyllwild I heard about this guy, Paul Carman, who had played with Frank Zappa, who I’m a fan of. After some time I got to meet him and see him play. Incredible musician. After getting to know him a bit we talked about working on some music. It took a while to nail down time, but we finally made it happen. He would come over to my Idyllwild studio and we started recording bits and pieces of sax sounds. I got all his sounds in two sessions. We’d pick certain keys and just record everything we’d think of in that key: drones, little melody lines, noises, etc. I then took his sounds and built full on pieces out of them. I really love what we achieved on that record.

How do you listen to music – streaming, vinyl, radio, other?

It just depends where I am. I drive a lot from Idyllwild to Los Angeles, and it would be hard to live without streaming. At home I mostly listen to vinyl. I don’t listen to the radio.

What artists do you have on rotation right now?

This month I’ve been listening to Longlegs OST,  Dorothy Ashby, Henri Texier, Strange Darling OST, Chet Baker, Janko Nilovic, Pierre Cavalli, Dick Todd And His Orchestra, I Mark 4, Morricone’s Once Upon A Time In The West OST, and Alessandro Alessandroni to name a few.

You're an avid runner – do you listen to music while running? If so, what's on your playlist?

Lately It’s either Dorothy Ashby or podcasts in the morning. More podcasts than anything these days. Something to inspire me for the day.

Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.

This is a tough one… but Chip Taylor comes to mind. He’s known for writing hits like “Wild Thing” and “Angel Of The Morning,” but I personally never hear anybody talk about his own records. Do yourself a huge favor and check out “Sleepy Eyes” form the album This Side Of The Big River.

What are you working on next?

A new solo album in the works. This album will have a few running themes that change and morph throughout the record. I am working on a new project with James and Cynthia [aka

marine eyes

] from Awakened Souls. Working on this right now and loving the results. I have another new project with steel / multi-instrumentalist David Cuetter in the works, which includes some beautiful vocals by Paula Fraser. Also just started working on the next Head Shoppe album.

via Instagram

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