What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.
I’ve been making music since I took piano lessons as a kid. In high school I started my first solo project called Emotional Concourse, which was exactly what it sounds like. I had gotten a drum set to record drums for it but I was too impatient to learn how to record it properly, so I found a few programs to make drum beats with and used those instead. This got me into the electronic side of things and I have kind of been mixing the electronic and acoustic stuff ever since. I never really thought about what inspired me to make my own music, it’s just always felt like a natural way to process the world around me; my experiences or what I was feeling. My sound has shifted a lot since I started Our Alarm Clock in 2009, it was initially heavier on the electronics and much less composed. While writing for what would eventually become my first album I started integrating more guitar and live drums, and this lead to a more post-rock sound. The thing that’s always remained is that it’s a deeply personal experience to write these songs, making music as an act of self-care and a search for rest.
Provide us with some info about your latest release…
Before I started working on this album I was really struggling to write for this project. I was focusing on more improvised and experimental music, while wrapping up a song that was really frustrating me. Writing for Our Alarm Clock wasn’t providing the self-care I had previously found and I wasn’t happy with anything I was creating. I was even experimenting with moving to all hardware with little success. I had a plan to put this project to rest when I was finished that song, but just before I finished it I started writing some new material again and it kind of took me by surprise! Things started flowing again after that. On this release, I started challenging myself a lot more as a songwriter and composer. There were a lot of times while writing where I thought “the obvious thing to do would be to go in this direction” and I really tried to push against that and ask what could I do that might be a little less expected. I think the music is still very accessible and is nothing groundbreaking, but I try not to let it be too predictable. I guess that balance parallels my experience of growth as a person as I entered my 30s, trying to go with what feels natural and true to myself while still challenging myself to keep doing something new.
Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?
Oh man, I have a pretty wide variety of influences across a lot of genres. I listen to a lot of emo bands from the late 90s that influence me a lot, like Jimmy Eat World and Mineral, that’s probably where a lot of my pop influence comes from. Of course some post-rock, the biggest influence in that genre being a lesser known band called Saxon Shore, but also Sigur Ros is a big influence. Of course like most post-rockers my age, my life changed when I heard Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place for the first time. I’m inspired by the beautiful compositions of bands like Air and M83, although I don’t listen to them with a ton of regularity. Dntel, or really any project Jimmy Tamborello has been involved in, has probably influenced me the most in terms of what you can do with electronics in a non-dance oriented way. Some more recent musicians that have inspired me are Louis Cole, Bayonne, and Lena Raine, the last did the soundtrack to a game called Celeste that was one of my most listened to albums in 2018. I also think the city of Philadelphia inspires me a lot. It can feel like a big overwhelming city, but can also feel really quiet and small at times too. That balance of two opposing ideas in harmony together is rooted in what I do musically.
In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?
I have a hard time sitting firmly in one genre, but I probably most identify with post-rock, with a lot of ambient, pop, and electronic influences. My music is mostly instrumental, but it also conveys a lot of emotion and takes you on a bit of a journey. It can be a lot less meandering than what someone might expect out of post-rock music, it’s a bit more crafted and composed. I spend a lot of time finely tuning parts to try to capture exactly what I’m trying to express with a song. I also try not to be too repetitive or predictable so that can result in a wider variety of sound. On my newest album, I think there’s a lot of variety in genre, from atmospheric builds like M83 to aggressive guitars like This Will Destroy You and even to glitchy electronics like Aphex Twin. But I don’t think the changes are ever too jarring, it still feels like a cohesive album to me.
Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…
I’m really bad at these kind of questions, but I would probably pick Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity, Dntel’s Dumb Luck, and the movie Amélie. I’m not much of a reader unfortunately.
Do you prefer studio or performing live and why?
I definitely feel more comfortable in the studio, I’ve never felt comfortable performing my music, but I’ve only ever done it solo. I am putting together a band to perform some of the songs from this album though, and that has been fun, yet challenging. A lot of my music is layering so it can be hard to distill the more important stuff. Hopefully the songs still stand in their raw form, but it can be hard to know. I do miss playing out though, making music with friends is hard to beat.
Is there any funny-unique story you would like to share with us, always in relation to your music ‘career’?
On more than one occasion with my old band, women asked to take a picture with me after the show, not because they loved my music, but because they said I looked like “the hangover guy” (Zach Galifianakis).
Which track of your own would you point out as the most unique and why?
Probably Pictures, it’s one of 2 (or 3 depending on how you count) tracks on the album with lyrics. It’s also a bit more electronic leaning, I wrote most of it on my Electribe EMX when I was having the aforementioned crises with songwriting, so it’s especially unique for Our Alarm Clock.
Would you like to share with our readers your future plans?
I was really inspired by Lena Raine’s soundtrack for Celeste, and want to use my next project as an opportunity to challenge myself as a composer. The use of motif and theme throughout that album really moved me, so I’ll be exploring some of that (which is extra challenging when you’re afraid of being repetitive). The narrative for this project is going to be rooted in some personal work I’ve been doing on myself too. One thing I’m trying to work with is the concept of being a consistent person, in our characters and our behavior. I think there’s an unspoken rule around having to be consistent with ourselves, and when we aren’t we spend so much time explaining away why certain situations are exceptions or don’t make us hypocrites. I think it’s good to be rooted in knowing ourselves but we beat ourselves up when we do one thing that’s outside of who we think we are and I think we need to give ourselves more room to grow and make mistakes. At least that’s what I’ve been learning, and I want to try to use that as a foundation for the music I write next.
Free question!!! (Ask yourself a question) you wish to answer and haven’t been given the opportunity…
Why did it take me so long to finish this interview?
I dunno! They were hard questions I guess!
Curated by: Christos Doukakis
Recommended listening:
Connect with Our Alarm Clock:
www.instagram.com/ouralarmclockmusic