With his fourth album ‘I Love People’, Cory Hanson gives the clearest example yet of his songwriting abilities, offering a beautifully arranged tunes that recall the melodic peaks of 1970s singer-songwriters. His solo career runs parallel to the different approach taken by his band, Wand, best known for their psychedelic explorations. To celebrate the pending release of his new record, I asked Cory a few questions about the album and his working methods.
Could you start by telling us about your early experiences of listening to music and whether there was a specific moment when you thought you wanted to be a musician.
I heard the guitar solo in Purple Haze; still maybe the strangest guitar solo of all time. It is bizarre. I learned how to play it using just my index finger, then my uncle taught me how to play it properly. He gave me my first scales; blues minor pentatonic and the major scale, that was it. And he said, “If you’re in key and hit these notes it’ll always sound right”. So I started soloing before I even had proper rhythm technique, which my mom would always make fun of me for. She’d say, “are you going to be one of those guitar players who only plays lead and sits down during the rhythm parts?”
All four of the albums released under your own name have had different styles but each has hung together coherently. Do you write each album with a different mood in mind or accumulate a variety of songs over a longer periodof time and then select which will sit together best?
I do both. Each record starts with finding a mood, a place in my imagination where creative thoughts start pooling together in little puddles. For this record I knew I wanted piano and horns and strings. I am always thinking about framing my voice with different instruments; for Western Cum it was this twin guitar almost like an Oroboros with my voice in the middle. With Pale Horse Rider it was these fried electronic textures among organic music. I Love People is framed by acoustic textures; brass, strings, 12 string guitars. I was listening to a lot of Nelson Riddle arranged Frank Sinatra records and thinking about the way he orchestrated that music so beautifully to fit Frank’s voice.
What are the differences in approach between songs that are released as Cory Hanson and those as Wand?
They couldn’t be more different, really. Wand is an equal partnership. We meet up in the studio usually without any written music and freely improvise for hours. It’s a really special group. We often have no idea what we are doing and no one is steering the ship but it always goes somewhere. I can’t think what else I’d ever want from a band, it is really exciting and always surprising. My music is all written by myself, mostly with 0 collaborative feedback. I think because the two projects occupy very different creative spaces in my life, I can go between projects without getting burned out. Or if I get exhausted by the studio heavy tinkering of the Wand records I can retreat to my songs, and vice versa.
For the songs on ‘I Love People’, did you start with a musical idea or some lyrics? How do the songs get put together? Did you take a fully formed idea into the studio or is there a lot of leeway for your fellow musicians to add to and develop the songs?
This is the first record I’ve brought into the studio fully completed. I wrote and demoed everything and went into the studio with Evan Burrows and Evan Backer from Wand (as well as Robbie from Wand producing/engineering) and we just started playing the tunes. We never rehearsed or overplayed the songs. We recorded everything live, even the vocals. So the record has this great organic quality to it. All my vocal takes are live takes either at piano or guitar. I’ve always wanted to do that. There are a few songs with live vocals on Western Cum but this is the first time I’ve committed to a full album with no vocal re-do’s.
Inevitably, I have to ask about the album title. It is a very ear-catching title both for a song and the overall record. Does it reflect your world view? Certainly, some of the characters we meet on the album have some less than admirable characteristics, for example the old policeman, and would not beeasy to love.
I think it’s something we don’t say enough. And I think we should, as a people, love people. I hear a lot of “I hate people” or “people are so awful”. How can you say that? What about your mother? Your wife or daughter or son? Are they not people?
I am interested in your motivation in writing a song called ‘Lou Reed’. Is he a musical hero of yours? (I am particularly a Velvet Underground fan and love the way you portray Lou as a prince and a fighter and a tai chi master.)
Lou Reed is my favourite American songwriter. To me there is no one better.
Is being a musician a full-time job for you? If not, how easy/tricky is it tobalance work and band life?
It is a full-time job. And my balance has always been tricky. I am often away from home. I have a very young son now which complicates things, but I am excited to introduce him to the wandering entertainer lifestyle; take him on the road and have him see the world from the windows of a van or bus the way I have.
I have seen that you have some US dates lined up imminently but are there any plans to tour the album in the UK and Europe?
Yes, there are, stay tuned!
Any future plans you can share with us at this stage?
I am currently working on a rock opera called Western Cum 2: Miami
That is quite a bombshell with which to leave us. It sounds fascinating and I cannot wait to hear it.
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
