One of the finest - and instantly recognisable - voices in indie rock takes Craig Howieson on a trip into the past, where every song has left an indelible influence.
A studious ear and a meticulous passion have served Hamilton Leithauser well over the past 20 years, and he has proved time and time again that from taking the smallest splinter of inspiration, he can craft some unforgettable moments.
As Leithauser joins our call, he is preparing to head out to a listening party for his latest record - This Side Of The Island - in NYC. Seemingly buoyed by the thought of it, it is a far cry from his initial trepidation ahead of the one held in LA around a month earlier.
“I was dreading it,” he laughs. “It really was the worst thing that I could possibly imagine doing.” But in reality, the experience was a positive one, thus explaining his excitement.
“It was just a great way to present my physical thing to a room full of people,” he beams. “It sounds weird, but as a musician these days, that doesn't happen… like ever. It's kind of like a very old school formal event; a moment where everyone's not on their phone and they listen to your record one time. I can't imagine not doing it now.”
As frontman of The Walkmen - a band who delighted fans with a live return in 2023, that both rivalled and surpassed their greatest ever shows - Leithauser was synonymous with a sepia toned rock and roll that set them apart from their early aughts contemporaries. A fascination with vintage equipment and thorough appreciation for a freewheeling approach to practice embossed the band with a timeless, almost wistful quality.
This dalliance with the past has taken firm root within Leithauser’s solo career where blues, jazz and formative rock’n’roll are all present in the DNA of his music. It is perhaps no surprise then that none of his Nine Songs picks are from the past 30 years.
That is not to say he has a diminished love for new music; but it is the songs that have been with him for years and continue to inspire him to this day that come to his mind when we asked him to whittle them down to nine.
As we start to talk through his choices, it quickly becomes apparent that Leithauser is no casual fan. He is a scholar, displaying a meticulous ear for the slightest of instrumental flourishes. He is a musical magpie, discerning the perfect snare hit, the ideal groove, or crystallizing harmony that he can perhaps pay homage to in his own work.
It is equal parts a blessing and a curse leaving Leithuaser often struggling to “switch off” and enjoy music as merely a fan. “I'm not that good at balancing that,” he says. “I wish I could do that better.”
But it does make for a fascinating insight into his deepest loves and has manifested in his beautiful new record, which like his Nine Songs, are a daring and bold set of songs lovingly tethered to the past.
“American Music” by Violent Femmes
BEST FIT: A lot of fans tend to go towards their earlier albums, but you have gone for something a little later, what made you land on this one by Violent Femmes?
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: I hadn't heard this in so long and then it randomly came on a year or two ago when I was listening to music, and I remembered how much I love that band.
I was at a point where I was really in my own head, using a lot of studio tricks, overdubs and stuff like that and I realised how simple the Violent Femmes always kept their best stuff. I was making everything so complicated, and it was a moment where I realised it's important to not lose sight of the original idea and that maybe the garnish was becoming the song. I had kind of lost the plot on a lot of things.
They would just write the song and perform it. And there's nothing fancy in the production. I love the lyrics too, about needing a date to the prom, and taking too many drugs and all that stuff, like some kind of low life kid.
I wrote my song “Happy Lights” about a kid taking out his parent’s car and wrecking it, which was kind of the same idea. A kid screwing up. It's just a simple, funny, charming song. It's a great sing-along.
What else do you think it is that draws you to them?
My voice is very distinct, and I know that… I'm not deaf. And you can get really tired of your own sound, but Gordon Gano just goes for it. He's got a really nasty sounding voice and he doesn't mind. It's kind of fun to just embrace it.
I remember thinking, ‘You know what? I'm not going to try to sing all pretty and try to change my tone. I'm just going to do what I do. Some people are going to like it and some people are not. If I like it, that's fine.’
“Sound and Vision” by David Bowie
BEST FIT: With Brian Eno behind the desk your next choice is quite different in tone. Let's talk about Bowie.
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: This is the polar opposite (to “American Music.”) Except that even though it does have all that production on it, to me, that song does still sound like raw rock and roll.
He's got that big drum sound of that Eventide harmonizer, that distorted vibrato guitar, that hard-hitting snare and the cool hi-hat effect. And when he harmonises with himself - I've always loved that. There's a lot of examples where David Bowie is a huge influence on me in general.
But I'm choosing this song because I thought it would be particularly relevant to something like my song “Ocean Roar,” where I'm just harmonising with myself. I could have brought someone else in to harmonise, but I was doing it intentionally to get that sound that he gets.
Sometimes I get tired of playing just rock and roll, and I want to do more orchestrated stuff and go for something different. But then songs like this can bring you back to why you originally loved it. It's a song I've loved for 30 years and a good example of me still wanting to make rock and roll. I still find that song inspiring.
“Hit It and Quit It” by Funkadelic
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: I could have chosen one of so many Funkadelic songs. I chose “Hit It and Quit It” because it's one of their most well-known ones and it has all the elements that I really love. Like those backup singers in the choir.
I have a lot of the “do-dos” on mine and I wanted that gnarly tambourine, and I love the way they do the hi-hat on that song. It's just absolutely incredible.
BEST FIT: It seems like you are really tuned into the minute details that make a song great. Are you always on the lookout for elements you can lift?
I just wanted to grab some of that. My music in the past hasn't been that blues influenced, but I feel like it's been going more in that direction since I went solo. Starting with I Had a Dream That You Were Mine and continuing with The Loves of Your Life. And now I feel like I have a much looser bluesier inspired sound that I like a lot.
“Heaven” by Talking Heads
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: That song and that entire record Fear of Music was probably my most listened to record while I was making This Side Of The Island, I like the beats and the sounds.
I think Fear of Music is their best record. The words to that song are amazing. He's got a pretty voice, but then he's not afraid to sort of ugly it up. And David Byrne's funny.
Amazingly, I'm working on his new record right now. I'm going to sing on it, and so I've got to know him a little bit and he's really cool. He didn’t disappoint, meeting him was amazing. He’s very polite and one of those guys whose music I’ve loved for 30 years or whatever.
BEST FIT: It must be a surreal experience to now be working with him as a contemporary.
When I got the first message from him, I thought I was being punked, you know.
“Wild Thing” by The Troggs
BEST FIT: This is such a great song, but the one I was most familiar with was the version Hendrix did. I thoroughly enjoyed familiarising myself with The Troggs recording again.
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: “Wild Thing” is a song that everybody's heard a million times, but it really is one of the greatest recordings ever made. I feel like if you listen to it again if you haven't heard it recently, you realise that the drumbeat is so weird.
And although the instrumentation is actually very simple, it's very unusual too. It's just raw rock and roll and I love that song so much.
I have a song, “Knockin’ Heart”, from This Side of the Island and I stole that snare on the one beat thing, it's maximum caveman drumming. So I took that little trick from them. It's a great example of something simple but weird.
“On the Beach” by Neil Young
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: I know this is completely different, but he's another guy I've liked for so long.
For my slow jams on the record, I really wanted to have one called “Off the Beach” because I took the drumbeat from “On the Beach” for the first half of it, then the next song, “Stella Blue” by Grateful Dead for the second half.
I sound absolutely nothing like him, but he has so many of those really slow, dark songs. And it's not boring, it has life to it. He's magical in that way.
It’s so fucking sloppy but supposedly on Tonight's the Night, they rehearsed like one time and then recorded it in a bar and then David Briggs went out and mixed it in the van, like right there, and that was it. But when he got to On the Beach, he didn't even teach the band the songs, he just went in, hit record, and they started playing.
I don't know if I actually believe that, but that record sounds really spontaneous and cool, especially the slow jams.
“Stella Blue” by Grateful Dead
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: I'm actually one of the rare people that much prefers the studio Grateful Dead to the live Grateful Dead, because I was forced to listen to so many hours of their live records in my friend's car over and over that it was like an omnipresent sound for so many years of my life.
BEST FIT: So would you describe yourself as a Deadhead?
Two of my really good friends were major league Deadheads. And another guy I know leaves his family and disappears to drive around the American West and take LSD for three weeks at a time.
So I would never say I describe myself as a Deadhead, but I would say that I know their music very well and I love it. And I like the sound of them playing live, I just don't prefer it. I prefer them as a studio band, and I always have. You can hear the actual songs they wrote rather than just the jam. Which is a nice sound and it's cool, but I get bored of it.
What is it that makes you keep going back to them?
They're just such a great band and that song “Stella Blue” has a beat that I - and actually they - use a bunch of times. It’s sort of a classic Grateful Dead beat, but it also had that great melody and chromatic chord progression. It’s very pretty, but amazingly for them, it’s actually not over-orchestrated. They keep it pretty stripped back.
“My Life is Good” by Randy Newman
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: Randy's the ultimate character writer. I've covered a bunch of his songs over the years and that record Trouble in Paradise, and that song are particularly funny and just so creative. I can't say enough good things about that record.
It's so weird. It's a completely different band and completely different sound for him, but it's got big hits like “I Love L.A.” and “Miami,” which is funny because he didn't really have very many hits.
The dude in the song is such a terrible guy. Randy's great at using his words to bring out the nastiest people in America. If you listen to “Sail Away” and “Louisiana 1927” and all of those songs, it's sort of a lighthearted take on really dark perceptions about America.
On my last record The Loves of Your Life, I tried to write each song about a specific character, but I didn't necessarily put myself in their mouth as much as he does on this record. I always come back to him, because I think he's one of the greatest at putting personality into the lyrics.
We did a fundraiser for my kids - who go to a public school in Brooklyn – and they asked me to sing. So I did a couple of my songs, then I did “Sail Away” which is a song sung firsthand by a slave trader.
It's this really nasty sales pitch for how great America is, but I got some complaints, because people were like, “What the hell is he singing?” They didn't get the humour or recognise the message. So I was like, “Lighten up, this is a civil rights song. I mean, give me a fucking break, man.”
I got a phone call from the principal, and I had to explain what the song was.
BEST FIT: What was that experience like?
I was terrified man.
“Fingerprint File” by The Rolling Stones
HAMILTON LEITHAUSER: The Rolling Stones are one of my favourite bands of all time. They were my first love when I was a really young kid, I guess because my dad was playing them.
I love Keith Richards' playing and I love Charlie Watts' timing so much. I love them all, but those two elements are the most magical part of that band.
“Fingerprint File” has that great hi-hat work that's not a million miles from Funkadelic actually. And then that ‘70s deep bass that I’ve tried to lift a couple of times. I love the way it sounds. I love the hook and apparently that's Mick Jagger playing guitar, which is a funny little detail that I didn't know. It's always funny when he picks up the guitar because you’re like, ‘Come on, you're not the guitar player, man.’
I saw them last year at Giants Stadium.
BEST FIT: How was that as an experience?
They were fucking awesome actually. I saw them a couple of years ago too at one of Charlie's last shows.
It's amazing that when Charlie was playing with them to like 90,000 people, it sounded like every single song was about to fall off the rails, but he’d get it going and it still had their classic ‘70s rolling sound. You do not see any stadium bands playing that loose live ever anymore. Everybody these days is playing to a click track and it's perfectly timed, I understand why people do that.
But I couldn’t believe that they can still hold people's attention with that. But they did and Mick was running miles around on the stage chicken dancing and all that shit, it was great. I rediscovered my love for them.
This Side of the Island is released 7 March via Glassnote Records, and is available to pre-order now.
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