Sisterly love: TLOBF meets Adam Goldberg

It is a name and face familiar to many. Chiefly recognised as an actor, he’s one of few who manage to transcend the border between the well known (Saving Private Ryan), and the independently revered (Dazed and Confused, 2 Days In Paris). Branching out into a different creative medium, Goldberg released his first album Eros and Emission in 2009 under the name LANDy, and throughout his career has been involved in an intimidating number of other creative projects as an actor, a writer, a film maker and a songwriter. His latest is The Goldberg Sisters – the name given to his most recent musical endeavour.

Readying himself to release his new record into the world, we caught up with the brilliant Adam Goldberg to chat about his beginnings in music and the making of his engrossing second album, TLOBF Recommended The Goldberg Sisters.

So what’s your first memory of becoming interested in music?

Probably singing to myself as a kid. Wanting to be able to create songs but not really having the facility to do so. Then I remember being a 10 year old when John Lennon died and immersing myself in The Beatles and Double Fantasy (it wasn’t until much later I got into Plastic Ono). Also as a young kid, I had a predilection for those rock opera musicals – Evita, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, as well as Chorus Line and Grease. Yep. And Supertramp. I used to carry around the lyric sheet from Breakfast in America…for better or worse. I played drums as a teenager – largely to David Bowie albums, I was obsessed with jazz, tried taking up the saxophone, quit….But it wasn’t until I was 23 that I very suddenly found myself somewhat capable of writing and recording songs, and I became as much interested in the latter – the recording process, moody soundscapes – as I did the song writing process which, for many years remained somewhat stunted by my limited abilities.

Who did you listen to as you were growing up?

Oh… Bowie, Elvis Costello, Beatles, all the class of ’77 bands – The Clash, Wire, etc. Lots of jazz – Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Bill Evens, etc, Phillip Glass. Lou Reed, Velvet Underground. Kate Bush. Neil Young. In my 20s: Pixies. Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, Built to Spill.

And who are you listening to at the moment?

Much the same plus: Midlake. Spoon. McCartney’s Ram, America albums. Colleen (whose music I often sleep to when it’s not Eno’s Music For Airports). Emily Haines. Elliott Smith, though not as much, too sad. Sparklehorse, though not as much, too sad. Dave Pajo (Papa M). Karen Dalton, Fred Neil. Bridget St. John, John Fahey. I’m obsessed with Claudine Longet and want to woo her out of hiding and write music for her which will never happen. Tom Rapp. Gary Higgins. John Cale.

What or who in particular do you cite as inspirations?

Inordinate and perhaps unhealthy amounts of self-reflection. And David Lynch.

The recording of the LANDy album (2009’s Eros and Emission) was the culmination of around 6 years worth or home recordings and demos, whereas most of the songs on The Goldberg Sisters were written in the time between the releases of the two albums. How did it feel to record a follow up album on such a different time scale?

About half, maybe more, was written and demoed in the year prior to making the record. One song, ‘Erik Erikson’, dates back to ’99. But the process of doing scratches, writing furiously in the days preceding the studio time, and creating so much music in such a short time was exhilarating, nerve-wracking, exhausting, cathartic, and very challenging creatively. It’s hard to have the overview one has when they have an indefinite amount of time to contemplate a song. But also the restriction of time is necessary to me, otherwise I’ll rework something infinitely. Even in this case, I still went back and re-recorded, re-edited, re-mastered a few times.

It feels as though there’s some Beatles influence in the music, and perhaps a touch of Bowie in the vocals too, would you say that that’s about right?

I would say through osmosis there is little doubt that they have affected me, though I don’t go into any of the songs saying “this will sound like this or that.” It’s only after they are written that I say something like “Hey this sounds like a glam song, we should listen to some T-Rex and even some Queen and borrow this or that guitar sound”. ‘The Difference Between’ which a couple of people have suggested was an attempt to ape Plastic Ono was actually an attempt to rip off two Dionne Warwick/Bert Bacharach songs. I blew it.

The Goldberg Sisters album seems to be a more confident record than its predecessor, were you more comfortable with the whole process the second time around?

Well, the LANDy record was not set out to be a record, so just by virtue of that it’s going to have a more sprawling, journalistic feel to it. I think ‘BFF’ which was recorded with Aaron Espinoza at his studio only a year prior is a harbinger of the ‘confidence’ as you put it, that may be reflected in the new album. But there is little doubt that I am becoming more ambitious and frankly just better. I refused for years, really out of laziness, to learn. And now I am learning.

What does this musical project give you the outlet to express that you perhaps can’t with your other creative projects?

Music is much like filmmaking. It requires one’s whole self I think, an overview and a micro-view. It’s like a puzzle and it’s always challenging to know when enough is enough and when to remove, to edit. Music until very recently, was something I only did for myself but now I have to approach it slightly differently. Or maybe I don’t have to. I’m not really sure to be honest. But unlike acting, for which frankly I don’t appreciate criticism, good or bad because I don’t feel I have much control over what I am capable of expressing or how I am capable of doing so as an actor, I take full ownership of, for better or worse, my music, film, photography.

Does song writing come easily to you? Or is it something you feel that you have to work at?

I have to work at certain elements of it or rather certain songs. Like ‘Shush’ took a few days of really working and reworking it. Whereas ‘The Heart Grows Fonder’ was written and demoed in an hour.

What do you find is the best setting in which you can create your music?

I prefer to do it at night or alone. I wrote ‘Third Person’ and ‘The Heart Grows Fonder’ in New York while I was working as an actor…I was lonely, but had a big loft with a view of the Williamsburg Bridge and I rented a baby grand (at home I can only fit an upright). It was an immediate source of inspiration. At home, it’s more difficult to write on the piano because it’s crammed against a wall in an office. I write parts of songs now almost every night. There are nearly 200 of them up on a Tumblr blog I have. Largely, they are done very quietly in the very wee hours.

What did you have in mind when you started writing The Goldberg Sisters? Was there a plan, or a particular direction to follow?

I wanted it to have a sense of cohesion sonically that the LANDy record couldn’t possibly have had, by virtue of the disparity in recording environments and personnel. But still this album was about clearing the decks a bit of a few older songs. I feel the next one will truly be from scratch.

You’ve collaborated on various projects with Flaming Lips, what kind of an influence have they had over you and your work?

I certainly think The Soft Bulletin if not influenced me, certainly inspired me. Moreover the work I did with Steven – on my movie, I Love Your Work, and three songs on the LANDY record – forced me to expand my horizons, improve, and steal ideas outright. I love backing vocals, love to harmonize, and watching the ease with which Steven does it has brought out the competitor in me. But a little too much perhaps is made of my relationship with or to them. I really don’t think musically there are that many similarities so to compare my music as some have wanted to in reviews seems a bit convenient. We both love effects but their song writing is very different. I think this “psychedelic” thing is a pretty broad term. I like to write perhaps even fairly conventional songs but put them in a sonically layered and sometimes dissonant space.

How are you feeling about the album being released, are you looking forward to it?

Yes and no. It’s very exciting. But beyond the usual dread of getting a bad response, I know the way the world works. There is a lot of stuff out there. A lot of movies. A lot of music. It’s a noisier world than it ever has been and you just have to find some peace in the making of the things. And it’s a bit like…well, I quote myself: “Poison pen protests from insomniac poets are whispers in space and I know it.”

The Goldberg Sisters is out now via Play It Again Sam.

The Goldberg Sisters – Shush