Rick Moody is best known as the writer of novels such as The Ice Storm and The Black Veil. But now hes teamed up with David Grubbs and Hannah Marcus to become the Wingdale Community Singers. Together they have produced some of the wildest folk music.
Buy the CD from the Wingdale Community Singers
Daniel Robert Epstein: What made you want to start the Wingdale Community Singers?
Rick Moody: Ive always played music so thats not terribly novel. The interesting part about this band is just that I managed to find two really good working musicians who were also interested in doing it with me even though Im not a genuine musician or anything. So I met Hannah Marcus first and got friendly with her and then we started writing songs together and drafted the excellent David Grubbs after that.
DRE: How much of the album did you work on?
RM: I wrote all the music on three of the songs. I wrote some of the music on some of the others. I played guitar on it. I played piano on one track. I sing quite a bit so I wasnt uninvolved in the music part.
DRE: How did it compare to what you normally do, writing novels?
RM: Its fun. It gives you a chance to be with other people. Writing is obviously very solitary and you know, in this endeavor, I get to collaborate and learn a lot so its great for me.
DRE: Have you done much collaborating before?
RM: Yeah, its something I like to do. Ive worked with other musicians on radio pieces and stuff and I like being involved with other kinds of art. So the learning process for me is great. Ive no need to sort of run the show particularly. In the musical setting, I like to see a player among players. I dont want a group of subjects to do my will. Its more that I want to have fun and deal with other people.
DRE: You probably could find people who would just do what you tell them to do.
RM: I could never be happy in that circumstance so specific case or not, I would probably run fleeing from the room. [laughs]
DRE: I read that you all live in Brooklyn not too far from one another.
RM: Yeah, Hannah actually is in Greenpoint. So shes sort of not far away as the crow flies but its kind of a pain in the ass by subway. But Dave and I live only like seven blocks from each other.
DRE: How well did you all know one another?
RM: I mean I know both of them independently pretty well. Ive known them both for four or five years. But they havent met before at all.
DRE: So how tough was it meshing their styles with yours? Was it difficult? Was it just like anything else when you have to collaborate?
RM: Thats the really interesting question about this band because there are three songwriters who write in very different styles working together. Thats interesting music mix. The record sounds like it has a lot of range. Its not all just one thing. But theres definitely push and pull and various compositions about how people are going to play on them and so forth. Thats whats exciting about it. But if you listen to their solo albums, they both record under their own names; youll find that theyre very different from what weve done here.
DRE: What do you think about your singing?
RM: My recorded voice makes me want to slit my wrist but theyve tried to convince me that Ive nothing to feel ashamed about. Also at least one person from the Japanese press singled out my voice as one of the good things about it which made me feel okay for about ten minutes.
DRE: How did you like the process of recording?
RM: It was fascinating because Ive never really been in a studio for any length of time before. It only took us about ten days or so to make the record. But Im very interested in all the stuff you can do with advance recording technology. It was a steep learning curve for me but really incredibly interesting. Also all the sort of political issues that come out in a band in that setting are really fascinating to me too. Thats where you find out what everybodys made of.
DRE: So what are you made of?
RM: Marshmallows.
DRE: [laughs] What does the name, Wingdale Community Singers, mean?
RM: Wingdale is a psychiatric hospital in upstate New York. It used to be called Harlem Valley Psychiatric Hospital and was one of the big state holding pens in the 50s. So when I was a kid in the 60s, we used to drive by there all the time on the way upstate to see friends and family and I thought it was the creepiest looking buildings Ive ever see and I still is. So the idea was, you know, we knew that we wanted the name to have kind of a folky old-time feel to it. But I didnt want to be like a dumb-ass touchy-feely folky thing but more like a scary folky thing.
DRE: Was folk music what you guys wanted to do or is that just what came out?
RM: I think its like modernist folk music so its not like
DRE: Yeah, its not like Woody Guthrie.
RM: Yeah or take a sort of unpalatable example. Its not like you know Peter, Paul, and Mary or something like that. We knew that we wanted to make acoustic music and not in any way electronic. What you hear is what actually took place in the studio. So its like punk rock made by people in their 40s basically.
DRE: Who paid for the record?
RM: We paid for the recording and got reimbursed along the way by the various labels.
DRE: How was it dealing with the various labels compared with the book publishers youve dealt with?
RM: Well its just a different set of thieves.
DRE: How about the cover? Im assuming thats near the original Wingdale.
RM: No its not at all. Actually, I think its like from Minnesota or something. That guy who took the picture, Alex Soth, is this amazing photographer. He made a whole series of photos that were taken on or around the Mississippi River along its entire length. The cover photo and also the one on the inset of the booklet are both from these 50 photos by him. Hes a really outrageously great photographer and we were really lucky that he liked the record enough to let us use the picture.
DRE: Since this was a collaboration, can it be as personal as your other work?
RM: No, actually what was interesting about it was for it not to be personal. Theres not a really autobiographical song on that record except for maybe my song about rats.
DRE: How is that one personal?
RM: Because I do get really creeped out when I see rats on the subway tracks.
DRE: Oh, really.
RM: Yeah, I find it disturbing. Its not that Im like afraid that theyre going to come up and get me or something. Its just their ubiquity that I find disturbing.
DRE: How is performing this stuff live?
RM: Weve only played out like five times maybe and were getting better considering that I never play live at all. I think of that as the last thing Im interested in. I think there are two kinds of people in the world, people who write and people who perform. Im so totally in the writing camp but were going to play a few more shows for the record release and well see how it goes.
DRE: I read that on your next album, there is going to be all these amazing people on it, like Paul Auster, Neil Gaiman and Dave Eggers.
RM: Oh, no thats a completely different thing that I gave lyrics to. Thats for this band in Brooklyn called One Ring Zero. Theyve made this record with all these writers on it and Im on that record a little bit too.
DRE: What did you contribute to that?
RM: I did lyrics on that one but Ive also played with them. Actually Ive made a whole spoken word record with them, where I played a little guitar and played the theremin on one track.
DRE: How did you learn to play the theremin?
RM: I cant but I can fake it pretty well. You have to have a perfect ear to play the theremin or else just play it like its electronic noise and Im the latter.
DRE: Has the music influenced your next book or anything like that?
RM: Nah, not really. Music is always a little influential just in the sense that as a prose writer, I think a lot about how paragraphs move and sound and stuff like that. Im interested in the sound in my head of prose not just how it tells a story or what it looks like. So to that extent, Ive always been really influenced by music but this process of actually making it hasnt particularly changed my approach.
DRE: Of course The Ice Storm had all those references to the Fantastic Four; you excited to see the movie?
RM: I saw the trailer yesterday because I actually went to see the new Star Wars movie.
DRE: Oh what did you think of Star Wars?
RM: Its certainly better than any of the other two in this series. But I thought it a little on the long side and kind of ponderous and pretentious and but I really loved all the parts that are flipping the bird at George Bush however.
DRE: What did you think of the trailer of The Fantastic Four?
RM: Yeah its better than the teasers that I saw before but none of these actors feel right to me, particularly. They look really faceless. What was really important about the Fantastic Four was their humanness and their foibles and the interrelationships between the two. Now its got like a lot of people with really excellent abs and stuff like that. Its not totally relevant.
DRE: Did anyone ask you to ever write a screenplay for the Fantastic Four?
RM: Nah.
DRE: Would you want to?
RM: No way, I dont like working for the Hollywood bunch. Hollywood movies just make me just stare lately.
DRE: Have you liked any of these comic book movies though?
RM: I kind of liked Spider-Man 2. I like Tobey [Maguire] a lot because I met him on The Ice Storm. For me, hes the antithesis of an action hero. As an actor, he does actually get in the direction of the kind of humanness of the Marvel Comics as I experienced them. I think those movies are ok but comic book movies in general just do the same shit every time. Like you can plot the three act structure on them as if to deviate a tenth of a degree from that formula will somehow cause the immediate firing of every scriptwriter who worked on it.
DRE: What is your next book about?
RM: Its about filmmaking. Its a comedy about an indie production company that tried to sell out really massively by trying to develop a television miniseries.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Buy the CD from the Wingdale Community Singers
Daniel Robert Epstein: What made you want to start the Wingdale Community Singers?
Rick Moody: Ive always played music so thats not terribly novel. The interesting part about this band is just that I managed to find two really good working musicians who were also interested in doing it with me even though Im not a genuine musician or anything. So I met Hannah Marcus first and got friendly with her and then we started writing songs together and drafted the excellent David Grubbs after that.
DRE: How much of the album did you work on?
RM: I wrote all the music on three of the songs. I wrote some of the music on some of the others. I played guitar on it. I played piano on one track. I sing quite a bit so I wasnt uninvolved in the music part.
DRE: How did it compare to what you normally do, writing novels?
RM: Its fun. It gives you a chance to be with other people. Writing is obviously very solitary and you know, in this endeavor, I get to collaborate and learn a lot so its great for me.
DRE: Have you done much collaborating before?
RM: Yeah, its something I like to do. Ive worked with other musicians on radio pieces and stuff and I like being involved with other kinds of art. So the learning process for me is great. Ive no need to sort of run the show particularly. In the musical setting, I like to see a player among players. I dont want a group of subjects to do my will. Its more that I want to have fun and deal with other people.
DRE: You probably could find people who would just do what you tell them to do.
RM: I could never be happy in that circumstance so specific case or not, I would probably run fleeing from the room. [laughs]
DRE: I read that you all live in Brooklyn not too far from one another.
RM: Yeah, Hannah actually is in Greenpoint. So shes sort of not far away as the crow flies but its kind of a pain in the ass by subway. But Dave and I live only like seven blocks from each other.
DRE: How well did you all know one another?
RM: I mean I know both of them independently pretty well. Ive known them both for four or five years. But they havent met before at all.
DRE: So how tough was it meshing their styles with yours? Was it difficult? Was it just like anything else when you have to collaborate?
RM: Thats the really interesting question about this band because there are three songwriters who write in very different styles working together. Thats interesting music mix. The record sounds like it has a lot of range. Its not all just one thing. But theres definitely push and pull and various compositions about how people are going to play on them and so forth. Thats whats exciting about it. But if you listen to their solo albums, they both record under their own names; youll find that theyre very different from what weve done here.
DRE: What do you think about your singing?
RM: My recorded voice makes me want to slit my wrist but theyve tried to convince me that Ive nothing to feel ashamed about. Also at least one person from the Japanese press singled out my voice as one of the good things about it which made me feel okay for about ten minutes.
DRE: How did you like the process of recording?
RM: It was fascinating because Ive never really been in a studio for any length of time before. It only took us about ten days or so to make the record. But Im very interested in all the stuff you can do with advance recording technology. It was a steep learning curve for me but really incredibly interesting. Also all the sort of political issues that come out in a band in that setting are really fascinating to me too. Thats where you find out what everybodys made of.
DRE: So what are you made of?
RM: Marshmallows.
DRE: [laughs] What does the name, Wingdale Community Singers, mean?
RM: Wingdale is a psychiatric hospital in upstate New York. It used to be called Harlem Valley Psychiatric Hospital and was one of the big state holding pens in the 50s. So when I was a kid in the 60s, we used to drive by there all the time on the way upstate to see friends and family and I thought it was the creepiest looking buildings Ive ever see and I still is. So the idea was, you know, we knew that we wanted the name to have kind of a folky old-time feel to it. But I didnt want to be like a dumb-ass touchy-feely folky thing but more like a scary folky thing.
DRE: Was folk music what you guys wanted to do or is that just what came out?
RM: I think its like modernist folk music so its not like
DRE: Yeah, its not like Woody Guthrie.
RM: Yeah or take a sort of unpalatable example. Its not like you know Peter, Paul, and Mary or something like that. We knew that we wanted to make acoustic music and not in any way electronic. What you hear is what actually took place in the studio. So its like punk rock made by people in their 40s basically.
DRE: Who paid for the record?
RM: We paid for the recording and got reimbursed along the way by the various labels.
DRE: How was it dealing with the various labels compared with the book publishers youve dealt with?
RM: Well its just a different set of thieves.
DRE: How about the cover? Im assuming thats near the original Wingdale.
RM: No its not at all. Actually, I think its like from Minnesota or something. That guy who took the picture, Alex Soth, is this amazing photographer. He made a whole series of photos that were taken on or around the Mississippi River along its entire length. The cover photo and also the one on the inset of the booklet are both from these 50 photos by him. Hes a really outrageously great photographer and we were really lucky that he liked the record enough to let us use the picture.
DRE: Since this was a collaboration, can it be as personal as your other work?
RM: No, actually what was interesting about it was for it not to be personal. Theres not a really autobiographical song on that record except for maybe my song about rats.
DRE: How is that one personal?
RM: Because I do get really creeped out when I see rats on the subway tracks.
DRE: Oh, really.
RM: Yeah, I find it disturbing. Its not that Im like afraid that theyre going to come up and get me or something. Its just their ubiquity that I find disturbing.
DRE: How is performing this stuff live?
RM: Weve only played out like five times maybe and were getting better considering that I never play live at all. I think of that as the last thing Im interested in. I think there are two kinds of people in the world, people who write and people who perform. Im so totally in the writing camp but were going to play a few more shows for the record release and well see how it goes.
DRE: I read that on your next album, there is going to be all these amazing people on it, like Paul Auster, Neil Gaiman and Dave Eggers.
RM: Oh, no thats a completely different thing that I gave lyrics to. Thats for this band in Brooklyn called One Ring Zero. Theyve made this record with all these writers on it and Im on that record a little bit too.
DRE: What did you contribute to that?
RM: I did lyrics on that one but Ive also played with them. Actually Ive made a whole spoken word record with them, where I played a little guitar and played the theremin on one track.
DRE: How did you learn to play the theremin?
RM: I cant but I can fake it pretty well. You have to have a perfect ear to play the theremin or else just play it like its electronic noise and Im the latter.
DRE: Has the music influenced your next book or anything like that?
RM: Nah, not really. Music is always a little influential just in the sense that as a prose writer, I think a lot about how paragraphs move and sound and stuff like that. Im interested in the sound in my head of prose not just how it tells a story or what it looks like. So to that extent, Ive always been really influenced by music but this process of actually making it hasnt particularly changed my approach.
DRE: Of course The Ice Storm had all those references to the Fantastic Four; you excited to see the movie?
RM: I saw the trailer yesterday because I actually went to see the new Star Wars movie.
DRE: Oh what did you think of Star Wars?
RM: Its certainly better than any of the other two in this series. But I thought it a little on the long side and kind of ponderous and pretentious and but I really loved all the parts that are flipping the bird at George Bush however.
DRE: What did you think of the trailer of The Fantastic Four?
RM: Yeah its better than the teasers that I saw before but none of these actors feel right to me, particularly. They look really faceless. What was really important about the Fantastic Four was their humanness and their foibles and the interrelationships between the two. Now its got like a lot of people with really excellent abs and stuff like that. Its not totally relevant.
DRE: Did anyone ask you to ever write a screenplay for the Fantastic Four?
RM: Nah.
DRE: Would you want to?
RM: No way, I dont like working for the Hollywood bunch. Hollywood movies just make me just stare lately.
DRE: Have you liked any of these comic book movies though?
RM: I kind of liked Spider-Man 2. I like Tobey [Maguire] a lot because I met him on The Ice Storm. For me, hes the antithesis of an action hero. As an actor, he does actually get in the direction of the kind of humanness of the Marvel Comics as I experienced them. I think those movies are ok but comic book movies in general just do the same shit every time. Like you can plot the three act structure on them as if to deviate a tenth of a degree from that formula will somehow cause the immediate firing of every scriptwriter who worked on it.
DRE: What is your next book about?
RM: Its about filmmaking. Its a comedy about an indie production company that tried to sell out really massively by trying to develop a television miniseries.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
walkswithbears:
I'm not sure I'm too bothered about his singing, but this interview makes me want to read Purple America and watch the Ice Storm again.
tohidemyhurt:
flowing interview-- interesting through out. DRE lives on.