360°Sound spoke with guitarist Will Lang about his forthcoming EP, space/time. The 31-year-old arranged, wrote, produced, and played every instrument on his debut solo effort, which he recorded at his home in Memphis, Tennessee. Lang also plays bass for the Memphis indie rock band Rosey. While the 5-track EP officially comes out on Lang’s label Pink Heron Records this Thursday, Oct. 21, Lang has given 360° permission to provide our valued readers with exclusive access (see embedded tracks below).
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
360°Sound: What initially attracted you to jazz guitar?
Will Lang: I started getting into jazz guitar in high school as someone who was just kind of interested in improvisation. Through that journey I was led to study jazz further through summer camp instruction and my own studies. From there, I got more into some of the great improvisers. The two that really stuck out to me first were George Benson and Pat Metheny. I picked up a [Benson] CD at the local library and just dove in to his playing, and that really resonated with me. [Metheny’s] compositional skills in addition to his playing were a real inspiration and continue to be.
I went to school for jazz guitar at the University of Memphis. Since then, I’ve been doing freelancing, playing some jazz gigs and some stuff that’s not [jazz]. While I definitely consider myself a jazz guitarist, this project is a little bit different than that. It certainly incorporates the skills and the study of that music, but there’s definitely some non-jazz influences on this stuff, too.
Do you consider space/time to be a jazz record?
I wouldn’t consider it a straight-ahead jazz record by any stretch. I really like some of the stuff that the newer guys on Stones Throw [Records] are doing; it’s a little bit between genres. Some of it is a little bit under the modern music side of things and some of it is on the hip-hop side of things. Some of it is more beat-making stuff. I’m not quite sure what it is. More than putting on my hat as a player, I put on my producer hat and composer hat and beat-maker hat and tried to see what I could do that I was proud of, and this is what I came up with.
There’s a lot of live instrumentation. All the guitars are live. All the bass tracks are me playing electric bass. All the Rhodes tracks are on my Fender Rhodes piano. I’ve got some virtual synthesizers in there. The drum tracks are a mixture of programmed drums that I’m sampling and a little bit of live percussion elements to give it a little of extra flavor and make it sound a little more alive.
What’d you use for the finger snaps on “Summer Skies”?
Those very resonant, beautiful snaps are my girlfriend, Jen. Her snaps sound a lot better than mine, and I wasn’t going to let that go to waste. My snaps sound bad, hers were awesome. I was like, ‘Let’s use them.’ [Laughs].
What was the process like playing all the tracks then piecing it together?
I use Logic, GarageBand’s big brother, to produce. In doing that, the workflow is more similar to working in a studio. The process for me was first getting the drum cuts sounding like I wanted them to and then layering all the rhythm tracks on top of that. I’d have a bass day or a keys day or a guitar day and spend time getting those mics in the right places with the sound that I was happy about and capturing it as much in the day that I could so I could leave it set up and get that good sound out of that.
Another element was a lot of re-recording. A lot of these tracks started as ideas, whether in my head or on an instrument. I’d capture those in one way or another, but I’d keep refining them within Logic. The writing process was a little bit iterative in that, ‘I like this,’ or ‘I would like it to sound better,’ or ‘I’m going to keep this take and build around that.’ Those were some of the choices.
Once I recorded everything, I was able to send things over to my friend [indie singer/songwriter Julien Baker’s bassist and engineer] Calvin Lauber, who’s a great mixer. I was able to work with him to get the quality of the songs and some of the intricacies of the tones and textures that I was trying to get out of this. He really helped make some of that come alive.
I got some Kool & the Gang “Summer Madness” vibes from this record. Was ‘70s R&B and jazz-funk an inspiration?
Definitely. Oh man, that is a wonderful compliment. Kool & the Gang is certainly a band I love. I’m very indebted to D’Angelo’s and J. Dilla’s work. I filtered it through a modern lens as well. When you’re thinking about making music that feels good, some of the great producers from [the ‘70s] definitely come to mind.
When you’re making music that’s smooth and chill is it a challenge to not make it too produced or sleek?
Yeah, you can smooth it into oblivion. The stuff I make is not perfect so you can just leave some of that in there, but that is a real consideration, not polishing it to death. That can be tough when you’re in the weeds of producing it, making sure that you don’t flatten out all the character.
Why’d you title it space/time?
Partly to be a little ambiguous but partly to get more in the mindset of it being something a little bit abstract. But I’m thinking of space and time in the context of this record; it took a lot of space and time for me to do this – to sit down and write and get my ideas out. That wasn’t the easiest for me to find my voice. But also, in finding my voice, thinking of yourself, whereas space and time is kind of the context outside of ourselves. Working with the space and time around us as well. It’s comforting for me to get out of myself.
To purchase a CD or digital album of space/time, visit Lang’s Bandcamp.
