Kim Ruehl: Here's the wide-open question, David: What can you tell me about this new record you just finished making.
David Wilcox: Well, the new CD is called Open Hand. It's been such a joy. Every once in a while everything goes right. I recorded it in a beautiful studio in Ferndale, California, with great players and it was fast. The last few projects, I've recorded with ProTools in my home studio. The nice thing—and the bad thing—about ProTools and home studios is you can take as long as you want. It goes on forever [laughs] there's always getting lost in the minutiae, fixing some little thing. The cool part of this last project was that we were recording to analog tape. There's no pitch correction, no fixing little stuff, no grid mode, no covering mistakes and stuff like that. So you get really great players and you play it live. It really makes the whole process a work of art. It makes the whole process matter. You have to be at your best.
We wanted to do it in a week and we did. It was great. We usually [used the] first or second take. [I loved] the chemistry of the different musicians and the fact that it felt like a real present tense communication, a heartfelt expression. When you're over-thinking it in a home studio it can turn into too much fiddling with little sounds, aiming for some sort of perfection as the soul of [the music] gets lost.
Were these songs you've been playing live for a while, or did you write them specifically for this record?
It's both, actually. I love to test out songs on audiences to be sure they're as good as they can be. I can feel if a song gets misunderstood in a certain part or if a certain line doesn't really flow. But the writing is for the next gathering of songs.
What I love about music is it's always been my way of finding out what's next for my heart. What's the place that I'm challenged to grow? What am I learning about? What am I hoping for? What am I frustrated with? What needs to change? These are all questions that show up in crisis for most people. For me, I've asked music to be my teacher. So the stuff that stirs my heart, that shows up on a record is usually not just about who I am—I'm born with that. [It's more about] who I am becoming or who I might be if I make all the right decisions. Or they're songs that are looking at the world from a place that I haven't even gotten to yet.
I put together a bunch of songs and I look at it and say, "Who am I now? What’s the place in my life that this music speaks to?" ...I [can] look back on these songs and say "Ah, I see. This has been my compassion out of anger phase. Or rekindling my hope, daring to really believe in what's possible for people." That's what this record is about.
Why Open Hand? That phrase has so many implications. What does it mean for you?
It came from this conversation I had with a friend who had just been through this amazing, harrowing experience. I was wondering if he was really nervous about life and death. He had this really close call with death and he wasn't in the clear yet. He could still go at any minute, it was sort of precarious. He said, "I'm more alive than ever and I'm really happy, but I'm holding my life with an open hand." And I thought, "Ooh, that's nice. I would like to learn how to do that, too."
When you're recording to ProTools, getting nitpicky, taking forever, it can change the songs from the way you originally intended them to sound. How does going in and doing it quickly in one week to analog tape...when you come out of that process, how does it change the way you play the songs live?
This hasn't happened to me in about 18 years but, for the first time in a long time, I'm playing songs live and hearing in my head the arrangement that’s on the CD. I love the way these songs sound. That's actually a detriment. That's something I need to get over in a big hurry [laughs].
The clichéd response [to my records] is: "I've heard your records but I never knew it was like this until I saw you live." I've had to make my peace with the fact that, usually, the spirit that really moves people in a concert doesn't show up on tape. But this time, it did. That's what's a little intimidating about coming out with these songs. The version on the CD is the definitive version. It's the version I come back to. Now I've got to make this fly solo. That's a really nice challenge. I love that challenge...and I will do it, but it's a great compliment to the process of recording that it's even on my mind that I have to live up to these recordings. Usually that's not hard at all [laughs]. It's a cool change.
I've noticed a lot of people are recording to tape now. Do you have any thoughts on why that's the new trend in recording?
I think it brings it back to a real-time musical experience. We're starting to realize that something is lost when a vocal is cobbled together from eight or ten different takes. You don't hear the performer reacting to the emotion of the song. You hear a compiled, cut-up version that no one actually sang. There's less life to it somehow. I think people are coming back to analog realizing that, although sonically it has its quirks and it's more difficult, there is something there that makes it more satisfying for the listener and the performer. It comes to the point where ProTools instead of analog is like playing tennis without the net. Anyone can do it and that's not necessarily a good thing.
