Bill Callahan Chats About New Album Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle

The voice is unmistakable. Steady and mournful like a lone riverboat, Bill Callahan -- formerly known under his early ‘90s experimental rock moniker Smog -- may have added a few instruments, but his gilded pipes, delivering tales of loves lost and memories shunned, has returned with Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, an album as beautifully confounding as its grammatically challenging title. From a made-up language delivered in Callahan’s utterly serious tenor to his plaintive and heartbreaking explorations of the intersection between God and nature, Callahan’s second album under his own name is a more lush affair, filled with orchestras and organs. For Eagle Callahan returned to his state of origin, writing and recording in Austin –- and it would seem there’s some slightly obscure stock-taking at work on this album. Album opener “Jim Kain” has Callahan crooning “I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again.” We’re just happy to be along for the ride.

Where and over what period of time did you write the songs on this record?
I was at home. Mostly wrote during a couple months just before starting recording in August.

It seems that there’s a very strong connection between faith and the natural world. Can you talk a little about your own spirituality, and where you see nature in it (if at all)?
I don't really have any faith except in humans. I don't believe in spirits or the supernatural or anything that can't be seen or explained in terms I can relate to. I'm not sure what spirituality is. What is it? There's only real life as far as I'm concerned.

Similarly, where did the title come from?
Just a phrase I thought of. To try to sum up what a lovers relationship is like. The "sometimes" is pretty important in it, too.

What’s the significance of the phrase “Eid Ma Clack Shaw”? How autobiographical is that song? Was it composed over similar circumstances to the song?
It's gobbledygook. But maybe supposed to have some meaning. Like, this is the way to shake a memory. A mantra if you will. I found an oldish notebook with something that looked to read "eid ma" in messy handwriting. I couldn't remember what I was writing. Maybe it was in sleep.

Sonically, the album has a more lush, fuller sound than recent releases. Was that a conscious decision, and what prompted it?
Yeah it was conscious. I've always desired to make such an album. It was just a matter of having the right songs for it and finding the right people to be involved. I wanted to make something with arrangements that went with the songs not against them.

This being your second album recorded as Bill Callahan, what are you finding to be the most major differences (if any)?
To be honest, nothing. It was just a matter of not having a name that didn't have a meaning.

What’s coming up next for you?
Buncha touring. Got a live LP coming in 2010 that kicks ass. Working on new songs.