Interview: Constellation Myths on ‘Case History’
Out now, the Massachusetts post-rock Americana outfit offer an emotive twirl through folk and alt-country
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Photo by Ben Stas
Boston, Mass. [August 18, 2021] -- A song has the ability to transport us to the past, to kick us back to those moments that forever get associated in our own minds with a piece of music. But those memories can fragment and change over time, as they get overwritten and obscured by our present circumstances. That’s a sentiment that swirls around “Case History,” the forthcoming single from Massachusetts post-rock Americana band Constellation Myths.
Streaming on Spotify and available to purchase via Bandcamp on Wednesday, August 13, “Case History” follows July’s debut single “Suffer,” a propulsive banjo-led track that has already garnered radio play for the duo, composed of principal members Justin Kehoe and Josh Goldman, with vocalist Molly Seamans. On “Case History,” the lush acoustics, golden organ, and gliding percussion lean into an alt-country twang and indie-folk ambiance that takes hold of the listener; the track will be featured on Constellation Myths’ debut album, set for release this October.
Michael Marotta of publi*sist caught up with Goldman and Kehoe to discuss their new band, upcoming single “Case History,” and their long-standing collaboration.
publi*sist: Right off the bat, let’s talk about the origin story. How did Constellation Myths come together for this project?
Josh Goldman: Justin and I have been playing together as a rhythm section since the late-90s. We've played in a number groups together: post-hardcore screamo bands, indie-pop folk music, and Touch & Go influenced math rock bands. Groups that never made it off the ground, groups that mostly involved drinking beer and trying to make each other laugh, bands we thought were Americana inflected country rock but turnout to be other things. But we were always the rhythm section, bass and drums, and a decent one at that. Justin was secretly teaching himself how to play keyboards and fooling around on Garageband and I played a lot at home on acoustic guitar writing little bits of songs here and there while working on my finger picking technique.
Neither Justin's keyboard playing nor my guitar fit into the context of the group we were in at the time until late into our run with Rivers & Plains. We were recording an album in which there were these interstitial pieces we wanted to include between tracks to beef up the overall feel and length of the record. I bullshitted my way through an unrecognizable version of something that our guitarist J. Heasely came up with and sent it to Justin who added some drums and other instrumentation. It didn't end up on that record but it pointed to a direction of musical growth for us.
publi*sist: Which kind of leads up to new single “Case History.” What’s this one all about?
Justin Kehoe: ‘Case History’ draws on something Molly and I heard in a RadioLab episode about the nature of memory. It’s the idea that the more you revisit a memory, the more you think about and replay it in your mind, the more you mess with that memory. It’s counterintuitive, but reliving your treasured memories is not preserving them. It’s altering, changing, distorting them. It’s introducing details and detritus from outside, each passage through a memory leaving traces of our current self behind. The relationship between memory and identity is a recurring theme for us.
Josh Goldman: Justin and Molly worked on the vocals and wrote the words. I'm strictly a music person, far more interested in vocal melodies than I am what's actually being sung. I grabbed the name “Case History” from the title of a book I had on my shelf of early crime scene photos because I liked how it sounded.
Justin Kehoe: Not sure how interesting it is, but the song references Leonard Cohen, actually, Roberta Flack’s cover of Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.” It’s really about the experience of hearing that in a certain context -- in the morning, while doing a jigsaw puzzle, listening to WJIB -- and being aware you were creating future nostalgia. The second chorus has a nod to that song in the line “Hey that’s no way to save a memory.” As for the title, Josh’s demos always have working song titles, and sometimes they work with the lyrics and sometimes they don’t. This one felt right.
publi*sist: How did the song come together, and what was the creative process?
Josh Goldman: “Case History” was something that I wrote one Sunday morning and refined over a week or so. The basic overall arrangement was all there waiting for me to find it and it came easily. I have a soft spot for ‘70s rock that was rising up to a fever pitch at that time and I think that “Case History” was me trying out my best Flying Burrito Brothers impersonation.
Like a lot of the material that Justin and I have worked on I'll send him a demo version recorded to my phone, just something to give a general idea and flavor of what I'm up to and then I let him react. More often than not we proceed with a song or idea but sometimes I take it back to the drawing board and rework things or abandon it. I think that with “Case History” it was fairly obvious that there was some quality there. I had a lot of the other overdubbed parts already attached to that first recording, the lead line, the banjo and the main rhythm guitar. The bass, as it usually is for us, was the very last thing to be added which is kind of funny for someone who played bass as his main instrument for so long.
Justin Kehoe: Yeah, sometimes we radically reshape things from that first version, or once I begin fleshing things out with drums, organ, wurlitzer, whatever, we’ll be like “Dag, that part needs to go twice as long.” But the structure of this one was just right from that first demo version. As with a lot of our songs, I start by adding crappy programmed drums -- usually a simple automated shaker and a basic kick-snare pattern -- then replace with real drums when we feel like we have the arrangement we like. I added organ, wurlitzer, and a short mellotron section in that second verse.
All the instrumentation except the pedal steel part, which we added later, was done before we started working on vocals. For the vox, Molly came up with the verse and chorus melody. The chorus came to her first, she knew the first chorus (“You wouldn’t know it, but when it’s dusty and tucked away it is more trustworthy”) and phrasing before anything else. I filled in the verses, and she edited them to fit the meter (and to get rid of words that maybe don’t sound as good sung).
publi*sist: As one of Constellation Myths' early releases, how does it reflect the project as a whole?
Josh Goldman: I think ‘Case History’ is definitely on the far end of the spectrum of what we're usually trying to synthesize; the more organic back porch country-time lemonade thing with the more post-rock stuff we've played in various bands. The song is short and sweet and evokes those hazy orange-tinted songs from ‘70s country radio stations. I basically spent my early childhood rolling around New England in the back of my dad's camper van tuning into 8-tracks of that stuff. For me, that's what the song is about, that sleepy, late-day childhood nostalgia.
publi*sist: How does “Case History” reflect Constellation Myths' creative mindset at this point?
Justin Kehoe: It’s representative of our current process, though it came together a lot more quickly and easily than most of our other songs. I think it’s the most recent of this batch of songs we’re releasing this summer and fall and is pretty representative of our songwriting process at this point. The earlier songs were a lot crazier in the way we approached them, chopping parts up and rearranging. There was maybe less structural tinkering with this song, but the flow is basically the same: Starts with a riff or sketch from Josh. I pile on some things, both good and bad. We edit, and refine, get it to where we like it, and then Molly and I start talking about vocals.
publi*sist: How does it fit in the context of the album?
Justin Kehoe: I think Josh addressed this a bit above. It’s definitely on the folk-country end of what we’re doing. You can see the connection between this Case History and Suffer, and between Suffer and any of the more post-rock songs from the album. There’s not much of the post-rock to “Case History.” I think it’s the needed sunlight on the album. There’s a lighter touch to the song, which I think will help bring some air to the darker songs. “Case History” and its b-side “Candle” are really a match in that sense.
Please direct all press inquiries to Constellation Myths at theconstellationmyths@gmail.com or Michael Marotta at michael@publisist.co.
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‘Case History’ single artwork:
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Constellation Myths are:
Josh Goldman (guitar, bass, banjo, dulcimer) and Justin Kehoe (drums, keys, vocals)
with Molly Seamans (lead vocals)
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‘Case History’ production credits:
Guitars and banjo tracked by Josh at home in Dorchester, MA. Keys and vox tracked by Justin at home in Jamaica Plain, MA. Drums recorded by Justin at Studio 52 in Allston, MA.
Recorded and mixed by Constellation Myths in Boston, MA.
Mastered by Andy Arch in Cape Cod, MA.
Cover design by Molly Seamans.
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Media Contact: Constellation Myths at theconstellationmyths@gmail.com or Michael Marotta at michael@publisist.co.
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