Interview: R.M. Hendrix
Talking 'Shamblegloss', shoegaze, and sounds new and tested with the Boston musician.
IMAGE: R.M.HENDRIX
Fact sheet:
R.M. Hendrix’s new record, Shamblegloss, is out via CD, cassette, and vinyl March 5; it hits streaming services March 12;
The second single, “Summer Dresses,” hit Spotify February 24;
Shamblegloss follows R.M.Hendrix’s critically acclaimed experimental album, War Is On Its Way, released in September 2020;
Shamblegloss is a mixtape of new and old tracks, remixed, remastered and reverbed.
File under: shoegaze/noise pop;
It was only six months ago that R.M.Hendrix dropped War Is On Its Way, a nervous, loop-based album he said, “captures the sound of American angst through a plaster wall.” So it’s a surprise that his new record, Shamblegloss, is so upbeat and immediate. Shifting the sound from distant synths to waves of guitars, the record celebrates what Melody Maker once called “The Scene that Celebrates Itself,” but somehow is still around. This mixtape of noise pop, shoegaze, dreamwave — whatever you want to call it — spans songs from 2007 to 2021, that explore 11 different moods of a complex genre.
Hendrix went back to Q Division Studios to mix with Colin Lester Fleming again, to shape the tracks into a cohesive mix. The resulting album is a statement about the longevity of shoegaze, Hendrix’s songwriting, and the visceral appeal of overdriven amplifiers. He spoke to publi*sist’s Michael Marotta about the process.
IMAGE: MORNING COMPLAINTS SINGLE ARTWORK
Michael Marotta: Congrats on the release of Shamblegloss, a very creative way to issue a sort-of “Greatest Hits” record. For me, and I can imagine for you as well, things are coming a bit full-circle, as the first R.M. Hendrix track I had ever heard, and ever written about, was 2011’s “Summer Dresses,” which I reminded you about every other week during the War Is on Its Way campaign. Why did you decide to revisit older material, and go into Q Division to re-record some parts and re-mix the entire record with engineer Colin Fleming?
R.M. Hendrix: When I was working on War Is On Its Way. I was really impressed with Colin’s mixes and began wondering what he’d do with my older songs. I loved how he emphasized all the layers in my tracks while keeping clarity. And he kept commenting about how much he liked the textures in my music. So I went back though my albums and chose songs I felt would benefit from his ear.
I also wanted to hear some of the songs on vinyl since they were only released on streaming services or CD. Remixing gave me a great excuse to do that.
What was the process like, taking these older tracks and bringing them back to life?
I approached it like I imagine a curator does. My favorite genre of music is shoegaze. I decided I’d pull examples from my records that celebrate different expressions of that sound. It’s a really diverse genre. How can Swervedriver, Medicine, Slowdive, MBV, Cranes, Verve, Lush, Mary Chain and Pale Saints all be in the same grouping? They each sound really different.
After I had the songs I went through them and asked myself where to nip and tuck. There were a few things that bothered me, like the fret noise of a guitar, or a slightly off-key syllable. But the mistake had to be pronounced enough to personally take me out of the vibe of the song. So I left more than I changed. But then I also replaced some of the drum machines with live drums.
Why did you decide to re-record the drums and leave other pieces intact?
I just felt like adding live drums would bring the energy to the recording that I always heard in my head. I didn’t do it with all the tracks—just a handful that would take things up a notch. The reason they didn’t all have live drums in the first place was that most of these songs were recorded in my various living spaces so I couldn’t record drums. I finally went to Q Division in 2014 to track drums for Urban Turks Country Jerks with Steve Scully and Jon Lupfer. I wanted to do it again for these other songs and it turned out that Colin was not only a good mixer, but was a good drummer too! He was game. Those are pandemic drums, btw… he was facemasked and had sanitized sticks. James Bridges engineered them at Q and brought a lot of experimentation to the tracks with various tape delays.
Shamblegloss has one entirely new track on it, called “Morning Complaints.” Did writing “Morning Complaints” transport you back to your younger songwriting self?
Right, so it’s a new song. I began writing it around the time I started War. Obviously it wouldn’t fit on that record. But I’ve occasionally had these songs pop up like this. Plum is another one. I wrote it during Can It Find Us Here? But Morning Complaints fits really well in this mix.
The funny thing to me is that I couldn’t have written this song 10 years ago. I can listen to it and tell you about my own artistic growth. The timing is more complex, the lyrics are sharper, the harmonies are more pronounced, the solo is in your face. The structure of the song is unusual too, but the song is catchy enough that you don’t notice: it only has one verse, then a pre-chorus and chorus, then a different pre-chorus, chorus and an outro.
And then I wanted the drone textures of the song to be more about the harmony of the lead guitar and synth. So that was totally about ripping off Robert Fripp on Bowie’s Heroes.
Was it tough to pivot back to 2010-era style with all these guitars after the electronic music experimentalism of War Is on Its Way?
Not really. I think all the experimenting made me more confident about how to get the sounds I wanted. The last track on the record, Plum Ambient, wouldn’t have happened without War. It’s made with the same loop and layer process, just with guitars and time stretching instead of synth arpeggios. Maybe the hardest part has been feeling guilty about writing such an upbeat song during such a downer time. At least the lyrics are still melancholy.
IMAGE: R.M.HENDRIX
We’re having a bit of fun tagging all of this stuff with some sexy buzzwords, like remade… remixed… reloaded… reverbed. What can listeners, on the surface, take from this batch of material?
I don’t know what people will make of it. It depends on when they got introduced to my music, I guess. If you heard it in 2010, I think this will just sound bigger and better. If you found me through War, then you might be surprised by the poppiness of these songs, but probably can still draw a clear line with the sounds. Either way, I hope it makes them feel good.
Shamblegloss represents a return to your shoegaze roots, in a way. In your opinion, why and how has shoegaze persevered as a genre after so many decades? There’s a real timelessness to it, and modern-day guitar rock owes a bit of gratitude to that early-’90s sound.
Because it’s music about emotion rather than virtuosity or ideas. Sometimes it might have those latter things, but at its root, it’s music that’s about making you feel something through and with sound. Like the sun making us feel warm. Or the look of another person making us feel loved. That’s why I always talk about textures and colors in my music. They are as important as the notes. And it’s probably why the vocal mixes have traditionally been low on these records. It’s more about “feeling along” than singing along.
OK, last question, and one that’s open-ended Q: What should be touched upon that wasn’t asked?
You didn’t ask me anything about RIDE! Another shoegaze band I’ve been into forever. They’re a great example of a band that has kept the vibe but evolved their sound with the times. And their last record definitely influenced how I thought about “Morning Complaints.”