JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

In March 2020, John Cale was in Brazil taking part in competition exhibits along with his band.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOHN CALE: (Singing, inaudible).

SUMMERS: That is them on March 14 in Sao Paulo. In fact, COVID lockdowns have been sweeping internationally, so Cale and the band lower the tour brief and caught one of many final flights again to the States. Cale threw himself into his subsequent mission, recording a brand new album.

CALE: My studio was in shambles as a result of it was about to get transformed. And almost every bit of substances I owned was locked away in a pile of rubble. So I rummage by way of my home and discover ins and outs right here and there. And I discovered a brand new appreciation for some beat-up, outdated analog keyboards, alongside a couple of issues that I had by no means performed earlier than.

SUMMERS: Cale isn’t any stranger to creating music in unconventional methods.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SUMMERS: Within the early ’60s, he left Wales and moved to New York Metropolis, the place he fell right into a blossoming experimental music scene. Just a few years later, he co-founded The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed. And ever since, he is been a stalwart of avant-garde music. However as he put this new album collectively, he realized he wanted extra than simply totally different instrumentation to make it work.

CALE: After I got here again from Brazil, the album was written already. And I used to be attempting to determine who might add extra intrigue into the album.

SUMMERS: So he referred to as up some mates just like the singer Weyes Blood and bands like Sylvan Esso and Animal Collective. The result’s a extremely collaborative report referred to as “Mercy,” which is out now.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I KNOW YOU’RE HAPPY”)

CALE: (Singing) I do know you are joyful when – I do know you are joyful once I’m unhappy.

SUMMERS: So what caught out about a few of these collaborators that made you wish to work with them?

CALE: Many of the artists that joined me on the tracks, they’d their very own ambiance to them. And I did not attempt to push them in any course. I simply allow them to be and actually inhale the spirit that they dropped at the track. The emotion of the track actually was joined by their efficiency. Weyes Blood has a really deep and emotional voice. She simply warms the monitor. And Animal Collective actually has this multi-voice persona. So I laughed quite a bit once we did “Eternal Days.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “EVERLASTING DAYS”)

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: (Singing) If I say I am sorry…

SUMMERS: What made you snicker?

CALE: Simply the standard of the voices that have been there and the way they often deserted what the standard method to the melody could be. It was actually a part of the method of many various voices coming to phrases with many various concepts within the track.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “EVERLASTING DAYS”)

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: (Singing) Days, days, these days, days…

SUMMERS: I might prefer to ask you about one other one of many collaborations on this album, and that’s the track that you just did with the band Sylvan Esso.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TIME STANDS STILL”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing, inaudible).

SUMMERS: The track is named “Time Stands Nonetheless.” And I am hoping you possibly can simply convey us into the studio and into your course of. How did that one come collectively?

CALE: I’ve all the time loved Sylvan Esso’s model of harmonizing and I hoped that our paths would possibly cross. However as I used to be placing the ending touches on this track, I received a name saying Amelia and Nick have been in LA and would like to drop by and say howdy. And it was then I assumed that the proper time to see in the event that they’d wish to visitor on the monitor that I used to be engaged on. I suppose that is the proper instance of serendipity, but it surely was a pure match. And I could not be happier with the outcomes.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TIME STANDS STILL”)

CALE: (Singing) Was the hook that caught the fish…

SUMMERS: I talked with Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso final yr. And one of many issues that I keep in mind from their dialog that they each instructed me is that after they’re creating music, they’re always attempting to shock each other with the work that they create in separate, and that with their newest report, one among their targets was to essentially discard all the guidelines, the whole lot they knew about creating music and to essentially launch themselves from conventions. And I’m wondering if any of that confirmed up for you within the collaboration that you just had with them.

CALE: Effectively, I used to be fortunate to have as a lot time as I did with them. And I do not take note of conference. And since I rely a lot on improvisation, I do not stand listening to issues for very lengthy. I do not repeat choruses. I do not – the thought of the track does not depend upon choruses that repeat themselves. And I additionally – I am short-tempered, sadly.

(LAUGHTER)

CALE: And I do not – I actually wish to have as many new concepts as I presumably can in a track.

SUMMERS: This track is one among a few totally different locations on this album the place I hear some entice or hip-hop affect coming by way of, each within the drums and the rhythm. Was that deliberate?

CALE: Sure. Sure. I imply, I kind of fell in love with hip-hop. It has so many energetic approaches to songwriting. Hip-hop is the avant-garde of at this time.

SUMMERS: How so?

CALE: They’ve unconventional approaches to feelings and creativity. They don’t have any respect for solos and for all the opposite typical trappings that you’ve in songwriting.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN CALE SONG, “NIGHT CRAWLING”)

SUMMERS: You have mentioned that you just all the time attempt to, quote, “create music past the premise set earlier than.” Do you discover that tough to maintain doing in spite of everything of those years of making? And do you’re feeling such as you’ve achieved that with this album?

CALE: Sure, to the final query. However I spotted a very long time in the past that you have – improvisation is your approach of – in case you begin a track with simply any form of melody or rhythm that you’ve, you do not simply cease as a result of you have not received an answer but. You are higher off working at it and serving to it advance its concepts, no matter they’re. And your viewers is then your buddy.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NIGHT CRAWLING”)

CALE: (Singing) I am unable to even inform if you’re placing me on. We have performed that sport earlier than.

SUMMERS: You will have been engaged on this album for a while. Your profession has spanned years. I simply wish to finish by asking you, what’s subsequent for you?

CALE: Effectively, yeah, it took 2 1/2 years to do, so I am now going out on the highway. And I do not wish to summarize what I’ve simply achieved. I imply, I’ve this uncanny form of concept that in case you go and find yourself in a nook that you just really feel uncomfortable in, one thing will occur and you’ll provide you with an answer. In order that’s form of my mantra.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN CALE SONG, “NOT THE END OF THE WORLD”)

SUMMERS: That is John Cale. His new album, “Mercy,” is out at this time. John, thanks a lot.

CALE: Thanks.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN CALE SONG, “NOT THE END OF THE WORLD”)

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