 Ed Barguiarena, Jimi Hawes, James Combs, Erin Hawkins, Rich McCulley Photo by Gary Calamar
Inspired by the classic sounds of Laurel Canyon, Great Willow - Ed Barguiarena (percussion), James Combs (guitar and vocals), Erin Hawkins (vocals, cello, mandolin, accordion), and Rich McCulley (guitar) - blends close harmonies, mandolins, mariachis, and psychedelic guitar with lyrics that are thoughtful and personal. Their debut album Find Yourself In Los Angeles, produced by John Would (Fiona Apple) and Nik Freitas (Maria Taylor), is a song cycle detailing snapshots of a broken relationship that sets off a move to Los Angeles and starting over. Here, Rich and James answer their Essential 8 and let you in on their musical mentors, their favorite food on the road, and much more!
Did you have a musical mentor? If so, who was it and how did they influence you? RICH: James Combs, no explanation required. JAMES: Ha. Thanks, Rich, and back atcha, brother. For myself, I feel like I was sort of collectively mentored by the music scenes that I grew up in. Lots of help along the way. But a big one in the past few years has been the ghost of Gene Clark. Discovering his post-Byrds solo records - “White Light” in particular - sort of ignited Great Willow. I heard that album and had an explosion of song ideas. The way Gene put his country feel, his sense of melody, and his emotional, kinda abstract lyrics together really got me. His music was identifiably country on the one hand but very much its own animal on the other. I wanted to try my hand at something like that. With songwriting, what’s the “a-ha” moment when you know the song is completed and perfect? RICH: When it’s 3 minutes long its done, 4 minutes is really 2 songs. JAMES: I think Rich and I both have a thing for brevity. We were writing recently and I was trying to get fancy and go off on a bridge tangent and Rich said “save some chords for the next song.” And of course he was right. I think a good art motto is “create freely, edit ruthlessly.” So I generally try to just chase every thought I can when the idea is fresh then go back to the lyric blob later and start chiseling. I know a song is done when I stopped being irritated by it. I love it when the gods gift you with one of those songs that arrives entirely intact, which sometimes happens. “The New Normal” was written pretty much in real time as it was coming out of my mouth singing into the mac. I had to listen back and write it all down. “What did I just say?”
What’s the story behind your album’s title?
JAMES: A few years ago when my son was born it was such an epic moment in my life that it seemed to trigger a bunch of pictures from another, earlier epic moment – when I first moved to Los Angeles. I had been living in Petaluma and suddenly over the course of a week, my girlfriend at the time broke up with me, I lost my job and apartment, and was set adrift. I spontaneously lurched toward LA hoping I could make a music life here but it was a hairy, unmoored time. And LA is a different place than you think it’s going to be – hard to get your brain around. It was both exciting and a little frightening. So “Find Yourself In Los Angeles” is all about the experience of trying to, you know, remake yourself in Los Angeles. I think a lot of people come here with similar stories – to try a shot at a new life after everything broke down at the last stop. Where do you draw inspiration from when writing? JAMES: Well, all of the songs on our record are built around this idea of trying to start over –snapshots of different moments in the process of breaking down and rebuilding. “Secretly Happy” is about that strange day when you and the ex are sitting there dividing up your stuff in the old apartment. The two of you are comfortable enough with each other to share some black humor at the awfulness of the task you’re performing but one of you is secretly happy about it. “Petaluma” is kind of about the lost dream of CA – how you moved to this perfect little town with big ideas but then everything goes down the toilet and suddenly you’re leaving to try again somewhere else. “No City Can Cure Me” is me saying “I keep moving but I can’t find a home,” which was my dilemma for awhile. “Love Will Finally Find You” is me telling myself it’s going to be OK – that eventually things will work out. And they did. I am very happily married and have a rich music life now. What’s your favorite food on the road? RICH: I love when a family or someone invites us in to their home for a home cooked meal. I’m vegetarian so certain parts of the country can be harder to get a good meal. One time a family had us over for dinner somewhere in the Midwest and made us chicken. They said: “That’s vegetarian right?” What’s your favorite venue and why? JAMES: Lately I’ve been appreciating house concerts. We put on a music series in my friend Staci’s beautiful yard in Beachwood Canyon called The Secret Bowl Music Series. It’s actually how we developed Great Willow – with my fantastic collaborator Erin Hawkins and I opening for other artists we admire there, adding members as we went along. I like the human, intimate, casual nature of playing in someone’s personal space. It feels like an experience rather than another night at the bar. I also really like the Hollywood Bowl – so beautiful and dripping with history. I saw Tom Petty’s final concert there recently and it was a moving night, joyful night, especially in hindsight. He seemed ecstatic to be performing in that iconic space and the audience was certainly ecstatic to be there with him. Which doubled the blow when he left us only a week later. RICH: I love the Cinema Bar in LA, The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, the Lost Church and Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. Always good shows there. I like listening rooms where people LISTEN to the music! By the way, I have no problem telling rude people to shut up, the rest of the audience always seems to agree with me. JAMES: Yes, Rich is kind of a badass – a man who won’t mince words. I am a little more, er, diplomatic in my approach generally although I did ask an impossibly tall man to sit down at a Morrissey show recently. He didn’t. Too bad Rich wasn’t with me. Have you met any of your heroes? If so, how did it go? JAMES: I worked for a few years on music shows for KCRW and AOL so I got to encounter a lot of artists through work who I had loved from afar growing up as a music fanatic in Indiana. Imagine the feeling when Paul McCartney walks into the room. You sort of become wobbly and mute. You can’t believe some turn of events in the universe somehow put you in the same room with ONE OF THE FRIGGIN’ BEATLES. But I noticed that he is really really good at disarming that feeling. He is the kind of person who hangs out through the whole session with the crew, looks you in the eye and asks you what you do. He’s a good listener. By the end of the day it feels like afternoon with uncle Paul. Then he leaves and it kinda sinks in. Did that just actually happen? And you’re wobbly and mute again. I am eternally grateful for that experience. Is drinking at gigs a positive or a negative? RICH: Ask my sponsor. Watch the video for "Many Things" HERE For more information Website Purchase
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