Matthew Houck, who has been recording as Phosphorescent for the past 10 years, tells SIOBHÁN KANEabout his lonesome take on folk-infused rock, being scared of life, his love of Willie Nelson and his growing skill as a songwriter
The last time we saw you was supporting The National in December. Is it strange to support another band when you have been performing for several years yourself?
It is strange, but we all became big fans of The National because of it – it was a fun tour. They were playing some really beautiful venues, particularly that one in Dublin.
Sometimes when people get older they get more frightened by life, and being a touring musician somehow seems so combative. Some of the shyest people can push themselves to such exposing situations – is it the compulsion to create and express that pulls you through?
Definitely at this point, and kind of always. For whatever reason, I never get nervous about being on stage. Years ago I had a whole period of getting very nervous about being just alive, but even when I was a mess like that socially, I was always able to jump on stage. But I have done so much touring over this past eight years, I am really looking forward to slowing it all down and getting back to creating records.
Your last record, Here’s to Taking it Easy,was very complex, yet you do much of the mixing and production on your own. Was the process for this one slightly different?
It was. I knew the musicians I would use to play on the record, so I was putting it together with them in mind. We tracked the songs together, then I took the songs to my studio and layered them for maybe six months on my own. The guys I play with are truly the best musicians alive right now.
As you have been writing songs for so long, does it gets harder to maintain the sense of beauty you started out with?
It’s weird, there are a number of things that happen – maybe this answer will change with time – but right now I have learned that there is a craft to it. It’s hard to say this without coming off as an ass, but I really think I know what I am doing at this point, and I have a confidence about how to write a song. I used to blindly follow this muse, and I was writing above my own ability at the time, so I would be wowing myself as I was doing it, but the weird thing is the work wasn’t as good as it is now, but now I don’t get that ecstatic thing as much, because I am more skilled. I have a calm trust in it now, and the songs I have been working on before we left for this tour are songs I am more excited about than I have been about anything.
To Willie, your tribute record to Willie Nelson, was wonderful. Were you nervous about approaching the work of someone who is so ingrained in the consciousness?
It was simply a matter of hearing that Willie album From Lefty to Willie.Then it just clicked immediately that I could do that for him, and send out a direct thank-you note. There was less nervousness, because I enjoy doing cover songs – you can take a load off – and Willie said some of the nicest things about it that anyone has ever said to me. He is a true living legend.
You have recently said that you have two records in mind that you want to make. How are they coming along?
That is true, but they could end up joining and becoming one record. I have always worked with a few songs in mind within one universe, but these songs are splitting off into two universes, so I think I have two records on my hands. It’s exciting, because I really don’t know what is going to happen.
You have always had such strong lyrics, but are you are going through a period of enjoying just sounds?
Poetry was always paramount for me. I am a sucker for all the flowery writers – I could read Neruda all day – but right now I am being drawn to a lot of music that is simply sound and less about lyrics. A big part of me is considering a wordless record. That is where the two records come in – one of them might be an instrumental.
* Phosphorescent play Dublin’s Workman’s Club on Thursday
