As a young man in 1990, Bill Callahan started making music under the post-industrial moniker Smog. Smog’s music was experimental and spartan: just Callahan’s baritone singing over minimalist guitar riffs. At the center of it was his poetic and spare lyrics, which always took priority for Callahan.
“I’m not much of a musician,” he tells Kurt Andersen. “I need to make a story, and I don’t want to use the music as any kind of crutch at any point.” After a fast writing process, he begins a slower and more labored effort to compose, imagining himself as a kind of woodcarver, and music as “a block of noise … always just chipping away at that to find the melody.”
After 16 years, he dropped “Smog” to make albums as Bill Callahan. The sound has evolved, incorporating producers and other musicians — even the occasional string arrangement. Dream River is almost a kind of concept record. “I was trying to make a record to listen to before you go to bed, something that wasn’t too jarring or upsetting.”
Bonus Track: Bill Callahan’s Leaves of Grass improvisation
Learn more about Walt Whitman’s masterwork in our American Icons story.
Video: “Spring” live in Studio 360
The World is an independent newsroom. We’re not funded by billionaires; instead, we rely on readers and listeners like you. As a listener, you’re a crucial part of our team and our global community. Your support is vital to running our nonprofit newsroom, and we can’t do this work without you. Will you support The World with a gift today? Donations made between now and Dec. 31 will be matched 1:1. Thanks for investing in our work!