Niko Röhlck (left) and Marty Willson-Piper of MOAT (photo by Olivia Willson-Piper)
Get Marty Willson-Piper on the phone once and you’ll never forget it.
My 2018 conversation with the English musician – best known for his former decades-long membership in Australian legends The Church – was a sprawling ride colored by the man’s undeniable love of music. Even as a fellow sound obsessive, I found it difficult to keep up with the man as he bounced from praising ’80s Hard Rockers Kingdom Come and obscure living treasure Robert Wyatt to detailing his dreams for his stunningly extensive In Deep Music Archive project. And when he got to discussing his then-in-progress Noctorum release (The Afterlife) with longtime friend and collaborator Dare Mason and his various musical plans for the future…Good God! Thirty years after arguably The Church’s greatest success in the States, he was still firing away in as many sonic directions as possible with the same enthusiasm as someone recording their first single.
Willson-Piper’s chat-ending rundown of his 2019 plans included a mention of work on the second album from MOAT, his project with Niko Röhlck of Weeping Willows. Now, the first taste of what is to come from that forthcoming release (Poison Stream, due in early 2021) has arrived in the form of “Gone By Noon.”
From the morose opening keys to Willson-Piper’s concluding croon of the song’s title, “Gone By Noon” (which finds him passing guitar duties to Röhlck, who also plays keyboards, in favor of handling the bass) is a decidedly somber affair. While Willson-Piper’s past work with The Church often hid lyrical gloom behind shimmering arrangements (1988’s “Reptile” is a prime example), there are no grey shades – neither musically nor lyrically – to be found here. The sense of loss and disillusionment is direct and palpable:
Silence spills like a wave in the dark
The films you play
Black and white
A final scene – crying
And you’re gone.
The “black and white” reference is perfect, as “Gone By Noon” is 3am noir music tailor-made for full ashtrays, empty bottles and that call you’ll never receive again.
Full marks to the track’s other performers – Mason on additional keyboards, Eddie John on drums and Olivia Willson-Piper on backing vocals – for so brilliantly contributing to the emotional depth of Willson-Piper and Röhlcke’s latest creation.
Have a listen below (then purchase via your favorite digital music platform):
Last month, MOAT – a collaboration between former The Church guitarist Marty Willson-Piper and Niko Röhlck of Weeping Willows – released the fantastic “Gone By Noon,” the first single from their forthcoming second album, Poison Stream (due in early 2021). Now, they have just unveiled a second tune, “Acid Rain,” in time to coincide with the launch an Indiegogo page in support of the new album.
Those (like yours truly) who absolutely loved “Gone By Noon” and were struck hard by the song’s sense of loss and disconnection will find more of the same on “Acid Rain,” which uses a more upbeat musical presentation to cushion another Willson-Piper walk through lyrical melancholia:
You flick the pages
Of your book
Trying to find
The right line
Then there it is
That famous quote
That explains
Away your life
You flip a coin
You laugh out loud
As it’s lost.
However, “Acid Rain” is far from a complete downer, as the song’s arrangement (highlighted by the simple but highly effective charge of drummer Eddie John) flavors its sentiments with hooks that last for days. Synth player Torbjörn Svedberg and backing vocalist Dare Mason add just the right amount of light to the proceedings, while Willson-Piper’s return to guitar (after assuming bass duties for “Gone By Noon”) is instantly recognizable and characteristically pristine.
Based on the two songs available thus far, Poison Stream will be a fairly dark and cynical affair. And that’s okay… Emotions are emotions, and it’s an artist’s job to convey them. And there will surely be plenty of sonic beauty in the tracks to come to balance out whatever dark alleys MOAT choose to take us down upon the album’s release. I can’t wait to hear and feel where the journey takes me.
Sipping a cup of black coffee alone in a diner at 3am while dialing a cell phone that never picks up. Spending a downcast afternoon walking through a tired carnival with creaky and rusty rides that were surely something in their time. Facing another sunrise with a full ashtray and an empty bottle of wine. Staring at pictures of the one who got away – or the one in the other room who’s packing up to leave. There are moments in everyone’s life when they are confronted with the reality of a promise that never quite worked out. And now, those moments have a perfect soundtrack.
Wryly released two days before Valentine’s Day, Poison Stream, the first album in seven years from MOAT – a collaboration between Marty Willson-Piper (formerly of The Church) and Niko Röhlcke of Weeping Willows – is the kind of album that breaks your heart right out of the gate. From the morose opening keys to Willson-Piper’s concluding croon of the song’s title, the album's late-2020 single, “Gone By Noon,” was a decidedly somber affair that hinted at what was to come. While Willson-Piper’s past work with The Church often hid lyrical gloom behind shimmering arrangements (1988’s “Reptile” is a prime example), there were no grey shades – neither musically nor lyrically – found on this tune. The sense of loss and disillusionment was direct and palpable:
Silence spills like a wave in the dark
The films you play
Black and white
A final scene – crying
And you’re gone.
If that kind of sonic snapshot of disconnection is up your street, you’ll find more of the same on the album-opening “Acid Rain,” which uses a more upbeat musical presentation to cushion another Willson-Piper waltz through lyrical melancholia:
You flick the pages
Of your book
Trying to find
The right line
Then there it is
That famous quote
That explains
Away your life
You flip a coin
You laugh out loud
As it’s lost.
However, “Acid Rain” is far from a complete downer, as the song’s arrangement (highlighted by the simple but highly effective charge of drummer Eddie John) flavors its sentiments with hooks that last for days. Synth player Torbjörn Svedberg and backing vocalist Dare Mason add just the right amount of light to the proceedings, while Willson-Piper’s guitar work is instantly recognizable and characteristically pristine.
Then comes “Helpless You” – the best song Tom Waits never wrote. I mean, this is the opening verse:
The light slips through
You're alone in your room
With your secrets and pain
And it's happening again.
If you hang on long enough, you’ll encounter a gorgeously composed chorus that will compel you to sing along despite what it’s telling you:
And you cry as you slide away
In the light see the sign of your decay
So goodbye, we'll deny your prey
Your desires and lusts have locked you away
So sad, helpless you.
Once you pick yourself off the floor after that, you’ll be greeted by seven more songs pretty much in the same spirit as the preceding three. But even when reaching their dirgiest depths, the songs are rescued from complete despair by stunning (and sometimes even uplifting) instrumentation by a cast of other supporting characters, including (among many others) Willson-Piper’s wife, Olivia, whose harmony vocals and violin/cellolin on “The Ballad of Sweet Marie” add just enough sweetness to flavor the otherwise bleak narrative. The addition of tenor sax and trumpet (courtesy of Jonas Wall and Jonas Lindeborg, respectively) on “The Roadmap to My Soul” delivers a similar effect. Multi-instrumentalist Röhlcke – the album’s not-so-secret weapon – is heard and felt all over the place as the proceedings play on.
Of the remaining album tracks, “The Folly” is the peak of Poison Stream’s gripping power, with the strings of Malin-My Wall and Madelene Johansson meeting Röhlcke’s classical guitar in just the right way to expertly carry Willson-Piper’s crestfallen delivery.
And how do Willson-Piper, Röhlck and company wrap up this 10-song affair for the dutiful listener? With a song called “Tears Will Come.” For fuck’s sake!
Quips aside, Poison Stream is a truly masterful work – easily one of Willson-Piper’s most captivating releases and proof that his union with Röhlcke is a deeply successful formula. Every syllable the man sings utterly shatters you in the best possible way, but what do you expect from a guy who wrote the lyrics for this thing while spending time in the Swedish countryside?
Poison Stream will not speak to everyone, but nakedly honest art never does. However, those who possess the requisite disposition and bent to take it on will be rewarded with an album both serene and soul-crushing. It’s ultimately quite beautiful, even if it’s possibly the first recording since Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Skeleton Tree to warrant the need for a safeword.
Devastation and cynicism have rarely sounded so lovely.
Already a favorite musician of mine long before I launched this website, Marty Willson-Piper has become my most covered living artist since our initial interview in 2018. This is due to the fact that the man never slows down and keeps coming up with new things for me to write about. Although he is best known for his 33-year run as the guitarist and occasional vocalist for Australian Alt Rock legends The Church, the British multi-instrumentalist has seemingly spent every second of the eight years following his departure from that band creating and celebrating music in any form he can grasp. From overseeing the immense In Deep Music Archive in Cornwall to participating in far too many musical projects and collaborations to list here, he is constantly unveiling new sounds while perpetually jumping to the next thing. (It’s highly likely he’s started at least three new recording projects by the time you finish reading this piece. I’m not kidding.)
Now, not even four months since the release of MOAT’s Poison Stream (the latest album from his extraordinary project with Niko Röhlcke of Weeping Willows; check out my review), Willson-Piper is back with yet another entity, Space Summit, and another new album, Life This Way (coming this month as a download, this September on CD and early next year on vinyl). This time around, he’s crafting tunes with Minneapolis-based singer Jed Bonniwell. Space Summit made its debut with the June 9 release of the aptly named “I’m Electric,” which features Willson-Piper assuming guitar and bass duties in a louder and more raucous fashion than anything heard on Poison Stream. Musically, the track is all over the place in the best possible way, touching on everything from Grunge to Psychedelic Folk to Britpop. It’s a stunningly gorgeous combination that somehow retains a sense of cohesion and Pop sensibility amidst the waves of eclecticism. Have a listen below:
Recorded in America, Borneo, Sweden and the UK during the pandemic, the forthcoming Space Summit album finds Willson-Piper and Bonniwell joined by harmony vocalist Phoebe Tsen (of Borneo-based duo Avery Fos) and a very familiar cast of characters: Willson-Piper’s wife, Olivia, who contributes violin and backing vocals; longtime friend, collaborator and Noctorum partner Dare Mason (who co-produced the album in addition to providing keys and slide); and stellar MOAT/Noctorum drummer Eddie John. Keep watching this space; there will surely be more to come from Willson-Piper, Bonniwell and co. leading up to Life This Way’s release.
Marty Willson-Piper (right) and Dare Mason of Noctorum (Photo by Olivia Willson-Piper)
The best interviews are always the ones that evolve into free-flowing conversations. With that in mind, I loved my recent conversation with Marty Willson-Piper.
In a sprawling and highly enjoyable call that hit on everything from his admiration for my recent interviewees Kingdom Come (not featured below, as that could fill an article in itself) to his extraordinary In Deep Music Archive in Cornwall, England (explored below and worth checking out on your own in greater length), Willson-Piper delivered every word with the same level of wonder and enthusiasm that defined his legendary decades-long work with his former band, The Church.
At the time of this posting, Willson-Piper was in the final hours of a successful PledgeMusic campaign for The Afterlife, the upcoming fourth album from his Noctorum project with lifelong friend and famed producer Dare Mason (best known to Church fans for his work on 1994’s Sometime Anywhere). In addition, his everywhere-at-once musical schedule currently includes work with acts ranging from Swedish Prog Rockers Anekdoten to Texas-based singer Salim Nourallah. His wife, Olivia – an extraordinary violinist – regularly accompanies him in his various exploits.
Check out Noctorum’s recent single “A Girl With No Love” below, then strap yourself in for a very fun read.
How indicative is “A Girl With No Love” of what else we can expect from the rest of the new album?
Well, as usual in Noctorum’s eclectic world, it’s not indicative at all. Look, Joel, I see it like this. If you’re the kind of band that is constantly attempting the same trick, what happens is you have good versions of the trick and not-so-good versions of the trick. Some of the albums are great, and some of them are not as great as the ones that are great because it’s the same trick – and that trick isn’t as good maybe the 15th time. What I love about The Beatles is The White Album has McCartney going from ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ to ‘Helter Skelter’ and Lennon pushing ‘Julia’ and ‘Revolution 9.’ I hate those people who say, ‘McCartney’s shit; Lennon’s good’ or the other way around. I think diverse approaches to music and all kinds of styles within the same record is just interesting. If you can’t follow it because you only like Goth music, then that’s just your lack of vision. I prefer to hear music that is challenging genres. Not that I’m a Hip-Hop guy, for fuck’s sakes – excuse my French. That’s just something I can’t do.
You’re doing this new record through PledgeMusic. I’ve spoken to several acts from the ’80s and ’90s who are also using crowdfunding to get things out these days. You’ve obviously been on both sides of the fence, so what do you see as the advantages of doing it this way as opposed to working within the more traditional industry structure that once existed?
Well, yeah, the ‘industry structure that once existed’ doesn’t exist now, does it? So, you have to find other ways. I mean, that direct connection with people who like your music is a really great thing. I’ve always been very accessible to people who want to talk to me, discuss music with me and ask me questions about my record collection, my gear, my guitars, my songwriting, my lyrics. I‘ve always been happy to talk to people – not just journalists, but anybody – about that kind of stuff. Music, art, literature - I’ve always been very open and accessible to that kind of thing anyway. So, for me, it’s just not really that strange. The only strange thing about it is when you sort of think of it in terms of asking people for money. That’s when it’s a little weird. Did you ever hear that Chris Rock thing where he says, ‘When you first meet somebody, you don’t actually meet the real person; you meet their representative’?
Yes! (laughs)
(Laughs) Which I thought was brilliant! I’m not a particularly massive Chris Rock fan, but I thought that was really perceptive of him to bring that to everybody’s attention. What happens with the PledgeMusic thing is you’re sending in your representative. I don’t want to kid anybody about who I am in order to raise money. I want them to know who I am. If they like what I do and like me and like my work, then get involved. I don’t want to send my representative in to raise money. (laughs)
You’ve known Dare since the two of you were kids. Obviously, you’ve had a career in which you’ve worked with many tremendous musicians, but what does Dare in particular offer you musically and creatively – and perhaps vice versa – to the point where you’re still making records together all these years later?
Dare is a highly skilled producer/engineer. He’s one of those guys who really knows his job. He really, really knows how to make a record sound great. When he got his first job after engineering school, he went to the Virgin Townhouse Studios in London and worked there for a few years. He’d be second engineer or assistant on Queen or Paul McCartney or Prince or Ravi Shankar. All these big-name acts would come through there, so he sort of honed his skills working with artists like that. Once he became competent, he’d get a call from his manager, and she’d say, ‘Hey, Dare. Can you come in Friday night? Prince wants to come in and do some songs while he’s on tour.’ So, you can imagine the level of expertise he had to reach in order to have Prince come in or help Paul McCartney with vocals on the Flowers In The Dirt album. So, he brings a lot of expertise to the project. I’m more sort of left-of-center than he is creatively. He’s got all those kind of skills from real education and working with major artists, and I bring in sort of the spanner-in-the-works aspect of writing songs.
Speaking of Dare’s expertise, he brought some of those in when he produced Sometime Anywhere. That was obviously a transitional album for The Church, largely because the band had been reduced by half at that point –
The same as now.
What impact did Dare have not only on the material for that album, but also keeping the focus within The Church moving at that time?
The idea was to bring in somebody who I was comfortable with. The singer [Steve Kilbey] had somebody he was comfortable with, working on loops and things. So, we felt comfortable in the surroundings of who was contributing on a technical level to the record. I think the departure and the direction that record went in was really interesting. I don’t know if people who liked more jangly Rickenbacker-type songs from previous albums were enthralled with that, but songs like ‘Day Of The Dead’ and ‘The Dead Man’s Dream’ and ‘Loveblind’ – there was all kinds of great songs on that record that were sort of presented in a different light. That’s my idea of how things should be. Trying to move into other areas instead of settling. The band didn’t do that, actually; the band started off very much with jangling guitars and moved into a moodier direction, which the band was more comfortable with in the end. But it should always be morphing into something else, really. Otherwise, it’s just sausages and potatoes for dinner every night.
I want to talk about the In Deep Music Archive. The website is fantastic; it’s a great rabbit hole for me to climb into every so often. You have some long-reaching plans for this thing. Including getting a small venue and sort of making it a hub of musical activity. What’s the current standing of the Archive project in terms of seeing some of those things come to fruition?
First of all, the dream is to be able to have a building. I need somebody to give me a building in a city, somewhere where there’s people. Let’s presume that Howard Hughes is still alive and he’s got a spare building in Manhattan, London, Chicago – wherever it is. He says, ‘Marty, I’ve heard about your project; here’s the building. Now, go for your life.’ What I would then do is take all of the records, pile them into the building – all in alphabetical order, all sorted out… Cassettes, vinyl, seven-inch singles. 78s, eight-tracks – and I would make a living audio museum of music of all different genres – Classical to Hip-Hop and everything in between. I would then turn it into a café. There would be rooms where you would go in where there would be VHS, cassettes. There would be analog rooms; there would be digital rooms. There would be future rooms and past rooms. There would be retro rooms with retro furniture; there would be modern, digital rooms with modern furniture. There would be a bar, a stage…There would be a place where you could hold events and come and see people play music. You would be able to treat it as a research facility, and you would be able to become a trustee and get access to the records based on your approval rating. (laughs) There would be a whole [area] that would be dedicated to cover art and the artists, and there would be a whole thing about how records are made. There would be archives of ways of learning about how things are done – from how a record is made to songwriting workshops and interesting debates on music. There would be a ‘Bob Dylan Night,’ and there would be an ‘FKA twigs Night.’ It would be from one extreme to the other. I like to be eclectic. Who would be interested in this? If I was a multi-millionaire, I wouldn’t care! That would be my gift of music and my passion for music to the universe.
Maybe it wouldn’t be that interesting to the mainstream – or maybe it would be amazingly interesting to the mainstream. Look at the Hard Rock Café. I would also have memorabilia in there. I would have a whole cave of old radios. There would be a History of Turntables, from the beginning of time to now. But I just need Howard Hughes to give me the building!
Oh, yeah! That’s going really well. I do this thing I call ‘songwriting and guitar guidance.’ I just went to New Orleans and played a show at a little bar because I was there. Mike and Paul, two guys I’ve been working with, have a little studio there. I went in there all day to help them make the best of their music, try to get them on the right track and help them with advice and my experience, listening to their tracks, producing it, mentoring it and trying to guide them into a place I think they need to go based on the level they’re at at the moment. I do that with lots of different people. Sometimes, I just show people how to play arpeggios on the guitar; other times, I sit and talk to them for two and a half hours about the philosophy of writing songs. That can be anything; that can be eclectic as well.
I also like to write about music. On the Archive page, I’ve written like over a million words just about music. I also like to philosophize about things that are going on in the music universe. I like playing guitar, I like writing, I like traveling, I like music and I like playing with a lot of people. I like it all. Consequently, I’m very busy doing all these things.
Here’s a question for an archivist. Clearly, you have experienced a lot of different artists. There are a lot people who fall into this category, but in your mind, who might be an artist who wasn’t given their shot? I’m not even referring to record sales or Top of the Pops, but just in terms of being able to touch the most hearts with what they were doing. Who within your archives makes you say, “Wow, the world has yet to discover and catch up to this person”?
Are you talking about in the world, or in different countries? Remember, some artists are known in one place and not in another. For example, Robert Wyatt.
Yes!
I don’t know what his profile is in America, but I can’t imagine it’s very big.
No, but a select few get it.
Yeah! He’s amazing. I love Robert Wyatt. Even though Scott Walker’s a legend in his own lifetime, I’m not sure if he’s really managed to penetrate the hearts of the people, really, especially in America.
No, but those albums are gifts if you understand them. You’re absolutely right; those are two artists right off the bat who would make my list of people who are like, ‘Man, they’re leaving these treasures in their wake. It’s going to take archeologists to discover them at some point. What about Annette Peacock?
There’s another one, yeah!
I mean, I’m The One by Annette Peacock is a ground-breaking masterpiece.
But you can’t go to a local convenience store and ask the clerk who that is.
No, most people don’t have any idea. But then again, generations have gone by. That’s fine. People from my generation probably aren’t familiar with Benny Goodman or The Lennon Sisters. People don’t know them. A lot of people are not archivists or enthusiasts or passionate about music. I often ask people, ‘What’s the last record you bought?’ The people I ask are people I know aren’t record nerds. I can almost say 10 out of 10 people look to the sky and can’t quite remember. Eventually, they come up with the last record they bought, and it was not recently. (laughs)
That’s fine; I understand, but I did a show the other night and came up with this off the top of my head. I said, ‘Listen, I know it’s difficult for people to buy a CD for $10’ –and I hate pushing people to buy my stuff; I really don’t like that – ‘What about I sell you a massage for 12 bucks, which will last you for 10 minutes, or you can buy my record for 10 bucks and it will last you for the rest of your life?’ (laughs) I thought that was a pretty good way to explain how ridiculous it is that you can’t get somebody to buy a CD. When you think of the work that goes into a CD or an album – buying the guitar, learning the guitar, bleeding fingers, egos, learning to write songs, writing them, making records, producing them, having the experiences – and then people are looking at you going, ’10 bucks? Shit. I’m not paying $10 for that.’
‘Right, who’s coming to Starbucks?’ ‘Yeah, cool, I’ll have a decaffeinated macchiato espresso with soy foam. And give me a vanilla bean without the whipped cream. I’ll have a pumpkin loaf and maybe a sprout bagel toasted with the cream cheese, and I don’t want the pumpkin loaf heated up. How much is that? $16? Great! Here you go.’ It’s funny how it’s ended up like that. The amount of work that goes into what we do, and suddenly the internet…But the internet has decimated many things, hasn’t it? It’s decimated broadsheet newspapers. Thank God for mobile phones; if there wasn’t mobile phones, the internet would have killed phone calls, because you can get in touch with people all over the world for free with Skype and other things. I remember when I used to call back home when I was touring America. I used to go to a phone booth in the car park with 25 bucks’ worth of quarters!
I love the accessibility of the internet, but it’s hard to monetize.
That’s the thing about monetizing, isn’t it? You’ve got to find a way to monetize it these days. That sort of wasn’t the point; I didn’t start playing the guitar to monetize it.
Well, that’s why you’re still here.
That’s why I’m still here with no money! (laughs) But I still have the Archive. I have 3,000 books, 50,000 records and a loving wife. And I’m going to be grandfather in four or five weeks. My eldest daughter, Signe, is having a baby in November.
It sounds like you’re always in perpetuation motion in many different directions. You’ve got the Noctorum album happening, but what does the rest of 2019 look like at this point?
In the beginning of December, we’re going back to Germany, and then we’re flying to Liverpool to see Paul McCartney. While I’m there, I’m hoping I can meet some of those Liverpool luminaries who I’m sort of vaguely in contact with and have a couple of cups of tea with a couple of these guys from the Liverpool scene from ’70s, ’80s and into now – you know who they are! Then, we fly back back to Germany, and Olivia and I are playing a gig at a castle in Hanover from the year 1200 on the 22nd of December with some people we’ve become friends with. Then, on the 2nd of January, we’re playing at a little venue in Bavaria. Then, of course, it’s next year, and we’re probably going more into Anekdoten territory with more shows, writing and recording. In March, we’re going to see Roy Harper - there’s another guy who hasn’t penetrated people’s hearts but should have, at least in America. Then, we’re doing a project called Atlantium in April in a studio in Cornwall with some friends who live in Scotland. It’s an instrumental project, and Olivia plays violin on it. I play guitar on it. Then, in May, we’re continuing the MOAT project, which is my project with my friend Niko Röhlcke from Weeping Willows, who are a quite well-known band in Sweden. We’re working on our second album. Olivia hosts the biggest Progressive Rock festival in Europe, so she’ll be doing that in July. In September, we’re going to South America with Anekdoten; we’re playing in Chile and hopefully Argentina and Brazil. I’m not sure about Mexico. Then, hopefully we’re going to come back here and maybe start working with Salim [Nourallah] again on one of my own projects …getting the Acres of Space thing back together again…That’s kind of me solo but with a band. Maybe I’ll make a solo record with me, Olivia and whoever’s around. Lots and lots going on – whilst scouring the record shops of the universe, whilst writing about music and observations of the world as much as I can, whilst showing people things I’ve learned from being a musician my whole life and whilst trying to learn German. *Portions of the above interview were edited for clarity. Official Marty Willson-Piper Website
