We talk about the beauty of music and talking seals with singer-songwriter James Houlahan
- photogroupie
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
HI THERE, THANKS FOR ANSWERING SOME QUESTIONS FOR US
Greetings! Thank you for the opportunity.
PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
I am a singer-songwriter living in the green wilds of Topanga Canyon outside Los Angeles, California. I’ve been writing and singing songs for almost twenty years now and also paradoxically feel like I’m just getting started with music. It’s been a struggle recently to navigate the current political climate in my country as it transitions into authoritarianism, but I’m trying to zoom out when necessary while always paying attention in the most compassionate way possible. That said, whatever is happening in the world often ends up merely strengthening my resolve to create music and write songs. Inspiration continues unabated! I will always hear the music.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR LATEST ALBUM OR SINGLE
On a Wing is a collection of songs about birds and other winged creatures, the idea of flight and the transportive powers of imagination and music. It’s my seventh full-length release, but the first to feature the kind of sound it does. To be more specific, I very much leaned into the sonics of a 1970s folk sound (perhaps not unlike Incredible String Band) to see what kind of a world we could come up with. The album is definitely its own kind of trip, and I hope it will take people places!
It’s also my first release with OOB Records! And I’m enthusiastic and optimistic about what kinds of good things will come about with that partnership.
WHICH SONG WOULD YOU SAY SUMS UP YOUR SOUND THE BEST?
“That Bird & I” will suffice. A story revealed through catalytic sounds, grooves sympathetic to the narrative, with odd perhaps slightly unsettling background sounds that then all burst forth in the end in a great eclectic flowering. Ending in a place where all voices come together.
DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC IN A FEW WORDS.
Hopefully ambitious, always seeking, at home in harmony. Trying to embody the urgency of a lone flower blooming from a heap of garbage in an old abandoned junkyard.
WHO HAVE YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCES BEEN?
Tom Waits for creating entire worlds in his songs. Bob Dylan for elevating the lyric to a level where the weather is always interesting. And Leonard Cohen for navigating the liminal space between our hunger for connection and our need for poetic flight.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO MUSIC?
Slowly. A series of epiphanic experiences are scattered across my backstory. Add to that years of studying and practicing the guitar. Feeling the compulsion to write words; writing becoming a necessity of sorts. And all of that flowing together slowly over time. I confess I’m a late bloomer!
WHAT IS THE CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU WHEN MAKING MUSIC?
It’s never the same thing. I often feel like I’ve never written a song before when I’m just starting with an idea. And I love the feeling of newness, like anything is possible. The moment right as the fish grabs the hook and I start to think about reeling it in! It’s a space of mind and feeling that I most enjoy.
WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD BE THE COOLEST COLLABORATION PROJECT BETWEEN YOU AND ANOTHER ARTIST?
Ideally it would be somebody doing something very different from me. Where you’d almost expect a clash, a cacophony as a result. Where we’d seemingly drive each other nuts, and likely abandon the project entirely. Until years later we’d revisit what we did and find that we had actually stumbled onto something amazing!
PLEASE TELL US A RANDOM FACT ABOUT YOURSELF?
When I was five years old, I encountered a talking seal at the New England Aquarium. Seriously. His name was Hoover. (Go check out Wikipedia if you don’t believe me.) I don’t have the space here to elaborate on what kind of magical, imaginative seeds can be planted in the mind of a child who meets a talking seal! But it was definitely random.
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?
I remember this Alan Watts lecture where he talked about acting purposefully with no purpose. And how that was an ideal kind of action. I took that to mean always doing the best work you can without thinking at all what will become of the fruits (if any) of your action. Easier said than done, but that’s some wise advice right there.
IF YOU COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT THE INDUSTRY, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I would wish that fans and lovers of music would cease outsourcing their choices of music to algorithms and the nefarious designs of tech companies who ultimately have little interest in the beauty and truth of music.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I’ll probably go make a sandwich. It’s almost lunchtime here. Ham and Swiss? Mustard? To toast or not to toast? So many questions!
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