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Pete sits down with Chicago based musician & producer Will Miller aka Resavoir to talk about his creative process and musical journey...
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Transcript
Introduction and Glastonbury Experience
00:00:02
Speaker
Hey everyone, this is Pete from Ishman Ensemble back again with another episode of Catching Light. um Yeah sorry, it's taken a few weeks to get this new episode together.
00:00:16
Speaker
was off at Glastonbury and as usually happens with Glastonbury it took about a week to recover. Had an amazing time though. um and I don't know, everyone seems to have come back thinking the same, that it was a vintage year in the fields of Pilton.
00:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, we played two shows, which which were great, but I also managed to just like watch loads of other music, which sounds ridiculous, but you kind of forget to do sometimes when you're on the road and go into these festivals.
00:00:49
Speaker
and So yeah, just went and absorbed loads and came back feeling super inspired. Beth Gibbons, wow, on the park stage, that was truly something special.
00:01:00
Speaker
um Yeah, and the Sunflower sound system, the the floating points, kind of the sound system he's made with the Cosmic Slop guys, that was just beautiful.
00:01:12
Speaker
um Super warm, it's like a sauna at times, but... Yeah, don't think I've done that for a long time, you know, just got in front of a sound system and danced to music, which, yeah, as I say, seems completely ridiculous as someone that works in music. But hey ho, that's the way it goes sometimes. So yeah, feeling completely refreshed and inspired and kind of rekindled my love for music and been writing loads.
New Song 'Golden' and Festival Excitement
00:01:41
Speaker
Got a new song out, um Golden, which you can go and find in all the usual places. And yeah, just kind of excited to to get stuck into the rest of the festivals this summer.
00:01:53
Speaker
But before then, it's back to
Introducing Will Miller aka Reservoir
00:01:55
Speaker
podcast mode. And I'm delighted this week to be joined by Will Miller, a.k.a. Reservoir. who's one of the artists coming out of Chicago that I guess I first heard of through the brilliant international anthem label.
00:02:11
Speaker
Don't if you're aware of that record label but yeah they put out some amazing stuff from Makai McRaven. um They do Alabaster of the Plumes releases actually but it's mostly US artists but yeah brilliant brilliant label and um yeah Reservoir's music kind of fits so perfectly on there.
00:02:30
Speaker
um yeah we chat a lot about that, Will's musical process, um guess there's some parallels with me with Ishmael Ensemble and his project where it's kind of in some ways a solo kind of producer thing, sometimes it's a massive band with an orchestra, sometimes it's just you and a vocalist, sometimes it's a DJ thing and I guess similar to the chat with Liam Shortall, Corto Alto, you know, it's kind of reaffirmed um things for me, I guess, that maybe I'm not completely mad trying to do all these things at once.
Creativity and Personal Satisfaction
00:03:09
Speaker
But yeah, it's working for them and it, I think, is working for me, so... Yeah, as Will very finely puts it in this, no one's asking for this from us, so might as well just do it and go b be happy in the creative process. And if people dig it, then so be it. But if not, that's not the main reason, you know.
00:03:34
Speaker
um Anyway, I could chat for a long time, but let's just get stuck into it, shall we?
Sponsor Mention: Slate and Ash
00:03:40
Speaker
um As ever, the theme music you can hear below was made entirely using the brilliant creative tools made by Slate and Ash here in Bristol.
00:03:51
Speaker
And yeah, they're very kindly sponsoring the podcast. You can get massive sales over at their um website at the moment, www.slateandash.com.
Will's Musical Background and Influences
00:04:03
Speaker
Do go check it out and... the yeah tell them i sent you all right um but without further ado this is catching light in conversation with reservoir enjoy
00:04:52
Speaker
The
00:05:15
Speaker
Hey everyone, I'm delighted to be joined today by um someone that whose music I've listened to for a long time and has been a bit of an an enigma to me. So I'm super excited to be joined by them to chat more about their process and how their sound evolved. And that is Will Miller, aka Reservoir. Hey Will, are you doing? Yo, what up? Thanks for having me. We're just saying off air that this is the the longest distance phone in we've had yet. And so it's good to know the Internet works across that big body of water. um
00:05:58
Speaker
Loud and clear. live and direct. Yeah. Yeah. So you're in Chicago, right? Is that is that where you're based at the moment? Yep. Yep. Logan Square. Nice. What time is it there?
00:06:09
Speaker
morning it is 9 38 a.m right i've been up for a good two hours you know got out for a little walk took the recycling out the compost yeah um it's it's gonna get really hot here today it's supposed to get up to 88 i don't know what that translates to celsius but maybe like in the 30s or something i i i honestly that was a total shot in the dark i don't know what it translates so yeah it sounds 88 sounds warm that's 88 is hot yeah it's it's up there so just you know wanting wanting to get all the trash out before it gets all smelly and hot yeah yeah yeah but i know that one yeah for sure is that is that normal for you you up early are you an early riser
00:06:58
Speaker
Um, naturally, yes, I am. And it's like that it poses problems for me when I'm working at night and, you know, do a DJ set.
00:07:10
Speaker
Honestly, I feel like the, like gigs don't go as late as they used to o before the pandemic. Maybe. I don't know if that's just the shit that I've been been involved in since then. But yeah, I have noticed that, don't know, a late night for me is like,
00:07:27
Speaker
Maybe I'll be getting home before I'll still be in bed before 2am. But it's hard for me to sleep in past like 8.30 9 really hard so usually like last night I was in bed around like I don't 12 12.30 and then I was up at 7.30 and it's like okay here we go I mean ah kind of hear that in the music every every tune almost sounds like the coming of the dawn or yeah there's a there's a early daytime energy to your sound is that is that why do you think
00:08:05
Speaker
Damn, you're really, you're getting deep right away. I i don't know, man. i don't know. I just make the tunes. I'm not even sure. I like to write in the morning first thing, but I feel like it's pretty rare that the first idea of the day is something that I'm like psyched on.
00:08:24
Speaker
It's usually just kind of like cleaning the slate and like getting out all the like gunk, to get ready for some some real shit to happen later in the day it's like journaling you know i've been trying to be good about that lately there's so much to be bogged down by in 2025 it's like been really important for me to just like get a bunch of my thoughts out first thing in the morning so that i'm not spiraling out by the mid-afternoon.
Jazz Scene and Career Collaborations
00:08:56
Speaker
do you keep that mundane or you kind of is it just sort of basic what you're up to or do you get deep first thing? ah You know, sometimes it'll just be like a little bit of a recap of what I did the day before, but that's like If I don't have anything to talk about, it's like taking out the compost first thing in the morning, man. You got to clear it out. Do those chores. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Fair enough.
00:09:21
Speaker
um So have you always been in Chicago? Is that your hometown as well? Yeah, it is. Yep. Born and raised. Just a mare, stone's throw from where I live right now in the grand scheme of the world.
00:09:35
Speaker
um But yeah, I grew up in the city. And went to Northeast Ohio for college at Oberlin. And then came back home because there was a lot of great music being made here that I wanted to be a part of.
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah. and I graduated in 2012. And that's right around the time that like Chance the Rapper was just, he had just put out like his first mixtape.
00:10:05
Speaker
And I was like, you know, I had a bunch of friends from high school who were working with him. And, wow um I had like my first band was called the Oh Myes. Um, I was not the band leader. I was merely in the horn section, but you know, we were like 16 when we started the project and they were still doing stuff. And I was like, Oh, maybe I could go back home and,
00:10:29
Speaker
start working with these guys again and they seem pretty tapped into what's going on right now and sure enough I like went back home and started playing with them and that's how I met a ton of people no name and Saba and yeah Chance and ended up playing on Acid Rap through that connection originally credited me as Will for the Omize on Good Ass Intro which I play trumpet on Oh, no way.
00:10:58
Speaker
Yeah. Cool, man.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny. I kind of have a similar relationship with Bristol. So I was born here and lived around the place a bit and then kind of, yeah, gravitated back and yeah, there's so much kind of fun stuff happening that yeah, I don't know if you had this process of, you know, kind of feeling like, oh, it's a bit defeatist to just, you know, move back to where you're from. But if where from is a good place, then and why not? Bruh, this is like something that my partner and I have kind of tortured ourselves with this conversation over the past few years, or I've tortured her with this conversation more accurately.
00:12:18
Speaker
Um, cause you know, I think like Chicago was, it was working and has worked really well for me. And um I can't help but feel the pull to,
00:12:31
Speaker
you know, Los Angeles and even ah place like New York and, um, You know, Chicago has a lot to offer, but yeah, like growing up here, spending my whole life here and yeah, it's always in the back of my head. Like, what would it be like if I moved elsewhere and started something new and explored a different place? I think there would be some like fun energy there to go somewhere new and like see what it felt like to live there. You know, that's just something I haven't really done. And growing up here, it was like,
00:13:09
Speaker
you know, and in high school, I was like super focused on becoming like a jazz trumpet player. That's really what I wanted to do was like move to New York and like do the scene in New York. And in between my junior and senior year at Oberlin, I went to New York and like had this internship at the jazz gallery and spent a summer there. And I just like came in contact with some older jazz musicians that I looked up to who just didn't seem happy and like, yeah, just seemed like some old salty dogs. And I was like, i don't want to turn into this. Like I got to kind of regroup and figure out what I want to do with my life. And so kind of went back to Oberlin and that senior year, I was like feeling pretty disillusioned with the whole jazz school thing and just even focusing as hard as I was on like being a jazz trumpet player.
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah, just kind of like started to expand my ah horizons, I guess. and learned how to use logic and I think that opened up a lot of doorways for me and just started collaborating with some more like hip-hop producers and rappers and beat makers and yeah it was just that was definitely a turning point for me like moving to New York and actually living somewhere that I had always wanted to go to and yeah that's sort of mecca you know for being like a jazz artist I decided that it wasn't gonna be a right the right fit for me so
00:14:42
Speaker
Luckily, there was a lot of momentum in Chicago like at that same time and lot of stuff going on. So it ended up working out really good for me to move back home and just like really yeah connect with the scene here. And there's this thing where if you grew up in Chicago and you like went through the public school system and stuff, you just have this like inherent connection with other Chicago kids who kind of yeah yeah grew up with the same in the same similar environments.
Exploring New Genres Beyond Jazz
00:15:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:11
Speaker
running in similar circles and stuff. And I feel like there's just sort of this like mutual respect there. And like, it's like this weird family um that I think really helped me kind of get a foothold in just like continuing to make music and being creative, but not being as focused on straight ahead jazz.
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny. So like from a UK perspective anyway, it's like, you know, when we think of America, we think of New York, we think of LA. But anytime I've been to those places, they do feel quite anonymous. And you're kind of, I don't know, I'm sure that there's obviously communities and scenes there. But you know, it's not as if there's people on Manhattan doing the stuff they were doing as if, you know, 30, 40 years ago, it it seems like a a very different place to the the maybe kind of fantasized about city that that we kind of have a perspective on in the uk whereas um yeah do you feel there's a sense of like the underdog in chicago or that kind of thing is it kind of yeah yeah for sure i was just hanging out with my friend who's in town on tour yesterday and he lives in new york and and i was like yeah like
00:16:54
Speaker
you know, I want to be spending more time in New York. Like, I think it could be fun to move there. I've kind of come back around on New York and I like it again. yeah um but he was like, he was like, man, like you have family here in Chicago. I'm like, yeah. He's like, you have family here. Like you're in heaven, man. Like you got it made. You have a community, you have family, like people who moved to New York don't have families. Like it's kind of what it's all about. It's like, you find your family there and So, you know, I thought that was an interesting take on it that I hadn't really considered before. And yeah, I think like with this conversation of thinking about LA and New York and all the grass is always greener on the other side sort of stuff. It's just like really important to kind of just come back to gratitude and being thankful for like what you got, you know, because at the end of the day, yeah, there's a lot of suffering in the world right now. And
00:17:52
Speaker
got it pretty damn good over here so
Production Software and Style Evolution
00:18:42
Speaker
so was the a turning point you say kind of about not being so heavily focused on the jazz because to my ears at least you know your music is obviously deeply rooted in that tradition but yeah there's so much hip-hop and soul and cinematic qualities to your sound is the is there a period in your life where you kind of found hip-hop or certain producers that you you wanted to to kind of not emulate but you know be inspired by was was that formative for you outside of the jazz world i mean growing up in chicago it's like
00:19:17
Speaker
you know, Kanye West, Jesus walks came out when I was in like seventh grade, yeah you know, and it's like, that's the age when you really start to develop your own identity as a social person and you get a friend group together and stuff. And it was like Kanye coming from Chicago and like, you know, it's, yeah, it was just like such a huge moment.
00:19:40
Speaker
And it's of course, such a shame to see like his career arc and where he is right now. Cause it's, It seems like he's in a pretty dark place, but even still super inspiring growing up here and just like becoming aware of hip hop. I mean, yeah.
00:19:57
Speaker
Growing up on Outkast and like, you know, i remember and maybe when I was like 15, friend of mine in my homeroom in high school like burned me a CD of Commons B. Uh-huh. Most Def Black on Both Sides.
00:20:13
Speaker
Uh-huh. And those both really kind of like changed my perspective on production and especially the Most Def album, like, you know, hearing the Madlib production and hearing Dilla on B and Kanye's beats on B. And it's just like, and B is just such a Chicago feeling record too. That late registration is like such a golden age of Chicago hip hop when I was, you know, a teenager and,
00:20:41
Speaker
So I was listening to that a lot. And, you know, my sister, my older sister was like, the president and of the indie music club at Lincoln Park High School. And she was like really obsessed with Pitchfork way before Pitchfork was like that much of a thing. And so she was, you know, on the ride to school, she was always listening to like Sufjan Stevens and, yeah right um you know, a lot of like indie music. And so that was also like a part of my upbringing. But, you know, i was also like obsessed with classical music and,
00:21:13
Speaker
Glenn Gould, Goldberg Variations, I would listen to that on my CD player, like every morning going to school. It's probably the album I've listened to more than anything else in my entire life. No way. But, you know, yeah, in high school, like you kind of get in where you fit in. And i was good at playing trumpet and I was really eager to learn how to you know, improvise. And there's all these programs in Chicago that are like freely available to public school kids to like get them, you know, spending their time on something good and productive. And yeah, the summer after eighth grade, you know, I'm 14 years old and there's this program downtown.
00:21:55
Speaker
Chicago where you can play in a big band and get paid. So you're getting an hourly wage before you're even legally able to work, you know, here at 16. don't know what it is over there, but like, yes you know, I was making money before any of my friends were because I could play trumpet well.
00:22:13
Speaker
And I auditioned for this big band and I got in wow as a 14 year old. And so that was when the seed was planted. Like, damn, I could do this. Like, I got a job, I'm making money before any of my friends. yeah yeah This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. So just having that seed get planted at such a young age, I think that's what's like helped me just believe that I could make a career out of this because it you really have to believe in yourself in order to like make it work, you know?
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's something I'm definitely envious of. The UK, I don't know, school system just does not have a music mindset. And I lived in Vancouver for a bit and traveled the States and kind of, you know, was was over there for a while. and Love Vancouver. Yeah, it's so cool. But I was so envious that, you know, every high school kid seemed to have either there'd been sports or there'd been music and they were kind of these things that were a massive part of...
00:23:14
Speaker
of the school system and you know you're meeting these people and like you know so i grew up playing sax and but it was so much because my parents were you know willing and could afford to put me through tuition which you know it was available at school but you had to pay amount and you know you'd have to do your lessons in your lunch break when everyone else was playing football, like, you know, hence not turning up to half of the lessons and stuff. But you've got these teachers pulling their hair out because none of their students turning up. and
00:23:47
Speaker
But then, yeah, meet these people that, you know, say, oh, played a bit in school. And it's like, they're phenomenal players because there was this system of of coming through school, which I think, you know, is certainly one thing. I look to the States and kind of think, wow, what an amazing, you know, program and opportunity. And do you know where that stems from? Where, like, where does the fact that music is such an integral part of the school system? Yeah, I mean, the thing is, is like a lot of the programs that I was able to do, like that big band downtown that I was doing,
00:24:19
Speaker
as a teenager like that doesn't exist anymore right sure it's happening there as well and yeah yeah i mean there's some of the programs that i was i was doing are still active but yeah i mean it's crazy because just to think about the amount of abundance and resources for a kid like me yeah when i was uh coming up not only was there the one that i did straight out of eighth grade but then a couple years later i kind of graduated to this other one where you also got paid that was on the south side and that's where like you know marquise hill is in the trumpet section with me and you know like i met marquise when i was that first year when i was 14 and he was like you know 17 i was like oh my god this guy is like crazy like you know um so yeah having like those role models like i at a really young age and you know now marquise he's like
00:25:13
Speaker
he's, he's the man, like he's touring internationally and playing the shit out of the trumpet, like no one else. And just like, he's super inspiring and it has always been. And it's, I think that, uh, you know, lineage, like we both had the same trumpet teacher and we were doing a lot of the same programs when I was a freshman, he was a senior. And so I had that like dude to look up to and be like, damn, I want to be like him, you know?
00:25:42
Speaker
um And yeah, i feel like even when he was a freshman, there was like, you know, i want to say like Victor Garcia, there's like, there's just this lineage of like trumpet players. And when I was a senior, there's this dude, Nico Segal, who was trumpet player as a freshman. And he's gone on to do some amazing things, Juju Exchange and playing with Chance the Rapper. No way.
00:26:06
Speaker
um So yeah, and we all had the same teacher. Yeah. So, you know, that's just like, it's cool to see that and just, you know, the culture, even Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the brass section, you know, Adolf, but, but her Seth, like that's what they're known for. And, uh, yeah, it's just, uh,
00:26:26
Speaker
you knows It's cool to see that and shed some light on that. you
Creating 'Reservoir' and Nature Inspiration
00:26:30
Speaker
know so where Where does Reservoir come into that? where does the cause When I listen to those records, it's not immediately obvious that you're a trumpet player first and foremost. you know It's much more a producer or compositional project. um Yeah, where where was that?
00:26:49
Speaker
I guess you talk about moving back from New York and not thinking so much about jazz. Was that kind of the point where you conceived this more kind of producer angle for yourself? Yeah, yeah. I mean, honestly, like learning how to use logic just like totally changed my shit up.
00:27:08
Speaker
I studied composition my first year in college and the man Wendell Logan... he yeah he started the program at Oberlin and he was, ah it was like his last year because he got really sick.
00:27:21
Speaker
But I was, yeah, I was lucky enough to take composition lessons from him. And the first lesson was to go to the reservoir and write a song. And it was like, you know, this little area, maybe like a 20 minute walk outside of town. And so you're in nature and me coming from the city, like I didn't, you know, i went to summer camp a little bit as a kid, but um Yeah, I wasn't like, i don't know, I didn't really have a relationship with nature necessarily. And so, yeah, in college, I definitely opened my mind up to that and just start was going to the reservoir all the time to just like write and think and, um you know, take girls to and stuff and just ah hang out with friends. And it sort of became this like character in my life almost.
00:28:14
Speaker
um first time I took acid, I was at the reservoir and, you know, it was, ah you know, very memorable experience for me. And i would say, yeah, it's like a combination of learning how to use production software and add that element.
00:28:32
Speaker
There was sort of like a realization of like, damn, you know, a lot of the ways that people are recording bands in the jazz world is like very clean studio sounds um yeah i guess i just wanted to try and take more of like a bedroom producer approach to making a jazz record and keeping the spirit of that but having more of like a lo-fi sound i guess just based on the restriction of like not being in a studio and trying to do it that way and yeah once I moved home I had this like coach house had a recording set up in the basement and would just have friends come over and we would just kind of jam out or I would be like making a beat in my in Logic in my bedroom and then have my friend play drums over have my friend play bass over it and
00:29:24
Speaker
That's sort of how, like, I would say that how the reservoir sound sort of started was kind of like cutting up samples in my bedroom and then bringing friends in to play drums, play bass, play saxophone on top of stuff. And yeah. Yeah.
00:29:39
Speaker
Was that, was that like a internal struggle at all? it Was it, was it kind of against your principles as a, as a musician to be chopping stuff up and overdubbing, you know,
00:29:51
Speaker
Well, I think I, it was like, I was really consciously abandoning a lot of that stuff. And I was like, yeah you know, it was like, uh, I want to forget the jazz school yeah trauma and all the, like all the shit that I've learned this far. Like, I just want to have fun playing music. And it's like yeah coming up in jazz school, it's such a restricted environment where like there's these boundaries to your creativity. And I just like really didn't like that. yeah And I wanted to,
00:30:21
Speaker
just as an experiment, i was like, look, you know, I got home and I was like trying to hustle background gigs, cocktail hour and like playing at cafes and stuff. And I still had a group together playing my music. Yeah.
00:30:32
Speaker
But I got burnt out on it pretty quickly. And I was just like, man, like this isn't really working for me. I don't even want to hustle this anymore. I'm getting a job. And I got a job at a pizza place, um, and worked there.
00:30:47
Speaker
And, and, you know, my dad is also a, uh, He's a general contractor. he does construction. And so I was able to work for him as well. Just like doing manual labor, dusty drywall, hanging doors and like, you know, vacuuming and sweeping and all sorts of stuff, dirty work and stuff. And like, all right, I'm, I don't want to like put the pressure on myself to make music my full-time gig right now. I just want to 22 and have fun and have the music be an extension of,
00:31:21
Speaker
that, you know? And, and just, I knew that it was going to be a risk. I was like, all right, you know, there's a track I could go down where I really pursue the straight and narrow, like rank and file jazz way, or I could just throw that all to the side and pursue what I love and try and make music that I actually want to listen to. what i um ah kind of grew out of the obsessive phase of listening to Clifford Brown and Kenny Dorham and Freddie Hubbard nonstop. You know, I had already done that in high school. And by the time I got to college, I was like, man, if i want to make friends that aren't jazz musicians, I got to, you know, I already did listen to other their stuff, but it's like really just like,
00:32:05
Speaker
expanding you know and and growing and like you know remember when james blake first popped up you know and i was in college i was like this fucking amazing and like kendrick lamar and dirty projectors is obsessed grizzly bear and um on the way yeah yeah like all you know i i just i really love all these different types of music and i was like man like i want to be involved with with this i want to be able to be making music with these artists you know yeah so yeah i guess i just i sort of saw the jazz thing as a bit of a dead end and wanted to try out some other stuff and
00:32:45
Speaker
Like it's going to take a while because I put a lot of time into learning how to play jazz, like to a certain level, you know. and so I knew that it was going it wasn't going to happen right away, you know. So I allowed myself to, yeah just be patient and and let it come.
00:33:06
Speaker
naturally and uh yeah not really try and force it too much but still put in the work to like all right if i want to be in hip-hop i need to learn how to make a beat you know start chopping samples and it's fun you know it's like it's so fun i love it and i think that's ultimately like where it should all be coming from is this place of discovery yeah um And that's what i try and hold to more than anything. It's just yeah having fun with it and trying to chase down sound that you hear in your head and like try and figure out how to get there. Yeah.
00:33:40
Speaker
And I ah kind of see a lot of similarities. So yeah I've kind of always... Worked as an electrician on the side of things and, you know, very much done that same thing and and maybe less consciously, but yeah, definitely had that feeling of I could do the traditional thing. And I had so many mates doing that that were, you know, exhausted by music by the time they'd done a week of teaching kids.
00:34:04
Speaker
but they didn't want to make any of their own music you know and they're still kind of in that world and whereas i do you know eight hours day on a building site and be itching to come home to get to the computer to make some music and hell yeah that's the thing it's like you get home from work like i would get home from working a day of construction go to Dunkin Donuts, get a huge iced coffee, smoke a spliff, and then like start making beats. And that's when my day really started. you know yeah
00:34:37
Speaker
yeah Yeah. It's funny that, yeah, because I don't know about you, you know because i've I've kind of drifted in and out of doing music full time. And I swear I'm so much more productive when I'm not doing it full time because you've got those eight hours in the week to do something or, you know.
00:34:54
Speaker
okay, this is my one day this week or my one day this fortnight where I get to do music. And that's when you
Balancing Day Jobs and Music Creativity
00:35:00
Speaker
write a song. It's not when you've got 14 days to write a song. Absolutely. I think having those, those boundaries is like so important.
00:35:09
Speaker
And yeah, I'm, Are you still to this day, are you still working as an electrician? So I've drifted over lockdown actually. of ah I now work in TV and film in that kind of role and in like the props and art department side. So it's kind of a bit more creative than being on a building site. But um Yeah, i kind of drift in and out. like I'll do a chunk of that. you know In a way, it's very temporary work anyway, because and it only lasts as long as a TV show is being made. But there's loads of that here in Bristol. There's a really good scene for it. So yeah, i kind of do a bit of that and then DJ and then do the band thing. and
00:35:49
Speaker
I don't know about you, but I mean, certainly the touring side of music is getting harder and harder financially. And oh it's funny, I don't know if this was the same in the States, but for a long time here, it's been like, at least there's still money in gigs.
00:36:03
Speaker
You know, that was like the the get out clause of the music industry. It's like, well, at least you can still earn money doing a tour. And it's like, now that has has kind of got harder and harder. It's...
00:36:14
Speaker
So yeah, I'm kind of quite at peace, you know, making the music I want to make and and taking my time with it and, you know, doing the the big show. the know, I've done a bit of that where we we played this amazing outdoor kind of amphitheater on ah um a cliff overlooking the sea in Cornwall.
00:36:34
Speaker
I do it. You know, like that was really special. And yes if we do one of those every three months, as opposed to 10 bar gigs in a month, you know, and yeah and I think as an audience, I don't know if this is the same, but post COVID people want that something special they want, you know, absolutely.
00:36:52
Speaker
And right now we've just done this filmed thing with a string quartet and we're planning to do like one or two shows next year with that in London and probably Bristol or something. And beautiful. For me, that's kind of enough to excite me to, you know, I'd rather work and do that kind of gig that for me is super special and memorable than slog it doing, you know, a gig every night in a bar or I do know.
00:37:21
Speaker
That's kind of where I'm at. yeah i feel it man uh i'm i'm kind of in a similar place and maybe not as intentionally like i love playing shows and yeah yeah i would love to be playing more shows and i'm like actively trying to figure out how i can do that right now and but it's hard and yeah i mean last fall i did like first Reservoir European tour and it was just like so much fun and i love playing the shows connecting with people on the road and definitely definitely a journey of like going from you know we had we had like North Sea Jazz but booked in 2020 and like Pory Jazz and all these festivals and stuff off the first record and I was like
00:38:07
Speaker
my God, it's happening. My dream is coming true. I'm doing it, you know, and then it gets wiped away and you're like, you know, it was nice to finally get to do a European tour with the band.
00:38:21
Speaker
Super rewarding. And then I did like a, yeah, an orchestral reservoir show orchestra reservoir. Yeah, it was going to ask. And that was yeah super special. um at Talia Hall here in Chicago is just so much fun.
Memorable Performances and Future Plans
00:38:34
Speaker
um got just like got the arrangements together, put the band together. You know, we had like a couple rehearsals and then without even the full ensemble all there together, it wasn't until the day of the show that we were all there together. And was just,
00:38:49
Speaker
this really special energy and ton of people came out and it was like right before the holidays. And yeah, I mean the feedback I got from that, I mean, it really like put so much wind ah in my sails.
00:39:02
Speaker
I was feeding off that energy for weeks afterwards, you know, and I, I'm getting to do another one and like, uh, maybe like a month and a half downtown Chicago and millennium park, not far from where I was doing that big band as a 14 year old, you know, and it's, uh,
00:39:19
Speaker
yeah, it's just like such a, such a blessing to be able to do something like that. And it's, um, you know, free concert yeah and I've got the orchestra playing and, um, it's just like one of my favorite things to do in the summer is just, you go down there, all these concerts are free. They have amazing artists come through and you just can bring a picnic blanket, like chill out.
00:39:42
Speaker
And so, yeah, that's it for right now, man. I did like, Yeah, I did a couple DJ sets ah over the past couple months. Like I did one opening for Casa overall and then I did one opening for Bad Bad Not Good.
00:39:56
Speaker
and those were super fun. And i was just like playing music off my laptop and then playing my synth trumpet over it. Yeah. and yeah People were eating it up, man. it was I was loving it and and it just like landed better than I thought that it might. And yeah, after that tour last year, i was like, okay, I want to I wanna try and focus on like the biggest version of Reservoir and the smallest version. So it's like orchestra and the solo gig.
00:40:25
Speaker
yeah And that's sort of been my project for for the past few months and um it's still ongoing. The best way to learn is to just book the gig. And you just gotta say yes to stuff and figure it out.
00:41:22
Speaker
I kind of see some similarities, you know, for me with Ishmael Ensemble. It's kind of that... It's a band, but it's also a producer project and it's, you know, a DJ thing and a radio thing. You know, there's all these kind of things that, I mean...
00:41:39
Speaker
is really fun but you know also there's there's times i guess where you yeah you you have to think creatively and and for me i'm always trying to you know that's where this string quartet thing came in is just like what can we do next you know and totally it's a it's a really fun ride to be on yeah people feed off that energy of like you know they want you to be excited yes the artist and at the end of the day no one's asking for any of this stuff you know no one is asking us to do this like yeah we're kind of doing it on our own and we have to decide what's going to how to create the best conditions for discovery and new work that's going to be exciting for us yeah yeah yeah do you do you feel like with Reservoir, is there a kind of band there that you you feel is a core part of it or is it very much collaboration? Is it, you know, is is the is there a recurring lineup that plays with you? Absolutely, yeah, yeah. I got my day ones where, you know, i try to keep involved on the on the live show and on the recordings. and But I'm also, you know, ah kind of made...
00:42:54
Speaker
made the decision to just keep it like a ever evolving sort of modular, uh, collective. And, um, and I think that model has worked the best yeah for me. Um, so yeah, there's, you know,
00:43:15
Speaker
there's definitely people recurring characters yeah yeah yeah peter manheim and lane backstrom jeremy cunningham irvin pierce can you see more like you know the og lineup um yeah those i still love making music with all of them to this day and yeah but yeah it's you know I think the pandemic interrupted a lot of flow that we had as a band and and you know it strengthened some ties and then frayed others. and
00:43:52
Speaker
it's It's hard to keep the band together and just relationships are ever changing. so you know I'm just trying to be real about that.
00:44:04
Speaker
yeah yeah i mean i love the collaboration though. that's yeah yeah i think for reservoir, a lot of it will maybe start with me, i'll you know, coming up with a chord progression or a melody and, um, maybe I'll have a whole tune fleshed out and then someone will add the right drum beat or it, it, it ranges. Sometimes I'll demo out the whole thing and it's like pretty much just ready, ready to go. But, um, yeah, I feel like I haven't made something like that in a while for the band, but,
00:44:39
Speaker
This new, the new album, I have an album that I'm planning on releasing like next January. It's kind of like, a there's no drums on the whole thing. Amazing. And it's, ah yeah, it's just, it's kind of more dreamy and a little bit more ambient.
00:44:56
Speaker
um But I really wanted to challenge myself to just try and get ah good reflection of like me as the as the main force behind this, you you know? I think the the past few years I've been really involved with these collaborative projects, Les Son du Cosmos and the Mac Gold record and miscellaneous other things. And I really wanted to just try and make something on my own as like an experiment. So, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. So excited to share that
00:45:27
Speaker
Amazing. The big question is, will it also be called Reservoir? No, I have a name for it. Yeah, it's it's going to be called Themes for Dreams.
00:45:38
Speaker
Amazing. So yeah, for those that don't know, I mean, there's one thing I love that both your first two records as Reservoir are called Reservoir, so they're both self-titled. And I don't know, for me, I think like, you know, you you mentioned it's a huge, vast kind of collaborative thing with lots of different people involved, but there is a real...
00:45:58
Speaker
cohesiveness and um I think visually as well like there's there's a real recurring theme visually, sonically and yeah that's in thanks to Crystal ah yeah yeah my partner I mean she does all the graphic design and no way yeah yeah she's just absolutely brilliant and love it yeah ah I think she's like as much a part of Reservoir as anyone else Because, yeah, the visual aesthetic, it's it's it's huge. And, um you know, when people see the record, that's their first impression before they've even listened to it. of course.
00:46:39
Speaker
So I think that's, yeah, mean, that's a major... major. Yeah. Did that take a while to get the, because for me it fits so perfectly when, you know, I can stare at that artwork whilst listening to it and it kind of becomes one.
00:46:54
Speaker
um So you say it's your partner. do Do you kind of work collaboratively on you listening to the music and saying, is this a reservoir song or like the visuals? Is it kind of one in the same process? I mean, I'll show her a demo if I'm like really excited about something I made, then I'll show it to her. But Usually, like the album will be done and I'll be like, I got the sequence together, like we're we're mixing it, I'll send it to her and then she'll listen to it and you know I'll have like a ah vision. i mean For the first one, it was like all over the place. we had
00:47:29
Speaker
a bunch of different ideas and it was our first time working together so yeah you had to sort of figure out that flow yeah um i i remember she was just like in her office and you know we had this whole other artwork together and then she just she was like oh i drew this like really nice leaf and like there's the clouds and this like photograph that I took of the clouds and then she like dragged the leaf in front of the clouds and the other one and we were both like looking at the screen like oh my god that's it you know and that was just like a really fun exciting moment of like damn like that's awesome like let's rock with that and then the second one I think
00:48:11
Speaker
I was like, I really want to evoke the blue hour, like, you know, just after the sun has set, like that's emotionally, I think that's kind of where the music is coming from. And so that was very much in mind. And then she works her magic with,
00:48:28
Speaker
creating that image, I mean, it's so iconic and like, yeah, but with the all the single art that we made for around that record, like, I mean, yeah, she's just so, so dope.
00:48:41
Speaker
And with Horizon too, I mean, you know, it kind of came together in a pretty similar way as the first one where I like took the photo and then she did the yeah type treatment. and Yeah, I mean, I'm just like super thrilled with the way that one turned out.
00:48:56
Speaker
Amazing. ah Let's talk about that for a minute because yeah, you're that's the new record, right? with Oh yeah. With Matt Gold. Mm-hmm. Where does your relationship with Matt start? Yeah, man. So Matt and I went to Oberlin together. Okay. But we didn't play music at all. We were just like, we were cool. We were friends. He's from New York and he moved to Chicago not long after after I moved back to Chicago. And I was just like, damn, that's like a really interesting move. Like no one moves to Chicago from New York.
00:49:26
Speaker
And... So yeah, we like we would see each other all the time and maintained a friendship. um And as I was touring super hard with Whitney, he started touring really hard with Micaiah. And it's just like, there's a lot of mutual admiration, I think. And um yeah, I've always just been a fan of of his guitar playing and just him as a person. And so it was just became this ongoing bit almost of like,
00:49:53
Speaker
one day we're gonna make something good like one day once we like break the seal like it's going down and then yeah yeah after i decided to sort of uh take a step back from from whitney he was like the first person i invited to my studio to to work on music together yeah so yeah
00:51:03
Speaker
You've got your own space, do you? how How does that work? Have you got a kind of recording room? I've had a couple of spaces over the past few years. Yeah, I got my first one in the fall of 2020, that's where we recorded a lot of Horizon and where I recorded a lot of the second Reservoir album.
00:51:19
Speaker
That was just a small box. it like how to It did have a window, which is great, but it it wasn't like the vibiest place in the world. And then I got another studio a couple years ago with Corduroy and Eddie from Les Sonu Cosmos. We all just decided to like pool our resources and get this bigger studio with a bunch of windows. and And so I've been in that space for the past couple years. But Corduroy is moving to LA and Eddie moved out there last year. So now I'm like...
00:51:49
Speaker
uncertain about the future of that space but do you feel that's a big part of your process do you have your kind of setup where you record or do you feel you can make stuff on the move or is that that sacred space for for writing man i'm I mean, it was nice having that the first space that I had where it was just mine. I wasn't sharing it with anybody. I could just have the my instruments ready to to go. Everything's all set up so I could just walk in there and press record and start doing it. But at this other spot with Zach and Eddie, like.
00:52:23
Speaker
cordura he was he was liking to use it a little bit more as like a studio you know engineering for other people and stuff and so nothing's ever just like ready to go and set up so i don't really go down there as much to record so i mean our entire sonu cosmos album was recorded just the three of us being down there together and jamming you know like cutting stuff up together and producing it ourselves but I have this room in my crib and I have a piano here and I like to record ideas here. Um, and yeah, I mean the, uh, the themes for dreams record, like that's mostly recorded, written and recorded in my apartment here. yeah, I like to work from home, you know, like, yeah, like early reservoir days, I had that coach house and that was super important for just having that space to invite people in and and record their ideas and just hang out, you know, i love the studio for that. But right now I do feel like I'm about to enter the bit of a transitional phase of like chilling on making new stuff for the time being and focusing on what I have.
00:53:32
Speaker
and putting energy behind the releases. Do you have a studio? Yeah, so I kind of similarly have had a few spaces. i had had one in the center of town, which is just coming out of lockdown, I guess. But yeah, similarly, no windows, kind of a downpole building that was was great to just like play music loud or, you know, kind of be...
00:53:53
Speaker
Was it like a rehearsal space with other musicians? It was kind of, yeah, it was a local sound engineer. was his space, but it had a control room, which a few of us kind of rented.
00:54:05
Speaker
But yeah, you'd sometimes be in there and then there'd be like someone turning up to do some like, you know, drum rehearsing in a room next door and would bleed through. And it was just kind of a bit chaotic. Yeah.
00:54:16
Speaker
But yeah, recently i've I've been sharing a space with my friend Patrick, just kind of out of the city actually on on the edge of town. And yes, it's amazing. And I'm not there enough at the moment because I've been working a bit, but yeah, I've kind of been writing a new record and Sorry, how long does it take you to get there?
00:54:34
Speaker
ah It is about 35 minutes. So, yeah, I mean, Bristol's a small city, you know, it's 10 minutes to get out. But yeah, it's actually a really nice process. So I've got a three-year-old son and he goes to nursery or, you know, like kindergarten. Mm-hmm.
00:54:50
Speaker
that's kind of out that way so going back to the time limitation thing you know it's like i drop in there at nine i go an extra 15 minutes 20 minutes to the studio and then i know i've got to leave at 4 p.m so i've got this like hard kind of it's like going to work and i love it because it's like wow you know tell your teenage self you're going to do this and it's kind of a job. Yeah, yeah.
00:55:16
Speaker
And yeah, so yeah I've been working now for the last year or so. Yeah, there's something about that, you know, kind of, because I do write at home as well, and I've always got instruments here, and, you know, I've written a lot of music at home over the years, but I think there is something about going to work.
00:55:36
Speaker
Totally, totally. i agree, and that's why I'm, like, apprehensive about fully giving up my studio as it is, because I'm like... yeah yeah damn like I know if I fully get rid of it I'm gonna wish that I hadn't so yeah um yeah it's tough but yeah I'm also just I don't know I'm such a like creature of comfort and i like being comfortable and being home working from home it's nice but yeah also just like if I'm home start grazing the kitchen and snacking and then one thing leads to another and I'm like sitting on the couch yeah looking at my phone or something. yeah It's definitely good to get out for sure. Good to get out.
00:56:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
Collaboration with International Anthem
00:57:00
Speaker
before we wrap up ah i'd love to chat a bit about the label that you released on because i mean that's another thing when i look to chicago and you know okay i'm trying to think where i first came across uh international anthem which for me is like one of my all-time favorite labels now like it's such a consistent source for exciting new music and I think it was probably through Alabaster De Plume or you know someone else's releases that I became aware of it. but
00:57:32
Speaker
yeah how how did that relationship start and um yeah i mean it i met scotty mcniece who's like one of the driving forces behind the label probably in like 2012 or 13 right after moved back from from oberlin and uh he was he was putting on shows at these bars around town and so i was like oh like i like you know it was like cool like places that didn't normally have shows type thing and uh i was just seeing what he was doing and i was just
00:58:05
Speaker
you know, tried to get him to book my band and he did. And so that's how we first met and we just kind of hit it off and, um, became friends that way. And then, yeah, I mean, after Micaiah record came out, I was like, wow, like that really was such an inspiration for me. That first Micaiah record. And then Jeff Parker and Ubreed and that was like, oh my, like, come on. Like, this is like the, not just for Chicago, but like just,
00:58:34
Speaker
period like this some my favorite music I've heard in such a long time yeah um so yeah when I like first kind of approached him with like a batch of music that I had i was ah looking for advice to like self-release um because I saw that he did a flexi disc with Jeff Parker and I was like that's a really cool format like it'd be fun to put out a flexi disc like would you be down to just get coffee and like hang out and like you know, help me figure out how to do this for myself. And at the meeting, he was just like, maybe we should just put this out. And was well, you said it, not me. That's not what I was here for. But, you know, if guys want to, I guess we could maybe do that. And yeah so it and the first thing we did together was a Flexi Disc for Escalator.
00:59:22
Speaker
So, yeah, he's I mean, him, David Allen, David Treino, like they're just it's a great great team, really great people. And like the community around the their label definitely feels very intentional. And it's a real reflection of like what's going on here. And now that Scotty is living in LA, I feel like he's sort of been cultivating something out there and it's cool to see it kind of expand. And and grow um even like yeah having alabaster and the you know handful of like uk-based artists that have been putting stuff out i think it's just cool and it just it does feel like it fills a certain niche and it's specific so yeah much love to that yeah yeah that's amazing i think like it's funny you talk about the self-release because you know that's what i guess i've done but in turn that's become a bit of a label and now we're starting to put out oh wow
01:00:20
Speaker
other people's music and and it's funny because it's like ah a record label kind of does feel different to what maybe the romanticized image of one from the past is and yeah it was kind of a big feeling a decision you know like well i only want to start putting other people's out if it feels like that kind of collective energy and and there's a reason for it because you know, I'd almost be the first to suggest to self-release music to other people. yeah no
01:00:53
Speaker
It's an interesting thing to kind of be at that point of getting artists to join your label when in a way the success is the fact that you've self-released it, you know, it's like, well, what, what is there to offer that isn't just like, uh, yeah, it could be bettered by doing it yourself.
01:01:10
Speaker
And, and yeah. Yeah, I'm super fascinated by this because I've definitely been, you know, interested in self-releasing for as long as, you know, since that first conversation I had with Scotty, you know, I was like interested in it and I'm kind of like psyching myself up to finally do it with this next one. Okay, yeah. um And with Lace on New Cosmos and...
01:01:38
Speaker
yeah i mean it's i'm i'm just trying to learn you know i want to learn about it and and do it in a way that feels like yeah fun and creative and equitable but it's it's hard because it's like damn it already is a band leader there's like all this responsibility on me and then i'm the label guy too like I don't know if I can handle all that.
01:02:02
Speaker
Yeah. It's a journey for sure. And I think, yeah, it's, it's a really fun thing to experiment with. And like, for me, I'm also um on the flip side of like where, I don't know, I've almost become, I guess, a bit of a control freak because of that, where I now struggle to let anything, you know, because there are people helping now, I guess, with certain aspects of the project where, know,
01:02:29
Speaker
you know which is great to get to that level but at the same time it's really hard to relinquish that responsibility when i've kind of done everything for a while you know and yeah um you know i work really closely with our manager mike and like we have a great relationship where we kind of know each other's you know skill sets and how'd you and mike start working together I mean, we've been friends for years and, you know, it's a real kind of natural.
01:02:55
Speaker
He kind of works with bigger acts and had sort said, you know, if you ever need help. And he's great at doing the the manager thing of, you know, being out and about and chatting. And, you know, there's times where the last thing I want to do after a show is then, you know, go for a beer and talk.
01:03:13
Speaker
yeah business, you know, and yeah so there's that side that's that's great, and but you know, we're really, we're both the same age, we both grew up in and around Bristol, and you know, we kind of have a similar, i guess, yeah, story in music, so it feels very natural, but yeah,
01:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's certainly hard to not feel like taking the reins on everything. and you know Yeah, man. But having that perspective of someone else is
Balancing Personal Projects and Industry Demands
01:03:39
Speaker
great. I've been manifesting a manager for the past year, year and a half, and I'm just like, once I get that locked in, then I'm going feel a lot more confident about self-releasing my music just to have like one other person to help out. you know So I'm hoping that's something that I can get sometime soon.
01:03:58
Speaker
onwards as we say yeah i feel we could talk for hours i mean your day's just starting right you're ah yeah man i got a i got a haircut in a couple hours and i'm planning on riding my bike and over to the lake and jumping in because it's a hot one i mean that sounds that sounds great yeah yeah i haven't done it all year so i'm i'm excited to get in there and um yeah how about you you're you you're wrapping up i'm gonna pick my son up from nursery so the calmness of this house is about to explode into three-year-old mayhem which is very fun i must add yeah yeah that's a really cute age that's all my nieces and yeah she's amazing yeah it's been pretty special the last yeah year or so of just kind of
01:04:50
Speaker
yeah it's insane like every day whole new range of words and things and you know starts like teaching me things which is yeah quite an incredible journey to be on for sure that's beautiful but hey man let's let's stay in touch and i've really enjoyed this and yeah absolutely yeah i'm excited to see your the video you shot with the string yeah i'll send it over yeah it's really cool yeah um hell yeah Yeah, it's funny. We just got about, you know, making it work as a five piece. And you know what?
01:05:21
Speaker
Why not? Let's get a string quartet. Yeah, I'm sure you know that one. Yeah. Oh, yeah. All too well. But you got to keep moving. You got to keep doing that's right but what excites you. Yeah.
01:05:34
Speaker
Long may that last. Yeah. Mm hmm. Hey, Will, thank you so much. And I'm excited to hear what you've got coming out. And yeah, listening to that Matt Gold record in full, which is out now as of this recording. So yeah, how exciting.
01:05:49
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Cool. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me, man. my first podcast so no way i was wondering if i was going to be any good at it and i feel like i've talked i've said a lot of words over the past hour so i hope i haven't said too many no never enough it was fun to talk about talk about myself and also hear about you yeah yeah likewise yeah yeah man
01:07:06
Speaker
Alright, I hope you enjoyed that. um Will Miller there from Reservoir and yeah, threw quite a lot of the music in there but do check it out.
01:07:17
Speaker
Really beautiful, especially for these hot sunny days and It is hot, isn't it? I am absolutely sweltering in the studio here. But yeah, great music, great chat.
01:07:28
Speaker
And yeah, hope you enjoyed it. If you did, do um subscribe and give a ah rating on wherever you find your podcast. It really helps.
01:07:39
Speaker
um And yeah, I'll be back soon with with more of the same. Alright, well, I hope you have a continued lovely summer, and yeah, see you very soon.
01:07:54
Speaker
Thanks so much for listening. This has been Pete from Ishmael Ensemble, and this is Catching Light. Until next time, cheers.
01:08:28
Speaker
you