Matt Gaydar isn’t going to let something as simple as a global pandemic slow him down.
The acoustic singer-songwriter – who is thickly bearded, occasionally photographed sage-like, and goes by the nom de guerre Glenn Echo – released Fixed Memory, a landmark full-length debut, in 2021, in the midst of the world’s COVID-19 headaches. He has two more releases pegged for self-release this year and both of them are interesting supplements to his debut, a real dark horse for those year-ending Best Of 2021 lists.
And, yes, in case you’re taking notes, he already is at work on his second record proper.
“I think, conceptually, it’ll definitely feel different,” Gaydar told Spectrum Culture. “The songs, right now, are a little more cohesive. And the songs are so pandemic-heavy – for a lot of it, I was trying to have hope and see light at the end of the tunnel. Instrumental-wise, it’ll be similar to [Fixed Memory] but hopefully deeper into that sound.”
Gaydar has several musical traits playing to his favor. He is the owner, perhaps first and foremost, of a delicate fingerpicking style that elicits juicy comparisons to flamenco rhythm – which, yes, he has studied – as much as it does the obvious Fahey-isms.
Then there’s his voice.
On first pass, Gaydar is muted and unassuming, barely a whisper above the guitar intonations around him. But, his love of musicians like Bjork shines through in the timbre of his voice when he goes lyric-less. Listen to the closing of “Moon Seems Lost,” the brilliant, heart-wrenching ballad off Fixed Memory, and you’ll see what we mean: when Gaydar leaves behind the poetry of his lyrics, he is left oozing sentiment – what another artist might call skin and emotion. He croons. He wails. He even bends his voice occasionally to mimic birdsong. But he does it a subdued manner that makes it seem almost accidental, like he stumbled onto the notion in the passion of the moment.
The second full-length LP, if Gaydar’s comments of the recording process are any indication, will be equally as lush – maybe even more so.
“Fixed Memory is such a strange album – I really wanted to have a lot of violins and orchestral string sounds on it,” Gaydar said. “For this new one, I’m hoping to have a friend who plays harp on it, and a friend who plays a lot of woodwinds. We’re definitely going to get more into the orchestral textures that make each song.”
For now, though, before the fabled follow-up arrives, Glenn Echo fans will be treated to what Gaydar’s been doing since October 2015 – periodically releasing fragments of shorter works.
In 2015, it was a Radiohead cover. In ’16, the mini LPs ancients. and Narrative. Then, in June 2018, he released a protest song, and Sleep Study Pt. 1 with Jeremy Rosen, who played the drums in the aughts-era “jam funk band” Otter. Sleep Study Pt. 2, a companion piece again composed by Gaydar and Rosen, is due in March.
2022 also brings another mini-LP, this one recorded at a cabin in Ellenville, NY, in 2020.
“At that point, we had endured the first year of isolation and the pandemic,” Gaydar writes on Bandcamp, in what another era’s parlance would call liner notes. “I was finalizing the finishing touches to the album, and due to the cancellation of my tour, had not been playing many of the songs regularly, but had listened to the album versions so many times that they’d almost lost their meaning. Many of them were written prior to the pandemic, but thinking about the concept of memory and documentation of memory, of the fixed kind, it seemed like time to revisit these songs in the midst of our collective situation.”
Ellenville Sessions is both a lot like Gaydar’s excellent COVID covers compilation (available on Bandcamp) and a lot different. They share a recording ethos – acoustic guitar, voice, no trimmings – but Ellenville is decidedly starker, more haunted. The opener, “Rising Wide-Eyed/How Much Blood” and “Drink up This Fire” tremble in a kind of nakedness of presentation that they didn’t get on Fixed Memory. Even without the adornments of a studio recording proper, “Moon Seems Lost,” “Overwhelm” and “Circles” seem like small bits of revelations; Gaydar’s form is short-handed, in terms of running time, but the depth in the song’s roster is off the charts.
(Listeners get four of the mini-LP’s songs on streaming services and six for listening on Bandcamp. When you purchase Ellenville, you’re treated to two beautiful unreleased tracks: “Black Crow” and “Lullaby.”)
Gaydar says he often writes the music for his songs first, and works in words from there.
“There’s a lot of trial and error – and recently I’ve been getting into the sound of words,” Gaydar said, again calling to mind Bjork’s mix of Icelandic, English and gibberish. “I think, ‘How can I take my brain out and make it as much as possible about how my mouth moves with the melody?’”
Gaydar dwells in the release of his material; he’s very conscious of his discography in the best possible way. And he’s quick to share with people who will listen.
“When we were recording [Fixed Memory] I was like, ‘The song’s done, let’s release it,’” he laughed. “At that point I was like, ‘I’ve just gotta get something out – how can I introduce people to my music?’”
“Now, I can just send people a link,” he added, lamenting his Otter days, when the band would tour with boxes of CDs and t-shirts. “I miss the physicality of the record, the CD. Having it is so much more a feeling of accomplishment. Having it in your hand? It’s official.”
And his views on the pandemic?
“March 2020 happened and I had a whole tour planned – it was going to be the first full-band tour and we had 12 gigs set in April,” Gaydar said.
“It just didn’t happen – ever,” he added, laughing. “It was like, ‘What can I do to get myself through the next couple weeks?”
We all know where that narrative ends – with another Glenn Echo record. Thankfully.
Ellenville Sessions is out on streaming platforms and available with bonus tracks on Bandcamp on Jan. 28. – Justin Vellucci, Spectrum Culture, Jan. 27, 2022
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