In the Shadows of Buildings: An Interview with Connor Millican of Wise Old Moon

The band Wise Old Moon has gone from incredibly rootsy and sepia tinged to a bit more rock n’ roll to something that blends everything that has come before them. The band has seen its fair changes of players throughout the years since its first release in 2014. But there is one thing has always remained a constant. That drive behind the band, always trying to do a little bit better than before, to push the limits of writing and performing. That comes in the form of frontman and songwriter Connor Millican.

From the first moment I met Millican I knew he was a hard worker beyond what that term can aptly describe and represent. His dedication to community, to art, to performance. Its uncanny. Be it filming other artists and being ahead of the curve for his The Old Guitar series, before video session series were even really a thing. Or he and his partner Rachael’s IdleWilde Printing business, built from the ground up (all the way up in the cramped attic of one of their previous apartments) and now serving other musicians, breweries, road races, and businesses small and large with their keen eye and attention to detail. Or, perhaps most relevant Millican’s dedication to creating music and art in a place where it was lacking before. Amidst the remnants of production from yesteryear, given new life as living space, brew pubs or rehearsal studios. A place that inspires the songwriter to come up with this idea of songs undeniably influenced by his surroundings. The results are the EP ‘Factory Town’ and it presents the band in what is proving to be their strongest iteration yet. 

It all is taking place in the shadows of brick towers and facades, in a Factory Town…

RLR: It feels like you are in a really good place band wise. Wise Old Moon has gone through quite a few iterations. Was this certain style you have evolved into, the personalities in the band members, all of the stuff that makes up a great group, was that always the ideal or has it really evolved over time organically or through a lot of uncertain patches? At one point the sound was super rootsy, a saw in the band. Fiddle. And the sound has matured into this really rocking thing now with a killer groove. Did you always have a vision as it has culminated on this EP, or was it more of a growth thing over time?

CM: I think you kind of see what you get. Its all pretty much happening as it is unfolding to me. There’s not been much of a longterm plan. I think that it has always been really organic with the people I have been playing with and writing with. The people in the band have definitely changed over the last few years, for a number of reasons. But, I don’t think there has even been an intent for “what genre” we are in or what the longterm goal of what Wise Old Moon is. We are just taking it as we go and developing the plan as we go.

If I look back on it, it has just been getting further from that traditional folk and roots. Being from Hartford, and finding that that doesn’t work live as well. Our city has kind of shaped that evolution of the sound of the shows that we play.

RLR: I was going to say that. I feel that with this project. Not just metaphorically or lyrically, it feels like a lot your surroundings embedded themselves into the overall aesthetic of what you guys are sounding like. Working and living in old mill or factory buildings. There is definitely this rawness and realness to that sound. You know, raw like materials that were being produced and refined into something greater than how it started out as in those old buildings. Do you feel like being in that environment, the physical environment that you are in and not just shows you get to play there, has had a strong effect? Do you feel like a lot of that walking beneath old brick buildings, tall windows, exposed beams. The history embedded in each creak of the floor boards. Has all that shaped where you are at right now?

CM: Yeah. Physical in a really big way. I am actually walking out of this brewery that is right across the street from where we live and rehearse out of. This guy Pope invented the pneumatic tire, the brewery, the focal point of it are these 50 foot high gears that don’t operate anymore, but its where they used to stamp the rubber and metal together to make the pneumatic tires.

RLR: Wow thats pretty cool.

CM: Yeah. We started this concert series a year and a half ago. I host the series. It is kind of a Wise Old Moon thing that started out as just a few shows, that spun off into a whole weekly series. But I have been singing and playing underneath those gears every single Thursday night. I guess over that time we have been writing this EP and I don’t know how intentional that was or if its subconscious, but the first lyrics on that title track are “the gears of this city have been grinding since 1800 and something” so it was like what is standing right there and what has been standing right there for hundreds of years.  I don’t think we necessarily moved into the neighborhood thinking it would be a great creative backdrop to help us write lyrics, it just all unfolded like that.

What I think is happening with this line up is my most honest work. Real, raw like you said. I think we are finally at a place as a group where we have a lot of trust and we really like playing with each other. Touring with each other. We have really settled into this core unit that we have. We are taking chances on each one of these players. Ian Meadows and his background is very similar to mine with the tradition of roots music. Our bass player Greg Lake, who has got this badass punk rock vibe, that at first I was not sure that it would fit but he has really changed the direction of the sound with this 1/4 note rock groove. It has really shaped the energy of the band. And then Steve Cusano, who is our longest term member, the drummer has got this hip hop and jazz background and what has come out of is has been what we really want to do. Not really pulling any punches, not really thinking what we are doing or why. Just letting it happen. Its natural progression to write and record this. Especially with Andrew (Oedel), who recorded our last album. We were in a transition from our guitar player and our bass player, trying to find our footing as a band. Trying to feel out what worked. Getting a lot of players on the last album to get a lot of parts.

This is just the four of us, live. As live as we can be in a studio setting.

RLR: I feel like that backdrop, the one at Ghost Hit is very similar to where you are living and Parkville Sounds. Its a very similar, in an old building repurposed for something new.

CM: Yeah, its like we leave our neighborhood and go to another version of it. They made different stuff down there, paper. I am not super familiar with the history of Holyoke, but it is pretty amazing when you go into that town. It just feels like something happened here that was this HUGE bustling metropolis for its time and now it is pretty much abandoned.

You go into this huge, ten story factory building that is now being used as a trucking company. On the fourth floor, this guy Andrew, has got this studio that is really nicely put together. Its kind of exactly like what is going on in Parkville. People repurposing the old factories for completely creative endeavors.

 

 

RLR: So that lyric you mentioned before, that was from Ballad of Factory Town right?

CM: Yeah I would say that is kind of what inspired the title of the EP.

RLR: It seems like right now, you are all in really good spot in that Factory Town neighborhood. Getting into the area you are in from the ground up. That tune could be a sort of anthem for that stage between artists taking hold of an area and complete chaos of gentrification that we see all too often in places like Brooklyn, East Nashville, Somerville/Cambridge. How much of that tune is autobiographical for you guys in this new spot you are living in? Do you embrace the rising up of the area or are you scared of how quickly it could really explode and become too expensive for artists?

CM: Honestly I think about that everyday. It is a little bit of a volatile existence. Feeling like you are in this in between place where there is a lot of promise, potential, people who are interested in a thriving music and arts scene. But its not all here yet. You are trying to be not only a part of just being in that art scene, but trying to facilitate it. It sometimes feels like we are biting off more than we can chew. We want to be a part of the future here, but we are not sure if it going to be the next Nashville or New York City or if we are going to kind of get passed over on the highway. Passing over Hartford like a lot of people are doing right now.

It really is an in between place and its another part of our lifestyle that is impacting the sound, the energy and the tempo behind the music that we are writing now because I think we do have something to prove and to fight for. We have this foothold, but it is going to take a lot more before it is a proven thing in this city and before we can really thrive here. It is…its really unsure. It is a city that could have so much going for it. I am hoping that we grow into the city, rather than be kicked out when the big wigs come in and buy up all these buildings that we make popular and cool.

It is a tough place, but it feels like we are working towards something and we have something. This city has a different energy than a lot of the cities we travel to. Thats something about that factory town thing. Portland even is kind of one of those places with the feel of a big city, but the small town mentality. It kind of all mixes together and creates this grit, this work ethic. That is all mixed in with the Yankee and seasonal changes. Hopefully what we are trying to do is reimagine. Redefine roots rock. With its traditions, but that is just different here in the North East.

RLR: Again, the record itself feels like it really had your surroundings embedded into the overall aesthetic. I wouldn’t say its a concept record, but there is a definite theme through the whole thing. What was the decision to make an EP with just 5 tunes rather than a full length record and did the theme play into that at all? Did you say “I want to go into this with these 5 tunes and have an EP” or was it just how the cards fell?

CM: Umm. I guess a couple factors. We haven’t put anything out since 2015 and Wise Old Moon has put out two full length records. I initially thought I only want to put out full length records as a band. I look up to all these bands I grew up listening to and I never heard like a 5 track EP. I always listened to full records. Even 20 songs on some of them. That was in my mind, that I really wanted to set out to do.

I think money was a factor in that. I think also the way the industry has changed since I used to listen to those albums, when I grew up listening to 20 track CDs. I think a mixture of both of those things. The idea also that we have evolved and changed in our line up. We wanted to put out something that bridged the gap in between Patterns and Don’t Take Off before putting out another full length and test the waters with this line up. I think we, in a way, owe that to ourselves and the people listening to us. We want to just put something out that can get us moving forward.

I think its the first time that we have an accurate representation of where we are at right now. Which is as much as we could have accomplished with the resources that we have.

 

 

RLR: I want to revisit your writing process, particularly how that worked out for this record. I am sure in the past, either on record or off, we have talked about how songs come to you and how you typically write. I think that given this was a very focused, directed collection of tunes with a specific idea in mind I’d like to know more about it. What was your process like for writing these ones? Was it collaborative? Was it a “sit down and begin and finish in one sitting”. Did they come when you were working or wandering around the city?

CM: This is the first album that I have actually had some help with the writing on. Three of the songs, two of which were with this guy Author Griffin. I actually did my first phone interview with him when the band started out and he kind of became involved with us. Helping us along our way. Eventually we became really close friends. A couple of the songs on the record came out between me and him. Including the Factory Town song. I don’t think I would have sat down and wrote that song exactly. We just kind of sat down and that came out. It was right in the middle of the transition to this neighborhood. We were kind of experiencing that history and healing of the city. It just came out in a quick moment, almost completely.

The second song he presented some lyrics for ‘Shakes My Head’. Which is another song I wouldn’t have sat down to write. One I would not have come up with melody for without this line up of musicians. I kind of open myself up to a new process on this EP. Which was sharing the writing with somebody and that alone was so different from the last couple of records.

The other songs were pretty much the same thing. Just letting them come to me. Not forcing it. Waiting until that right line comes. Starting with the melody, the idea. ‘Annabelle’ was the oldest song. We had been playing that for a while. Came up with it a year or year and a half ago and never recorded it right. We started with that one. We kind of had three versions of it that we never put out. I am sure a lot of people have heard us play “Annabelle” but this is the version that we feel does justice from a studio recording stand point.

‘Wildfire’ was just a really raw moment of a relationship. That was one where David Griffin, again, was just kind of there. Giving him the idea of a song and letting ideas come from another person. Sharing in an experience. Saying ‘I like where that is going, but I would never say that’. So there is a lot of collaboration on three of those songs.

RLR: Was it collaborative elsewhere? How much input do the other fellas in the band have on the songs? With arrangements and such, or earlier in the process?

CM: The arrangements is all the band and the way we play it live is the band kind of taking over the basic idea of the song. My limitation on acoustic guitar, I have chords and everything from there is the band turning it into the full arrangement.

I think I had some pretty clear intentions and the melodies once we get to the stage of being in the recording process, but its all articulated through the band. If I look back on the process there wasn’t a whole lot of communicating or working. It was more we were just laying down songs and having fun. Cracking each other up. Telling stupid jokes. The rest was pretty easy.

Thats what I am experiencing live with this band too. I have been able to focus a little but more on being a singer and a performer. We have a lot of trust. That was the beginning of the process in the studio. A lot of collaboration and a lot of openness.

RLR: Anything else you really want to push or talk about that is coming up?

CM: I am really excited to play Foam Brewers. I have heard a lot about them. Our drummer has played there at the brewery. Burlington has got to be one of my favorite towns to play, ever. Its coming up quick. May 18th. A Friday night and we are doing a 2 hour free set. I think for anybody who has seen us in Burlington in the past, its been about a year. We have a lot ready to go. We are excited.