Smog
19 articles
Audio interviews
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 2001
Mr Smog talks about his latest album Rain on Lens; about his songs not being autobiographical; on not deserving his reputation as a miserabllist; discovering music in his youth, from John Lee Hooker to punk; enjoying a peripatetic existence; playing the 2000 Meltdown Festival and meeting Scott Walker; on not trying to make hit records, and his admiration for Buster Keaton.
File format: mp3; file size: 33.6mb, interview length: 35' 01" sound quality: ** (phoner)
List of articles in the library
Smog in a Wild Kingdom of Burning Love
Interview by Ian Christe, Alternative Press, 1995
BILL CALLAHAN has spent so much time alone that almost all he can do is be true to himself. He is absolute Bill, and people ...
Sorely Mist — Smog: The Doctor Came At Dawn (Domino 10 tks/39 mins)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 September 1996
Misery is no fun. SMOG know it. And express it perfectly ...
Bill Callahan: Communication chord
Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 11 May 1997
Bill Callahan spares nobody in his songs — himself least of all. Ben Thompson talks to the American who chooses to go by the name ...
Pea Super! Smog: Red Apple Falls (Domino 9 tks/43 mins)
Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 17 May 1997
You might not want him living next door to you, but Bill Callahan, aka SMOG, is surprisingly fine company... ...
Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways of Hearing, 1998
BILL CALLAHAN HAS BEEN releasing strange and disturbing records as Smog – both on his own and with various accomplices, most notably erstwhile soulmate Cynthia ...
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 29 January 1999
THE NONCHALANT fatalism that marked Bill "Smog" Callahan's previous records continues to pervade Knock Knock, although his musical palette has suddenly expanded in strange new ...
Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Smog: The Country Frontlash
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 12 February 1999
Bill Callahan and Will Oldham are acclaimed pioneers of alternative country, yet the former is inspired by the Wu-Tang Clan and the latter does heavy ...
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, March 1999
THERE'S NOTHING BILL Callahan likes better than watching a Polaroid develop, "struck in this transition state, always surprising me". Some might say he needs to ...
Interview by Simon Price, Uncut, May 1999
Smog's Bill Callahan is to Nineties USA what Morrissey was to Eighties Britain: the undisputed bard of smalltown melancholia. Simon Price meets the pea-souperman. ...
Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 28 May 1999
So the major record labels have got things all sewn up? Not quite. As the business reels under the impact of downsizing, the cottage industry ...
Heading For The Ditch: Smog and Will Oldham
Report and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Independent, February 2000
IT'S ONLY THE first week in February and already spring's sonic daffodils are poking through the boy-band mulch. Those who feared they would live their ...
Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, May 2000
Ninth dry—lipped album from the Buster Keaton of sadcore ...
Profile and Interview by David Hemingway, Record Collector, July 2000
DESPITE WIELDING an acoustic guitar and piano, Bill Callahan of unrivalled miserabilists Smog happens to be one of America's most relevant music makers. With last ...
Bill Callahan: I want to be alone
Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 21 September 2001
Alt-country's reluctant star, Bill Callahan, aka Smog, is not a man to stand still. Or get too close to people. Or talk much. Andy Gill ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, December 2001
SMOG'S BILL CALLAHAN remains an enigma not, it seems, because he won't say anything, but because he can't. ...
Smog: A River Ain't Too Much To Love (Drag City)
Review by Mark Mordue, Neumu, May 2005
THERE'S SOME kind of desert here, some grand landscape hinged between dusk and dawn that Bill Callahan evokes. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, May 2010
"I'M SOMEWHERE between a gumshoe and a journalist," Callahan says. "A writer, not a symbol. I don't want to be a performer who gets applause ...
Bill Callahan: Searching For Smog
Profile and Interview by James Medd, The Word, April 2011
How, after 11 albums, has the mysterious Bill Callahan stayed so supremely unknowable? ...
see also Bill Callahan
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