Interview: The Glass Pavilion - Distance
Based on a canal boat in Yorkshire, The Glass Pavilion uses a unique approach to explore post-rock soundscapes.
Can you tell the readers a bit about yourself and your music?
I'm Ashley and The Glass Pavilion is my one-man studio project. I'm based in Yorkshire, mostly - I live on a canal boat, so I move around a bit! My background in music prior to 2017 was in messing around on guitar and recording the occasional bedroom-indie type song, purely as a hobby. Then I had a brain haemorrhage that left me with slight coordination problems in my right hand - enough to stop me playing guitar - and for three years I gave up on music completely. When I picked it up again in 2020, I realised I had no desire to go back to writing lyrics and singing, which is how The Glass Pavilion came to be a purely instrumental project. And suddenly, after all those years of completely fruitless musical noodling, I find that I'm making music that actually means something to me, and that I feel is worth sharing. It's been a very weird (but wonderful) experience.
What are your ambitions for The Glass Pavilion?
I mean I'm certainly not treating music as 'just a hobby' any more, but nor do I expect a niche studio project like this to conquer the world! I suppose I just want to find an audience - a few hundred fans dotted around the globe would be fantastic - and have the satisfaction of knowing my music has connected with people.
Tell us a bit about your recording process and the sounds/instruments you use.
For the reasons I talked about before, The Glass Pavilion was always going to be a purely in-the-box, software-based project. I think when I bought my keyboard and recording software in 2020, I was expecting my music to naturally go in an overtly electronic direction, but it hasn't turned out that way!
My usual process is to use a standalone app - on my phone, of all things - to sketch out two or three complementary chord progressions using fingerpicking-style MIDI patterns. That's just what feels most natural to me as an ex-guitarist, I suppose. That gives me the bare bones of a track as a MIDI file I can import into my DAW (Mixcraft). Then I can start loading up virtual instruments and synths to play along with that chord progression, tweaking and fleshing out parts as I go along on the piano roll. My 32-key MIDI keyboard comes out when it's time to start adding melodies or solos, and drum patterns tend to be the last thing I finalise (although I'll have something rough in place through most of the process). That's the default anyway - there are exceptions to all that though, tracks where I've started out on the keyboard or on the piano roll for instance.
In terms of sounds/instruments, there's a particular set of favourites I tend to come back to: a particular clean guitar, a particular distorted guitar, a particular acoustic guitar, a particular bass, a few particular synth sounds. In a way, I suppose I think of those instruments as the members of this imaginary rock band of mine, The Glass Pavilion. I think it adds up to a distinctive sound anyway, something that doesn't sound like other bands but doesn't sound like 'electronic' music either.
Your latest release is Distance. Can you tell us how the track came together and how you recorded it?
Distance is a good example of the process I just talked about at work. I knew I wanted to start experimenting with time signatures other than 4/4, so I used an arpeggio pattern in 6/8 to write a couple of chord progressions. Then I imported that MIDI file into my DAW and started arranging and editing. The direction I ended up taking was to force things into a slow 3/4 waltz in the first half of the song and then bring out the original, fast 6/8 sound in the middle, which I think makes for a really nice dynamic shift. It's also a good example of how I often use synths to do roughly the job of effects pedals, creating extra layers of processed guitar-ish sounds rather than recognisable 'keyboard parts' or whatever.
Is there a story behind the track?
I don't really set out to write pieces that are 'about' particular things, but my music is definitely a response to events in my life over the past few years, starting with the near-death experience of my haemorrhage and then the emotional rollercoaster of recovery, complications, surgery and so on. And I think there's a sense of urgency in some of my new tracks that wasn't there on the first album - Distance being a good example - that has to do with the fact that NHS waiting lists are moving again after the pandemic, and I'm expecting to be called in for further surgery at any time. I've been very conscious of wanting to complete another album before that happens.
You feature some really interesting artwork. Can you tell us how you approach this?
Thanks! I guess I'm like a lot of independent artists in that I have a budget of zero for art and design and so I end up looking for public domain materials I can use. But I seem to be a bit unusual in that I'm more drawn to old paintings and illustrations than modern graphic and photographic elements, so if my cover designs stand out from the crowd I think that's the main reason. And although I'm no artist, I do quite enjoy the basic bit of design involved in putting image and text together to create a cover. It's almost like a little ritual, something that magically turns a song or a batch of songs into an actual single or an actual album.
How would you describe your style of music?
I can't come up with anything better than 'post-rock', which is incredibly vague really but seems to accommodate most instrumental music with a broadly guitar-bass-drums sound. I sometimes add 'shoegaze' or 'psychedelic' to try to express something about the sort of atmosphere I'm going for.
Which artists inspire you?
When I started this project, there were basically three conscious influences in my mind: early Slowdive for the textures and atmosphere, early Red House Painters for the slow-burning, fingerpicked guitar lines, and Pink Floyd circa Meddle, just as psychedelia was becoming something else - all filtered, I suppose, through the instrumental approach of bands like Tortoise and Mogwai. But all sorts of influences have probably filtered through one way or another; I'm sure my love of The Beach Boys has improved my ear for harmonic movement, for instance.
If you could record your music in any studio with any producer, where would it be and who with?
Honestly, I'm quite happy producing my own stuff on my kitchen table! The whole identity of the project is so bound up with the specific way I work with a specific set of tools, I don't know what it would mean, really, to record a Glass Pavilion album in a real studio with a real producer.
Is there another artist you’d like to give a mention to for our readers to check out?
I was lucky enough to discover quite a few really interesting artists through my involvement with the Mogwai tribute album Take Me Somewhere Nice earlier this year, but if I had to point people towards just one of them, it would have to be AtonalitA. His use of violin immediately sets him apart from other bands in the post-rock scene, but there's more there than just novelty value too.
What’s next for The Glass Pavillion?
I'm going to put another single out on June 17 called September. Then my second album in late July. Then who knows - I definitely want to keep writing and recording, but it might be that I have to focus on my health for a while before really committing to another album. Watch this space!
What’s your book recommendation?
For more information on The Glass Pavilion see the links below
https://linktr.ee/theglasspavilion
Upcoming Releases - June/July 2022
17th June - Signal Source Unknown - Such is Light
17th June - The Glass Pavilion - September
1st July - Westheart - The Night Lights