Photo Credit: Mark Sheldon
Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most influential American authors. His works are beloved by many generations of readers and some of his novels have even been adapted into films.
Guitarist Charlie Ballantine has found inspiration in the works of Vonnegut for his new album, entitled Vonnegut, creating musical themes, melodies, and songs from some of the author’s most famous books and characters.
We got the chance to ask Ballantine about Vonnegut – dropping digitally on Sept. 26 – and are honored to share the new video for the song “Eloise Metzger,” which can be seen below.
Eponymous Review: Congratulations on Vonnegut! How did you approach capturing the characters and narratives of Kurt Vonnegut through music?
Charlie Ballantine: When I approached putting music to the literature I tried to keep the process pretty simple. I would basically read a novel each week and as soon as I finished each novel I would immediately pick up my guitar and just see what came out institutionally. That was pretty much how the process started as I was re-reading Sirens of Titan so I figured out early on that it was the best way for me to really capture the feeling that each individual novel left me with.
ER: Do you have a favorite Vonnegut novel or character?
CB: Yes I think my favorite novel would have to be Sirens of Titan and my favorite character is also from that book, Malachi Constant. A lot of Vonnegut characters are pretty eccentric and almost cartoonish but there is something about Malachi Constant I’ve always found incredibly relatable. He’s basically the protagonist of the story that continually makes horrible decisions that drastically alter his life and near the end of the story it becomes apparent that he never had any control over his decisions or any amount of free will at all. It was a part of a larger picture and he was used as a tool more or less.
ER: Your guitar sound is beautiful and distinct. What type of gear do you use?
CB: On this record it was a really simple setup. I used a custom Telecaster out of a Princeton Reverb with very little effects. Occasional distortion which was a Rat pedal and occasional delay which was a Carbon Copy pedal. The Telecaster and Princeton was a really common setup in the 60s and 70s so I wanted to try and capture the era that a lot of these novels were written in.
ER: Why did you choose to incorporate so much saxophone into the Vonnegut compositions?
CB: I’ve really just always loved the saxophone and the ability of that instrument to capture any kind of emotion. I knew when I was writing these pieces that there were really strong themes I needed to capture so throughout the writing process the instrumentation just sort of created itself. I just started hearing the sextet in my head.
ER: Tell me a bit about working with Amanda Gardier, Rob Dixon, Mina Keohane, Jesse Wittman and Cassius Goens III on Vonnegut?
CB: Everyone involved with this one is such an incredible musician and each person brought a very unique musical voice to the project which is exactly what I wanted to accomplish putting this group together. I’ve worked with all of these players separately over the years but never all on the same project. The one parameter I set for this album was that all of the musicians had to be from Indianapolis seeing as Vonnegut was from here and always had a strong affinity for Indy. As soon as we cut the first track I knew that this group was perfect. Most of us were in the same room for the recording process so what you hear is exactly as it was played in the studio without overdubs and I don’t believe we ever did more than three takes on any track. These musicians just came in, read everything beautifully, nailed the music, and surpassed any expectation I had on what these songs could sound like.
ER: You’ve previously re-imagined songs from Bob Dylan and the Pixies. What do you love about those artists?
CB: I grew up on rock and folk music long before I got into jazz so it’s always been a fun challenge for me to try and re-imagine that music and transform it into more of what I do now with instrumental music. With those two artists in particular I’ve always loved the melodic qualities of both bands. That is one thing I always focus on when I’m brainstorming songs I can cover and with Bob Dylan and the Pixies there is just so much there melodically which is probably why their music is so beloved.
ER: How have you been handling performing and connecting with fans during the pandemic?
CB: I’ve done my best not to take the doom pill and just roll with the punches through the pandemic. I’ve been lucky to have some organizations and festivals sponsor our live streams and through that it has been great to stay connected with fans and try to provide music in some sort of virtual context. We also have started a house concert series that we put on each week in our yard and what started as 20-30 people coming each week has grown to closer to 80 people safely distanced each week.
ER: Where can folks pick-up Vonnegut and your other releases?
CB: You can now preorder Vonnegut on my website charlieballantine.com and find it digitally starting Sept. 26. You can also find all my other music digitally anywhere and for physical copies of vinyl or cd my website is probably the best place to order.
****
Check out the video for “Eloise Metzger” below and head over to Facebook.com/charlieballantineguitar/ for to keep up with Ballantine’s latest news. More information can be found at charlieballantine.com.