Last week I hopped on the phone to have a quick chat with Bay Ledges leader (songwriter/producer) Zach Hurd to discuss his recently released EP, In Waves (11/30).
Read our conversation below.
We start talking about me being from Chicago and he from Maine, trading stories about dealing with the harsh winters and how the frigid weather impacts everything in your life. My questions & comments are in bold, and Zach’s responses are in standard settings.
The press materials mention you’re LA-based, without specifically stating where you’re actually from. So it’s interesting to learn you’re from Maine, yet you’ve fully adopted the California sound and vibe with your music. How much do you think the West Coast has influenced your musical identity?
I’ve heard from friends of mine: “your music sounds like summer.” I love that. I don’t know that I’m physically setting out to do that, but I definitely love hazy sounds like that cassette tape wobble and having some air in the tracks. I feel like those sounds are reminiscent of sunnier environments.
When I started Bay Ledges I had already done the singer-songwriter thing for a while and working in studios, and this was the first time I was going to really make music from home. A friend had given me this recording software when I left New York and I opened it up when I got out here and it was really fun. It was fun to mesh and pitch vocals and play with samples. It was just this fun passion project, just me playing everything. my sister lived down the street and I would have her sing some stuff and I’d mess with her vocals. I’d try to make it be this project where I didn’t feel this pressure for having to do what everyone tells you to do like booking shows or having to promote yourself, and all the reasons besides what made you actually want to make music.
That’s what it’s all about me. Just letting go of the pressure and just having fun.
You mentioned that you didn’t set out to create a project that felt like summer. When did it start to have this particular theme?
I think I’ve always been inspired by the ocean. My family growing up in Maine by the beach out there it was a little bit more desolate but it was always a special place. But making the move out here, the ocean felt a little more refreshing. This batch of songs coincidentally has this sonic feeling of the beach. I hadn’t planned it, but it just went in that direction. I was reading that autobiography by big wave surfer William Finnegan, Barbarian Days, and that inspired the title. Being out here brought out that nostalgia of growing up at the beach and that reflected on the music.
I’m super glad that it evokes that vibe. I definitely wanted it to feel fun.
Were you aiming for anything specifically, whether it was exploring this sound or polishing it off more?
Yeah, I think this batch of songs is definitely different. I worked with a handful of other producers and writers. Prior to this EP it was just me creating this stuff at home, so I wanted to see what it was like working with other people. Over the this past year, as things go more busy from doing a bunch of festivals over the summer, more was happening so it did get more difficult to carve the time out like before. Sometimes when you’re so close to it, it’s hard to keep perspective of what you’re working on and whether it’s any good and maintaining that enthusiasm.
It was cool working with other people and to try to put into words what I wanted to express. I wanted to sound a little older, sort of worn-in.. That sort of cassette tape feel I mentioned earlier. I wanted to experiment and take that risk to figure out my songwriting style. I was out of my comfort zone because it’s so much easier to just chip away at something, so this was a good change. It was helpful to learn how to work with other people and making sure I maintained me through the whole process.
Was there anything in particular about collaboration that impacted your way of creating and producing your music?
Each of them (producers Miro Mackie – Dirty Projectors and St. Vincent; Christian Medice – Lovelytheband, Birthday, New Dialogue; and Jackson Greenberg – Rachel Cantu, Oscar nominated Netflix film Cartel Land and Netflix’s Explained) offered something different. Miro helped me dissect a song, and tell me “this should be your chorus… not the bridge” and we’d work in the studio talking about all the different. He was someone that just knows a lot and has a different palette of sounds to offer too.
It was also cool to recognize how to work with other people. I would work with Miro but I could also be able to go home to work on the tracks and have my own time with it too. I appreciate the little details, the vocal chops and vocal samples in the background… It’s super tedious, and when you’re in the room with someone, it can feel like it sucks up time. Being able to balance collaborating with someone and having time with the music on my own great.
