Jessica, Popwreckoning: This is Jessica McGinley here with Langhorne Slim, originally from Langhorne, Pennsylvania, at the wonderful Carrera Lounge at South By Southwest.
Langhorne Slim: That's where we are right now? It's beautiful.
PW: How's the hard lemonade?
LS: It's very good. Very good. It goes down smooth.
PW: Your latest album came out last April. What had you learned from your previous efforts that you were able to apply to this record?
LS: It's still new with the whole process since it's just our second full length record. I was trying to take more chances and trying to be more comfortable in the studio. It's been a bit more natural from spending time in front of a live audience. It's a different kind of creative release in in the studio than live. Trying to do it hopefully as well, but in a different way. Just trying to make both parts strong.
PW: You've been compared to Dylan a few times – a lot of people have been compared to Dylan. Do you feel like it's an accurate comparison or do you think it's contrived and an easy out?
LS: I haven't really seen that so many times, but I think a lot of white guys that play acoustic guitars and are inspired by music that he was probably inspired by in writing his songs get compared to him. I love a lot of older American music and older folk and country and rock and roll and blues and stuff. I think it's a bit of an easy way out, but I certainly love his music.
PW: Are you influenced by his music or is there someone else that you'd rather have comparisons to as opposed to Dylan? I mean, he's obviously an icon, but he's not the end all, be all; no one is.
LS: Marlon Brando, Muhammad Ali, though I don't really think I'm gonna get that too many times…
PW: Are you a good boxer? We can throw down right now.
LS: No, that would be terrible. It would be embarrassing. No, I mean, dig a little bit deeper. Sometimes I think it's [Dylan] is an easy way out. When you put out a record and there is a band that's breaking out then, that may have a similar instrumentation as your group. I think that certain writers will compare you to other artists that are easy to draw parallels to.
When you see any white guy that plays acoustic guitar, a whole lot of people slap that comparison on there. It's like, come on, guys; let's come up with something else.
PW: Think of somebody else that may have influenced me, maybe.
LS: Certainly I do love Mr. Dylan's work.
PW: Kind of along these lines, you're sometimes political. I love the promotion this past fall where you gave away a free track to those who voted. Where did the idea for that promotion come from?
LS: There's this guy Frank Hill (Langhorne Slim's manager) that's out there… I dunno. [jokingly:] I don't even know who ran for President. [laughs]
PW: These two guys, I heard.
LS: Limewire came to us with that and we were into it. I don't think that, even for a bigger band, I don't know the impact that the band or entertainer has in that way, but I'm also not very interested in getting up on stage and spouting out any of my political beliefs. I'd rather sing my songs. That was one little way for us to do a little something.
PW: That's great, though. Hopefully that got some of your fans out to vote that may not have otherwise. And it's a nice bonus for those of us who were already on the voting train.
LS: Honestly, I don't think us putting something up on MySpace would change anything.
PW: Right.
LS: It was cool, though. It's not so much the songs I sing are in that [political] direction, but they were interested in us being a part of that and I was happy to be a part of it. All jokes aside, that was the serious answer.
PW: That's good. I'm fairly politically oriented myself, so it was pretty rad to see a hometown guy getting involved with that. Did you see Obama speak in Langhorne?
LS: No way! You're lying. Are you joking?
PW: No, I'm not! I think it was Langhorne. Or Levittown. …Langhorne. Langhorne.
LS: I don't think you're right. My mom surely would have… I don't live in Pennsylvania anymore. I'm about an hour north of San Francisco looking forward to a move to Portland.
PW: I think he spoke at a high school in Langhorne. I wanted to go, but couldn't make it because I was at my day job.
LS: Ah, I didn't know about it. If it happened, I don't know.
PW: Speaking of days jobs that I have, do you have a day job or are you able to focus solely on your music as a career at this point?
LS: Well, I don't work a day job. And I haven't for a while. Thankfully…I could probably use a little money on the side…
PW: We all could, in this awesome economy.
LS: But even before the downturn in the economy for me. I probably should have had a job for years but somehow managed to and instead try to do what we're doing musically.
PW: I'm gonna go back to the hometown thing. What prompted the move out of Langhorne? I know you went to SUNY Purchase.
LS: What prompted the move out of there was…
PW: To get the hell out of Langhorne? I got the hell out of Warminster.
LS: Well, yeah. Now I like going back and visiting my mom and my grandmother and stuff. I've got a very close friends and family friends there. A lot of kids grow up and just itch to get out of their hometown. You just don't feel so connected when you're there. When you get a little bit older, though, you can appreciate what it is.
I couldn't wait to get out. Being that New York was close and Philly was close, it was great. My crazy ass dream was to be a musician and get up on stage and make records and all that sort of stuff. There's a lot going on in Philly. There's a lot going on in New York, obviously. But New York was always my dream. I had a very romantic vision of it. I lived there for a while and the romance faded. New York and I kind of broke up. Now we're back on better terms, so we'll see what happens.
Yeah, I needed to get out of there and just try something different. That's why I moved out to northern California and now she and I are breaking up so I'll try Portland. I like to move around a little bit.
PW: Are you at all connected with the Philly folk scene? It’s pretty fantastic. I adore Hezekiah Jones and the Hoots and Hellmouth guys and Birdie Busch; she is so sweet.
LS: I know Hoots and Hellmouth.
PW: They're here this weekend.
LS: I didn't know that.
PW: They play today. 2:30 or so.
LS: Yeah, they're very cool. When I was just starting to get my stuff out, there's a cool place in Philadelphia, called the Tin Angel…
PW: I'm there all the time. It's a very cool space.
LS: There was a woman, Hollace Detwiler, she was the manager at the time. She emailed me about a lot of opportunities. Through that, I met Amos Lee who came out of that whole thing, and this guy Devin. Just a whole lot of different people.
PW: I know XPN loves the hell out of you.
LS: Yeah, they were really nice to us for a month. I hope they'll be nice to us again. To hear, more than any other place, when you grow up someplace and then that radio station that you listened to starts playing your song, it's mind blowing.
My mom was on her way to work not too long after our record came out and she called me and said, "They're playing you on XPN!" We had a very tender moment over that. You know, that's a beautiful thing. It's very cool. So hopefully the love will continue.
PW: Are you immersing yourself in the northern California folk scene now? Is there a northern California folk scene?
LS: I'm sure that there is. Where I'm staying with my girlfriend has been really sort of an isolated spot. When you're on the road a whole lot, it's nice to have a little quiet time. Then you have too much quiet time and you want a lot of noise. Maybe someday I'll find a balance of that.
I was out there [NoCal] just to be with the woman that I love and to write music for the new record.
PW: Is she from the northern California area?
LS: She is, yeah. I wasn't really trying to get out. In the first three months, I don't think I played any shows out there. It was too much time. It's almost not healthy. I think a lot of people that are doing what we're doing can relate to that. When you're on the road for a while, you get burnt out and all you want it some time off. And when you have some time off, all you want is to get back to it.
PW: I had thought of something, but then you kept talking, and now I don't remember what I wanted to ask next.
LS: I wish I would've shut up.
PW: Nah, people want to hear you, not me.
LS: Well I would rather hear you. So…what made you leave Pennsylvania?
PW: Right now? South By Southwest made me leave Pennsylvania.
LS: Oh, so you're still in Warminster?
PW: No! I live in Philadelphia now. I live right by the Art Museum, like wake-up-and-see-it-from-my-bedroom-window right by.
LS: Oh, OK. Well how come we didn't see you at Johnny Brenda's?
PW: Oh, I love Johnny Brenda's. I think it's my favorite venue in the city.
LS: But no love for Langhorne Slim at Johnny Brenda's?
PW: I wasn't there…why wasn't I there? When did you play there?
LS: Like a week and a half ago.
PW: I probably have a really good excuse.
LS: You can edit this out right?
PW: I can edit out whatever I want. You could just spout off a string of curse words and I can pretend it never happened.
LS: I don't know any curse words.
PW: This is going to be one of my better interviews.
LS: Ever.
PW: Probably ever. And not just 'cause I have hometown pride. I'm just sayin'.
LS: I've been, uh, I've been working up to this for a while. So you know.
PW: How many interviews have you had today?
LS: Uh, none.
PW: Really? None? You have more later, though?
LS: Nope, it's just me and you today. No really, no more interviews. We're very exclusive. So when you came, we turned down all the big shit…
PW: I'm brushin' my shoulder off. [laughs]
LS: What high school did you go to?
PW: I went to William Tennent. Where'd you go?
LS: Well I went to Neshaminy and then thankfully I moved over to Solebury. I did not like my time at Neshaminy, but Solebury is great.
PW: I've been in the parking lot of Solebury when I've needed to park my car to hang out in New Hope, but that's about all of my interaction with Solebury. New Hope is cool. Have you ever played at John and Peter's?
LS: Yeah, but not officially. Just when I was in high school and stuff. I think I did maybe open mics.
PW: How long have you been playing? [laughs] This should be at the beginning of the interview. Who are your influences and when did you pick up the guitar?
LS: [laughs] I think started playing guitar around 13 or 14. Something like that.
PW: What inspired that?
LS: My answer will sound kind of corny…
PW: The question is corny and contrived. The answer, you can do anything with it. Take it to left field.
LS: I'll give you my honest answer. My mom owned a tea shop and deli in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania and so this woman had given her a guitar that was busted up. Loving music and stuff, that prompted it. I tried to do plays and stuff in school..
PW: Just had that creative bug?
LS: I know that is sounds silly, but it's true. For me, that's the closest that I've gotten to it. I feel like there's still some other stuff out there for me to start tinkering with, too.
PW: Have you ever done any other creative or performance fields, aside from the music and acting?
LS: I did when I was younger. I haven't gotten back into it, though.
PW: What kind of roles did you play? Lead? Random chorus guy?
LS: All of it, you know? You're just in middle school and high school and random community theatre. I could sing a mean "Piano Man" by Billy Joel.
PW: Right now, a cappella. Go.
LS: Nah, I can't do it right now; it's too noisy. But if somebody had a little keyboard, we would kick the shit out of that.
PW: We should make that happen. Next time you play in Philly.
LS: Well not if you're not gonna be there.
PW: I'll be there!
LS: Next time be there. And tell Philly "hello" for me. Or I'll tell them if anybody's listening: Hello Philadelphia.
PW: They like you. You sell out shows there. People come from South Jersey to see you play at Johnny Brenda's.
LS: [laughs] From South Jersey! You should talk to our new bass play, Mr. Jeff Ratner, who is also a Bensalem brother.
PW: All right, I might do that. Are you tired of talking to me? Is that it?
LS: No, I just thought that …
PW: He looks a little lonely?
LS: Ratner looks a little lonely.
Jeff Ratner: I'm cool, actually.
PW: He doesn't wanna talk, either. [laughs] I can go off the record. We can just hang.
LS: OK, let's do that!
And hang we did in the most hooked up VIP spot SXSW had to offer. Thanks to Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill for hosting the Carrera Cafe. And thanks to Belvedere for keeping the orange fizzes and aformentioned hard lemonades flowing. See you next year!
Langhorne Slim: myspace
Photos: Doug Seymour
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