Mike Novak - Dark Canyon Interview
When and where were you born? What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Were these things that were relevant around your household growing up? Do you have any siblings?
I was born in Zürich, Switzerland to Austrian parents. Shortly after, my family moved to Columbus, Ohio where my dad got a job at the Ohio State University as an assistant professor. Because the rest of the family still lived in Austria, we spent a lot of time traveling back and forth to Europe. I have two younger brothers that were born in the US. No one in my immediate family played music, but my mom listened to a lot of different things. She got me into jazz and rock. My first CD was a Beach Boys compilation. We have a family friend back in Austria who had a red fender stratocaster and he showed me how to play “Smoke on the Water” and “Another One Bites the Dust”. I was hooked after that!
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music? Tell me about first starting Dark Canyon and how this project initially came to be?
My first passion was skateboarding. I spent all my free time outside in our cul-de-sac practicing ollies and kickflips. Eventually my dad built us a couple ramps and we got a rail. We had a tight crew of neighbor kids and we would always be skating around. In the sixth grade I got my first guitar, an electric yamaha pacifica (I still have it!). As I got more serious about music in high school, I skated less and less. I got into Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and that really made me focus more on guitar playing. I was obsessed with psychedelic rock and wanted to learn more about how bands were making their records. I had a neighbor who with this multitrack tascam cassette recorder and a bunch of exotic instruments, and we would make songs. I eventually got my own 8 track digital recorder, which was expandable up to 64 virtual tracks. Once I loaded up 8 tracks I would bounce down and get another six to work with. I didn’t realize it at the time, but working with these limitations would help me adapt to the analog recordings I do now. I studied music production in college, and continued playing in bands and doing recording work. After moving to Chicago post graduation, I worked at a few studios around town and eventually helped start the Chicago Electric Piano Company, which has become my full time job.
We specialize in restoring vintage electromechanical pianos and have been fortunate to work with lots of great bands and musicians. The concept for Dark Canyon came from my love of cinematic music. As a guitar player the spaghetti westerns really caught my attention. I realized it's like slower surf rock with lush orchestration. This film genre kind of peaked in the 60s/70s and I couldn't find many examples of people exploring it today. I started compiling some themes and demos. Eventually, my friend Maxx McGathey helped me flush these out into full orchestrations by adapting some of these themes for strings, choir, trumpet, flute etc. The recording process moved pretty slowly because we did everything piecemeal. Since I was still gigging in a number of bands and working on records, it took a while to find the time to get it all together. Once the pandemic hit and people weren't going out anymore, I was able to focus in and finish the recording and mixing process.
2022 saw the release of your self-titled debut. How did the deal with Nudie Records come about for this release? What was the overall approach of this record? I understand you produced and engineered this entire record as well.
I produced and recorded the Dark Canyon album. I started the songs on tape and once I filled up the tracks I finished them digitally. I tried to be as authentic as possible to the classic spaghetti westerns by using period correct instruments and digging up some unusual sounds such as the marxophone. Perhaps my favorite track on the record is called “Old Blood Runs Thick”. My friend Albertine Sarges contributed an amazing vocal performance to this tune. She lives in Berlin and we did it remotely during peak pandemic. She sent me her parts and I messed around with my tape echo and really got a cool vibe going. I think this song is special to me because of the German vocals, which is a nice reference to my Austrian upbringing. Once I finished the mixes and got the record mastered, I did what a lot of people do and tried to “shop” the record around. It’s kind of a tough sell for a label because at the time there were no plans to play this music live. The process was pretty demoralizing because most of the time you don’t get a response from people. I got good at the old “hey just checking in...” bit. I actually found out about Nudie Records through an Instagram ad campaign they were doing and sent them an email. Much to my surprise they got back to me within an hour and were super enthusiastic about the project. They were very down with supporting my vision for the release, and since it started as just a recording project they definitely had a lot of faith in me.
Your most recent work will be released tonight as we speak! Can you tell me about this album and what the process of writing and recording this record was like for you? How has this record been in terms of conception compared to your previous album? What has changed with your style, process and overall approach since you first started out on this journey?
I am releasing a couple covers of Lee Hazlewood tunes today, which premiered on Aquarium Drunkard’s “Lagniappe Sessions” series a week ago. Lee is one of my favorite producers and it was fun to put a Dark Canyon flavored spin on two of his songs. Over the past few years I’ve found the musicians I really click with, and those are the guys I called in for this session. We tracked the rhythm section live to tape and added pedal steel, keys and vocals afterward. I am honored to have worked with Andrew Sa on these, he is such an amazing singer and he stepped up to the role of Lee perfectly.
What has your spring and summer shaped up to be so far? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
I am releasing a new project later this summer under the name “Dexter+Franz”. John Dexter Marston (film/tv composer who is based out of Hans Zimmer's studio in LA) and I started this project last June by renting a house in the Joshua Tree area and setting up a bunch of synthesizers and a tape machine. With no demos and no expectations, we were inspired by our surroundings and chance encounters with other reclusive musicians living in the area. The music flowed and we came up with a full record worth of ideas. The tracks were further polished in Los Angeles and Chicago and we have arrived at the finish line with a full length record that shifts between ambient minimalism and fully arranged songs. The album is off at the pressing plant now, and we are planning on doing a couple release shows both in Chicago and on the West Coast. This will be out on Nudie Records. I’m also hoping to continue making music with Amlamas, a project in collaboration with my friends Mark Shusterman (who you interviewed a while back!) and Scott Beck. We put out a cassette earlier this spring and played a fun release show at a Japanese hi-fi bar in Denver. Drawing from Italian library music and vintage international grooves, I’m looking forward to further sonic explorations with this group.
