The Daniel Bachman Interview
From the cosmic catacombs and spiritual resting place of the late Jack Rose and John Fahey resides this radical fixture in the world of Primitive Guitar and its ever-changing ecosystem. Born and raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Daniel Bachman quickly became a guiding light to his contemporaries as he mastered the ancient craft of historical harmony and melodic meditation. But what separates Bachman from the rest is his ability to shape-shift and adapt to the sound he so bravely embraces. While a brand new body of work, “Moving Through Light” embodies the electrifying experimentation and creativity of what being an artist is all about, Bachman navigates the treacherous terrain of American soil by highlighting the ones that made this place so rich, and romantic so long along. If only we could return to such a time, and place.
One of the many things I admire about your work and creative ethics is your connection to history. Whether through music, experimentation, farming, or the scholar approach, what keeps you most inspired, motivated, and eager to continue creating, especially in this day and age?
Honestly, I’m just starting to hit my stride right now at 35. For years, I had to do several part-time jobs and full-time work to get by. Currently, I’m in a position where I can live cheaply and work on as much stuff as I can that inspires me. I have a personality that likes to dig; it used to be digging for records and books, but now it is more general knowledge, reading history, and even digging into different types of music I like and want to try and explore in my voice. I’m a restless, obsessive, and creative person. I usually have a couple of things going at once and bounce between them all until I finish this thing or that. I’m also finding new ways to combine my interests in history, music, and writing, which keeps things interesting and challenging. For example, I’m writing a short story about climate disaster in the Blue Ridge and making the music and artwork for it all at once. I constantly need to explore and tinker with stuff to keep going. I’ve done the thing where you play the same songs every night on the road for almost a decade! It burned me out; I need to be exploring to be happy doing my work.
Your groundbreaking and highly influential impact on the primitive style of guitar and the rich culture that surrounds it is undeniable. But your radical transformation into the more experimental, free-form exploration aspect of music with past works such as 2022’s “Almanac Behind” is mind-blowing. What ultimately inspired this research into texture, sights/sounds, rhythm, and embracive elements? Tell me about the overall process and approach to your most recent album, “Moving Through Light,” and what you were most excited and interested in exploring.
Photo: Aldona Dye
When I first started making music as a teenager, I wanted to make music like I am now. I was really into a lot of stuff back then, collage music, IDM, and all sorts of traditional music and noise, but I felt limited to what I could create based on the technology I had in front of me, which was mostly tape machines, guitar pedals, that kind of thing. So when I started going to make my records, instead of relying on someone in a studio as I did earlier on, I got Ableton on my laptop and started finding out that I could make all these sounds that I always wanted to on my own. It has taken a few records and even more years trying to learn about making music like this, but this new record I made has all of the tricks and ideas I had on earlier records but refined and applied only to one instrument. My last few records are broad in what is on them: found sounds, field recordings, and collaged instruments, so I wanted to see how far I could take the sound from just one instrument. Finding new ways to sculpt the sound into shapes that were engaging for my ear was challenging at times with such little variation in sound, but in the end, I got what I was looking for. In my opinion, folk music has always adapted to new technological innovations, whether it’s the radio and early commercial recording era or the more experimental stuff we hear today. I’m drawn to the work of other people in earlier eras that stretched the ideas of what these art forms can be, and I hope to work in a similar spirit.
“It may not sound like it, but my new record, “Moving Through Light,” is a solo fingerstyle guitar record.” With every sound and texture coming from one guitar, what did you find most fascinating while bringing this material to life? I’d love to know some of the backstories to tracks such as “God Is Change,” “Fall Into/Out To,” “The Sun (Bending Through The Sun,” and “While You Gaze.”
Admittedly, this record is a little less conceptual than some of the other stuff I’ve put out recently, but I wanted the whole thing to live and breathe as one piece. As the track titles suggest, I wanted it to be like walking through open fields and wooded areas and letting those spaces reveal themselves to you in the many different ways they can, slowly, until you realized you were in a whole new landscape or room. The stretching of sound took me by surprise throughout creating this thing. Playing with its speed and pitch transformed some of the playing I have been stuck in recently. It felt a little stale and old for me but suddenly became beautiful pieces when I started playing with the speed in new ways. I was also excited to dig into new rhythmic ideas I’ve had in recent records, but maybe I was a little afraid to go full force into them. This record fit with some of those grooves so well, and because I was taking such a huge leap away from some of my other, more standard guitar-based work, I felt comfortable going pretty far out with some of that stuff. I haven’t explored rhythm like that as much in the past, so that was very exciting to get into. It may be a while until I make another one of these records. It was incredibly labor intensive and required a lot of repeat listening, so much so that I had to take a step back at times and let it chill. I learned quite a bit during the process and am excited to apply the ideas it generated to my new work.
As we continue moving forward in this life and the country’s rapidly disturbing derailment, what finds you most optimistic as a person and artist? Is there anything else you would like to share further with the readers?
I won’t lie, I struggle to find hope in America right now, though seeing the steadfast actions of pro-Palestinian protesters and the rapid organization of people across the US against the new regime is beautiful. I have to keep my mind and heart on local stuff the most because it’s there I find I might be able to help in little ways. In many ways, Virginia is a good place to look for positive attitudes and mindsets. The area that we live in was affected by the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville VA in 2017. With that traumatic event, a strong anti-fascist identity has organically coalesced into real community organizing. The same goes for our local struggles against new fossil fuel infrastructure like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which remains one the most sustained and recent intergenerational efforts to stop corporate forces driving climate breakdown in North America. Probably most inspiring to me right now though, is the local Indigenous-led efforts to advocate for Rights of Nature legislation, which is a new kind of conservation law that gives a type of personhood status to natural bodies such as creeks, streams, rivers, sacred sites, etc. The Rappahannock Tribe in eastern Virginia and the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation in North Carolina, are leaders in North America with this work right now. I find it incredible that these groups, who are among the first to be subjected to land theft/genocide brought by the British in the 17th century, are the same groups leading the fight for these groundbreaking methods and mindsets regarding conservation. For a long time, I made music that was less for myself and stuff that I thought other people might like or expect me to make. You can do alright for yourself doing something like that, maybe even make a little money. I have found that the experience of listening to your inner voice has yielded the most significant results for me, and I’m glad to have finally found my way here!
