Sun Kil Moon - April memoir -2003/2004/2005/2006/2007/2008
Sorrow came in floods this April
Without reason, without warning
We're now in May, June, and July
Don't leave my love, don't leave my side
Sun Kil Moon's April is, by far, the slowest song-writing I’ve ever done in my life. With many songs that made the album, I'd write a verse, then completely lose interest in the song. Sometimes, a year would pass before the song was complete.
I was living with my girlfriend Cat, in my San Francisco apartment, during the time the album was recorded. My life consisted of juggling tours, recording, and helping Cat take care of her mother who was battling ovarian cancer. Songwriting took a back-seat to other things, and a lot of my time was spent at Cat's mother and father's home in Santa Cruz, or in hotels near hospitals in Los Gatos. Her mother passed in the early morning hours of July 21, 2006. There was a memorial service for her in Santa Cruz, and in Chicago, where Cat's mother was from.
In December of 2006, five months after Cat's mother passed, Cat and I took a trip to Grass Valley. We stayed at The Holbrooke Hotel, where a bunch of old presidents stayed, as well as Jim Corbett, the late 1800s San Francisco boxer. One night, a loud crash happened, during a heavy snow fall; a tree-branch fell, just beside the hotel room window, and it was the most startling sound I'd ever heard. I looked outside. The large branch had broken a fence and landed on a car. I liked the Christmas decorations around the hotel and stored the town in my memory as a place I'd like to visit again.
After Cat's mother passed, her schedule picked up. She was studying to be a child psychologist, interning at various schools, and our hours were conflicting in the small San Francisco apartment.
Enough time had passed since Sun Kil Moon's Tiny Cities, and it was time to get back into the studio. With only a few songs completed, I asked Cat to please give me a ride out to Grass Valley, where I stayed at the Holbrooke Hotel and worked on songs like a full-time job. I'd sit for an hour, writing a verse, then take a walk around the block, come back and write another verse. I did this all day and into the night.
The seed idea for 'Tonight in Bilbao' was written in a hotel in Bilbao, Spain, but the inspiration had burned out and finishing the song took some work. The opening verses of 'Tonight The Sky' were written not long after Katy passed, back in 2003, and getting back to where the song left off, wasn’t easy.
Cat picked me up a week later. Then Aaron Prellwitz ( my engineer at the time) and I got started on the album at Hyde Street Studios, in both studio A and D.
With half of the record still not written or recorded, I had Cat drop me off at the Seal Rock Inn, by the Cliff House. I'd write songs in my room all day, and in the early evenings, I'd take a long walk down Highway 1 to Judah Street, where Cat and I would sometimes meet at Thanh Long, the famous crab restaurant at 47th and Judah. Then she'd drive off and I'd walk back up Highway 1, on my own, and get back to work.
'Moorestown' is a classic break-up song. My ex-girlfriend Em and I broke up about five months before I met Cat, in September of 2005. Before Christmas of that year, I called Em from a Dublin hotel, asking if she'd please take me back and let me fly into Moorestown to spend Christmas with her family. I was crying like a baby when she hung up on me (we're still friends). 'Moorestown' was the only song on the record that was written in one sitting.
Part of 'Blue Orchids' was written in an apartment in Paris, where I was with Em in 2005, just after a cancelled show in Portugal. We had a few days off and she had a friend with a vacant apartment in Paris, so that's where we went. The apartment was high up these very old winding stairs, and the balcony looked over a courtyard. Something about the music coming from the courtyard inspired the song; a pianist practicing classical music.
Though 'Harper Road' and 'The Light' were written about Cat and her mother, her friends told her that they couldn't tell that the songs were about her. I can see why. The songs from April aren't as specific as the albums that were to follow.
Like Ghosts of The Great Highway and Tiny Cities, I flew up to Seattle when the tracking was done, where Geoff Stanfield added bass and David Revelli added percussion. The drums are by Anthony Koutsos. Strings are by Michi Aceret. Additional singers on the albums are Will Oldham, Ben Gibbard, and Eric Pollard.
‘Unlit Hallway’ was inspired by seeing those words in a sentence of Nick Tosches’ book The Devil and Sonny Liston.
Once the tracking was complete, Aaron had some other obligations and wasn't able to handle much of the editing. I hired a guy named Steve Armstrong, recommended by Hyde Street Studios, and he did a good job of editing.
I was with Steve one day, taking a break from Studio A, sitting in the kitchen area, when we met Linda Ronstadt. She came down the steps of studio D - fast on her feet - and asked if we could help her make a cup of tea. She was positive energy and nothing but. I'll never forget that moment. All the times I'd listened to her, growing up in Ohio, and there she was; the biggest selling artist in 1974 (from what I’m told).
Aaron flew down from Portland, and within week or so, we'd mixed the album April. Cat and I broke up not long after the album was finished, but I dedicated the album to her, as she was so supportive of my creativity and gave me the space I needed to get the songwriting done.
The album has many references to the month of April, but what many people don't know, is that the album was named after a waitress at Cafe Du Monde, in New Orleans. It was just before my fortieth birthday, when Cat and I struck up a conversation with her. She didn't have much good to say about the mayor. I asked her what her name was. She said 'April.' Like all of my album titles, that one fell into my lap.
April was released April 1, 2008. I did many tour dates in support of the album, some solo, some with various band members. The tour began April 16, 2008 at Town Hall in Seattle, and ended Sept 20, 2008, at The Academy in Dublin.
Though April was an agonizing journey, I believe that ‘Harper Road’ is possibly the best song I’ve ever written. While listening to the album recently, re-learning ‘Unlit Hallway’ for a concert, I let the CD keep playing. When it got to ‘Harper Road,’ it sounded like Jimmy Page was playing guitar and Roy Harper was singing. I stepped outside of myself. I listened to it again. I was in disbelief, that I’d written the song. If ‘Harper Road’ is the only song I ever wrote in my life, it’s the only thing I needed to do.
Wild oaks spread the deadliest drought
Like a mother's will it snuffs out
Any flame comes ‘round it breezin’
She'll endure the driest season
My blood runs through my only daughter
Her eyes are mine, so wide with wonder
Be my voice, my light, my power
Be with me in my leaving hour