Out today digitally, Steve Gunn’s Nakama EP features reinterpretations of six songs from the guitarist’s recent full-length, Other You, created with close friends. This includes new studio recordings made alongside Mikey Coltun and Ahmoudou Madassane of Mdou Moctar, and Natural Information Society, as well as remixes by Circuit des Yeux and Bing & Ruth. Listen HERE. The artwork was shot and sequenced by American photographer Duane Michals.
These are not covers, exactly. Nor are they full-blown from-the-ground-up collaborations. It’s a third path – using Gunn’s song structures as a point of departure, seeking a new route through familiar ground. They expand on and illuminate the experimental impulses and meditative moods that guided Other You.
“It touches on a lot of music that I love, but that I might not necessarily translate with the proper album”, says Gunn. “To give these songs to people that I admire and to see how they would return, knowing that their music is an inspiration to me, was really a cool opportunity. Joshua Abrams’ bass playing, his group Natural Information Society, and his film soundtrack work have been an inspiration to me for some time now. I am grateful that I was able to travel to Chicago and work closely with Josh in his studio on ‘Good Wind’ and ‘On the Way’. Reimagining these songs with Josh, along with Lisa Alvarado’s accompaniment, was a total joy. I arrived with the intention of keeping these songs open in seeing where they would go in working with Josh, and am very happy with the results.”
Mikey Coltun of Mdou Moctar said on their collaboration: “Ahmoudou and I wanted to give ‘Protection’ a Tuareg feel. We knew we wanted to use field recordings from Niger and specifically Tende music, which is the drums and chanting you hear. We used drum machines which is an homage to Abdallah Oumbadougou, the first Niger Tuareg artist to do that in the ’90s.”
Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr sought to dial back the arrangement on ‘Ever Feel That Way’, foregrounding Gunn’s vocal. “By stripping back his guitar and adding some horns and effects, I worked to bolster his narration atop a pillowy and nocturnal environment,” she explains. “The result is quiet and intimate. It is a serenade for one that lays close to the heart.”
Bing & Ruth’s David Moore said: “It was a joy to get inside of Steve’s music and rearrange the furniture. ‘Reflection’ struck me instantly as a classic song that I wouldn’t want to stray too far from the original, so I added some piano and moved around a lot of the pieces until I found something somewhere between sunshine rock and a psychedelic opium den. Such a pleasure to get this one where it ended up.”
Earlier this fall, Gunn taped a live session at the Jackie Kannon’s Rat Fink Room, the first ever dedicated stand-up comedy club founded by record producer Morris Levy in 1963. Gunn performs two songs – ’Fulton’ and ‘On the Way’ from Other You.
Released in August, Other You was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith, Cass McCombs, Kurt Vile) and Gunn’s long-time friend and co-producer, Justin Tripp. The relocation from his native Brooklyn was, in a way, more than geographical – the warm climate and tight-knit studio team encouraged the guitarist to tap into new approaches, techniques, and emotional reservoirs, casting off established notions, habits and hang-ups. It is easily Gunn’s brightest and most life-affirming work to date.
NAKAMA EP TRACKLIST:
- Protection – Steve Gunn with Mikey & Ahmoudou (from Mdou Moctar)
- Good Wind – Steve Gunn with Natural Information Society
- On The Way – Steve Gunn with Natural Information Society
- Ever Feel That Way – Circuit des Yeux Remix
- Reflection – Bing & Ruth Remix
Steve Gunn
