A Chat with Clash Valian (07.04.24)
The brainchild of singer-songwriter and composer Greg Merrell, Clash Valian is an “amalgamation of contemporary compositions, ethereal soundscapes, and garage-forged rock songs.” Exploring the world of sound with unorthodox experiments, Clash Valian is one of the most unique, unforgettable artists to reach my ears in a long time. We speak with Greg Merrell about the new album Degrees of Freedom, social media, upcoming plans and much more!
OSR: Cliché but how did Clash Valian come about? What drew you to music?
Merrell: It started in college when I began making sampled-based/electronic music. I was playing in a rock band but wanted to try my hand at playing sample-based songs. I used it as a side solo project moniker. I really liked DJ Shadow and a ton of Ninja Tunes artists and wanted to try making music like that. Then eventually tried to play some of these sample-based songs live, and it just became more than just sample-based stuff.
Originally was drawn to music probably just from listening to my older brother shred Metallica on guitar. Then that evolved to being super drawn to jazz from playing jazz trumpet. And accentuated by this store Off the Record in Yakima growing up. Everybody who worked there would always turn me on to something new, different, artistic, and engaging in another way
OSR: You recently released your album Degrees of Freedom. What can you tell us about it? Is there a theme or backstory?
Merrell: I finished building my studio with help from some friends one and a half years back and then just went into a recording frenzy. I wanted to capture the spirit and diversity of that frenzy. I think there were 250+ project files recorded during that time! Degrees of Freedom is a statistical concept, depending on the test and your estimate(s) of interest there are a certain number based on your sample size with some number taken away. I like how this album is a sample of that 250+ song idea frenzy and it’s distilled down to a discrete number. I think it captures the breadth of influences on me as a musician and music appreciator.
OSR: You mention that 20 different instruments were used across the album’s 21 tracks. That must have been quite the undertaking. What made you decide to use all of those instruments instead of sticking to the typical rock band arrangement?
Merrell: I spent a year taking guzheng lessons when I lived in southern China. I’ve always loved playing with synths ever since messing around with electronic music in college. I grew up playing trumpet in a jazz band. My wife bought me this plastic trombone for Christmas…
I’ve always been interested in trying to step back and just think “What’s missing from this song” “What does the song need” in terms of texture, register, and mood after getting the core elements of it down. Usually, core elements are a couple of scratch tracks that are probably some combination of guitar, bass, drums, and piano, in a rare case it’ll be trumpet. So when I had this very breathy song about running and exercise and physiochemical interactions – ‘Endocannabinoids’ at the bridge and was like “What does this need” some suspension built from an airy trill-like flute! Or when I had gotten down most of ‘Empty Riot’ there was this need to add in something “blissful” so I added the guzheng, and just broadly applied that across all the songs during the process of recording.
OSR: What was the most difficult and the most exciting thing about creating Degrees of Freedom?
Merrell: Most exciting was definitely tracking/recording everything. I LOVE recording, especially new/novel ideas. Sometimes in an afternoon, I’ll just bang out the whole freaking song. This was the case for ‘Sirius’ and ‘Knitting with Cat Hair’.
Most difficult was probably polishing up vocals. Not my favourite thing to do admittedly. I have to do a zillion vocal takes to get things right and have a high bar for what right is. I absolutely hate editing too, so I am so grateful to have a partner in crime, Tom Wade, who helps me record sometimes and helps with editing and producing.
OSR: What do you hope people will take from Degrees of Freedom?
Merrell: I hope that people will make the time to listen through the whole thing. It’s a little over an hour. These days I feel like it’s just songs on Spotify and albums are unappreciated. I think there’s a fairly wide range of emotional stuff going on throughout the whole record.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Merrell: It means a lot. It’s a calming force listening to ambient music. It’s a pump-up encouragement before/during exercise listening to metal. It’s washing up dishes and somehow still feeling stoked listening to hip-hop. It’s driving long distances and feeling like you have a good friend there with you listening to country.
It’s getting really intimate on another level jamming with someone. It’s impacting people when you perform a song. It’s feeling nostalgic playing old Weezer songs around a campfire with your friends.
Means a lot.
OSR: Random questions: What is the most interesting conversation you have ever had?
Merrell: Probably with a professor at college, Dr. Wade Hands about Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of Absentee Ownership. or with the band Women about their first record. Or with this Uighur guy who showed me and a friend around Turpan back in 2010, a lot has changed since then.
OSR: What was your last “ah ha” moment?
Merrell: Troubleshooting some synth set-up thing. Kinda boring but just figuring out how to make the envelope hit with this wappy sound kinda slowly and then fade off really quick.
OSR: What’s your opinion about social media?
Merrell: Ugh. I hate it. Makes me feel like a zombie and like I’m interacting with a superficial layer of other people. It does provide a connection point that is exceptionally convenient though.
OSR: What can we expect from Clash Valian in the future?
Merrell: Probably more pop/jazz-adjacent piano-based tunes. Probably more synth-based jazz-adjacent tunes with live drums. Probably more metal. Probably more slacker rock. Probably remixes of old songs with featured artists. Probably an EP that takes one idea and makes 4 to 5 different songs in different styles out of it. I think those are probably the next six releases to come.
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Merrell: Give a loved one a hug and tell them how much you love and appreciate them.
Many thanks to Greg Merrell for speaking with us. For more from Clash Valian, check out his Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
