Michael Chorney
WORDS BY TOM PROCTOR, PHOTO by JAMES LOCKRIDGE
Michael Chorney, joined host Brent Hallenbeck on 'Rocket Shop', Big Heavy World's local music radio hour on 105.9FM The Radiator. Find out more at https://www.facebook.com/hollargeneralmusic

Listen to a replay here or via Rocket Shop Radio Hour on iTunes or Subscribe on Android

Michael Chorney is a man whose presence reflects his art. He appears dreamy, complex and mysterious, and yet comes across with a harmonious simplicity. His music is the embodyment of his personality, delivering hauntingly beautiful tones, deep with complexity and thought. Music to accompany a walk in the wilderness, music to dwell on life’s larger ideas, music to reconnect with the world’s natural rhythm.

In the Big Heavy World studio to discuss his new album 'Shameless Light', crafted with his hand picked band Hollar General, he spends a quiet few speaking to us of identity, environment and the necessity of keeping music a tactile experience:

Tom Proctor: The image chosen for the sleeve of your new album is fantastic. Is there a story behind the picture?

Michael Chorney: I was adopted and a few years ago I found out about my birth parents, not their identities, but my heritage. That inspired some of my work, and the music and songs involved are meditations on family identity. Family and identity. In no way is it literal depictions but that became a thematic centerpiece of the record. It’s also featured in other songs, but in abstract ways. Nothing is ever linear, at least in the way I work. When we started working on the album I started going through some old photographs, that is actually my adopted mother on the right. It’s a stunning photograph.

TP: It really is, and it captures this fantastic moment, very Americana. Talking of nonlinear song creation. How do you go about creating your tracks, they’re awfully complex and at the same time very minimalist. How do you create these sounds?

MC: The songs will come in different ways from different places. Sometimes it will a simple melodic motif, I’ll just play my guitar and find something I want to play again. Sometimes it'll be a line of a lyric that will unfold. It can be two notes, or a cord or just a single line and then the patience comes in. The patience is learning and being open to what that line is suggesting, to not push it, to listen closely and given enough time it generally unfolds.

TP: You were originally self taught, how has that shaped the way you have evolved?

MC: I think i've avoided a certain degree of musical trends, the sort of movements that may be more inevitable in a formal learning situation. For example, I have tried using software to create music but I found really quickly it was changing the very way that I work. The creative ideas themselves were being changed by that medium. For me the actual physical quality of using a pen and paper has a real profound affect on the choices made. That tactile sense is really important.

TP: You tend to come out as a leader when collaborating with other artists. Have you ever encountered any problems with that direct approach.

MC: Well I also work as a side man quite often, so for me it was important to be clear about what the roles are. When I put my first band together as a young man I learnt a lot of lessons regarding what's affective and what isn't. Not just for myself, but for the endeavour in general and for all the people involved. That's ultimately what i wish for.