A Conversation with My Forlorn Wallet’s Cory Mon & Wes Kirkpatrick – HuffPost 4.12.11

Mike Ragogna: Hi guys, please would you go into what mandated your starting up the label My Forlorn Wallet?

Cory Mon: Wes I and created My Forlorn Wallet Records out of absolute necessity. In our current “struggling to be heard, noticed and properly and affectionately represented position” we created our own record label for a handful of reasons.

1. We retain all the profit
2. We play by our own rules, create our own image and put out the exact music that we wish to create.
3. It gives us a professional platform from which to pitch and expose our music to the music industry.

In today’s world of music, it seems that there are less labels looking and, of those labels looking, they have become extremely conservative with the “risks” or bands that they are taking a chance on. It also seems that the “little guy” has more opportunities than in the past. It’s still loads and loads of work but an independent, or one’s “own” record label, seems to hold a bit more clout these days. But maybe that’s just because our music and professional representation of such has improved.

Wes Kirkpatrick: Like Cory said. In today’s day and age, there aren’t really that many artists being signed to major labels. A lot of my favorite artists were on major labels at one point, but left to pursue the independent route for one reason or another. While touring together, Cory and I realized we had a lot of the same goals for ourselves and a strong passion for music and it just seemed like the right thing to do. It’s definitely hard work building towards what we want to be, but we get to build it our way and that’s what was most appealing to us.

MR: Cory, would you call Cory Mon & The Starlight Gospel’s Turncoats a concept album?

CM: No, not necessarily. It was a tough album to record. mix, pay for and eventually finish. The recording ended with a partial break up of the band. In the end we entitled it “Turncoats” embracing the turmoil rather than pretending that it wasn’t our most difficult venture yet.

MR: What was it like working with producer Chad Weiss?

CM: We recorded and mixed our previous record 6 Days in the Devil’s Workshop with him at his studio in Minnesota. All went smoothly. So, we decided to do another record together this time changing the approach. After the first week of recording Turncoats, Eric, Chad and I sat around a table at Del Taco where Chad told us, “This is the most depressing record I have ever worked on.” One and a half weeks later, upon completion of the recording, Chad exclaimed, “This may end of being the finest record I’ve ever worked on.” So, yeah, we ran into a lot of issues along the way but recovered with the heart of a table tennis champion. By the time we went into the recording of Turncoats, we were great friends with Chad and that made the dynamic different than they had previously been. We were all comfortable with one another, thus it led to a lot more “butting of heads,” etc. But in the end, it was the true friendship that got us through it. Had we experienced the same set of “lows” with less of a friend, I’m not sure if this record would have ever been completed or released.

MR: What went into creating the songs? Is that your usual process or is that different from your Six Days In The Devil’s Workshop and Clatter Racket projects?

CM: We did take a different approach from our last two projects. First, we flew Chad out to our home in Utah and we set up a guerilla style recording studio in the basement using flipped over couches and foam pads to create our ISO booth etc. We came at it with the skeleton–the lyrics and basic chord structure of the song in place–and layered it all on, whereas 6 Days… was a studio recording of live performances with minimal additional layering and Clatter Racket was a live show taping and recording. Most of the production ideas came through guitar jamming and working things out between Eric, Chad and myself. We decided to go with all guitars on this album rather than keys, which we used a lot in the past two projects, for padding, etc. We had ten songs picked out from the get go, but due to the fact that we were recording and sleeping at home, it gave us time to write two songs–thus kicking two of the originally planned songs to the curb–that ended up on the album.

MR: Wes, since Naps & Nightmares is your solo debut, how does it feel to have a your own project?

WK: It’s a great feeling to finally have it finished. Going into the recording process there was definitely a little extra pressure knowing that if it didn’t go as well as planned there was nobody to blame but myself. Luckily I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted everything to be going into it and there weren’t really any big objections which made for a pretty smooth process.

CM: What’s the story behind the making of Naps & Nightmares?

WK: Naps & Nightmares was many things before it was Naps & Nightmares. I think it went through at least three other album titles, songs being added, songs being dropped, songs being added again after being dropped just to be dropped again, and so on before settling on the final project. The actual name Naps & Nightmares came from the recording process itself. Spending the evenings at Chad’s former studio, the kind of building that you were always looking over your shoulder as you weaved down the long creaky hallways, I would have this recurring dream that I woke in a dark black room to the silhouette of someone standing over and staring at me. After the dreams, I’d just lie awake for what seemed like hours. So, during the day, I’d have to nap during any downtime in recording to be able to make it through the day. A few months following the recording, my guitar player asked about the writing of several songs, and it led to us talking about the crazy nightmares. We would refer to the recording as a bunch of naps and nightmares, which stuck.

MR: What went into writing the songs and creating the recordings?

WK: A lot of these songs were written in the middle of the night. I’d wake up with a line or melody in my head and a strong feeling to just get up and write. I’m not really one to sit down and try to write a song, I definitely work best when the process comes about organically and I’m not trying to force it. I had the main six or seven songs that I knew were going to be on the record going into it. I had been playing some of them live for years and never got too tired of playing them, which to me, was a really good sign. I get tired of my own songs quickly and just have a hard time listening to myself in general, so the fact that these songs stuck around for so long made me believe they were meant to be on the album. Once in the studio, it was just a matter of playing through some of the other ones and seeing which ones jumped out at us to round out the album.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

CM: Patience, time, it all takes time. I tell myself this daily and imagine that I will continue to tell myself this from here on out. There are ebbs and flows, and dry spells and high times as an artist, and I try to embrace both. Understanding, embracing this fact is my only road to sanity.

WK: I think the main thing I would say is just to keep plugging away. There are definitely times where things are rough, everything feels like it’s going against you and you want to give up, but if you stay focused on the music and the bigger picture it will definitely help. There will always be dry spells. The key is to be patient and just fight through them however you can. Keep writing, keep playing and just try to enjoy the fun parts of being a musician to get through the tough times.