THE DEVIL'S MOUTH PODCAST Vol. 142: ten rounds with William Fowler Collins
Sit back, this one will take a while. And it'll be totally worth it.
When you click on the photo or on the link down there to go listen to our new podcast episode, maybe don’t pay too much attention to the running time on this one. Depending on how your brain works, it can be exciting, but it can also discourage you. Don’t get me wrong - I would happily have spent not just five hours, but five days or five weeks in a conversation with William Fowler Collins. I, and everyone who has ever heard his music, already knew he was one of the great ones artistically speaking, but after having had the pleasure of several conversations with the gentleman, I am happy to report he is also one of the greats in human terms. The serenity of his voice conveys a sense of wisdom and tranquillity that is amply reinforced by his insights and opinions on music, life and the universe. It has been an absolute pleasure to discover more about what makes William tick as a composer and performer through these very special ten rounds, and I can’t wait to see him live again.
Though William moves in many scenes, with his different projects and releases having been considered in genres from modern classical to drone, from free improvisation to ambient, of course those of you more into the heavy/alternative underground will also know him for his frequent collaborations and associations with other big names such as Aaron Turner (the duo being known as Thalassa), James Jackson Thoth or Emma Ruth Rundle, among many others. Of the many different experiences you can have with the different facets of his music, the one that stands out the most to me so far was when I had the pleasure of watching his show at Amplifest 2022, and I was instantly transported to the desolation and melancholy of the vast, empty American desert plains that he captured so well with his deeply cinematic ‘Hallucinating Loss’ record.
William’s body of work is by now a long and fascinating catalogue, and merits a journey of discovery all by itself. Of course, as a purveyor of mostly long-form music, so to speak, you wouldn’t really expect him to feature ten cute little two-minute pop songs in his Ten Rounds, would you? Though his actual musical roots and still held fascination with the “regular” song format might surprise you during our conversation, it feels natural that a lot of the music he picked for us would be long and slowly-developing pieces that inform his own work. So that’s what makes this our longest episode yet, but don’t fret, as the excellence of the work William curated for us will ensure you won’t really feel time passing. And what is time anyway, right? From ‘You Suffer’ to a John Cage piece currently being played in a German church that’ll only end in 2640, what matters in the end is how music touches us, changes us and enriches us. And that’s what William Fowler Collins is an absolute master at.
Click on the main picture up there or this link right here to listen to this very special episode. Oh! And if you’re a fan already, there’s a little treat in there for you at the end, in the form of two as yet unpublished, unheard pieces by William. You’re welcome!
You can find William Fowler Collins on Bandcamp and Instagram.
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