INTERVIEW: The Road to Solid Sound: Setting
06/26-06/28 @ Mass MoCA, North Adams MA
Photo by Will Warasila
“We started from a very free improvisational place with a lot of space. It was really just about trusting each other and figuring out what felt like it was generating its own momentum.”
Setting does not ask you to listen. They tell you to disappear for a while.
The North Carolina Piedmont trio of Jaime Fennelly, Nathan Bowles, and Joe Westerlund creates music that exists somewhere between a dream and a conversation between three musicians who have learned to trust one another completely and synchronously. Their self-titled album from Thrill Jockey is not simply a collection of songs. It is an invitation into a world of shimmering synthesizers, tape loops, percussion, and textures that feel both ancient and futuristic.
When Setting arrives at Mass MoCA for Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival from June 26 through 28, the trio will bring a sound that feels perfectly suited for a festival built on curiosity and discovery.
“There wasn’t a particular sound agenda,” Bowles says of the group’s formation. “We started from a very free improvisational place with a lot of space. It was really just about trusting each other and figuring out what felt like it was generating its own momentum.”
That trust has become the foundation of Setting’s identity. All three musicians entered the project with years of experience through groups including Mind Over Mirrors, Califone, Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, Peeesseye, Sylvan Esso, and Jake Xerxes Fussell. But what began as open-ended improvisation slowly evolved over years into a distinct musical language.
“When we first started playing together, it was definitely not what it is now,” Fennelly says. “It’s taken us about four years of playing to get it to where it’s at. A lot of that is based on trust, frequency of playing, changing instrumentation, and developing our sound.”
That patient approach can be heard throughout Setting. Although their album contains moments of spontaneous creation, the band emphasizes that these pieces were not simply long random arrangements cut into smaller fragments. Instead, they developed from small musical ideas, rhythmic patterns and experiments that were carefully shaped into complete compositions.
“We had these little germs of ideas,” Bowles says. “Sometimes they were harmonic, sometimes they were built around a sequence or a rhythmic idea. Then it was about jamming on them and figuring out where they could go.” The result is music that feels expansive without becoming chaotic. There are moments of celestial beauty and moments of earthbound rhythm. The album can feel like a forgotten film score playing beneath an imaginary landscape, constantly shifting but always purposeful.
That sense of intention is exactly what makes Solid Sound such an ideal setting for the band. Founded and curated by Wilco, the festival has developed a reputation for bringing together artists who challenge genres and listeners who arrive with open ears. Bowles experienced that atmosphere firsthand during a previous visit to the festival and remembers a crowd eager to discover something unexpected. “It’s one of those festivals where it’s a really open-eared audience,” Bowles says. “It’s a good listening festival.”
For a band whose music thrives on attention and immersion, that distinction matters. “We can make harsh sounds welcoming,” Bowles says. “If you approach the music with respect and patience, I think that translates. I think it draws people in.”
Fennelly agrees, noting that Setting often sees audiences become absorbed by the music once the first notes begin. “There’s an energy that happens in the room where people end up getting drawn in,” he says. “Lately, it feels like people are really locking into it, and that feels great.”
That communal experience is also what excites the band most about returning to a curated festival environment. For musicians who spend their lives creating sound, there is still a childlike excitement in standing among an audience and being surprised by another artist. “It’s nice to get that fizzy, bubbly feeling in your brain when you’re inspired and you can’t wait to go home and work on stuff,” Bowles says. “I love losing myself in music.”
For Fennelly, Solid Sound represents the kind of intentional musical gathering that Setting had hoped to be part of when planning its first major run of performances around the album.
“These were the festivals that we really would love to play,” Fennelly says. “They make sense for Setting because of the intentionality around space, the way they’re organized, and how they’re curated.”
That idea of intentionality extends beyond the festival itself and into Setting’s entire creative philosophy. The trio took considerable time crafting their album, allowing the music to breathe between recording and mixing, understanding that sometimes distance allows artists to rediscover why they create in the first place. “I feel like it’s probably the best thing I’ve done for myself in order to remind myself why I make creative music,” Fennelly says.
At Solid Sound, however, the goal is not for audiences to understand every note or analyze every texture. It is something much simpler. “I would like people to feel whatever they’re feeling with trust and openness,” Bowles says. “That whatever is happening in the music is thoughtful and made with intention. It can be a ride that you let yourself go on.”
Fennelly puts it even more succinctly. “Presence,” he says.
At a festival filled with legendary artists, discoveries, and countless sounds competing for attention, Setting offers something increasingly rare. An hour where listeners might forget to check their phones, stop thinking about what comes next, and simply exist inside the music.
For more information on Solid Sound Festival, visit www.solidsoundfestival.com
For more of our pre-festival interviews, visit https://www.themetroland.com/blog-main/tag/solid+sound+festival
