FULL MOON FEVER
“WE’RE gonna find the nursing home that has the best recording studio,” declares Will Oldham. “There’s probably a lot of demand.” “There should be!” says Matt Sweeney. “Fuck yes, that’d be amazing. We should start getting an eye towards that.”
At the end of April, the pair’s second album together, the reliably excellent Superwolves, will finally see release 16 years after their debut, 2005’s Superwolf. This care-home option, they joke, may be the only way they’ll make a third collaborative record.
“I mean, I’m not the fastest person in the world, as far as my output goes,” says Sweeney, explaining the delay. “But it was just life stuff, nothing too crazy.”
The record is the work of two serial collaborators – Oldham has over the past three decades, mainly as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, worked with the likes of Angel Olsen, Bill Callahan, Bitchin’ Bajas, The Cairo Gang and Meg Baird, while Sweeney’s credits include Iggy Pop, Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, Stephen Malkmus, Cat Power and Songhoy Blues. Yet there’s something singularly special about this partnership in particular, something that transcends both of these men’s usual working practices.
“Oftentimes for me, the excitement is hearing creative folks in a room together,” says Oldham. “Being able to capture something as it’s happening. But in the case of this album, the excitement is capturing confidence – like a snapshot of you on your wedding day or graduation when you look fantastic and you want to put that picture on your wall. So this record is more like, ‘Yeah, this is me looking really sweet’.”
Written over the past five years, Superwolves is the product of a generally fixed process: Oldham writes lyrics and sends them to Sweeney, who comes up with music and a melody line, before both then bat the piece back and forth until it’s finally finished.
“When I was a child, I was taught that if you speak two languages, you’re worth two men,” says Oldham, discussing their partnership. “Music is a kind of language, and
