PREMIERE | Gregory Uhlmann, "Santa Fe"

Cult pop legend Gregory Uhlmann; photographed by Sam Kaufman.

Gregory Uhlmann possesses a prolific connection to the contemporary world’s creative networks. From work with Perfume Genius, Fell Runner, Typical Sisters just to name check just a few; Uhlmann raises the red velvet curtains with the debut of “Santa Fe” featuring Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy. Featured off the upcoming Topshelf album Neighborhood Watch that follows up the previous solo album Odd Job — intimate cabin fever pop is expanded into the eternal atmospheres of inspired baroque touches thanks to contributions from Anna Butterss, April Guthrie, Josh Johnson, Lauren Baba, Matt Carroll, Tim Carr and other ensemble guests. The result, as evident in the following premiere, is a sweet and smart slice of orchestral aural cinema for the ear that moves the heart and soul like a technicolor scream-dream at a drive-in Saturday scene.

"Santa Fe" is an experience akin to watching old VHS and Super 8 family videos captured by the grandparents whose visages populate your earliest memories. Gregory and Meg backed by breathtaking strings conduct a journey deep into the heart's most wistful chambers of care, nostalgic comforts and fuzzy corridors of recollected moments of meaning (revisited through the foggy lens of hazy remembrances). The composition feels like a spiritual awakening where the audience is privy to a candid and vulnerable view of the artist’s own intimate trails of thoughts. “Santa Fe” swells and sweeps with an oceanic might, blending song craft with pop set pieces fit for massive soundstages. The song thrills with the consciousness expanding high of stumbling upon a towering library complete with hard bound collections that span from canonical classics, modern lit to the curious glow found from dusty family photo albums.

We had a chance to catch up with Greogory Uhlmann in the following reflective interview discussion:

Insightful notes on the memory lane travels of making the serenity strings of "Santa Fe”.

The string session for this song was truly a feat of herculean endurance on the part of my friend, Elizabeth (Baba). While I had April (Guthrie), the cellist, play a very reasonable amount of parts to execute in a reasonable amount of time (and she played them so beautifully), I vastly misjudged the number of string parts I had written for Elizabeth to do in a day. Anyone that knows Elizabeth knows that she doesn’t back down from a challenge. She just kept pushing through to get a great take of all of the parts, declining any offers of a break, except for a very short and unfortunate lunch break involving lukewarm pho and raw steak. I’m very grateful to them for their playing all over the album, but this song is really all about the strings sonically.

Thoughts on the process of honing in on a creative synergy to create sea breeze harmonies that are seamlessly sewn into the sparkling orchestral accompaniment.

All of the vocal harmonies were Meg’s creation. It was really fun to work together on this song and see their process. Meg has such a great ear and they found harmonies that were a lot more interesting and varied than what I had originally envisioned.

As an extraordinary artist who has worked respectively with so many of today's leading talents; describe the importance of collaboration (now, then, tomorrow) and how you feel collective contribution enhances, expands and enriches the entirety of the creative work.

There is very little work I’ve done without collaboration. While I’m mostly a solitary writer, arrangement and production are almost always a collaboration of some sort. I think it’s really valuable and interesting to work with a group of people with different outlooks and taste.

Other artists that you would like to work with that you haven't worked with yet.

That’s a tricky one. I mean, there are so many. There are a lot of groups that I think would be fun to write for/work with such as yMusic and Attacca Quartet. I would also love to work with a great orchestra at some point. I think that would be incredible. I’ve been feeling more drawn to collaboration with artists in other mediums lately as well and I’d like to explore that more. I think working with experimental film would be really fun as would puppetry/theater.

In these times of quarantine — tell us what discoveries both personal and creative you have found.

Quarantine has been a real challenge in a lot of ways. Day to day I’ve been dealing with it by keeping myself busy working on various projects. It’s nice to have time to delve into things musically I don’t usually have the time for, but there’s definitely a line that I’ve been trying to be aware of where I need to stop and take a break for my own mental health. I’ve found during this time how much I value my friendships and my bandmates and I really look forward to seeing them and playing again.

The challenges of quarantine, how it has changed the culture and how you have re-examined the approach of exhibiting art to the world at large.

That’s a big one. It’s been a challenge in pretty much every way. I’m grateful to have some stability during it (food and housing, etc). I think it’s a little bit of a waiting game to see how it affects the world long term, but hopefully, we can learn some lessons about what we were all doing wrong before this and try to do some correcting when a full-on reopening happens.

The lessons you feel the world will have hopefully learned once all this has settled.

I think this has clearly demonstrated how necessary universal health care is for everyone’s health. Not just for people that can’t afford it.

Notes on secret de-classified creative projects that can be shared.

Hmmmmm… Nothing explicitly secret [laughs] but I have a bunch of things in the works including a new Fell Runner record, new Typical Sisters record, a collaborative album of chamber music and a live album with Nate Mercereau and Aaron Steele. Excited to get them all out there.

Meditations on the now, meditations on the future.

Just hoping to keep healthy and try to be balanced for now. Taking it one day at a time. I’m optimistic about the future and hopeful that we can be good to each other along the way.

Meditations on various aspects of fulfillment that was found on the road from Odd Job and through the process of making Neighborhood Watch.

Neighborhood Watch was the first album I had produced on my own. It was a very challenging and rewarding process. It forced me to grow and it helped to solidify aspects of my taste by having to make decisions on my own. Every album I make is a bit of a discovery/learning process. A lot of things shifted in my life from the time of making Odd Job to making Neighborhood Watch. I’ve become more domesticated in a way. I’ve been living with my partner for about 3 years and it’s been so nice to make a home together. In the time period leading up to Neighborhood Watch I hadn’t been touring as much and was a lot more focused on recording as well.

And lastly reflections on inspirations and parting words of wisdom you all have gleaned from work respectively with Perfume Genius, Typical Sisters, Fell Runner, Tim Carr, Josh Johnson, Lauren Baba, April Guthrie, and so many more.

I get so much inspiration from all the people I work with. I feel really lucky to be able to work with some of my favorite musicians who happen to also be close friends. I will say that I’m really looking forward to playing with Perfume Genius when things start to get safer. Meg, Tim Carr, Patrick Kelly and I all joined the band and only got to play together a couple of times before the shelter in place took effect. We were supposed to be on tour most of the year. Really itching to work on that music all together soon.

Gregory Uhlmann’s new album Neighborhood Watch will be available July 24 via the venerable imprint Topshelf Records.