Instrumental music can be a sinfully underrated way to take in emotional, introspective music. What is often times seen as background music at a dinner club or someone with less of an appreciation for the thought and heart that goes into these arrangements might consider “hard to follow because there are no words” is a beautiful and inspiring way to portray your feelings or experiences when done right. R.D. King is an artist who does it right.

 

 

RD: It’s definitely tough finding venues for instrumental music. A lot of venues just aren’t interested in instrumental music. But any venue where the audience is really into the music tends to be a good space for me. Fitting on bills isn’t quite as much of a challenge. I rarely look for other instrumentalists (of which there are few) and instead focus on musicians who write thought-provoking, introspective music. And there’s a lot of those artists in Boston!

 

 

RD: I always start with a feeling. Sometimes, I can visualize specific imagery, but other times it’s more abstract. I actually try not to think too much about how to represent the ideas on the guitar. The conscious mind gets in the way. I try to just close my eyes and listen to what my ear is hearing, which isn’t easy (at least not for me). Sometimes it takes me just a few hours to write a piece, but it often takes weeks or months, experimenting with a variety of ideas. Often I’ll try a dozen different ideas for a section of a piece that won’t feel quite right. Eventually I’ll have a “That’s It!” moment where the pieces fall into place. 

 

The naming process comes afterwards and is a real struggle for me. By nature, the ideas and feelings I attempt to express are not easily put into words — otherwise I would be better off writing a poem or a novel! So coming up with a short title that encapsulates the piece is often the hardest part for me.

 

 

 

RD: I am fascinated generally by “self-experience,” by the nature of one’s relationship with oneself. And although sometimes we make peace with ourselves, is anything more fundamental to the human condition than self-conflict? The universality of it intrigues me because although we all experience tension between different parts of ourselves, each person does so differently. This album is deeply personal to me, although there are no lyrics describing details of a heartache, a breakdown, etc. But the conflicts I explore in this album are all real, and I’ve experienced every one of them.

 

 

RD: It’s tough to imagine an easier recording process. I recorded at Woolly Mammoth Sound in Waltham, MA with Dave Westner, a great sound engineer, using one guitar and one microphone.  So we had one microphone setup close to the guitar, and blended that with the sound of the pickup inside the guitar (which itself has both a microphone and a transducer pickup). I had a specific sound in mind for the album and we worked hard to get something that was both faithful to the original acoustic guitar sound without sounding small.

 

 

RD: Being a part of the music community in Boston is really inspiring; there’s a lot of artists putting out really great work. I draw inspiration from many different genres, so I particularly enjoy the diversity of sounds in this community. And there’s tons of people that are so supportive of the community. At the end of the day it’s comforting to know that there’s so many people going through the same struggles, both as creative artists, and as musicians trying to make things work.

 

 

 

RD: That’s a really tough question. I would probably say Leo Kottke, a pioneer of fingerstyle guitar the ’60s (he still plays today). Though it might be less of a collaboration and more just educational for me!