Arkansas natives Listener have spent the 2010s carving their particular niche of so-called “talk music,” in which prolix spoken word is pitted against soundscapes ranging from bustling indie-rock to pensive ambience.
It’s hard to believe Listener started as a solo project back in 2002, with no real connection to its current form. A left-of-centre hip-hop project for one Dan Smith, the aspiring MC had a unique perspective on the genre that would eventually blossom into 2003’s Whispermoon LP.
“In the early days, I was just trying to make art that was interesting to me,” Smith says. “That’s still more or less the same now, even though it’s quite different musically. In those days, I was coming out of high school and into my college years. I wanted to make hip hop with a bit of an indie side to it – not avant-garde, but different enough from what was going on in hip hop at the time. I was happy to make that music, but the time came for me to move on from it and see what would happen if I tried writing and creating in different ways.”
Over time, Listener would expand its ranks to include a full band and expand its collective horizons to deeper, more experimental sounds. Around 2013, Smith began playing in addition to his frontman duties. Having served primarily as a standalone vocalist up to that point, Smith knew it would be a challenge to take on a multi-tasking role within the project. “It was a bit tough when I first changed over,” he admits.
“I don’t think playing guitar or playing bass quite comes naturally to me. Growing up, I was always playing horns in the school jazz band, playing concert music and that sort of thing. Getting up there now and singing, playing bass and occasionally playing horn as well is a weird mix. If it was just me up there, it would sound terrible. Thankfully, I’m surrounded by a group of very talented guys – every night, we get to go up there and make noise together.”
Said noise-making most recently culminated in Being Empty: Being Filled, the eighth Listener album, which hit shelves back in February. Rather than a scattershot look at the world around Smith and co., the album instead focuses in on the world of inventions. “When you make something or put something out into the world, you don’t exactly know how it will go or where it will take you,” explains Smith.
“You don’t know how it will change you or how it will affect other people. It could be anything – making art, having children, the work you do, the things you say. I was looking at the idea of invention from that perspective, but on a larger scale as well. There’s a song about Levi Strauss – talking about work clothes, how that affected the way we dress. I was researching different inventions, the people that made them and the ripples that they made in the world.”
When queried about the inspiration to go down this particular rabbit hole, Smith simply lays down the facts: “I like a challenge,” he says, “and I like a good concept record. I wanted to share these stories, especially considering so many of these inventors would put their entire lives into the things that they made. It was their whole being – this beautiful, tragic thing. I saw myself in that – putting things out into the world has consumed my whole life in its own way. It’s been just as much of a joy as it has been a job.”
For now, this job brings Listener to Australia for the very first time. Although the band have previously played in New Zealand, the land Down Under has remained elusive. “I’m sorry about that,” laughs Smith. “There’s been a few offers on the table in the past, but we had to say no due to one thing or another – we were either between album cycles or off doing other projects, things like that. When this one came up, we all agreed that we wanted to make it work. We’re all very excited to be coming down.”
