As far as solo debuts go, Alec Ounsworth‘s Mo Beauty (Anti-) is impressive. The Philadelphia-based Clap Your Hands Say Yeah frontman travelled to New Orleans to record the album with producer Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and a host of the city’s notable musicians, including bassist George Porter, Jr. (Meters), drummer Stanton Moore and keyboardist Robert Walter (Greyboy Allstars). The result is a mature, confident, 10-song collection that Ounsworth had only hinted at being capable of with his work in Clap Your Hands. He also has a second solo album, Skin And Bones (credited to Flashy Python and available online only), that features members of the Walkmen, Dr. Dog and Man Man. While all this new music is good for Clap Your Hands fans, you get the impression that the band (now on hiatus) is no longer a priority for Ounsworth, who became a father last year and is enjoying family life at home. Ounsworth is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Ounsworth: I am writing this in and, in a way, about my dining room. The Flashy Python record is on the side table. Some years ago, I went to Miami for the first time to play a show at a hotel. The show was tied into a documentary on Andy Warhol, centered around the bigger attraction, Art Basel in Miami. I saw “new” art at Art Basel. Sometimes it is a rare thing, convincing and honest work of any sort. I don’t think it needs to be. It is out there but sometimes just not there, where you expect it. (Well, maybe it was there, but we didn’t cross paths.) Some months ago, I went to Texas to play a show and, through a friend, met an artist named Michael Merck. I was putting the finishing touches on a new record, Flashy Python’s Skin And Bones. When I saw Michael’s work, I discovered a contemporary artist who made perfect sense and nonsense to me. This is a rare thing. I asked for his help. This was an exercise in faith. I sent him lyrics and tried to convey, metaphorically, how I imagined the record. I didn’t send the record itself. He put collages together with photographs I had taken. They were true to the album. When you are occupied creatively and find others who share or understand your instincts, hold on to them like grim death.
