It might seem unusual, at first: British folk/pop auteur Sean O’Hagan padding Here Come The Rattling Trees—his latest outing as bandleader of the High Llamas—with several breezy musical snippets that work as either introductions or codas to delicate, fully realized songs. But in fact, the project first coalesced as a narrative the singer scripted about his South London neighborhood of Peckham, where a local working-class recreation center was being threatened by snooty gentrification. But it quickly morphed into a full-scale production that he staged at a Covent Garden theater—hence the inclusion of rising and descending motifs. O’Hagan will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new High Llamas feature.
O’Hagan: When I first started on guitar as a young lad in secondary school, I was lucky enough to have access to a nylon-string guitar that the school had provided. I was thrilled with it and leaned the basics but soon graduated to a steel-string acoustic. “Much better,” I thought. Slimmer neck, brighter sound, more snappy, less soppy. The strings were settled on the neck and not an inch and a half above as on the old classical. Then of course I bought a cheap SG copy electric and so on and so on.
About 20 years ago, I was paying a lot of attention to the rhythm tracks on Italian and French soundtracks and realised that the soft, almost unacknowledged bed of harmony, the chords would in variably be a softly strummed or picked nylon string. I bought a Flamenco guitar, nylon string and cedar top. It’s become my instrument of choice ever since. The way I approach songwriting on guitar has been driven by this beautiful instrument. When ever I pick up a steel-string six string, I never get the same buzz. It just leaves me uninspired. I feel as though I can not make an original sound on it. There is too much history. The narrative of modern music is wrapped up in the sound of steel strings. The nylon-string guitar is almost an orchestral instrument. Arrangements can be fully realised and heard. One guitar, one player.
Baden Powell, the magnificent Brazilian writer and guitar player, has been a preoccupation of mine for some time. My tip for the uninitiated would be to check out Os Afrosambas from 1966. This record may encourage a few of you to take up with the nylon rig as I did and find a friend for life.
