Seeing through the Smog

Callahan becomes himself with ‘Whaleheart’

PROFILE. What makes an artist toss a name that people are familiar with? With “Woke on a Whaleheart,” Bill Callahan is releasing his first album under his own name. He had already released 12 under the name of Smog.

Callahan says he “shucked it cause it was corny.”

“It felt weird to say it,” he says, “to cab drivers and such.”

Aside from not having to mumble when he talks to cabbies, he admits, “I haven't really noticed anything different. I feel like maybe people are more excited, but I can't say for sure.”
His recent album was produced by Royal Trux’s Neil Haggerty. Callahan says Haggerty “arranged the whole record. I just wrote the songs.”

One consideration Haggerty and Callahan had was being able to perform the songs live.
“There wasn't much to the mood he created that couldn’t be replicated in a live setting,” Callahan says. “He had the idea that all the songs should be hand-played, meaning that although they may sound like there's some weird effect or some such, if you listen close and take it apart, you can find that its all hand-played. So I have the fiddler and drummer from the sessions with me.”

Even when he sings something as seemingly revealing as "It's time I gave the world my light," he is poetically evasive.

“There is experience. That is what writing is,” he says. “All writing is from experience. So any words coming from anyone are my words. But they are also not my words because you can't own any words or sentiments or ideas. Music is the casting out of these things because you cannot own them.”

Bill Callahan
Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Museum of Fine Arts
465 Huntington Ave., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Museum
$16-$20, 617-369-3306
www.mfa.org