Interview with Fraser McGowan – From A Harbour Softly Drawn
by Killian Laher
No More Workhorse had a chat with Fraser McGowan, aka From A Harbour Softly Drawn:
No More Workhorse: How have you been?
Fraser McGowan: I’m doing well. I had a bit of an “iffy’ few years there, on a personal level, but seem to be coming out the other end of it now. I meditate a ridiculous amount nowadays, which helps a lot. So I’m feeling a bit more like myself & it definitely feels good to be releasing music again.
NMW: Tell me about this project; you previously released an EP under this name a few years ago?
FMcG: This is a relatively new project called From A Harbour Softly Drawn. It’s really a logical follow-up to my work as Caught In The Wake Forever. Possibly a bit jazzier & a bit more sampler-based. I felt like I’d taken CITWF as far as I could & was beginning to feel a bit constrained by what I’d produced in the past & what people (in my head) expected from it. I kind of wanted a clean slate. So after 10 years, I decided to start afresh with this. My first release under this name was a relatively long-form ambient track called ‘Blank Spots’, which was on a split 12” vinyl along with my friend Andrew Wild. We did that on my own imprint, 4th Ward Private Press. That was a few years ago now; I’m still very fond of that one.
NMW: Tell us about the making of the new album.
FMcG: It’s my debut album under this name. It took a while for the album to make sense, to me anyway. I’m very pleased with the way it’s turned out.
It’s been a bit of a strange journey with this album, to be honest. Back in 2018, after I had finished my last Caught In The Wake Forever album, I wanted to take a break from recording ‘proper’ projects. I had been having fun improvising at my mate’s house on Saturday afternoons & evenings. Our kids would play together outside & we’d spend the day in the loft, just messing about. We’d built up quite a library of half-finished ideas, nothing fully fleshed out, just lots of interesting sketches, loops, beats & samples. Just small moments in time, really. We were beginning to get some momentum & then the whole Covid thing happened, which stopped it in its tracks.
I think I’d mentioned to you previously that during Covid & the social distancing thing, I spent a lot of time driving to coastal towns in the middle of the night & gathering field recordings on the shores. Everywhere was so perfectly quiet. At the time, I think I had the idea of doing a purely field recording album, but it just wasn’t feeling quite right.
I had one hard drive with loads of ideas/drum loops/samples & another one full of environmental sounds. They initially felt like two completely different projects. So I set them both aside.
About a year earlier, I’d bought a sampler which I’d never properly learned to use. I thought I’d try and learn this as a new instrument. That’s when the idea came about of using these two unused projects as source material. Initially, I used no other instruments apart from the sampler, just to see how far I could get. I would say about two-thirds of the record was made this way & the only other instruments I used were my friend Colin’s Mellotron (that had been left in my house from pre-COVID times) & my classical guitar. That’s why the album’s called Shepherds. I was gently guided by things outside myself. I wasn’t really concerned with musically writing anything in a standard way. It was a very freeing process & I ended up getting deeply lost in a world of other people’s moments.
NMW: Are you working with anyone else or is it completely solo?
FMcG: On the construction of the album, it was very much planned as a solo project from the moment the idea took place. I’m not massively against collaborating. I’m just a lot more comfortable on my own, in my small studio at home, making happy accidents with machines. I wouldn’t rule it out in the future; in fact, I would really like to work with a saxophone player at one point; we shall see.
Now I always work with my good friend Darren Galloway on the final production on any of my albums. When I’ve finished recording & producing & finally driven myself a bit crazy with it all, I’ll give him a call. Usually he comes over for an afternoon or two & gives everything his magic touch. It’s always good to get a fresh set of ears on things & he brings a sense of depth & balance to the overall recordings that I just wouldn’t be able to get myself.
NMW: Did it take long to put together?
NMW: It did, yeah; the whole album took a ridiculously long time to put together. Eight years. Not that I was working on it every day. I’d have spells where I would spend weeks on a part & then leave it for months. But I was always thinking about it. It was kind of like a game of Tetris in my head. How could I get all these pieces to fit together?
NMW: Are you working with anyone else outside of From A Harbour?
FMcG: I don’t have any other musical projects on the go just now; however, I did start mastering albums again earlier this year, after a long hiatus. So far I’ve been working on albums by Madder Rose, The Declining Winter & Nonconnah. It’s been a lot of fun & I’ve kind of rediscovered the love for it that I initially had when I first started studying mastering.
NMW: What’s next in the works for you?
FMcG: I’m actually pretty far into recording on the follow-up album to Shepherds already. This one has been a lot easier in some ways to make & seems to have flowed more freely. So hopefully I will have another album done at some point later next year. Apart from that, I’m just trying to live at a bit of a slower pace, live a bit more mindfully & just be more present day to day. If I can concentrate on that & keep myself well, I’m sure some nice opportunities will come along.
