Neon Pilgrim (Harry Williams) has dropped Invisible Things with perfect seasonal timing, in the summer, with months forever linked to childhood, nostalgia, and memories that feel like watching the colours of a soap slick through bubbles before they burst. This matched with the all-embracing sound similar to The National and Interpol, outstretched like time, leaving listeners at the foot of their own imagination and holding on to each note like tokens of the past.
Harry Williams is known for writing incredible television with shows like Fleabag and The Missing, but he has been building his own musical world behind the scenes. He chatted with IINAG about Invisible Things, released July 10th.
Kendra Cooper: You have a creative history of building worlds and telling stories; tell me what kind of world have you built on this album?
Harry Williams: It is a very different one. I’m used to making T.V. shows and building characters, and narratives, and following a story. I had studied that for many years, so this is really working a different muscle because it is kind of, well, almost entirely led by emotions, and capturing a feeling or a sense of nostalgia. Even just a sense of emotion that you’re hoping to connect with people. So yeah, there are often bits of story in there because I can’t help myself sometimes. But yeah, it is a very different kind of story; maybe telling stories and writing songs is kind of the same beast in a way of expressing yourself when you do that through a character and through a notion, or a thought, or an attitude about life. That does sort of apply to music as well.
KC: What is your creative process like?
HW: For some, writing is kind of gathering loads of material, voice notes and bits of lyrics. It is very different. Sometimes a song will come out in its entirety pretty much in ten minutes. Or it comes out over many years, like “oh now I have a chorus for that bit”. You’re either chipping away like a sculpture, or it almost arrives ready-made.
KC: Do you have a favourite song on the album? And why?
HW: Yeah, I think pretty much my favourite song is Small Black Suit just because of the simplicity, and it is about something sad, but it is weirdly hopeful and positive. There are loads of layers to it, and this sad-hopefulness that I love. It always does something to me.
KC: Your album, Invisible Things, highlights how some of the most important things to humans aren’t visible. What is it like to give these feelings an almost tangible life in your songwriting?
HW: Whether I’ve achieved that or not, I don’t know. I’m always fascinated when I hear a word from another language for a thing you can never pin down. Like esprit d’escalier in France about that feeling of something you should have said while you’re leaving the gathering down the stairs. They’re always cropping up in life, and I’ve been trying to seek those things. It is hard to explain what they are; they’re often nostalgic sensations that can be fleeting, and you can’t put your finger on them. I think I have managed to achieve some form of that. I definitely feel cathartic. I feel like I’ve gotten something off my chest in a very selfish way. But yeah, I hope people can relate to some of those things.
KC: You have a lot of really great collaborators on the album. What was it like to work with them?
HW: Just amazing because, you know, I’ve assembled most of the chaps myself. We have Jason McGerr on the drums, and I’m a huge Death Cab for Cutie fan. Every track would come in, and it was such a joy because he would put a different spin on it, turning it into something else, and it evolved massively. And every day with Damon Minchella on the bass. The bass is one of those instruments where people think you just need to hit the root note and it is an easy thing, but it is such a skill and such an art. Some of the parts he came up with were just so inventive, and he sort of flipped the script a few times from what I thought the song was. And obviously Ed Harcourt is an amazing musician. He is a wonderful guy and this human Swiss Army knife. Dom (Morley), who produced it, is just always leading the charge. I have a tendency to throw everything at the demos, and he is stricter about what we have and don’t have, and less is more. It was just a joy to have this done at the hands of masters.
KC: If you were able to have one more dream collaborator, who would it be?
HW: I really love Explosions in the Sky and the guitar being kind of ethereal with the reverb and delay. I would love to bring that element onto some of the tracks.
KC: Tell me your inspiration behind the album cover?
HW: That sort of came from one of the lyrics in Peggy. I think it was just something that felt invisible to a kid, and it felt thematically on point. We also had a giant seven-foot clown, and we had a bunch of monsters and things that children would draw. Trying to tap into that sense of wonder and have that incongruous kind of thing in nature where it shouldn’t be.
KC: It turned out beautiful. What is next for you?
HW: Starting to write a new album and work on some covers. I’m finally going back into the studio today.
