{"id":25796,"date":"2021-01-24T13:26:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T18:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=25796"},"modified":"2021-01-24T13:26:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T18:26:49","slug":"interview-park-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2021\/01\/24\/interview-park-national\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Park National"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reed Romanko<\/em><\/p>\n

Liam Fagan is a Chicago-native attending Berklee College of Music who releases music under Park National<\/a>. WTBU DJ and writer Reed Romanko chatted with Fagan about his new album The Big Glad<\/em><\/a> and being a college student.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reed Romanko:<\/strong> The Big Glad<\/em> was definitely a pretty big success. What\u2019s your favorite track on the album, and why?<\/p>\n

Liam Fagan: <\/strong>My personal favorite track is probably \u201cThe Key.\u201d I\u2019ve thought about it a lot, it\u2019s either that one or \u201cFaking My Own Death.\u201d \u201cThe Key\u201d is a kind of a more underrated song, it\u2019s more of like a B-side, \u201cFaking My Own Death\u201d is definitely one of my more popular ones. I think I just worked on those ones a lot in terms of melody and arrangement and flushing them out a lot. When I look back on those songs, I\u2019m a little more proud of how I structured them and my dynamic change. With \u201cFaking My Own Death,\u201d I have a lot of different layers; I have acoustic, some gang vocals, it\u2019s more interesting in terms of general arrangement and the flow of the song dynamically. I really like those ones, those were more thoughtfully written. I have some that are more super high energy, just in your face, fast punk riffs the whole time. That\u2019s the purpose of that, then I have some that are a little more thought out and worked through.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR: <\/strong>I believe in December, you promised to give away your remaining merch if The Big Glad<\/em> got to 200,000, and it did! Now, it\u2019s close to 300,000 streams I\u2019m pretty sure. I\u2019ve never heard of any band doing a giveaway of that magnitude like that, what inspired that?<\/p>\n

LF: <\/strong>For the entirety that this project has been a thing, my only way to sort of grow, keep people engaged, and communicate with people is through the internet. I have to give people incentive to keep doing that. Usually, you go to a show, and you see this band, and you\u2019re like \u201cOh that band is so sick, I\u2019m going to check them out! I\u2019m going to support them; I\u2019m going to buy their merch or whatever.\u201d Right now, it\u2019s harder to keep people engaged because you have to give them something on this digital medium that\u2019s worth checking out or following through with. At first I was like, \u201cOh, my album\u2019s maybe gonna hit 200,000 before the end of the year. Maybe I\u2019m on track to hit that.\u201d Then I had a really limited amount of merch left, maybe four or five T-shirts. I was like \u201cOh, if I really want to get my album to this imaginary stream number, if I\u2019m gonna do this little thing, I\u2019ll give away some free merch. It\u2019s not like I have a ton left, it\u2019s not like it\u2019d be a huge financial dent if I gave away three or four shirts, so\u2026\u201d It was just a fun little deal I thought I would do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR:<\/strong> Certainly very fun to see that little acceleration! And just in regards to the album itself, your sister created the album art, right?<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> Yeah, she does graphic design, she\u2019s really good at using Illustrator and Photoshop and stuff. I had the idea for the layout, the picture with the bar over my eyes and a title and stuff. I had the idea for that, but I have no skill or literacy with photo editing programs. I pretty much just made it in PicCollage or some weird online thing. I was like \u201chere\u2019s the idea that I have,\u201d and then I asked her about it, \u201cDo you have any suggestions I could do with this, or can we flesh this out together with an actual software? Because I don\u2019t know how to use Illustrator or Photoshop or whatever.\u201d I guess the layout of everything was my idea, but she helped me create it and critique it and figure out all the measurements of shapes. It\u2019s a pretty a simple thing overall, it wasn\u2019t like I had any ideas about what I wanted it to represent. I just had this cool photo and I was like \u201cI\u2019m going to put this in, and put the title over it because it\u2019s going to look cool or whatever,\u201d and I look how it looks; the bar goes over my eyes. It wasn\u2019t like, \u201cI\u2019m going to do this specific photo and I\u2019m going to lay out the words in this specific direction to communicate a certain idea.\u201d I definitely could have done that, but I wanted it to be like a fun album cover.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR:<\/strong> As you\u2019re continuing to work on new stuff, write new songs, what are you taking away from The Big Glad<\/em>?<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> I think what I took away from that is that I have the ability to write a bunch of songs and record them myself. It seems super daunting right now, especially since I have an album out, I have all this time ahead of me. I don\u2019t know when shows are going to come back, I don\u2019t know what the step is because there is no realistic time frame for when I\u2019m going to be able to do things. Right now I have no logistical reason to release an album because I put one out six or seven months ago. Now, I\u2019m sort of taking my time with it, and I\u2019m realizing that I\u2019m having confidence in my ability to do another album and do that whole process again. I know that I was able to do it once, and once I got into that flow state of working on it for several hours a day, I was able to do something. I think I started writing the album in May, mid-May, and I had the album fully completed by mid-June. It\u2019s still kind of a marvel to me at this point that I was able to do that entire project within the span of a little over a month. I remember having all these things laid out, I had a big spreadsheet on a white board above my desk that had every song and every instrument. Every day I would try to check off one or two boxes, and I was in such a productive state. It\u2019s kind of scary because I haven\u2019t been able to get into that state again since then. I know it\u2019s going to happen again at some point, but for now I\u2019m not trying to force it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR:<\/strong> That\u2019s crazy, a two month turn around for that is absolutely nuts\u2026<\/p>\n

LF: <\/strong>I wrote a song in March, and then I kind of banked on it for a while. I was like \u201ccool, people really like this, I\u2019m just gonna chill,\u201d and May came around and I had one song out and it had been three months since a put out any music. I was like \u201cOh sh*t, if I\u2019m going to do this album, I gotta do it. This took off in a way that I wasn\u2019t expecting it to and I have to do this thing I set out to do.\u201d That was always the goal, to do an album \u2013I didn\u2019t know if it would be an album or EP or whatever\u2013 from the moment I put any music, I was like, \u201cI\u2019m gonna do a body of work, I\u2019m going to an album.\u201d I slept on it for a while, and I think the bad habit that I developed from that was putting out music and being like \u201cI can just chill and not do anything for three months.\u201d Then, that state of productivity and creation and writing just slows down to the point where it\u2019s impossible to do anything. If I just complete this body of work, I\u2019m just gonna sit there and chill and let people enjoy it and leave comments and give me validation on the internet for three months. It\u2019s definitely a weird thing to think about. \u201cHey, how often should I release music? Why should I release music if I can\u2019t play shows on it? What\u2019s the point of all this?\u201d It\u2019s been difficult, but I really enjoyed the process of making an album even though it was kind of rushed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR: <\/strong>Going from Chicago to Boston, you\u2019re a first year student at Berklee. What are you studying?<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> I\u2019m hoping to study music production. I kind of decided that rather recently, but I decided that what I want to accomplish hear is not so much trying to make a bunch of connections and meet a ton of people, but I\u2019m more trying to get as good as possible at making my own music, making records and stuff. That\u2019s really what I want to do, whether that\u2019s as a producer or as a recording artist, I want to spend time in a studio making music. I think, for me, songwriting has always been more of a personal thing that I can\u2019t really gain a lot of insight in terms of an academic setting. I\u2019ve decided that I won\u2019t waste my time trying to get really good at song writing from taking a lot of classes about it. All of my favorite song writers probably didn\u2019t go to music school, so I\u2019m just trying to get really good at producing. That\u2019s always been an interest of mine that I haven\u2019t really been able to work on. I think when it comes to listening to music, I really know what I like, and I know really know what stands out to me with certain recordings, but I\u2019ve just never known how to reproduce that in my own work. I\u2019m trying to get more literate in that so anything that I do release in the future becomes a little bit more legitimate instead of \u201cI have no production experience and I\u2019m just going to figure it out and make it in my bedroom.\u201d Even though that\u2019s definitely the vibe I\u2019m going for, I still want to have a legitimate, good sounding recording.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR:<\/strong> Have you found being a student at a college of music has impacted your creative process at all, or are you still early in the education? What\u2019s the vibe there?<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> I mean it\u2019s definitely a little bit early, but looking at all these projects that people around me are making, I\u2019m trying to find a balance between \u201cI\u2019m intimidated by the creativity and productivity of other people and I\u2019m really gonna step up my game in order to match their pace,\u201d but I\u2019m also kind of thinking \u201cthey\u2019re going to do their thing and I\u2019m going to do my thing. I need to just stick to what I\u2019m doing instead of always trying to be in a productive state to keep up with other people.\u201d That\u2019s been a damaging mindset to me. When I see other artists making all this stuff during quarantine, and I\u2019m just like \u201cI wish I could be producing at that speed\u201d because I want to be doing this in the same that everyone else is doing it. I need to found out what works for me and what I\u2019m going to be happy doing. That\u2019s really the goal. I\u2019m not trying to be the biggest band in the world; I just want to enjoy what I\u2019m doing. I just need to find the best way to enjoy that, I don\u2019t want to feel so pressured by the people around me to produce music at a certain speed. I just gotta do what works for me, everyone does their music at a different speed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s definitely a double-edged sword. It can be really motivating to be around all these inspired individuals, but also daunting. A bit off that, you\u2019re now in Boston out of Chicago, what excites you about becoming immersed in the Boston music scene?<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> I\u2019ve always really looked up to east coast bands, a lot of my favorite bands are based in this general location. I always admired the vibe of being in Boston. A lot of cool record labels are, like Run for Cover is in Boston, Counterintuitive is in Boston, lots of really great bands and labels are based here. Not that being here will instantly make me a part of that community, but it definitely helps me feel a certain way, since I\u2019m in a different. Not that Chicago is any less, because Chicago is a great place with a ton of great bands, the Midwest in general too, but I\u2019ve always looked up to the east coast scene in general. I\u2019m hoping to become more acquainted with that in the future. Even though I\u2019m from Chicago and that\u2019s where I got my start, I still feel like I\u2019m a band on the Internet; I don\u2019t feel like I belong to any one city. Once shows come back, I\u2019m hoping to establish my roots in a city rather than \u201cI\u2019m just gonna put all my stuff on the internet and get a bunch listeners and fans from all over the country.\u201d I wanted to be more rooted in one place. In order for that to happen, I have to have in person events, so it\u2019s just a matter of time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR: <\/strong>Of course! One of my favorite things about this scene, well this applies to every scene, but how the scene interacts and works with one another. So, if you could make a split with any currently active band, who would you work with?<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> Any currently active band\u2026<\/p>\n

RR: <\/strong>Yeah, no modern baseball!<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> That would be cool, insane, but I don\u2019t know if that would ever happen because they\u2019re probably not gonna come back either\u2026 It depends on the quality of the music and the quality of the hangs. Some of my best friends are Frat Mouse<\/a>, they\u2019re probably my biggest friend band. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll make something together at some point. In terms of bands who I\u2019m not friends with but I love their music, I love Oso Oso a lot, that\u2019d be sick. There\u2019re tons of bands I\u2019m really digging at the moment, so I\u2019m not really sure. Especially once I start playing shows, I really want to meet cool bands. Right now I\u2019m really only meeting people through Twitter and Instagram, so it\u2019s hard to make any real connections with people, and I can\u2019t expect to be a more well-known individual in the music scene if I\u2019m not friends with any people from an in-person standpoint. I definitely want to be more connected through real experiences rather than \u201cOh, we follow each other on Twitter, we\u2019re friends now.\u201d I\u2019m just hoping for shows to come back as soon as possible, that\u2019s going to be when I start really being a band, when I can do that in the normal world. Obviously, I\u2019m willing to wait as long as it takes for safety circumstances, but that\u2019s going to be a new era for most bands, when that comes back. It\u2019s been too fricking long.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR: <\/strong>Agreed on that front. Big pivot outside of everything here, I know you have a tattoo of the Hotelier\u2019s Goodness<\/em> on your arm. Is there anything upcoming on the tattoo front?<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> Not sure, I definitely want to get more at some point. I haven\u2019t really decided if I\u2019m going to get a full sleeve or just a couple little ones on my arm. Also, I haven\u2019t decided if I\u2019m going to do mostly band ones or mostly different ones. All I know right now is I want more, and I\u2019ll probably get several more, but I haven\u2019t made any concrete decisions in my head. I know that I really like the idea of tattoos, and it\u2019s different for everybody. Some people really want tattoos to have a ton of meaning to them, but some of them just look cool! This one has a fair amount of meaning to me, but, also at its most basic level, it\u2019s an album that I really like. It\u2019s not like \u201cI live by this value,\u201d or \u201cthis is a huge part of my life,\u201d it\u2019s just a band that I really like and an album I really like. It\u2019s a cool word too, so why not put it on my arm? It\u2019s kinda fun!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RR:<\/strong> Last thing, do you have any final thoughts or parting words to your fans?<\/p>\n

LF:<\/strong> Hang in there! It\u2019s a really difficult time for music right now. I don\u2019t want to be that person who doesn\u2019t want to adjust to changing times and stuff, but I don\u2019t think music was ever meant to be this way. It was never meant to be this thing we all talk about on the internet. I\u2019ve always found my greatest musical experiences to be at shows and at in person events. That\u2019s always the way this art form was meant to be. Don\u2019t expect all your favorite artists to be doing exactly what you want them to do right now. This is a difficult time for everybody, and not just logistically or medically. In terms of making music, it\u2019s been a huge creative slump, and it\u2019s had a huge effect on my mental health. The only note that I would say is, this is going to end at some point. Until then, try to enjoy yourself, don\u2019t expect so much from yourself and other people, live your life, be safe, and wear a mask so we can actually do this soon. That\u2019s my biggest thing, please don\u2019t go to any parties or anything, don\u2019t be stupid, have respect for other people, that\u2019s pretty much it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Romanko Liam Fagan is a Chicago-native attending Berklee College of Music who releases music under Park National. WTBU DJ and writer Reed Romanko chatted with Fagan about his new album The Big Glad and being a college student.   Reed Romanko: The Big Glad was definitely a pretty big success. What\u2019s your favorite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17168,"featured_media":25798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[29,1746,783],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25799,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25796\/revisions\/25799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}