Bryan Porter Hinkley photo from publicity emails
Bryan Porter Hinkley’s 99 Shots Trusts In Change
Guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, and owner of Boston-based Gratitude Sound, Bryan Porter Hinkley, released his first full-length solo LP, 99 Shots, in May. Following on from 2020’s EP, We Live Through It, the LP was recorded at Doom Saloon in Maryland and co-produced by Hinkley and Jean-Paul Gaster (Clutch). Hinkley’s solo work spans a wide range of sound from jazz to folky elements, but in his background, he was a founding member of the punk bands Tree and Never Got Caught and a touring member of Clutch, among others, and contributed to records by folks like Dropkick Murphys and more. He brings all of that musical knowledge to his personal writing and collaborations.
For 99 Shots, Hinkley decided to move away from a purely solo approach when it came to finishing and recording songs. Aware of his tendency to create multiple versions of songs that made choices difficult, he stripped the songs down and let his collaborators bring in ideas, creating a great deal of variety as well as cohesion for 99 Shots. I spoke with Bryan Porter Hinkley about sonic choices, recording approaches, and some of the thematic unity on the album, which takes in a backward glance while trusting time and change to bring positive outcomes in life.
Americana Highways: I understand that, since you’re a producer and have a studio, you can easily create solo albums by yourself, but this time around, you chose to be more collaborative and record somewhat live with friends.
Bryan Porter Hinkley: I just had this sort of feeling of missing out. I wouldn’t say it was like FOMO, but a feeling that by doing everything myself, I might be losing perspective that comes with collaboration and introducing other musicians into the songs. It’s just something that I wanted to do. I feel like it came out better than I expected. I was really happy with the end result. The guys that did it are all very knowledgeable about music, not just in being great players, but in terms of musical theory, and in knowing how to structure a song in different ways. I’m a guitar player, and I sing. I guess I’m good at music theory, but it’s always good to have help.
AH: A lot of people seem to go through different eras where it’s time to change things up. I heard that you had written the songs to a certain extent, but in the studio, you allowed the other guys to give feedback and ideas.
BPH: Yes. For a lot of these songs, I had actually already created multiple finished versions of them that sounded different from each other. I think that’s partly what inspired me to want to go and record them all at the same time. With these different versions, I felt some self-doubt as a musician. I knew that I liked the songs, but I also like the idea of putting out a record where you press “play” and the whole record sounds like what you want it to sound like.
AH: So, by playing together during a limited time, you’re really increasing the likelihood that the songs would fit together?
BPH: Yes. I had all these versions, so I said, “Let me just sit down with my acoustic guitar and press “record” on my iPhone.” I would just play the songs on my guitar, and really simplify them down to the basic chord progressions and vocals. Then I sent them to Jean-Paul, and said, “Do you want to work on these songs with me?” All the other guys had the songs in advance and had gotten their heads around the basic melodic and harmonic structure of the songs, but they turned into a new thing.
When I got down there, it felt like everyone was there to work, make something, and create. The vibe was good. I was close friends with the guys and it felt, to me, like how, ideally, a record should be made. It reminded me of what I imagine the old days of making an album must have been like. There wasn’t a whole bunch of second-guessing or reworking. We tweaked a few things, but overall it came very spontaneously and organically.
AH: Did you talk about the kind of sound that you were envisioning for the album, or was it just pretty obvious?
BPH: I sent them a playlist that I had made of songs that I like. There were a few songs by the band Traffic, a few songs by the band War. There was a Bad Company song. It was mostly 70s music. What we realized is that there happened to be keyboards on almost all of the songs, so Jean-Paul suggested we add a keyboard player. I think my description was something like “finger-tight grooves” and I wanted a junkyard, kitchen-percussion sound. I don’t know if we did as much of that, but I wanted that home-baked percussion sound. I don’t think the music that we made sounds like any of the songs on the playlist, but it was a vibe that they got.
AH: This is making me feel a lot better about my ear, since I totally picked up on a 70s vibe, particularly on the guitar, and was even thinking of Traffic. Even though I don’t think you were chasing a classic sound, I think it’s covert here, more of a vibe, as you said.
BPH: I tried not to have too much of a preconceived idea of what it was going to sound like. My assumption was actually that it was going to be more acoustic-based than electric guitar. I’ve always played electric guitar until about four years ago. I think part of the reason that I started playing acoustic stuff is that I wanted to do something different. I wanted to create music that was heavy, or had energy, without relying on distortion or electric sounds. I think a lot of times, I aim for one thing, and land somewhere else. I feel like once things get started, they take on a life of their own, and I try not to restrict things. I think being open to ideas is where the magic tends to happen.
There was also some funk on that playlist, too, and some of the jazzier guitar chords on the album is stuff that I’ve been practicing and trying to learn more. There’s one song, “The Idiot” where there was a version of it that it was in more of an electronic style, then when we recorded it, it had more of a Latin Jazz section to it that I was really happy with. I never imagined that I’d be playing music like that, so that was exciting.
AH: Does having a limited period to record live help you make decisions about sound possibilities?
BPH: I could have said, “I’ll finish some stuff up when I get back up to Boston. I’ll redo some guitars and finish up some vocals.” But instead, I think we all decided, “Let’s finish it now. So when we leave, we’ve got a finished record.” By having some other people there to say, “Yes, this is good,” it brings some reassurance. To have others to validate my thoughts is a useful tool, or to disagree, since I like some weird stuff.
AH: It’s interesting that, as a producer yourself, you co-produced it with Jean-Paul. Is that helpful for an outside perspective?
BPH: I almost always get someone to help mix or engineer my own stuff. There are some songs that I’ve put out by myself, but I don’t think they are better or worse. There’s another studio in the building that I’m in called Mad Oak, and I often walk down and talk to the engineer there about different recording stuff.
I’ll ask, “How did Prince do all that by himself?” He’ll say, “He didn’t do all that by himself. He may have played the instruments, but he wasn’t by himself. He had people working in the studio with him.” I sometimes need to remember that it’s okay to ask for help. [Laughs] It’s a beneficial tool to have people who are willing to do.
I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but these days, the financial value of music has dropped so low that to record a record in a studio and hire people to play the music with you, it’s almost impossible to ever recoup the money that was spent through selling music. You can use it as a promotional tool. It’s a little bit sad, I think, that this is forcing people to make music alone and do it by themselves.
AH: Definitely. It’s breaking down the large band format, too, because having four or five people is becoming impractical.
BPH: There are still tons of bands, but I think in terms of the ease of writing and recording alone, combined with the lack of opportunity to make money doing it leads to the question: How much am I willing to spend, when I could do it myself?
AH: Several of the songs on 99 Shots seem to fit together in terms of perspective, in thinking about time passing, and reflecting on past relationships. There’s a feeling almost of survivor’s guilt, since the speaker is still “here” on their path in life but is wondering about others they knew along the way. It’s a very human thing.
BPH: That’s definitely in there. I got sober from drugs and alcohol in 2011, and before that, I had some periods of abstinence. But I had a pretty crazy lifestyle for a while. In 2011, I really made a mental shift, and for me, it was a real savior. I don’t think I’d still be alive if I didn’t make that change, and I started to see the world in a different way. I began to see opportunity out there, rather than feeling that the world was against me. I think you can choose to look at the bad, or you can choose to look at the good when they are both in front of you. I made a choice to look at the good.
When you mention “survivor’s guilt,” I think there is some of that in the lyrics, because there’s some nostalgia for the life that I had before and what’s going on with the people I used to spend time with. I’m happy that I’m still here, but it does feel almost like I’m a different person sometimes. Sometimes I reach back into that and pull inspiration for lyrical content from that previous life. I like happy stuff, and I love feeling good myself, but it’s not always the best content for songs. [Laughs]
https://youtube.com/watch?v=qLJq8yDxLpY%3Fsi%3DRroAHEFGcJmdjlqO
AH: One of the songs that combines happier, more upbeat stuff, and heavier ideas, is “Bird.” That’s a solid combination of those traits.
BPH: I think I spent a while working with that one. It was originally a jazz piano piece I had been working with. Then it turned into a slow, durge-y, electronic song. Then it landed there. The refrain, I think, is definitely a happier sound. I wanted to project the idea of change or transformation. The idea behind that is that people leave, people die, relationships end, change happens, and it may not feel good, but it’s part of life, and sometimes it’s for the better. Pain promotes growth. It’s about letting go, so the song is a kind of bitter-sweet goodbye.
AH: It’s hard to prevent memories coming back to us. Like in the song “Waitress” on the album, you see things that remind you of the past. But you can somewhat change your response to those memories, so that may be a part of that growth. In the song, “Won’t Mean a Thing,” on the album, that truth feels like a positive thing, because time will change how you feel about an event that happened to you.
BPH: Yes, that’s exactly it for “Won’t Mean a Thing.” It’s interesting for me to see the differences between the songs. “Waitress” was originally about seeing someone who reminded me of my daughter. Then it developed and changed from there. “Won’t Mean a Thing” was, in my head, dedicated to my daughter to say, “Don’t get too worried about things. Give it time.” But by the time these songs were finished, they didn’t exactly mean the same things. I like the idea that people get so worked up, and things seem so important in the moment, but in time, you’re not even going to remember that. If you take a step back, you realize that it’s not that big of a deal.
AH: The perfect, awful example of that is the internet, where everyone feels their immediate argument, often with a stranger, is earth-shattering.
BPH: The comment sections. It’s very instantaneous. Also, driving in traffic can create the same thing. You get this physical feeling of, “How can that person do that?” But in the long run, I don’t think about the guy who cut me off in traffic three weeks ago. It doesn’t matter.
Thanks so much for the conversation, Bryan Porter Hinkley. Find more detailed info here on his website: https://www.bryanporterhinkley.com/ or here on his studio website: https://www.gratitudesound.com/
