This interview took place during one of the worst weeks of Matthew Houck’s life as a musician. The singer, songwriter, and leader of the New York by way of Athens, Georgia indie folk/country project Phosphorescent just lost some of his most important possessions in the world. A few days before we spoke, the band’s touring van was stolen in Brooklyn, New York. Inside the vehicle was all of the band’s equipment; guitars, basses, drums, amplifiers, and effects; as well as all the T-shirts and other merchandise they had planned to sell on tour.

Even after one of the most discouraging events a band can undergo, Matthew Houck and his Phosphorescent bandmates found a way to soldier ahead. The tour is still on and they’ll be hitting the Southgate House on Wednesday, July 14th. As the band was finishing up the process of putting the pieces of their live setup back together, Matthew Houck agreed to talk with Each Note Secure about the incident, as well as everything that went into their new album, Here’s to Taking it Easy.

Each Note Secure: I don’t know how much you can talk about it, but I understand your van got stolen a couple days ago. Are you able to go on with the tour?

Matthew Houck : It did. We played our first show at home in New York, and it got stolen later that night. We were going to leave early that morning, but we woke up without a van.

The tour is going ahead as planned, we just had to move the first couple dates. People have really come out of the woodwork. A lot of friends are really being amazing and helping. We’ve huddled together enough gear that everyone can play. It’s really been incredible.

ENS: If fans want to help you out, what can they do?

MH: Just come to the shows!

ENS: Your new album, Here’s to Taking it Easy sounds a lot fuller and even happier than Pride. Did you add different musicians to the sessions?

MH: I had been on the road a lot before this record. I was working to find people to play with when I went on tour. On Pride, I played all the instruments. When it came time to go on the road, I didn’t necessarily want to only do solo shows. So I got people involved. People had been involved in the past – it’s always been a pretty open system with the lineup.

I ended up running in with these guys, who are the best musicians alive. After they helped me out with the Willie album [Phosphorescent’s Willie Nelson cover album To Willie, released last year], I realized that I really wanted them on the next record. It definitely affected the writing.

ENS: How did the Willie Nelson tribute album came about?

MH: It had been in the back of my mind for a long time that I wanted to record some of his songs, because they’ve been some of my favorite songs for a long time. They’ve been with me since I was a kid – I’ve known them my whole life. One day I came across [some of his music from the 70’s], and it all seemed to click. I realized that the best way to [pay tribute to him] was to send out a full-length tribute album. This was right after I came off the tour for Pride, and I decided that rather than dive into another record of new Phosphorescent material, I’d work on some of Willie’s songs and just put them out there.

ENS: Some of Phosphorescent’s music sounds rather eerie and haunting. Are you looking to elicit a specific emotional response from listeners with the way your voice sounds or the way your instruments sound?

MH: Secondarily. But it’s never the first thought in that process. The songs themselves lend a certain way to do them, and you honor that. If you do your job right, it will evoke certain things.

I think a sound of a record is very import. I produce and engineer these things as well. I definitely spent a whole lot of time on Here’s to Taking it Easy, longer than any of the other records, trying to get the actual sonics to sound a different way.

ENS: It sounds like you have a lot of control over the whole recording process.

MH: Yeah, as far as the sound of the record, the production, artwork, and writing; it’s still very much my baby.

ENS: Is that harder to balance on a record like Here’s to Taking it Easy, on which there are so many additional musicians, versus Pride, where it was just you?

MH: That wasn’t so much the hard part, because previous incarnations of Phosphorescent have had thirteen or fourteen members. What was harder was the process of learning how to produce – learning how to make things sound the ways you would want them to sound, just in terms of engineering and mixing tricks and record production.

It’s like the opposite side of the creative spectrum, the really technical side, like electrical engineering. I ended up getting really deep into that, trying to get the sound like these old ‘70s records, which sound phenomenal. They had this great sound going on that you don’t hear much anymore on records, the way technology has gone.

ENS: You’ve clearly had a crazy start to this tour, but are you looking forward to anything on the tour specifically from here on out?

MH: Yeah, I’m just looking forward to making it happen and getting out there. So much has happened in the last couple days. I’m just looking forward to getting back on the horse.

-interview by John Crowell @terriblesounds

***UPDATE
From Matthew……
this is insane!
the police have recovered the van
and
all of our gear is in there
and appears to be un-damaged

speechless right now,
more soon, love phos