The 6th annual MusicNOW festival gets underway just one week from today at Memorial Hall in Cincinnati and delivers another outstanding lineup. One of the most intriguing parts of this years performances is taking place on the opening night, and it features North Carolina folk band Megafaun. The band have released two excellent album on the Hometapes label since forming, but don’t expect to hear songs from those albums when you attend here in Cincinnati. Instead, the band will be performing ‘Sounds Of The South’, a commissioned piece from Duke University which was inspired by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax’s 1961 release of field recordings from the American South.

Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Sharon Van Etten are helping to round out the group of musicians who will be assisting Megafaun’s Brad Cook, Phil Cook & Joe Westerlund. In advance of the performance, we had a chance to speak with Brad Cook and you can read the transcript below.

Brad, thanks for taking some time to answer a few questions today. For those unfamiliar, tell our readers how Megafaun formed.

Brad Cook: Megafaun formed in August of 2006 although the three of us have been playing together in several bands since 1997.

ENS: I’ve really enjoyed both of your albums, and the second one seemed like a really great step forward, was the process different for Megafaun the second time around?

Cook: Totally. I think every time we make a record, the process is gonna be evolved. We were always arrangers in other bands and Megafaun was the first band in which we assumed the role of songwriters as well. So, like any new process, there is an incredible amount of growth. I hope that is always the case. We are not fans of complacency.

ENS: Lets talk about Sounds Of The South now, which you will be performing at MusicNOW on May 13th. What got you interested in the Alan Lomax recordings?

Cook: We have always been intrigued and inspired by old american folk music, especially that of the south/southeast. I think we will always identify as folk musicians because we love to interpret song. Be it our own or one that belongs to someone else. We got particularly interested in this box set because it has such a specific focus on the South. It breaks down the recordings over four generalized areas (Blues, Gospel, Traditional Folk and Children’s songs). There was a good mix of both unfamiliar voices and voices we had been absorbing for quite some time.

ENS: Sounds of the South was a very collaborative effort, how important was it for you guys to have the assistance from friends like Justin Vernon and Sharon?

Cook: I mean, very important. We are fortunate to have incredibly talented friends. We have a long history with Justin, so knowing a type of range his voice is capable of made for a no brain decision to include him. He sings two songs and it’s hard to imagine them without him, however, we have a back up plan for when his schedule isn’t conducive to make it out. Sharon is one of our biggest sources of inspiration. With this project in particular, she really trusted us to let our imagination run wild with her voice and I think I definitely shows. She and Justin are both so versatile as vocalists that it has been fun to re-contextualize their voices in this project.

ENS: MusicNOW is in it’s 6th year now and has always challenged artists to do experimental and new music for their performances. Sounds of the South seems like a perfect fit, how did you decide to perform it for the festival?

Cook: Well, Bryce emailed us a while ago because he was turned onto the project through Sharon and Justin both. We were just thrilled to have an opportunity to play this stuff again. So, obviously we responded fairly quickly with a yes.

ENS: Alan Lomax had a big effect on southern folk music, how much have his field recordings and the recordings of artists he discovered influenced Megafaun?

Cook: On one hand, I would say entirely. He exposed an incredible amount of voices that would go on to influence generations of musicians from the Rolling Stones and Beatles to today’s current indie rock climate. With that said, we have spent a considerable amount of time with people like Fred McDowell and Vera Hall. Those are places I can hear a direct influence. I think at the end of the day, he helped document a very important part of American history. We just feel as though in the tradition of folk music, those documents are merely reference points. They were never definitive versions of any of those particular songs. There the cycle of interpretation should always be important and celebrated. That is simply what we are trying to do.

Megafaun are performing Sounds Of The South Friday May 13th at the 6th annual MusicNOW festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. Tickets available here.