“Feet so swollen, stolen glances at you // And my girlfriend’s gonna be home soon // She’ll probably wanna fight my ass // She’ll probably fight yours too”
So sings Spencer Kilpatrick on “Self Sabotage”, one of ten songs from his new Sitting recording. Recorded in his home kitchen in Utah, Kilpatrick, who might be known for his numerous past bands and musical projects in the Reno area, chose to take songs old and new and sit down solo with only an acoustic guitar for this recording. The songs hold a sometimes introspective or self-deprecating candle to scenes from Kilpatrick’s life.
Kilpatrick described the writing process behind these songs this way:
“When I lived on Sierra St. in Reno, there was this cup in the bathroom. In the mornings, you’d tip the cup on its side and place the speaker of your phone in it to slightly amplify some music over the sound of the shower. The problem was if it was too loud you’d wake up your roommates, so finding the right volume and the right songs was kind of a delicate process. If you messed it up you either bothered your friends or you had to get ready without being able to hear the music. I was pretty hungover most mornings and the last thing I wanted was to be alone with my thoughts.
I often went with something quiet and stripped down; Hiss Golden Messenger’s “Bad Debt”, Townes Van Zandt’s self-titled, or Krystle Warren “Three The Hard Way”. Those were all really good over the sound of the water and they set me straight before I went to substitute teach or make sandwiches or whatever job I was limping through at the time.”
Songs like “You Feel Like Nevada To Me” capture an affection for casino lights and the mysterious concept of a ‘last call’ in his muse. While in others he laments the absence of a partner who always said she didn’t like cocaine, but liked the way it smells. The bleary Reno nights and desert imagery color most of these songs, along with a canny sense of storytelling where Kilpatrick sings of contentious and fleeting scenarios he finds himself party to in a loosely first person perspective.
Upbeat and raspy, both in perspective and sound, we listened to Sitting during a solo road trip across northern Nevada, where the strummed songs blended in perfectly with the brown landscape fading from beyond the car windows.
Per Kilpatrick, “The mood was intentionally lonely and small and thin. It’s just a microphone capturing me playing songs in my kitchen, most of which I’m playing more quietly than normal.”
Sitting by Spencer Kilpatrick is available on all of the streaming platforms, or visit his Bandcamp page where songs can be streamed or purchased.
