Five years of experimentation and ambient creation in the Crow’s Nest studio

Transmission 151: Interview with Luther Dickinson

Gravel Springs is a collaborative project by guitarist Luther Dickinson and producer David Katznelson. Over five years, the duo recorded Crow’s Nest Meditations in an octagonal room perched above the hills of San Anselmo, California. Known as the “Crow’s Nest,” this space became a hub for their experiments in ambient music.

Title: Crow's Nest Meditations
Artist: Gravel Springs
Release Date: 2024-10-25
Genres: Ambient, Drone, Electronica, Experimental Music, Psych-folk, Psychedelic Rock
Label: Bird’s Nest Records
Description: Interview with Luther Dickinson on Gravel Springs’ Crow's Nest Meditations, discussing the album’s five-year journey and ambient influences.

In Crow’s Nest Meditations, the pair combined southern slide guitar with electronic manipulations and drones. Early sessions, using basic equipment like practice amps and a 4-track recorder, evolved into more refined DIY productions, incorporating instruments such as cello and hurdy-gurdy. The project includes contributions from family members and archival material from Jim Dickinson. In October 2024, Gravel Springs released their latest album, Crow’s Nest Meditations, on Single Lock Records.

What inspired the shift towards ambient music for both of you, considering your extensive backgrounds in Americana and experimental sounds?

David Katznelson challenged me to try and produced the environment in which we could. The hardest thing to do was to slow down enough to let the music breathe. I’ve always loved music with drones and ambient soundscapes, but I had never gone there myself. David also challenged me to record it myself without an outside engineer. This album captures a learning curve of my self-recording journey. In the past I’ve always used a proper engineer.

Can you share how the concept for Crow’s Nest Meditations emerged during your December planning sessions?

The equipment we amassed helped guide the music’s evolution. The majority of the sessions were recorded with my road guitars, David’s guitars, a toy synth, two practice amps, a couple of stomp boxes, cheap mics and a handheld Zoom recorder. We would get together and record one day a year, whenever my touring schedule brought me to the Bay Area. The final sessions included a laptop, proper interface, a cello, hurdy gurdy, and the Regal acoustic guitar that (along with David’s liquor cabinet) inspired the first track, Regal Scotch Glass Blues, where I was playing slide guitar with my scotch glass while drinking. The most important pieces of gear were my Ebow and Sustainer Pedal.

How did the unique setting of the Crow’s Nest studio influence the mood and direction of the album?

David’s “Crow’s Nest” room, overlooking the Bay Area is so powerful, it helped create the music, the room willed it into happening.

What were some of the early challenges you faced when experimenting with feedback loops and drones?

The drones and feedback played thru solid state practice amps sounded harsh and the primitive recording technique didn’t make the music sound any smoother. The biggest challenge was in post-production, I heavily EQed the tracks trying to make it sound more lovely and reduce annoying frequencies. The mastering engineer did a lot as well, trying to soften the mix and take out ambient clicks. Since everything was recorded with mics and not a direct signal the guitar pedals would click as we engaged them and we had to remove all that type of ambient noise that proved distracting.

How did your respective musical backgrounds — Luther’s guitar work and David’s production experience — complement each other in this project?

The record is David’s concept and creation. It was really fun being produced by my friend and making music that I would never have made by myself.

Could you describe a particularly memorable moment from one of the recording sessions in the Crow’s Nest?

I’ll never forget when I realized that playing slide guitar with a half full scotch really helped slow down my playing and made the melodies more meaningful. Also, it was just so fun. This music is an artifact of our friendship and time spent hanging out.

How did your musical dialogue evolve over the five-year span of working on this record?

David got more and more involved, starting as an encouraging producer to being more musically involved. He played cello, hurdy gurdy, guitar and found sounds on his antique cylinder player and 78 player.

How do you envision the ideas and experiments from Crow’s Nest Meditations influencing your upcoming musical endeavors?

This project changed the course of my recording career, technically and artistically. I grew up recording on tape, analog and then digital ADAT tape. I also grew up adhering to the concept of using a recording engineer as a partner and collaborator. But digital recording went to ProTools and I’ve never liked ProTools and have only been recording myself with proactive analog tape machines since ProTools took over. David inspired me to begin recording myself properly again and since then I’ve been recording and mixing in a totally DIY guerrilla sense.

And I’ve been recording drones and synths in other projects as well. CNM broadened my color palette / sonic arsenal, enriching all the music I’ve made since.

Images courtesy of Gravel Springs

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others