William Cullen Hart, singer, guitarist, and composer, has fronted Circulatory System since 2001; the group currently includes John Fernandes, Derek Almstead, Charlie Johnston, Nesey Gallons, Heather McIntosh, Pete Erchick, and Suzanne Allison. Hart is also a founding member of The Olivia Tremor Control, the much-lauded Indie band that ranked, with Neutral Milk Hotel and The Apples (in Stereo), as one of the three leading projects/ bands to emerge under the banner of the Elephant Six collective during the 1990's. The Olivias released two double L P's plus a diverse array of other musical artifacts, including experiments in quadrophonic sound and an album of electroacoustic by The Black Swan Network, the band's "alter ego." In 2005, they reunited for live performances at All Tomorrow's Parties, Arthur Fest, and elsewhere; and in 2008 returned again, privately, to explore new recording ventures. More than seven years in the making, the second Circulatory System album, Signal Morning, was finally released in September, 2009. The interview took place over the course of several days in early September, before the band embarked upon its first tour promoting the new album. The photographs featured here were taken by Kelly Ruberto.

Justin Kaw: Today's September 1, 2009. We're doing an interview because the new record is coming out. Or it's already out. Is it already out?

William Cullen Hart: It's out now, for us. Not officially until the 8th.

J K: And it has been about exactly eight years since the previous album, so we could begin by talking about some of the things that led there to be such a long gestation period.

W C H: Well, the obvious... I've come to realize that I have multiple sclerosis. That's my excuse, if there is one.

J K: If I remember right, it was early 2007 you were diagnosed.

W C H: Yeah, figured it out. '99 is when the abrasions on my brain, that's probably when it started... maybe before - '98-'99. Looking at the brain scan... lizard bites, where the lizard bit my brain. I'm always talking about the dimensional lizards. (joking) You know the deal - we all know the dimensional lizards!

J K: That's when the dimensional lizards began to bite away at your brain. But there's been all sorts of delays though.

W C H: Yeah, I have a delay pedal right there.

J K: Those are important too.

W C H: That gives the trippy sound the kids want these days.

J K: They've wanted it for a long time...

W C H: Dimensional lizard with a delay!

J K: ...since Joy Division.

W C H: Oh! Wow! "Decades"! That song, over and over sometimes. It's one of the greatest things ever. One of the greatest productions. That album... I always thought the other was better, but came back to Closer recently, and was like, "I really don't know much of it." It's better.

J K: I agree. So when did the house start getting worked on? Was that before or after the Olivia Tremor Control reunion?

W C H: Good question.... Before... the reunion was '05.

J K: That took up a lot of 2005 right there.

W C H: Yeah, time passes by real quick, after age 20, or age 18.

J K: Age 30...

W C H: Exactly, thanks!

J K: Maybe age 25.

W C H: Thirty was the real stellar moment for me. Gun-in-mouth blues kind of thing. Just saying...

J K: That was 2001?

W C H: Yeah. Born in '71, a great year for music, in Germany.

J K: The diagnosis for M S came not long after Will [Westbrook] died.

W C H: That's correct.

J K: December 2006.

W C H: Yeah, I started going blind in my right eye. "What the fuck?" Stress and sadness, I guess.

J K: You and Will had made music together for a long time. Wet Host.

W C H: That's his, solo.

J K: What was the stuff you guys did duo?

W C H: We were calling it Of. We wanted some simple thing like that - like Neu! It could've been Us. Something to make logo-esque things. It was musique concrète.

J K: The house started getting renovated because Kelly [Ruberto] bought it.

W C H: We were going to get kicked out.

J K: Oh, that's right. The landlord was going to...

W C H: They were going to make this into a parking space.

J K: You've lived here since 1996? Is that right?

W C H: '97.

J K: So, there's that. These things all sort of had a cumulative effect, in helping delay the record. Also, with the first album, if I remember right, you hadn't switched over to using comptuers all that much.

W C H: Actually, we'd call the computer a receptacle in this case. I'd obtained a 16-track digital. I'd use that, then take it over to Radium [Recording], and dump it on the computer, because I didn't have one. And sit there and go, "I want that down a little bit, I want this..."

J K: You didn't have a computer at home then.

W C H: The first one is really... I never listen to it, but when it comes up, it's pretty high-fi. I remember comparing it against Stereolab, Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, which is in such a limited space. Circulatory System is not as low-fi as I thought it was.

J K: It's more that it's a really dense album. The layers of parts, a lot of parts on top of each other.

W C H: Phil Spector-style. You know, the murderer.

J K: So, the first album you recorded digitally at home.

W C H: 4-track cassette as well.

J K: Yeah, didn't you do a lot of the drums analog still?

W C H: Yeah, 4-track cassette, a lot of the drum tracks.

J K: At some point you got a computer here at home. You're recording the second album by then?

W C H: Yes, not long after the first album had came out. A tiny windfall... I don't remember what that was from.

J K: So then you were recording more at home. Compared to past records - the Olivia Tremor Control albums as well - was Signal Morning recorded more at home in your own space rather than some sort of studio?

W C H: No, probably about the same. We'd record at different places. I can't remember exactly... The band is on 5 or 6 tracks. And the rest would be at home, adding tracks. (asking Nesey Gallons) How many tracks are the band on?

Nesey Gallons: The ones that were recorded by the band, rather than the band doing over-dubs... let's see... "Rocks and Stones, "Round Again," "Solid Forms Dissolving," "Moon Medium" I think.... "Overjoyed" - didn't you start that with a drum machine?

W C H: Well, "Overjoyed" I did on a cassette 4-track. The drum machine is one track, so I could play along with it. The only thing I used out of the drum machine was the super punchy... (makes beating sound)... so that's in there somewhere. Then two guitars.

Nesey Gallons: Then the band layered a bunch of stuff on there.

W C H: Is that a band?

Nesey Gallons: So, sort of, but not quite like the others.

J K: You have a few tracks that were recorded by the full band.

W C H: ...at one of the eight studios we list!

J K: It was such a long process that you don't remember exactly... ?

W C H: "Round Again" was done at Radium. That's Jeff [Mangum] and Hannah [Jones] playing drums. Just straight out, great playing. Awesome. We got it together for the tour. Went and played the tour.

J K: The 2001 tour, right after the first album came out, when Jeff was sort of a member of the band, temporarily.

W C H: Hmm, yeah. "Hey Jeff, we love you." That's when I wrote it. It was fresh then.

J K: So, "Round Again" is from that point, late 2001/ early 2002. Not long after that, Derek takes Jeff's place, the second drums, alongside Hannah.

W C H: For a while, I really wanted the double drummer, the Fall line-up.

J K: "The Classical."

W C H: The Grateful Dead.

J K: Allman Brothers... Pretty much, since the beginning, you've had yourself, John, Derek, Pete, Hannah until 2007, and Heather. The first time there was talk about the second album being completed, it was in 2004, because Heather was about to move to New York.

W C H: I have to say, no offense to anyone... I didn't say that. That was not...

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