Phosphorescent is the moniker of Matthew Houck, a prolific and well-loved singer and songwriter who calls Nashville, Tennessee home. Initially based in Athens, Georgia, Houck began releasing music as Fillup Shack before working under Phosphorescent and releasing seven acclaimed albums with different collaborators. In December 2013, after eight months of touring behind their album Muchacho, Phosphorescent played a four-night homecoming stand at the Music Hall in Brooklyn where Houck lived at the time, with sets that touched upon all of their records up to that point. This past February, Dead Oceans released an explosive document of those shows with the triple LP, Live at the Music Hall, and here, Houck and I discuss moving to Nashville recently, spending time in Australia, David Berman and Harmony Korine sightings, that one time I was in Nashville with Royal City in the year 2000, listening to tapes of live shows, setting up this Brooklyn residency to maybe capture a live record, expending creative energy on a project like this, experiencing a shift in the songs night after night, Hard Rain by Bob Dylan, concerts saved the music industry so live albums must be saving the record industry and the concert industry, the cool album packaging and cowboy cover, dressing the part, getting into music as a kid and knowing one’s path, not always working well with others, being married to an organ player, his relationship with his fans, when Willie Nelson phones your phone, spending time on his bus, having a baby and not knowing what’s next, being a dad, the song “Dead Heart,” and then the show was over.
Related links: phosphorescentmusic.com vishkhanna.com
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