Ep. 172: Greg Weeks (The Espers/Grass/Magus)

(Written by Greg)

Skip past my birth and awkward teenage years to the formative experiences of purchasing my first acoustic guitar from the Big B Buzzo and my stint as dj (then music director) at SUNY Plattsburgh’s sadly re-monikered but then-titled WPLT. Ten watts of audience-less record spins aside, I fell in love with the industry, parlayed that love into an internship at the ultimately lame MTV Network, then drifted accidentally to a receptionist position at a NYC recording studio. 

While in NYC I recorded three albums and co-founded a progressive rock mail order company (New Sonic Architecture) that proved financially disastrous but highly educational. Several odd shifts later found me sleeping on Brooke Sietinsons’ floor and making the first Espers record. Gentrification pushed the band into a then dilapidated Fishtown, where we (the band) created a compound environment with the neighbors, held shows, and watched the so-called freak-folk scene unfold and evolve in real time. I recorded a fourth record (on 2” 8-track, like the first Espers record), met a very significant other, married, and migrated northeast, where I fashioned a far more sophisticated recording studio–Hexham Head. It was here that we rehearsed The Valerie Project, recorded Espers II and III and The Hive, an ill fated but creatively fulfilling solo record. It was also during this time that I started Language of Stone, a record label manufactured and distributed through Drag City, on which I released eleven excellent (I think) records. 

Times changed, economies tanked, children were conceived. Priorities shifted. But a funny thing happened. After ten years of near inactivity, I began writing again. Then the idea was floated of rebuilding Hexham Head, which led to the creation of a new solo record (If the Sun Dies), and talk of rebooting Language of Stone. Magus (with Jessica Weeks) was birthed, recorded, and slated as the label’s thirteenth release. 

Now, on the very day that I write this, the long lost Grass record has entered public consciousness and, well, I’ve sat down with Rich to talk in greater detail about that and a lot of other stuff. I hope you enjoy!

https://www.instagram.com/greg_weeks_music_official

New Album Grass! Pre-order

https://grassband.bandcamp.com/album/grass

Credits

Stephen Bluhm - Sound Engineer

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stephenbluhm.fun⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Rich Wexler

Producer/Interviewer

⁠⁠⁠http://www.vintageannalsarchive.com

Episode Editors

Otter Castro

https://www.instagram.com/ottercastro

Rudy Fischmann

https://www.instagram.com/onelastfisch