Wednesday, August 22, 2012

First/Last-Ian Wilson

Photo courtesy of Nate Chongsiriwatana
 
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Bloomfield

"Folktronica musician Ian Wilson belongs to a new class of singer-songwriters who have exchanged backup bands for loop pedals. Using a combination of keyboard instruments and synthesizers, Ian builds complex, atmospheric layers around deeply personal songwriting. And despite defecting from the classical genre years ago, Ian’s piano has never quite lost the accent—you can tell by the sound of it, it’s not from around here. His debut solo LP, This is Water, was released in May 2012."

Ian will be hitting Pittsburgh for the first time tomorrow at Howler's along with support from Mad Rapture and Radio for the Daydreamer. My thanks to Ian for taking a few minutes to participate in this edition of First/Last.

The first album you ever bought?
I think it was Sheryl Crow's “Tuesday Night Music Club”. (Her first one.)

Your last album bought?
“Seeds” by Hey Rosetta! Saw them for the first time at Lollapalooza and they blew me away.

Favorite album of all time?
Tori Amos, “Boys for Pele”.

Least favorite/most disappointing album?
Tough one, I'll go with MGMT's “Oracular Spectacular”. I was so excited by the singles (‘Kids’ and ‘Time to Pretend’) but then the album was so...meh.

First concert attended?
Better Than Ezra (don't laugh), Summer of 1997.

Last concert?
Lollapalooza. Florence + the Machine was the highlight for me this year, but there are always a ton of great (and not so great) artists there.

Favorite concert ever?
Tori Amos. Last show of the "Plugged" Tour in 1998, East Lansing, Michigan. My friend got crazy lucky and got us 4th row seats, and sadly, nothing since has topped that.

Least favorite concert?
matt pond PA. Though possibly through no fault of their own. It was summer in Chicago, I'm pretty sure the venue's A/C was broken, and I think they had been driving for 15 or 16 hours straight that day. Not a good combo.

Any thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?
This will be my first trip, but my college roommate moved to Pittsburgh a couple years ago and still talks about the city like she's on her honeymoon. She finally gets to show it off to me, too. I have some free time to explore before the show on Thursday.

Thanks, Ian. Glad you're going to have time to explore our fair city. I just know you'll dig it!

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