There are bands that build sounds, and then there are bands that build places — spaces you can inhabit, breathe inside, get lost in. Airships on the Water belong firmly to the second category. With their new single “Until the House Dissolves” already making waves as a preview of the upcoming album “A Landmark Is Formed,” the project has once again proven its ability to craft instrumental music that feels deeply personal without ever saying a word. We caught up with the band to talk about the genesis of the new record, their sonic world, and what it means to create music that maps emotion rather than narrating it.
Airships on the Water has a very distinctive identity — atmospheric, introspective, impossible to pin to a single genre. Can you take us back to the very beginning? How did the project come to life, and what was the original vision?
I’ve primarily played the drums in past bands, but I had been writing some keyboard and piano parts that I didn’t really have a home for. During a hiatus period for the band I was drumming in, I started to experiment with different ways to flesh those parts out into believable songs. I learned enough rudimentary bass guitar to start adding some simple bass lines to what I was working on, and then those ideas really started to coalesce into actual songs. So from the beginning, Airships on the Water was intended to be a solo recording project. I liked the challenge of seeing how far I could take a song on my own and being forced to level up if I wanted to add something to it I couldn’t play yet. Also, even though drums are my first instrument, I didn’t want the music to just sound like a vehicle for the drums. I wanted the music to be melody driven while still having a strong rhythmic foundation.
The name Airships on the Water conjures a vivid, almost paradoxical image — something large and majestic existing in a space where it seemingly doesn’t belong. Was that tension intentional? What does the name mean to you?
I like that description! I can’t remember what made me originally come up with that name, but it was something I already had kicking around before I started this project. Ocean imagery and air travel themes popped up a lot in lyrics I wrote for past projects, so I think having them contrasted against each other in this name made it stick with me. And unlike with some bands I’ve played in in the past, I didn’t feel too embarasssed when I told people the name, so it seemed like a keeper!
You operate in a space that blends Post-Rock, Shoegaze, Slowcore, and Ambient music. Were these genres part of your musical DNA from the start, or did the sound evolve organically over time?
The answer is kind of “yes” for both questions. I love writing lyrics and vocal melodies, but I’m a lousy singer, so pretty early on I knew this project was going to be in the instrumental post rock realm. I’ve always loved Shoegaze, Slowcore, and Ambient music, too, so those styles were influential at the beginning, but probably in more subtle ways. I didn’t have a definite sound I was pursuing, though, so what came out was just what was happening naturally. I think by my third album Lake Shaped Embrace, I was experimenting a lot more with space and textures, and I’ve kept expanding on that
approach from there. When I first started out, I had no real idea of what an Airships on the Water song should sound like, but I think the project has matured to the point where some ideas I come up with don’t “feel” like Airships on the Water, so I save them for something else. But at the same time, I don’t want the music to feel stale and predictable, or get boring for me to produce, so I try to keep exerimenting and expanding my sound. I want to grow the music in new and interesting directions without trying to force it to be something it’s not.
Who are the key influences — musical or otherwise — that have shaped Airships on the Water‘s sonic identity? We’re talking records, artists, films, visual art, literature — whatever feeds the creative process.
There’s so many musical influences I could list, but just to name a few—I’ve always been really inspired by the beauty and power of bands like Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai, the pastoral intricacy of bands Do Make Say Think and Silian Rail, the rhythmic complexity of bands like Toe and Don Caballero, the atmospheric textures of bands like Hammock and Hum, and the layered but still catchy songwriting of bands like Pinback and Built to Spill. Hazy autumn weather can be a good inspiration, too. Sometimes the red and orange of the changing leaves against a gray sky just makes you feel like playing some music. And like I mentioned earlier, I love the sea, so oceanic imagery has always been a big influence.
“Until the House Dissolves” is a beautifully layered piece. You described it as “nostalgia mixed with grief.” Can you expand on that? What emotional experience or specific moment was this track born from?
Sometimes there’s a comfort in old memories, like the house where you grew up, for instance. But there’s also a sadness to the past because that experience is over and you can never really go back. Even if you physically return to the original location of a memory, it always feels different. It’s kind of like trying to see your current self in an old photograph. There’s a bittersweet feeling of comfort and loss that comes from recalling those fading moments that this song evoked for me. But that could just be me!
The instrumentation on the track is remarkably detailed — bending guitars, minor piano chords, glockenspiel, linear drums. Each element has a precise role. How do you approach the arrangement process? Do you start from a feeling and build the sound around it, or does the sound itself generate the emotion?
Most of the songs just start with me playing around around on the keyboard. Sometimes I have a general mood in mind, so that might affect the tempo or key I start with. Then I just mess around until something starts to click. Sometimes nothing really comes out of it, but other times a little melody will grab me, or a few chords just feel right, and I lock in and see how far I can take them. I will usually have the whole song structured out on piano or keyboard and record those parts first as the foundation layer. I’ll have an idea for what some of the other instruments will be probably sound like and will leave space for them as I’m recording the main melodic parts, but once I start playing along to what I’ve already recorded, things will grow in ways in I didn’t initially expect. Parts I thought would be more powerful may sound better more subdued, or I may add a lot more heaviness to parts that I first thought would be more ambient. So it’s like starting with a rough sketch of a single mountain and then adding layers and layers of paint until you have a detailed landscape of a whole mountain range.
The glockenspiel is a bold and somewhat unexpected choice. It gives the track a fragile, almost childlike luminosity against the heavier emotional weight of the guitars. Was that contrast deliberate?
That’s a great way to put into words what the glockenspiel can bring to a song! I do love that contrast. The glockenspiel has a delicate quality that usually brings a prettiness to a song. It runs the risk of being a little distracting if it’s not in the right context, though, so I try to be judicious in how I use it.
The production on “Until the House Dissolves” is extremely refined — every layer has space, the mix breathes. Who handled the production and mixing, and how important is the studio/recording process as a compositional tool for you?
I handle all of the production and mixing myself. It started out that way out of necessity because I couldn’t afford to pay someone to mix and master my songs, but I’ve come to enjoy the mixing stage as part of the creative process. There’s a fair amount of color and texture that I work out during mixing, so I feel like it’s definitely a compositional tool for me.
I don’t have any formal training in sound engineering or mixing, so I’ve had to learn a lot through trial and error. It can still be pretty frustrating when I’m trying to get a certain sound and I can’t figure out how to do it, but overall I’m pretty happy with my mixes now. I feel like I’ve still got a lot to learn and a long way to go, though.
The album title “A Landmark Is Formed” is evocative and conceptually rich — it suggests the act of marking presence, of leaving something behind. What does the title mean within the context of this record? Is there a unifying narrative or emotional arc across the album?
Your interpretation is right on! Early on in the writing process, a theme I was thinking of for this record was “People as places.” In other words, the people you know and the relationships you build are what actually define the different places you live or visit. Those landmarks show where and who you’ve been, something left behind, but they can also guide where you go. A landmark can signal the end or the beginning. Without getting too specific, I think that balance of change and growth, and the effect of distance and time on who we are, make up part of the story of this record. I like leaving some of the interpretation open to the listener, though, since they may experience the words and music differently than I do.
“Until the House Dissolves” is our first taste of the record. How representative is it of the album as a whole? Should listeners expect more of the same tonal palette, or are there surprises in store? How long did the album take to come together? Can you describe the creative process — was it a concentrated period of writing, or did these compositions accumulate over a longer stretch of time?
I’d say “Until the House Dissolves” isn’t really an outlier on the record, so if you like it, you’ll probably like the other songs as well. This one definitely feels like a winter record to me, so I hear a tonal consistency in that way. There is still variety to the songs on the album, but they feel like parts of a whole to me. Of course, I see the unique qualities in every song, so you’ll have to let me know how they compare to each other when the album is out. Since I write and record every instrument on every song myself, putting together an album takes a long time. The fact that most of the songs on this album are 7 – 8 minutes long definitely doesn’t help. The whole process of writing, recording, and mixing all the songs on this album probably took about two years. That seems to be about how long it’s taken me for each of my albums, though, so it’s consistent with my past output.
Post-Rock as a genre can sometimes risk feeling formulaic — the familiar quiet-loud-quiet dynamic, the predictable emotional arc. How conscious are you of pushing against those conventions, and what choices on “A Landmark Is Formed” reflect that?
I’m definitely conscious of that, and it can be a tough balance to strike sometimes. Consciously trying to be different can push you in new directions creatively, but if you’re too defiant, you can put yourself in a box and miss out on some great sounds or techniques that could have inspired you in unexpected ways. Sometimes I will scrap an idea if it starts to remind me too much of something else or if it feels too expected, but usually I try to let the song progress naturally.
I think any genre can start to sound formulaic, and some post rock and shoegaze stuff can sound a little bland if artists are relying on those stylistic flourishes and tricks to define their sound. It’s like it’s all frosting with no cake. There has to be something of substance underneath it all. I think if you focus on solid songwriting and use your reverb and delay
or quiet-loud-quiet dynamics or whatever other stylistic flourish you like to enhance your core idea, there will be something uniquely “you” about the song that makes it stand out. For example, those big crescendos don’t make Godspeed You! Black Emperor sound great; it’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor that makes those big crescendos sound so good. I’m not sure if I really answered your question there, but hopefully that made sense!
The decision to remain entirely instrumental is a strong artistic statement in itself. For Airships on the Water, is the absence of vocals a philosophical choice, or simply a natural expression of how you communicate? Has the temptation to add a voice ever surfaced during the creative process?
Like I mentioned earlier, I’m a lousy singer, so I knew I could make progress on a song a lot quicker by keeping it instrumental instead of spending forever trying to get comfortable with my vocals. Pretty early on, though, the songs just felt natural without vocals. I’m not consciously writing to avoid vocals now, but I think I fill up the melodic space vocals would occupy with a lot more sounds. That temptation to explore vocals does pop up from time to time, though, but I’m not sure if I’ll just save those ideas for another project. We’ll see!
If you had to describe “A Landmark Is Formed” using three non-musical references — a film, a place, a time of day — what would they be? ù
Let’s go with a glacier, an old photo album, and the window seat on a flight.
Do you perform live? If so, how do you approach translating this music to a stage context — especially the layered, textural nature of the recordings? And are there any live dates planned around the album release?
I haven’t worked out a live set up for Airships on the Water yet. I do miss playing live, though, so who knows? I may try to figure out a stage version down the road, but for now, it’s just the recordings.
How do you experience the Post-Rock scene in your own country right now? Is there a community, a sense of dialogue between bands, or does it feel more isolated?
It seems like a music scene and community usually grow around live shows, so it’s hard for me to say. As a solo recording artist, I’m relatively isolated, but I bet there’s some communities of great bands out there supporting each other.
Globally, Post-Rock seems to be in a particularly vital moment, with new voices constantly emerging alongside the established pillars. Where do you see the genre heading, and where do you see Airships on the Water fitting within that broader landscape?
Like you mentioned in a previous question, Post Rock can sometimes be dismissed as formulaic, but I feel like new artists keep popping up that bring something interesting to the genre. I think there’s such tremendous power to being able to express and experience emotions purely through music, so the genre will keep growing. I’d imagine we’ll see more interesting crossovers with other genres of music develop, like Post Country or something like that, so I’m excited to hear what other artists from vastly different backgrounds continue to come up with. As far as where Airships on the Water fits in, I feel like it’s a small fish in a gigantic ocean of music, so I’ll just keep swimming along and making my little fish songs for as long as I’m able.
As we wrap up — is there anything about “A Landmark Is Formed,” about Airships on the Water, or about the music you make that you feel rarely gets asked or said, and that you’d like our readers to know?
Nothing comes to mind at the moment. You already asked some really great questions, so I think this interview covered the main points pretty well.
Thank you so much for your time and for sharing your world with us. We’re genuinely excited about “A Landmark Is Formed” and look forward to hearing where this journey takes you. Keep building landmarks.
Thank you so much for your very kind words and support!
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