Q&A: Port Ross on Releasing Debut Album ‘Nighttime at Gardner Hall’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY ROBBY SHEILS ☆
Photo by Lucie Day
MEET PORT ROSS—the indie-folk recording project from emerging singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Jack Sperry. Tomorrow, he will be releasing Nighttime at Gardner Hall, a debut LP that presents itself as a fully-realized veteran project. The lush composition, honest lyrics and haunting guitar will ask you to slow down, close your eyes and meditate through multiple listens.
Sperry is a Salt Lake City native now residing in Brooklyn. The name ‘Port Ross’ comes from a coastal harbor near Auckland, New Zealand that’s home to a group of subantarctic islands. You can make comparisons to Radiohead, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sufjan Stevens, and Elliott Smith (and Sperry would probably welcome all those with a humble thank you), but the truth is that Port Ross is its own brand, its own clashing vision of a snowy night in Salt Lake City caught in a dream of a far-away coast.
Like the isolated, wind-bluffed islands off of Port Ross, Sperry’s sounds throughout the album are abstract, textured and ineffably beautiful. Throughout the tracklist, Sperry challenges listeners with creative approaches to a typical indie-folk album (take “Snowplow” for example, a 10-minute instrumental track in the center of the project that sounds like a guitar was hooked up to an EKG).
While listeners may be left speechless at various guitar-scapes, Sperry comes through with a treasure trove of lyrics that can either make you crack a smile or shed a tear. “Pinkerton” opens the album with an intimate account of a past love, building into an admission that he’ll soon be alone, belting his words “to an audience of chords.” “Only Child” is another lyrical highpoint in the project, where Sperry details his sister’s gender transition. The penultimate track, “For My Young Death,” details an approaching winter and the isolation that accompanies the cold season. Throughout the album, Sperry anchors his shifting life in these grounded lyrics; a cathartic response to change.
We sat down with Port Ross to learn more about their debut album.
Photo by Lucie Day
LUNA: Congrats on finishing the album! How’re you feeling?
PORT ROSS: I feel so relieved and happy and fulfilled. The past two months it’s been ridiculous. Listening to the mixes ten thousand times, bouncing the whole album, making sure the fades between tracks sound right. It’s a lot of work.
LUNA: You played, recorded, and produced every song on this project. Did you also mix and master?
PORT ROSS: I mixed it myself, and I actually just mastered it last week with Alan Douches. The reason I asked him to do it was because he mastered Illinois by Sufjan Stevens, and I felt my music sounded similar enough. I was trying not to be super nervous, and it ended up being awesome. I even got to meet his dogs.
LUNA: Besides Sufjan, who else influences your sound?
PORT ROSS: Definitely Radiohead. When I was figuring out the sequencing for the album, I was trying to decide out how much silence to have before the title track, “Nighttime at Gardner Hall,” which is sort of a hidden track. I was listening a lot to Kid A because that final track, “Untitled,” was originally a hidden track too.
LUNA: Each song on this album feels meticulously arranged. How intentional with composition were you?
PORT ROSS: Very intentional. And, honestly, I worry it could be to a fault sometimes. Sometimes too full, too overproduced, not spontaneous enough. I appreciate you saying that because so much time goes into making these arrangements.
LUNA: How do you know when to stop making a song?
PORT ROSS: It’s hard (laughs). Before I published anything I heard, “a work of art is never finished, it's only abandoned,” and I always thought that was bullshit. But I was wrong.
LUNA: Is there one song on the record that took longer to polish than the others?
PORT ROSS: Funny enough, the one that probably took the most amount of time to finish was “Snowplow”, the 10-minute instrumental track on the album. It’s funny because it’s just guitar, but it’s such a different style of music I'm not accustomed to making.
LUNA: “Snowplow” comes in the very middle of the album. Is sequencing something you pay attention to?
PORT ROSS: Yeah, definitely. I honestly feel like I composed songs based on the sequencing. I think that’s something that’s really important… “Pinkerton” always felt like it was going to be the opener. And it was the first song that was written and recorded, which made it easier. It’s a tone setter.
LUNA: On “For My Young Death,” you sing about winter approaching. Was releasing this album in December intentional?
PORT ROSS: Honestly, I feel it’s just a happy coincidence, especially because several songs are about winter and Christmastime. There are certain tracks that I conceptualize more as summer songs, like “Bluefaced Honeyeater,” but most others take place in the winter, so it’s a happy coincidence.
LUNA: Which track on the album are you most proud of?
PORT ROSS: Lyrically, I would have to say “Only Child”. When I was on the train to meet Alan [Douches], I was listening through the tracklist again, and that song brought me to tears. It just felt so honest. The song’s about my sister’s gender transition, and I wrote that song years ago… but it’s aged in a way because the situation for trans people has gotten worse.
Photo by Lucie Day
LUNA: How are you hoping listeners will receive the album?
PORT ROSS: I hope people feel the same catharsis from hearing the lyrics that I did when writing them. Especially on “Only Child.” It’s really close to my heart.
LUNA: What environment do you hope your audience listens to this project in?
PORT ROSS: It’s pretty quiet, so probably somewhere that’s also quiet. Maybe in your room late at night, headphones on, lamplight (laughs). I also like walking around at night, so possibly that.
LUNA: Maybe if it’s snowing?
PORT ROSS: Especially if it’s snowing!
LUNA: You’ve been working on this project for years, and now it’s about to be out. What’s next for you?
PORT ROSS: Honestly, the day that I finished the mixes, I felt I needed to work on new music. Nothing’s been written lyrically really, but songs are starting to take shape. I felt frustrated with how long this album took to finish, and now I feel I have something to prove.
Nighttime at Gardner Hall comes out on streaming platforms tomorrow, December 5th.
