Arlo McKinley on ‘This Mess We’re In,’ Songwriting, Recording, Love, and Time | CONTRARY WESTERN

Arlo McKinley joined us in Nashville to share his songwriting process and some of the self-reflection that inspired the songs on his latest Oh Boy Records release “This Mess We’re In.” Like his previous full-length, “Die Midwestern,” the 11-song album was recorded at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis with producer Matt Ross-Spang.

Arlo and Matt Ross-Spang and the band pushed the songs, with big sprawling arrangements and stunning production that often had Arlo feeling almost outside of what was happening in the moment, almost forgetting that he’d brought the songs to the Memphis studio. Songs he often started in his car, singing into his phone, before evolving the phone sketches later on with a guitar. Songs from the past that fit what’s so clearly a narrative line or a time capsule, as Arlo calls it.

“It’s just me writing about me,” Arlo says and pushes back some when we suggest a certain sadness to the record that could also be called empathy or space—both in terms of lyrics and production—for a listener to just be. It’s likely this sadness or earnestness that appealed to John Prine, who signed Arlo to his label and had his own relationship to good, sad music. “I just like a good, sad song. The sadder, the better. It moves me.”

Either way—sad or not—Arlo’s deep, timeless view of music allows him to see how songs are open to interpretation, even his own over time. “The meaning of songs change over the years. You’ve got to give them room to grow into what they become.”

The conversation, on some freezing January morning, ranged from death and love to the merits of cauliflower pizza crust. It was our first Contrary Western session, and though it was brief, it helped set the tone for a series with country and Americana artists reflecting on the music that moves them and speaking to music they’ve created that moves us.

“This Mess We’re In” is out today, July 15, 2022, from Oh Boy Records.

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CREDITS

Videographers: Emma Delevante & Emma Kieffer
Editor: Sam Farahmand
Mixed by Luke Wiget
Directed & Produced by Contrary Western in Nashville, Tennessee