Sonoma-based musician Ian Hinkley has a new solo album, The Last Cool Summer, which dropped on all digital platforms on Nov. 22.
If Hinkley’s name sounds familiar, one may have previously seen or heard him as the front person/brainchild behind local bands like Bumblin’ Bones, Cavemen, Paulie Hips and the Childbearers, The Shakedown Choir, Punchface Sally and more.
The Last Cool Summer is Hinkley’s second solo venture. This time around, he sought to make a purposeful and “guerilla-style” recording, with many songs being sung straight into a Sure SM58 microphone, often in one take. We spoke with Hinkley about the album and the process of bringing his vision to life.
Bohemian: Listening back to some of the Bumblin’ Bones albums and then playing The Last Cool Summer, there are definite parallels, although I would say this latest album is much more atmospheric and layered. Were you conscious of going for a different sound this time around?
Ian Hinkley: The main difference, I think, was that when I was putting together albums for the Bumblin’ Bones, it was often taken from songs written for, or during, performing. I tend to think of recorded music and live music as feeding two very different parts of people. Live music activates your body, while recorded music activates your mind.
The first solo record I made was at the height of the pandemic (Guy Wonder, 2022), and grew out of knowing that I may never play these songs in front of people. I know how I sing on a stage is different than how I sing in a booth, and it freed me to not worry about how I would recreate the sounds in public.
B: Is it fair to call this album a little more melodic or ephemeral? The production has a real layered yet intriguing use of “noise” and various instrumentation. What was your thought process there? I’m guessing Takeshi Lewis (a local sound maven who mixed the album) had something to do with this different sound?
IH: It’s basically the same answer as before. I think it’s very fair to notice that I tried to add more melodic layers into these songs. Takeshi actually received all of the tracks fully recorded and didn’t add any instrumentation or ambient sounds to them. His task was purely mixing and mastering. But I will absolutely credit him with homing in on an atmospheric mood that binds the album together.
Whether it’s a song like “Sleeping Sack” that is just me playing and singing in one take into a single mic, or “Marnie’s Song,” which is synth-heavy with three electric guitar tracks and full instrumentation, there is an open and dreamy sound that Takeshi created that binds the album into a sound that doesn’t feel like it’s all over the place but feels apiece.
B: You said you’re looking to get a band together to play live with this new stuff. Can you mention who you’re reaching out to? Will the new band just do this new stuff or some Bumblin’ Bones too?
IH: The shows I’ve played since “going solo” have been Ian Hinkley & Friends shows, which generally use musicians from the Bumblin’ Bones and some of the other bands I’ve been in. These shows do combine new songs as well as old Bumblin’ Bones songs and are usually a set of me sitting down at a One-Man-Band set-up I’ve created where I attached a keyboard atop a bass drum and attached a tambourine to a high hat stand, and I play guitar behind that while I try to add as much instrumentation as I can on my own.
Then, over the course of the night, I’ll bring up more musicians to fill out the sound and make it a rock show like the old days. The songs on The Last Cool Summer have not been part of that show yet, and I’m putting together a new version of that show to incorporate these songs, too.
Listen to Ian Hinkley’s music via linktr.ee/ianhinkley.
