A Cycle Complete: Ian McCuen’s Poignant New Album Caps Decade-Long Journey with a Tribute to their Partner

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Buffalo artist Ian McCuen will drop their new album on Friday titled ‘After I Descend from the Sky, Before I Return to the Dirt,’ an extraordinary and herculean work comprised of 24 songs several years in the making. Mesmerizing in its sound, intricately written and replete with a range of fascinating instrumentation — all of which have become hallmarks of Ian’s work — the new LP marks the conclusion of a four-album series, the writing for which began a decade ago. The album also chronicles and pays homage to their relationship with their partner, artist Christina Riccio. Ian will celebrate the LP’s drop with a release show Friday night at Mohawk Place, with a bill that also includes Adelaide and Matches Laces. Ian was nice enough to sit down with 1120 Press recently to discuss their new album. Please see our talk below.)

Ian McCuen (Photo by Katherine Kenwell Cich)

1120 PRESS: Thank you for speaking with us and congratulations on the new album! How do you feel now that it’s ready to drop tomorrow (Friday Nov. 21)?

IAN McCUEN: It feels great. Honestly, it's been a long road to get here. It's the fourth album in a cycle that I've been working on — the fourth and final album of that cycle. I remember years ago envisioning all these records and now this final one's about to be out, and they all turned out better than I ever could have dreamed.

1120: Regarding that cycle, was the plan to release an album every year?

IM: Yeah. So, the first project I ever did as a solo artist was the ‘Songs of Fleeting Permanence’ trilogy. But during that time when I was working on that, I was still working on other material and coming up with different concepts for records. So that was kind of the thing that was happening in the background while I was mostly focused on ‘Songs of Fleeting Permanence.’

This four-album set basically covers my mid-to-late 20s and chronicles my life and continued exploration of mental illness and societal issues, and grappling with all that coming into adulthood. It started with ‘Westward to Nowhere’ and then ‘What It Means to be Young, Sad and Alone’ on which I was really developing this theme I was exploring. Last year, we had ‘As the Oceans Rise and the Empire Falls’ which was like kind of like the climax.

Now, this new album is kind of like the conclusion, the resolution of the four-album arc. It's basically coming out the other side of this years-long journey of self-discovery. So, it's a conclusion but it's also me heading into the next chapter, too, because it chronicles the start of my relationship with my partner. So, while it’s the conclusion of one era, it’s the beginning of another.

Album Cover Art (by Christina Riccio)

1120: Correct us if we’re wrong, but on this album — with songs that have titles such as ‘Barren,’ ‘Thaw,’ ‘Snowglobe,’ ‘Heatwave’ etc. — it seems you were using the cycle of the seasons as a sort-of a continuous metaphor. Can you talk about that?

IM: That was the larger theme within the context of the four-album cycle. But as far as the specific theme within this album itself, it’s kind of talking a lot about the interconnection of the way we relate to our sense of place and memory and the relation to nature and the seasons and things like that. So yeah, it was very much about “exploring” the seasons of life, as well as literally the four seasons that we experience in a year. Each song, either in an overt way or a subtle way, has a nod to a certain moment in the beginning of Christina and my relationship that's tied to a specific place, or a specific season, or something happening within that season.

1120: You refer to yourself on your socials, whether it's jokingly or seriously or half of both, as a ‘purveyor of sorrow.’ But ‘Heatwave’ — your first single off the album — isn't sorrowful at all. It's a really catchy, upbeat song. How and why did you pick that as the lead single? It’s not necessarily emblematic of the entire album.

IM: I think that’s a huge reason why I picked it as the lead single, because it is the most upbeat song on the record and also probably the most upbeat song I've ever released. I liked the idea of having that lead off the album and introduce the album, but then tempering it with the second single, ‘Barren,’ which is its polar opposite and basically details the kind of place that I was in just before I met my partner and started the relationship with her. I like the dichotomy of the two lead singles — one being representative of that initial excitement and flirtation and references to summertime, and then immediately followed by the second single being like, ‘Okay, this was the dark period that I was in just before I embarked on this new journey in my life with another person.’

1120: Is it fair to say this album is a tribute to her?

IM: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, she's the best. We’ve been together seven years. She's very cool. She's done the album art for every single one of the albums in this four-album cycle, actually. It's very much your typical early-relationship stuff. There's both excitement in a new person as well as all the insecurities about what you bring to the table or what they see in you. And that's really what I dive into on this record.

1120: How long did it take to write because as we’ve covered before, with your process, these albums live with you for a long time — like eight or nine years sometimes.

Ian McCuen (Photo by Christina Riccio)

IM: Yeah, they've all taken somewhere between eight and 10 years. ‘Westward to Nowhere’ was a little longer because I started that actually before I even started ‘Songs of Fleeting Permanence.’ But this one, it was about seven years. It's one of those things where I just write very much. I really never have a great answer for when this subject comes up, but I guess that my songwriting just comes from my life, so it's like I have to live my life in order to get the material. I think that's a huge reason why it takes so long to percolate. My songwriting is basically in place of having a diary, essentially.

1120: What else always stands out to us are the guest musicians on your albums and the way you use them. They don't simply serve as a supplement to your songs. A lot of times they take center stage. On this record you have pedal steel (by Mike Turnwall), cello (Alex Cosuins), violin (Sally Schaefer), and trumpet and flute (Randy Devlin and Matt Wisniewski, respectively). They are all so prominent on this album. How do you hear these instruments in your head when you are writing and what’s your philosophy when it comes to using guest musicians?

IM: I love collaborating with musicians here in Buffalo. We're so lucky to have such incredibly talented artists here. And it very much is intentional. When I write all my songs, they come fully formed in my head. I have the orchestrations, the arrangements, all that planned out already. And when I work with an individual artist, I send the parts that I've written to them, but it is definitely very intentional that I want those parts to shine through — not just because they're parts that I've written, but because I want the person performing them to also have ownership of those parts. So whenever it comes time to record, I always tell the people I work with to definitely improvise and make the part their own. Everybody I worked with on this album, they’re all brilliant musicians and they took what I wrote and ran with it and it's really cool to see.

1120: These are very expressive songs on this album and what strikes us too is the guest musicians you use play such an integral role in setting the tone and emotion. For example, the pedal steel, cello and violin used on a number of the album’s songs really make the emotion tangible.

IM: Yeah, the pedal steel player, Mike, he’s from Buffalo originally, but he lives in Seattle now. He's one of my best friends from childhood. We've been in a music relationship since we were in middle school. We've played in so many bands together. We've played on each other's projects. We've done it all together musically, basically. The pedal steel, that's an instrument that I've been wanting to work with for a long time, but it's so specialized and you don't really find pedal steel players a lot. Mike’s been a lifelong guitarist, and when he picked up the pedal steel a few years ago, I was like, ‘I'm gonna fucking find a way to get that on here.’ I used him on four songs. And as for Alex and Sally, they’re both so immensely talented. They’re really the best out there.

1120: On this same topic, how did you come up with the vision to use the ‘musical saw’ on the album (played by Peter Latona)?

IM: I came across that years ago. I'm a big fan of an artist named Kevin Morby out of Kansas City. I've been listening to him for like 10 years and all of his records are brilliant but he put out a record about eight years ago that featured the musical saw on several tracks and I was like, ‘this is just so fucking cool.’ So, I've always had that instrument in the back of my head as something that I want to use on my records but it never quite fit. Then when I got to this album and I was writing the arrangements in my head, I'm like, ‘you know, I really want something haunting and kind of ethereal.’ Again, there's big references to nature on this album, and settings and place, so I wanted the instruments to be organic, acoustic, and that's when I made the connection. I was like, ‘you know what? This would be a perfect place for the musical saw.’

1120: What are you hoping people take away from this record or is that something you leave up to the listener?

IM: I think with any of my stuff, it's definitely up to the listener. That said, I hope people find a relatability in this album. With the previous records in this four-album cycle, as well as my first project, I hope there's a sense of shared human experiences and feelings. But beyond that, with this one, it's a tribute to my partner and the beginning of our relationship and just maybe giving people insight into that and the process of falling in love. That was kind of a challenge for me, too, because like you said, I’m  the ‘purveyor of sorrow.’ This was this was a very new thing to try. I mean, there are definitely sad songs, for lack of a better term. Like I said, ‘Barren’ is about a dark place I was in and there are songs about insecurities and things like that, which is a topic that I've explored on previous records as well. But it's done in a different light on this album. It's done in more of a positive type of light, like, ‘alright, maybe it's gonna be okay because I have this other person.’

1120: Thank you again for speaking to us and congratulations on the LP. Before we go, you have an album release show Friday night at Mohawk Place. Is there anything you want to say about that?

IM: Yeah, it’s happening the same day the record comes out and I'm super excited about being back at Mohawk Place. They did a great job with the restoration. My last release show last year was held there right before they closed down, so it feels very full circle for me and I'm definitely excited. I've got Adelaide andMatches Laces (the solo project of Buffalo musician Mike Santillo) on the bill, which I'm also psyched about as well. I love working with Adelaide. We've played a million shows together over the years and have kind of come up in the local scene together. This will be my first time actually performing with Matches Laces. But I've seen him a couple times before, and I love what he's doing. I'll be performing too with a full band and hoping to maybe have a guest star or two who played on the album. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m pretty excited.

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(NOTE for Transparency: Last year’s physical release of ‘As the Oceans Rise and the Empire Falls’ was released by 1120 Records.)