Brightblack Morning Light record long slow songs in the tradition of Phil Pearlman and recently left their Northern California homestead for dustier country in the southwest. Guitarist Nathan “Nabob” Shineywater and Fender Rhodes-ist Rachel “Rabob” Hughes are joined on this tour by Ben McConnell and Elias Reitz. They are currently headed south. Nabob speaks just before loading in his gear.

Do you still live in the adobe house in New Mexico?
We’re still living in the same place—it borders a wilderness area in the mountains north of Santa Fe. It’s a really great location.
How far away is the nearest traffic light?
About an hour drive. We don’t get the mail or anything—the postal service doesn’t even come up to the town. We’re definitely off in our own little thing.
Do you have electricity?
Oh, yeah—electricity is something probably everyone has, even most people that live off the grid. It’s how you get that electricity and what responsibility you take for how you get it. Most people don’t even know where their water comes from. They think you turn the knob and it just comes out of the faucet.
Do you grow your own food?
No, we still shop at Whole Foods and stuff. But we don’t leave often, so we have to plan it all out. There’s a lot of farmers here, too. Some stuff we can get locally like eggs.
How self-sufficient are you?
We both lived in a tent for two and a half years.
The same tent?
No, we had our own, and a chicken coop that had been remodeled with a stove and bathroom. We lived like that for a long time. We lived in the redwood forest and you can’t grow vegetables—it’s old growth and the sun never reaches the bottom, so we couldn’t grow our own food. Rachel had a full-time job at an organic bakery and she’d sell at farmer’s markets and trade for fresh vegetables and stuff like that. That’s how we ate. I had a job collecting chicken eggs from organic free-range chickens. It was kind of National Park land and they had these nomadic chicken coops you pull behind a four-wheeler, and they’re very mellow, these Araucana chickens. They’re more gourmet—they’d lay green eggs or blue eggs. Really cool eggs. I didn’t eat eggs at the time.
So they were cool with you?
They were! Eventually anybody who’s owned chickens will tell you they eat their own eggs sometimes—I’ve watched ‘em do it. Maybe it’s some kind of psychological thing. After I saw that, I was like, ‘If they can eat that…’
Do you know how to hypnotize a chicken?
I have no clue, man.
Did you grow up in the middle of nowhere or did you deliberately go looking for it later?
We both grew up in rural Alabama, but at like age eleven I moved to the largest city in Alabama and lived there til I was eighteen. So I don’t know. Before that I lived way out—I’m living way out now! We started out and have always pretty much maintained a rural lifestyle, but we really enjoy visiting cities and seeing if there is real progression among folks.
What do you mean?
That’s what I’m asking—what do the people calling themselves progressive mean? That’s an interesting and fascinating thing—what is and is not progression. It’s kind of fascinating with touring. We kind of see what the shake down is—we have a pretty screwed-up country and always have, but it’s getting more ludicrous as time goes on… I think my favorite characters in life are people who walk the walk. John Muir, Ed Abbey—they interacted with progressive things but also dropped out. For the betterment of the world. John Muir is on the California quarter—I was hoping that would be a wake-up call to California, like, ‘Hey, does everybody know who John Muir is? Have you checked out what he did?’
How has living so far away from powerlines and pavement changed you?
It really gives you a sense of powerlines and pavement—how young an idea that is, and how it can only serve one or two functions and one or two modes of living. And the truest thing it offers is that it’s untouched and unmanipulated by humankind. Sometimes it’s good to take a look at that. Like, ‘Hey, what else is there besides capitalism or government or whatever?’ That’s all temporary.
Have you visited the wilderness of another continent?
I’ve never done that. The American west and the southwest—that’s my foreign country, really. It’s like a foreign country—different nations and people.
What are the new songs like?
We’re experimenting with new stuff and getting a little more comfortable. The thing about the record—it was no gimmick that we recorded in a tent. I wouldn’t necessarily think that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but since we haven’t been in a tent—we’ve been housesitting in an adobe—there’s more time to focus and sit down with our instruments.
So a roof overhead helps you concentrate?
Yeah, a little.

BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT PLAYS SUNDAY WITH WOMEN AND CHILDREN, MARIEE SIOUX AND KARL BLAU AT MCCABE’S GUITAR SHOP, 3101 PICO BLVD., SANTA MONICA. 7 PM / $15 / ALL AGES. WWW.MCCABES.COM.