Hot on the heels of his backing singer duties for Kim Deal on the opening night of her Nobody Loves You More tour in Dayton, Ohio, musician, producer and recording engineer Mike Montgomery chats to RESOUND about the significance of the show and the release of his first solo album Pony Coughing, out February 28 under the moniker Nervous Verbs.
It’s no surprise that Mike had a part to play in Kim Deal’s first live performance of her much coveted solo album, his connection with Kim and sister Kelley going way back, from working as guitar tech / stage manager for the Breeders and recording their 2018 release All Nerve at his Candyland Recording Studio in Kentucky, to forming R. Ring with Kelley, which has resulted in two stunning albums, 2017’s Ignite The Rest and 2023’s War Poems, We Rested. With several tracks on Nobody Loves You More recorded by Mike, he admits to feeling honoured to have “shared some of the engineering workload with Steve Albini”, the loss of the legendary recording engineer deeply affecting the Deal sisters and many of those in their inner circle, emotions no doubt running high on the evening.
Mike tells us how he reminded Kim of just how big a deal the opening night was for her and those involved in bringing the album to life. “It’s been ten years in the making for her – when she first started demoing the songs it was around 2016, though some of them are even older. I started recording some of these right after the Breeders’ All Nerve recording, Kim booking some recording sessions immediately after that to start on the solo stuff. So, it was kind of neat to see this whole thing come together last night, with people from all over the place, some who had played on the record, some who hadn’t, but just seeing this whole group of musicians come together to bring these songs to the stage. It was a really nice moment to finally see it happening, to take it on the road”.
Singing backing vocals on Wish I Was on the record, Mike was asked by Kelley to join her on backing vocals for a couple of other numbers on stage in Dayton. But as modest as ever, Mike says
I wouldn’t think I’m backing singer material, I just kind of do my thing. It’s really an honour to get to work with artists as amazing as Kim and Kelley, along with everyone they bring into the room”.
Of course, the feeling is mutual, Kelley telling us back in 2023 that not only is Mike “great with gear and great to hang with” but that “his ears are perfect, and he’s pretty much got perfect pitch, which can be so annoying in a studio!”
But Mike needs to blow his own trumpet at the moment with a solo album of his own about to be released, though going it alone wasn’t something he really planned, always working with the buffer of his band Ampline, who have been on the go since 2001, and of course R. Ring. He tells us that whenever he writes something, whether a guitar riff or a full song, he sends it to Kelley to see if she thinks it will work for them both. But on one occasion she was in no doubt about a song he sent her – it was for his voice only, his song alone. Mike grins as he confesses that he thought “what do I do with songs when Kelley or my other band mates aren’t on them?” And this was the turning point that saw him squirm out of his comfort zone “with no Kelley or live band to hide behind”, and start collecting songs for his own project, Nervous Verbs. That said, he enlisted an array of guests to feature on Pony Coughing, including Kelley (obviously), Bat Fang / Speed Stick’s Laura King who drums for R. Ring, cellist Lori Goldston, whose many collaborations have included Nirvana, playing on the band’s infamous MTV unplugged session, Faraquet / Medications/ Beauty Pill guitarist Devin Ocampo, and his old friend Rick McCarty from Ampline, to name but a few.
He explains that going solo “feels like a way for me to honour the songs that don’t have a dedicated home in one band or the other. It allows me to finish the thought of the song instead of just abandoning it. It means I can also invite people to play on them that I wouldn’t normally be in a room with because we can just send tracks back and forth which lets me flesh out song ideas with people anywhere in the world really”. And with no intention of playing these tracks on stage, he’s finding it liberating to reach out to so many people.
I have no pressure or expectations to perform live with this whole cast of characters. Maybe I would limit an idea because I would shape it for how it might eventually be performed live, so maybe without horns and strings for example. But instead I saw this as an opportunity to just make a record with no expectation of being able to perform it live”.
Mike’s process “was pretty laid back” with him demoing a song on his iPhone as the inspiration took him, and building on it from there, resulting in a sound that’s sparse, organic and emotionally intense. “Although I could go to the studio, it was nice to just plonk around in the bedroom or at the kitchen table at the start of a song, and then send it off and add some people’s tracks to it to see where it could go from there”. The only track to be fully produced in the studio in the traditional manner was Chasing The Strings, originally intended to be on the last R. Ring album, the song a rousing rock gem, Kelley’s gasps barely a whisper as they materialise through Mike’s flourishing riffs.
Without layers of production to mask any emotion, it feels like Mike’s heart could shatter on his sleeve like the crystal ball he sings of in I Broke Them All Myself, while Cylops Shores opens with a shiver as his stark storytelling slowly reveals itself atop sparse keys before a pensive rush of strings (courtesy of Lung’s Kate Wakefield on cello and Sylvia Mitchel on violin) clashes against the aching waves of his unrest. It’s clear that music isn’t just a job to Mike but a way of life, articulating his deepest feelings through the safety of songs to capture moments he would otherwise find difficult to express. With lines like ‘When your mother died, you thought of suicide’ and ‘I need a bruise to feel alive’ on Cyclops Shores, it’s hard to believe that he wrote the song while doing the dishes….but then again, creativity often takes hold at the most unexpected moments, and going with that initial feeling can result in a more authentic incarnation than a well-honed substitute.
Any art form, whether it’s a visual or oral thing, it’s usually the first thing that comes into your head that is the strongest idea, and I’m trying to allow myself to believe that more about myself whether it’s a word or a lick or a riff or whatever”.
But there are lighter moments on the album such as lead single, Vicious Riffs, its breezy, driving beat uplifting, though Mike’s lyrics remain closer to the shadows. “I don’t normally write songs with a poppy, kind of happy-go-lucky feel” he says, adding that he wanted to try it out and see it through.
You know, I would often talk to Kim about her bass playing and she would say that she likes to stay on the E string, to stay on that big thick string and drive the song.”
He adds with a laugh, “she would always say, dudes can’t play simple stuff, they just won’t. They’ll always overdo it and play flashy. She’d say it’s harder to just drive through a song and play the appropriate thing and not just kind of show what you can do”. Well, who in their right mind is going to argue with Kim Deal?
Mike goes on, “so I thought, okay, how would Kim play the bass on this track (Vicious Riffs) and just drive through it? I don’t know, I was just kind of exploring ideas and although sometimes if a piece comes together quickly I’ll have a tendency to think, ‘oh that was too easy, I can’t keep that, I’ve got to work harder for it’, this was an example of me just allowing myself to keep an idea that came easily”.
It’s great to see Mike follow his gut instinct, something he’s also keen to instill in the artists who come to his studio such as Courtney Barnett, LUNG, Protomartyr, Buffalo Killers, Ed Crawford and Messthetics. And for any moments of doubt, he’s got the support of many friends in the world of music including his trusty bandmates and record label, Don Giovanni Records. “Don Giovanni is like one guy, Joe Steinhardt, and I feel very supported by Joe in the sense that I could call or text or email him at anytime and he’ll respond…It’s a partnership and very collaborative.”
Although Mike hadn’t planned a solo album, a bit like Kim Deal’s solo venture it’s clearly been brewing for years, and I’m pretty certain a whole stack of songs have yet to materialise when he’s unblocking the toilet or emptying the garbage…
Pony Coughing is out on 28th February on Don Giovanni Records.
To read more about Mike’s great ears, check out our interview with Mike and Kelley Deal (R. Ring), February 2023.
Words: Shirley Mack
@shirleymack.bsky.social