If you’re familiar with Guided By Voices—and why in the hell wouldn’t you be at this point?—you’re well cognizant of Doug Gillard’s guitar prowess and how integral his phenomenal chops are to the band’s sound. What you may not know—but also should—is that Gillard has released a number of fine solo records (four now, to be exact), with the new Parallel Stride (Dromedary) serving as another quality addition to his catalog.
While Gillard anchors the proceedings in GBV, he doesn’t let loose all that often, so that’s what his own records are for, then, and Gillard deals out some smoking hot licks on the title track. But much of Parallel Stride is contemplative, occasionally mellow pop, with “Face Of Smiles” and “Yes She Loves Me” (with a tasty, and tasteful, solo) serving as highlights. Parallel Stride finds Gillard (hack alert) continuing to hit his stride as a songwriter and proving he’s not just one of the best axemen around.
MAGNET’s Matt Hickey posed five Pulitzer Prize-worthy questions to Gillard about Parallel Stride, the relative pressure of making LPs under his name and whether he’s underrated as a guitarist. We’re also proud to premiere “My Friends” from Parallel Stride.
Your last record (Parade On) was released in 2014, which I can’t even believe. Do these new songs date back a bit, or are they all newly written?
That’s true, it was! I toured and recorded with Nada Surf, had Bambi Kino shows, the odd solo outing and GBV touring and albums from 2016 onward, as well as other sessions. Two of these songs were recorded and mixed at different times around eight-to-10 years ago, put away and waiting for a home, I guess. In 2020, I recorded one for a benefit compilation and started on a few more while I was at it. Not all of them got finished, the pandemic happened, then I decided to finish those in earnest last year. I then wrote and recorded several more to make a full album.
It’s not like you don’t get the opportunity to solo on GBV records, but on the title track especially, you really let it rip. How do you know when you’ve nailed a solo?
[Laughs] Thanks. It really varies. Oftentimes, the first thing you try without thinking about it is the best. But on that “Parallel Stride” solo you mention, I went in cold without a plan and tried a bunch of passes until it did what I needed it to, which took … I want to say maybe a half an hour. A lot of times I like to compose solos, Elliot Easton style, but sometimes it’s fun to just toss something off in a couple of takes and not be a perfectionist about it. Aside from that song and a couple others, engineer/co-producer Tom Beaujour had to remind me to throw in top guitar lines here and there, as I was focused on the song, its flow and structure, etc.
You’re obviously busy with Guided By Voices records, but with the band no longer touring, does this free up time for more solo stuff or maybe a tour supporting Parallel Stride? Or perhaps collaborating again with Nada Surf?
Yes, I will be playing some solo shows, as a trio to start, and there are definitely more GBV albums in the works and Bambi Kino projects. I’d love to collab or record with my Nada Surf comrades anytime, but nothing is planned right now.
As a solo artist, you obviously have the freedom to do what you want, but how daunting or stressful is that responsibility for you, if at all?
It has its share of daunt, I suppose—mainly forcing yourself to make decisions, as the songs have to be built or structured, instrumentation and feel decided upon, and playing most of the parts, though I only played drums on maybe three of these. I had Ray Kubian come in and play on several. Travis Harrison plays on “My Friends,” and a few others were me programming them at home and sending Tom the separate files. I gave those Apple drummers fake names.
Tom helped me a lot. He knows how to apply his tough squirrel love during vocal takes, and that’s actually what I wanted and needed. He’s great at sensing pitches, and I’m not very forgiving of my weak singing voice, so we got pretty good vocal takes on the post-COVID tracks. By the way, Matt, Tom once had one of Tommy Keene’s Telecasters! I think I played it on a Nada Surf LP years ago.
Wow. It’s tough for me to wrap my head around that. Thanks for sharing. In 2023, Rolling Stone updated its top 250 guitarists list, and you checked in at number 238. Be honest: You should be higher up, right?
That year, I was sure that I’d turn heads in the mall if I had a satin baseball jacket made with a huge “#238” in the Rolling Stone font on the back, with like a Les Paul iron-on under it and my name or something, but I never got around to it. You know all the kids would’ve known immediately. But a higher number? I don’t know. There are a lot of genres now. But it’s nice to be mentioned on that platform. I’ll take it.
