SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
For more than two decades, Sean Scolnick, known in the music world as Langhorne Slim, has been a folk troubadour. Maybe it's time for a change.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCK N ROLL")
LANGHORNE SLIM: (Singing) We're gonna rock and roll tonight. We're gonna live until we die. We got to get low sometimes. But we're gonna get high.
SIMON: This is the track "Rock N Roll" from Langhorne Slim's new album, "The Dreamin' Kind." And Langhorne Slim joins us now from the studios of WFUV on the campus of Fordham University in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
LANGHORNE SLIM: What a pleasure, and a surreal pleasure. I've heard this voice on the radio for so many years.
SIMON: Well, pleasure's ours. Thank you. You take your stage name from your hometown, Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Langhorne - let's put it this way - doesn't sound to me exactly like folksy territory.
LANGHORNE SLIM: (Laughter) No. It's a suburb of Philly. And, you know, the suburbs are an interesting place to grow up. And for me, like a lot of kids, I'm sure, didn't feel like I fit in exactly perfectly with the environment and with the public school system. And though that was challenging at the time, it drove me into to the basement and into the bedroom with a record player and a CD player and eventually a guitar.
SIMON: This is your ninth studio album, and it does seem to be a change in direction. But you say it grows naturally out of your life.
LANGHORNE SLIM: I was thinking of stuff that I love to listen to. So I can listen to Woody Guthrie, and I could listen to Wu-Tang Clan, and I can listen to The Clash. And all of that music, to me, is folk music. It's music for the people. It's rebel music. It's music that is seeking and searching, I think, for something higher as - in the human condition. So all of it sounds different when you listen to it on record, but it gives me the same feeling. I can find a connection with all of that stuff.
SIMON: Do I hear a lot of '70s in this album?
LANGHORNE SLIM: I think you do hear some '70s in this album. Yeah. I certainly am not going for, like, a retro thing. I want something that could have been made before, could have been made now, could have been made tomorrow and hopefully will make sense in years to come when you listen to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ON FIRE")
LANGHORNE SLIM: (Singing) Let me show you my love and devotion. My love is deeper than the depths of the ocean. I'm on fire. I'm on fire.
SIMON: You performed this week on "The Daily Show." Jordan Klepper was host, and you've recently opened for him on a comedy tour.
LANGHORNE SLIM: Yeah.
SIMON: Is it tough to be a musician opening for a stand-up comedian?
LANGHORNE SLIM: I once had the opportunity to open many, many, many years ago, for a great comedian named Eugene Mirman, who I love and adore. And I can remember back then, nobody knew who I was. And so I would come out dressed funny, like I still do, and people would just start laughing, thinking that I was, like, a musical comedian. And I would sing some heartfelt love song. And those shows were tough, though educational.
But these were just theaters full of people that I think - and what I've - you know, coming out of the pandemic, I'm a somewhat new father. Presence and connection, I think, is what we are all hoping for. It's just the energy that I'm trying to carry with me. And the crowds that I've come across, I feel a heightened sense of that. And so if I could bring that in song and story on stage, that's what I feel like I was met back with. There wasn't a whole lot of resistance. They were very warm, wonderful crowds.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANCE ON THRU")
LANGHORNE SLIM: (Singing) Morning came and morning went. Never once back again. Life is short, and life is long, so greet each morning with a song. Something good is coming soon. But you got to keep your eyes wide open.
SIMON: You have been very open, both musically and in interviews, about trying to break away from a dependency on prescription medication, especially antianxiety pills. Now that you're - well, firstly, how are you?
LANGHORNE SLIM: I'm good. I just celebrated six years sober. And as they say, one day at a time.
SIMON: Yeah.
LANGHORNE SLIM: But I am good today.
SIMON: And why was this important to you?
LANGHORNE SLIM: Well, my friend - if I may call you my friend.
SIMON: Please.
LANGHORNE SLIM: I - It's a struggle that I've dealt with my whole life - anxiety, bouts of depression and addiction. And I tried - over 10 years ago, I tried for the first time getting clean, but I wasn't doing anything else. I wasn't connecting with other people, trying to live a sober life. I wasn't involved in any program or in therapy, any of that stuff that I currently do. And I was in a situation very similar to the one I find myself in today, where I had a new record out at the time, and I had big expectations. And I didn't realize that my ego and my expectations were out of whack.
It took getting pretty beat up - as it does - to finally find the switch within myself that I checked myself into rehab in Nashville six years ago. Entered a program that I've - to my surprise, I've learned to love, and my life has changed dramatically. I mean, there's no way that I could be a father. There's no way that I could really attempt to be on a call like this with you and try to be truly honest and present, you know, without some of the steps that I've made.
SIMON: Let me ask you about the song, "Loyalty."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOYALTY")
LANGHORNE SLIM: (Singing) Well, I've been a restless traveling man, searching for something I couldn't hold in my hand. I had a death wish, but somehow, I survived. Sometimes I wonder how I made it this far alive.
SIMON: So is this some of what we've been talking about?
LANGHORNE SLIM: Yes, sir. Yeah. It's exactly what we were just talking about. And, man, it's easy to run. For those that like to run, it's easy to run. And, yeah, you need loyalty to love.
SIMON: It sounds like you're doing well now, but you're constantly - what? - vigilant, right?
LANGHORNE SLIM: I am vigilant, and nobody makes it through life unscathed, you know? It's an impossibility. And so we - the scars are beautiful, and they help us to our healing. I heard somebody say the wound is where the healing is, and I really like that.
SIMON: There's also hope on this album, isn't there? And tenderness. I'm thinking of a song like "Dream Come True."
LANGHORNE SLIM: Indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DREAM COME TRUE")
LANGHORNE SLIM: (Singing) You and me, baby, we are the dreaming kind. And they say we're crazy. Maybe we are sometimes. But they always say so many things.
That's a song for my little boy that I started writing maybe 15 years ago, and it was about something totally different. And now my son walks around the house singing that song, and it makes me cry, man. It's so sweet. It's just magical.
SIMON: Langhorne Slim. His new album, "The Dreamin' Kind," is out now. Thanks so much for being with us.
LANGHORNE SLIM: It's an honor and a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAUNTED MAN")
LANGHORNE SLIM: (Singing) Well, I'm tired... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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