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Five Minutes With ...
RICHARD TILLINGHAST
Q&A by RYAN HUME
Spend some time with singer/songwriter Richard Tillinghast, who is coming
to Cannon Beach from White Salmon, Washington, with his wife and cellist, Tova
Tillinghast, to play songs from their new record “The Door is Open,” at the Lumberyard
Rotisserie & Grill at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 25.
“The Door is Open” is your
second record with OneHum.
For you, how does collabo-
rating with other musicians
change the songwriting and
recording process?
The songs on this album
were written solo, so collab-
oration didn’t change the
writing process, but recording
is a social event, collaborative
by nature, so input and actual
change (in sound, mix, mood)
is invaluable and a big part of
what comes out on the record.
We were really honored to
work with Rick Hulet at his
studio in Bingen, WA on this
record. Rick has since passed
due to cancer.
Creative exchange between
people can really spur growth,
and our new music focuses
more on the process than the
output. I love writing new
songs with other people and
changing my old ones due
to other people’s input or the
events of the minute.
You are originally a
Southern boy, but the Pacifi c
Northwest and its inhabi-
tants seem to exert a strong
infl uence over your songs.
How does this landscape
and the people who live in it
inspire you?
There’s a freedom here. This
is the fi rst place I settled as an
adult. I was in my late 20s, on
my way to California (I thought)
to live and kayak. I drove
through the Columbia River
Gorge on a broken sunny day
and thought, “I’m going to stay
here.” I’d been through the area
twice before on cross-country
kayaking trips and each time
I’d felt a unique connection to
the place, especially the Little
White Salmon River drainage.
There’s a freedom here; I’m
not sure how much of it is
Western “live and let live” versus
personal growth and my ability
to expand in this particular en-
vironment. Regardless, I love it
here. I’ve sown my oats, made
and lost friends, worked with
a piece of land. We’re growing
roots, living the heart of our
lives in the place we’ve chosen
to be, and that’s what these
songs are about.
Some of the songs on
“The Door is Open” cover
momentous life events:
meeting your wife, Tova, be-
coming a father. These songs
are complimented by others
that are purely reminiscent
— like “Still,” about the wilds
of youth — and some older
songs to boot — like “Town
in the Distance,” which was
written 17 years ago. When
you step back and look at
the whole picture the album
paints, what do you see?
I see it as a group of songs
that represent, or describe,
special episodes of a life. The al-
bum defi nitely covers a period
of time fi lled with momentous
events, beginning just before
my son was born. Life is a
continuous thing, and we’re
moving into new material, new
growth, all the time, but this
album will always be special to
me because it paints a picture
of some very good days.
You’ve been known to
banter with an audience
between songs: tell stories
and off er comic relief. How
does performing live — like
you will at The Lumberyard
on April 25 — fuel you and
the band?
28 | April 23, 2015 | coastweekend.com
I’ve always considered my-
self more of a songwriter than
a performer, but playing live
allows one to get his kicks out
one way or another. You can
be a rock star or try to convey
subtle feelings through music’s
wonderful mixture of sound
and ideas. I have a silly sense
of humor, so that comes out
in one goofy way or another.
Also, a performing night is a
night out for Tova and me, or
the whole band, and we like to
have fun. What the performer
feels is what the audience feels.
My brother is a sculptor and we
often talk about our diff erent
art forms. He does his work
alone in a studio, whereas with
music, sharing is part of the
art. It’s all really ironic because
I’m not much of a thespian. I’d
rather be gardening or cutting
fi rewood. I do like to have a
good time, though, and doing
fun shows allows one to meet
people, experiment with sound
and travel.
What’s next for Richard
Tillinghast and OneHum?
I’ve been playing a lot
of distorted electric guitar
lately. I’ve always played
acoustic for the honesty
and “realness” of it. Electric
instruments don’t do much
when there’s no power. So
real, acoustic vibrations
have been my focus. There’s
always been an underlying
urge, though, to just go crazy
with volume and distortion. I
probably should have gotten
it out when I was younger,
but I didn’t. Now I’m merging
melodic acoustic stuff with
distorted, punk-like guitar at
high volumes. Music usually
strives to sound “musical”;
now I’m interested in dis-
cordance and power to tell
more of the story.
We’ve got good shows
coming up and some regular
local gigs. I hope to integrate
the new ideas into a show that
conceivably could go from
kid-friendly music at the start
to punk shattering windows
by the end. Hopefully the kids
would have gone home by
that point.
Wild Side
Metacarcinus magister
The Dungeness crab
of its old shell and emerges in
a fresh, green-colored shell,
Dungeness crab, one of the ZKLFK UHPDLQV ÀH[LEOH IRU
largest edible crabs, is native several days. To mate success-
to the entire stretch of North fully, a female crab must be in
$PHULFD¶V 3DFL¿F FRDVWOLQH this soft-shelled “post-molt”
but, preferring cool water, phase, which usually occurs
rarely ventures south of Santa during May or June. Male
Barbara, California. Brown- crabs (who wait to molt until
ish-purple in color, with dis- the fall), choose their partners
tinguishing spots on its top- by wrapping them in a pro-
side and two very large, pale tective embrace that may last
fore-claws, this handsome for up to two weeks, at which
crustacean typically grows time, in an ancient, romantic
to between 7 and 8 inches in gesture of the sea, the female
width, and can live for up to signals her readiness to mate
8 years. Named for the town by urinating on the male’s an-
of Dungeness, Washington, tennae. If all goes according to
ZKHUHLWZDV¿UVWFRPPHUFLDO plan, the female will carry 2.5
ly harvested in the 1880s, it million fertilized eggs, which
UHPDLQVDVWDSOHLQWKH¿VKLQJ will hatch in the open sea al-
economies of California, Ore- most six months later.
gon, Washington and Alaska.
Only male crabs of a cer-
Five pairs of legs keep the tain size can be harvested
Dungeness moving swiftly legally — a very successful
through the eel-grass beds and method of management that
sandy ocean bottoms that are its has earned Dungeness crab a
home, and it can be found from sustainability rating of “Best
the shallows of the inter-tidal Choice” from Seafood Watch,
zone all the way to depths of an advisory program of the
about 800 feet. Equipped with Monterey Bay Aquarium.
powerful pincers to both de- That’s good news for the cr-
fend itself and capture prey, it ab’s biggest fans: those who
favors a diet of clams and small prize it for its sweet, delicate
¿VKEXWLVDOVRNQRZQDVDQHI ÀDYRU DQG FDQ¶W ZDLW WR H[
¿FLHQWVFDYHQJHU
press their devotion through
M. Magister wears a hard the merits of melted butter.
exoskeleton, which it sheds
during its annual “molt” — a
Deservedly, the Dungeness
time when the crab steps out
crab became Oregon’s “state
crustacean” in 2009.
By LYNETTE RAE McADAMS
NW
word
nerd
By RYAN HUME
Velella
>YԥOܭOԥ@
noun
1. Velella Velella: the
only known member of
the genus Velella; a small,
bluish marine hydrozoan
fixed with a transparent,
vertical growth or float that
resembles and acts like a
sail. Velella drift in colonies
on the open ocean’s sur-
face and are subject to the
whims of the wind
ve•lel•li•dous, adj. Of
or relating to the species
Velella
Origin:
New Latin from around
1830. A taxonomic classi-
fication combining vēlum,
meaning “sail,” with the
Italian suffix –ella, which
is often applied to de-
scribe bacteria. Velella are
commonly called “purple
sailors” or “by-the-wind
sailors.”
“Velella velellas don’t show up on
the beach every year, and this year’s
accumulation is especially heavy: Some
Oregon beaches are covered in an inch of
the dying jellyfish.”
—Meg Wagner, “SEE IT: Scores of daz-
zling blue jellyfish-like creatures wash up on
West Coast beaches,” New York Daily News,
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
“A fringe of lighter blue tentacles,
used for feeding, dangle from the edge
of the Sailor’s underside. These tentacles,
like those of Velella’s relatives, sea anem-
ones, coral and jellyfish, contain micro-
scopic harpoon guns called nematocysts
that stab, poison and lasso the Sailor’s
plankton prey.”
—Darrel E. Ward, “By-the-wind-sailors
victims of their environment,” The Sunday
Oregonian, Sunday, Aug. 16, 1981, Northwest
Magazine, p. 19
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