Wet Sounds: M. Ward Raises His Voice

There’s another important guest that plays an important role on the record. Here’s a hint: Look to the title. The first sound on More Rain is, in fact, the sound of raindrops falling, which makes up the entirety of its found-sound introductory title track. And Ward knows a thing or two about rain —he lives in Portland, Oregon, a city that receives around 40 inches of rain annually, and a fairly damp climate year-round. And rainy days, for Ward, present a healthy working atmosphere, as well as a backdrop for his new batch of songs.

“Portland has three rainy seasons every year,” he says. “So you have to learn how to deal with it if you live up here. I have found that it creates a perfect environment for music, and it’s a pretty healthy reaction to bad weather. But it’s also a metaphor, I think, for me. I read the New York Times every day, and I can’t help, just like everybody else, but be affected by all the bad news in the world. A lot of the time it just seems like things keep getting worse. More bad news. More rain. In my own life, I find that music is a good way to channel all of these anxieties or just feelings.”

Indeed, the precipitation on More Rain isn’t strictly literal. Rain has been a metaphor for darkness, sadness, depression and misfortune for as long as there has been popular music, from Buddy Holly’s “Raining In My Heart” to Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall.” There’s certainly some hard rain a-falling throughout the record. Ward grieves for a “good friend gone in a flash” in a deadly car accident on the somber, gorgeous “Slow Driving Man.” And for how upbeat “Time Won’t Wait” is, musically, it harbors a lonely heart, Ward lamenting, “All I want is one soul to love me.”

It’s not all downpours and deep blues, however. Ward explores a wide variety of emotions on More Rain, and frequently plays the part of the consoling soul, the listening ear and the confidant. On “Phenomenon,” he lends words of support (“I just believe in you”), and on “Pirate Dial,” pings back at a lonely broadcaster, singing, “I can hear you.” And in “Confession,” he’s even more vociferous in his pitch of a cure for what ails you, singing “Anybody got a loan they need lifted? Anybody got a pain in their hearts?”, as if taking the role of a preacher in a traveling tent revival show.

Ward isn’t necessarily a motivational speaker or a life coach, though there are surely some humble words of inspiration in his songs. He merely wants to represent a relatable, human range of emotion.

“Normal, everyday life for me is some happy days, some sad days,” he says. “I think that’s normal for most people. I guess I really don’t know. For me, a downer record isn’t very interesting. And a record that’s completely ignorant of bad news isn’t very interesting to me either. It’s always a balance in terms of whether we’re talking about an entire album or individual songs. There’s a balance I have in my head, that makes its way into the music.”

M. Ward’s voice is all over More Rain, and not just his literal vocal chords, which he uses in more versatile ways than ever. It’s also a strong representation of his authoritative and creative voice. For as elaborate as More Rain is when held against his earliest recordings, they all feel very much like the creation of a singular artist. It’s a new volume of an ever-growing body of work, or as Ward sees it, the continuation of one continuous piece of art.

That’s unlikely to change going forward. With 17 years of making music under his belt, Ward is confident in who he is as an artist and what he wants from his music. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll cease experimenting with sound. He simply places faith in his own methods, which haven’t failed him yet.

“I feel like all the records I’ve made, in my mind and under my name, it all feels like one long record to me,” he says. “It all feels like chapters of the same book. I found a way of doing something that makes me happy, and I enjoy it very much. I’m not going to go out and make a reggae record because it’s a laugh. I really love the process, so I continue the process.”