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In early 2019, Neil Lord toured for months, playing guitar and synthesizer in the backing bands of Molly Burch and Jess Williamson. He had a vision of himself as being hired, a skilled gamer who had tried his best to bring out the best in other songwriters. But in March of that year he met Brennan Courtney and started dating him, and everything started to change.
Lord was in love with Courtney’s young daughter from a previous relationship and unexpectedly delighted with his new found role in a family. In the stability of this close-knit unit he also found an artistic support that he had never felt. “I just don’t think I understood the terms real, compassionate, supportive love,” he says. “It woke me up in a way; I didn’t know that I was ready to start a family. “
Soon after, the couple went looking for homes in the area when an unusual gem hit the market in Elgin. In the house they found huge built-in bookshelves, a mud chimney and ceiling beams made from trees that were purchased directly from Lost Pines in Bastrop. “It was just bubbling with energy,” says Lord. They immediately made an offer.
Falling in love turned Lord from a musician driving through town to a cozy homeowner in just over a year. Looking back, he says: “It was so natural, so obvious that I had to say yes to this path.”
At Elgin, Lord returned to his own musical endeavor, Future Museums, a project that has amassed nearly a dozen albums and EPs since 2012. After the news of Courtney’s pregnancy, new album worth material came out. “Those songs just sat inside me, ready to go,” says Lord.
The resulting album, Harpoon of Light, was released earlier this month and consists of lively instrumental songs that radiate warmth. The album with the aptly named title is the acoustic equivalent of being impaled by a glowing beam of joy. Or, as the Lord likes to say, “a shot of light into the heart”.
The album is about flowing synthesizers, but also includes guitar in almost every song and retains a distinctly human fingerprint. Lord discovered a drum machine with a range of unusual sounds (like clapping hands on sofa cushions and spoons clinking tea glasses) that are also everywhere. While Future Museums’ previous albums often ventured into darker sonic terrain, this song collection avoids this tension and includes effortless, soul-cleansing sounds.
Lord’s meditative approach makes sense as he and girlfriend Jessie Hill teamed up earlier this year to begin producing guided meditation recordings. “We came up with the idea of offering a free online meditation service that I would compose weekly tracks for,” says Lord. Released under the name Calm Palm on YouTube and Spotify, the soft tones of the songs float under uplifting narratives. This project infiltrated Lord’s songs and taught him to use “repetition as a dynamic tool,” a technique that he said encourages listeners to look inward rather than reacting outwardly to music.
As Lord taps into this vast reservoir of productivity, he finds himself in the midst of some conflicting paradigms for Austin musicians. As the city becomes more and more unaffordable, artists like Lord have slipped into the embrace of neighboring small towns. His ongoing work with Calm Palm also reflects the trend by artists to abandon the relentless album cycle in favor of steady production of songs by alternative means. “To include family and a slower lifestyle in the DNA of these records,” he says, “I have a feeling that my music will evolve and grow with me.”
Hear Harpoon of Light here.
Sound Exchange is a recurring music column about the capital’s cultural currency. Bryan C. Parker brings you Austin musical stories, local artist profiles, and must-see events.
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