Anyone who’s listened to the #Tweetcore Radio Hour over the past few months knows that I can’t say enough about O! Fantastik Melancholy, the latest album from Bottlecap Mountain. Boasting “more hooks than daddy’s tacklebox” (per the Bandcamp description), the album consists of eleven tunes – each exquisitely crafted in terms of writing, performance, and production — that span a variety of musical styles, including jangly folk-rock, hard rock, funk, and even a bit of sci-fi inflected spoken-word. Needless to say, I was incredibly flattered when band member Stewart Gersmann reached out a few weeks ago to compliment me on my recent interview with Matt Derda—and equally excited to do the following interview…

Who’s in Bottlecap Mountain? How did the band come together?

Christopher Stangland – bass, does all our artwork/design.

Yvonne Love – keys, backup vocals.

Ray Flynt – drums.

Me – lead vocals, guitars, most of the songwriting (Christopher has contributed the odd lyric / piece of music here and there).

Also my wife Beth primarily handles the Bottlecap Mountain Twitter account, some booking, and just being lovely.

I should also mention my good friend Steve Walsh who’s a gifted poet and a collaborator from time to time.

How did the band come together?

The band came together after I made a record called “Cheer Up” in 2013/2014. It started as a solo project under the name Bottlecap Mountain which is taken from a band that my dad was in in the late 60’s called The Bottle Cap Mountain Boys. While it was as a solo record to start, Christopher played bass on a few songs. Then I needed people to play shows with, so after a few lineup changes it became the lineup that it is now.

Your first single, “Little Swine,” came out in 2013. How do you keep your momentum and enthusiasm going?

Well, the rest of the band makes it easy. I keep writing songs and we keep wanting to play and record them together! Always chasing that ever elusive muse I guess, haha. Writing songs and making records certainly keeps me going, always trying to get better. Once I feel like I/we haven’t achieved that, I’ll probably call it day.

O! Fantastik Melancholy is your sixth album. How would you describe the evolution of your sound over time?

The easiest way to describe our evolution is to break it up into “eras.”

Cheer Up (2014) was done before there was a band and is a fairly crafted pop record.

Better Luck (2016) is the current lineup plus Zeke Jarmon on lead guitar and was basically our live set at the time.

Claws Sharp (2018) was made after Zeke left and was replaced by Bruce Earl. Kind of our punk-rock record, at least in spirit.

Dismayland (2019) was the 80’s, guitar-rock record.

Then the pandemic happened and we became a trio (Christopher, Yvonne & myself) so the only thing we could really do after we left our houses was to make another record. Fib Factory (2022) is the result of that. It’s our eccentric, almost psychedelic album. It’s got a revolving door of drummers, horn players and backup singers, like a rustic Steely Dan, haha.

Then I wrote a new batch of songs with Ray in mind to play drums. We unified again as a quartet and recorded O! Fantastik Melancholy towards the end of last year and here we are — in the O!FM era!

I love the title. What’s the story there?

Haha, thanks!

The title is actually pulled from the Robert Wiene film The Hands Of Orlac starring Conrad Viedt. Austrian, silent horror flick from the 1920s.

That’s me sort of poking fun at the overall theme of the record, which is essentially Armageddon. A bit cheeky and definitely my sense of humor. The spelling is a collaboration between me and Christopher.

As I mentioned in my intro, the songs on O! Fantastik Melancholy draw on a wide variety of styles, yet they all hang together really well. Do you have any thoughts, broadly, on what makes a good album—and how stylistic diversity might factor into it?

I think most of the records I’ve ever liked don’t just stick to one style. For instance, just listen to any Elvis Costello or Prince record and they are extremely stylistically diverse. I think if you’re writing a record that interests you then other people will be interested too but cohesion is key! A record should flow but also keep the listener guessing. I think we achieved that on this record.

I’m particularly curious about the spoken-word track “Creation Utility.” Funny and dark, it’s right in the center of the album, track six of eleven. Where did it come from, and how does it relate to everything else?

Creation Utility was written by me and Steve Walsh. It fits in an apocalyptic theme with three other songs on the record.

I applied Bruce Springsteen’s four corners approach to the sequencing of the record. If you think of the record as two sides then you have a first and last track on each side, therefore “four corners.” Those four songs are the most important thematically. The rest of the songs fall in and out of the theme not sticking to it as religiously as the four corners. But ultimately I didn’t wanna depress anyone too much so it’s not all doom and gloom. There’s whimsy and love and hope in there too. O! and the voice over on Creation Utility was performed by our buddy, the super talented voice actor Dylan Jones.

If I’m not mistaken, you do most—if not all—of your recording in studios at a time when many artists are recording at home. What’s behind that decision?

We do everything at the studio except for the odd track now and again. We’re fans of recording studios and there are some good ones in Austin. We record mostly with Nick Joswick at 5th Street Studios but we also record with Ray’s dad Ron Flynt who has a studio called Jumping Dog Studios. Ron also happens to be half of the legendary power-pop band 20/20.

We also record a lot of our stuff to tape. Our last album Fib Factory was recorded, mixed, and mastered to tape. Recording studios are cool!

In recent photos, you’re playing a blue Rickenbacker 330—a gorgeous guitar, by the way! What do you like about its sound?

Thanks, I love it! I have two Rickenbackers, the 330 which is a six string and a 360/12 V63 which is a 12 string just like George Harrison’s. Both sound and play great! There’s no other guitar like a Rickenbacker, only Rics do what they do. The 12 string does what anyone familiar with Rickenbacker 12 strings does, sounds exactly like all those classic records. The 330 also. If you want the Peter Buck, R.E.M., sound it’ll get it but it also gets ornery! Tough but tasty. Add some delay or reverb with a lot of gain and it almost becomes hard to tame, it’s my favorite guitar.

Your Twitter bio describes you as a William Henry Harrison enthusiast. Was it the “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” campaign that turned you on to him, or are you more old school?

Too soon, I don’t think I can talk about it.

I understand. What’s on the horizon for Bottlecap Mountain?

We’re going into the studio next month to record a 7” record. The A-Side is probably one of the best things we’ve done up to this point. Gonna record it all to tape. We’ve got a couple reels of 2” analog tape so we’ll start with this 7” single and then there’s another LP planned for release next year.

We also have a Christmas single coming out for the holidays that’s really good, I think! Maybe a tour of the east coast next year too? See how this next album goes, haha.

Looking forward to all of it! Thanks for taking the time to talk to me!

My pleasure !

These were great questions to answer! We really appreciate you being so supportive and playing our stuff on your show!

You’ve got a great DJ voice and wit by the way! Cheers! Viva tweetcore!

You’re so kind!