It seemed for several years as if Richard Davies was going to be another casualty of the music business: A wildly talented performer with a rabid cult of fans but little commercial success, forced to take a day job to make ends meet. No one can fault a guy for wanting to be able to make a living, but the loss to the creative world is a blow.

He left behind as strong a back catalog as any artist recording in the 90s, from the work of his Australian band the Moles to his bliss-inducing (and list-topping) album with Eric Matthews as Cardinal to his more challenging but no less rewarding trio of solo albums.

And then, nothing. Davies, who moved from his native Australia to Massachusetts, earned his law degree, opened his own practice and seemed to put his guitar and four track on the shelf.

Lately, however, it seems as if we Davies fans, the few, the proud, have a lot to giddily anticipate. The first new music from him since 2000's solo album, Barbarians, came in the form of a collaboration with former Guided by Voices leader Robert Pollard. The disc, Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks from Cosmos, found Davies and friends creating song beds over which Pollard sang his own lyrics and melodies. Unlike most such Pollard collaborations, four of the songs includes Davies' vocals, for all intents and purposes solo tracks. It's an album that blends Davies' twin sounds: stripped-down acoustic beauty with more fleshed-out pop (Davies' "Hail Mary" and the Pollard-sung "Nude Metropolis" are two of the best).

Even more exciting was word that Davies and Matthews had come together again after 15 years to work on a follow-up to their self-titled Cardinal debut. The four completed songs, while a bit less majestically produced that the first album, still fulfilled the promise of this long hoped-for re-pairing. Word was that the pair couldn't get along, however (which seems to have been the problem with Cardinal in the first place) and that the project had been shelved. As you'll read below, however, it seems the two realize the fruit of their troubled labors is worth the effort and plan an album in 2010. Keep your fingers crossed.

Finally, a long-gestating fourth solo LP from Davies seems to be in the offing. An album cover for something called Night Music is found on Davies' quasi-official fan site, and Davies reports here that something under his own name also is tentatively due next year.

Add to this the fact that Davies seems to be crawling back into the light via the Internet. He has a more active MySpace presence these days, shares news occasionally via the above-mentioned web site and, most interestingly, has a blog where he shares thoughts, old reviews, correspondence and photos. It all whets the appetite for more music, and finally, it feels like he has the time and inclination to deliver.

TIRBD: After earning critical acclaim with Cardinal, you issued three solo albums and then, for all intents and purposes, vanished from the music landscape. I know you got a law degree and started practicing. Was there a conscious decision, or perhaps a need to leave music behind to focus on law? Did you keep writing and playing even though you weren't necessarily recording or performing?

RD: I was 34 years old, and somehow had managed to ride the music industry from being in a good but unpopular band (the Moles) in Sydney to the point where I owned a house and had a wife and dog. lots of touring at that time and long stretches away from home helped make the decision easy - despite my eccentric music, I have a fairly balanced brain, and I always liked the law, I love my practice. I never stopped writing or recording for my own amusement though.

You have returned with the Cosmos project with Robert Pollard. How did that come about? Does this signal a re-emergence for you musically?

I'd always liked Bob s music and I knew David Newgarden, the guy who manages him, from when I first came to America. Bob and I wrote some letters back and forth and the album grew out of that. I had to take on a different role with Bob, by doing backing tracks for him etc, which was a real challenge and a lot of fun.

It seems like I'll be playing at CMJ with a band made up of a shoegazer-loving bass player and Bob Fay and his buddies the Whyte Kastles, a husband and wife team who specialize in weird soundscapes from Easthampton, Mass.

I'm working on some Cardinal stuff - four songs are done and recorded, and I have a solo record kind of finished - they may be coming out in early 2010.

How did Cosmos turn out compared to your initial expectations? Do you see a future for that project, or was it a one-off?

Cosmos is just out of the loop - it might have a future - I have done some ideas for any possible Cosmos recording. I love the way it turned out, like Bob said, its strangely beautiful, which is exactly what we were shooting for.

You have had some strong collaborators, but also done a lot of work almost entirely on your own. Do you prefer one or the other? What does each scenario provide, beyond the obvious, that the other does not?

I like collaboration the most because its the most fun to see what other people do with your ideas. That said, I like the challenge of finishing a song on my own too. I like that my collaborator collection includes Cosmos and Cardinal, because while they haven't sold a lot of records or filled stadiums, the music is mostly on target, but even more fun, I don't think Eric Matthews likes Bob Pollard and vice versa.

People got very excited by word that you and Eric Matthews had gotten back together to record, but it seems as if that project has been permanently shelved. Having heard the four finished songs, I'm surprised, and assume it's more a matter of personalities than music. Would you care to address that at all?

Well, we're back together, man, for the time-being. I think the music is uniformly strong that we managed to patch together, and there is more good stuff in the pipeline, but you are spot-on with your observation - we might come up with an album's worth of material, but our personalities are extraordinarily different. To be in Cardinal is to drink of the poisoned chalice, but if you have a strong constitution, you'll be perfectly fine.

The accolades heaped upon your music must be flattering and empowering, but are they also stifling or limiting in terms of the pressure or realization that new directions might not be tolerated?

I think that's the same for all creative types, writers, painters, etc. I simply don't care what people approve or disapprove of. I tired that for a while (e.g. see Telegraph, my attempt at a VH1 album - that one didn't work, although it has good music in there). Ultimately, its been surprising that the energy I put into music has made a few people here and there react to it. That's always rewarding. Ask Mick Jagger - his last solo album sold 900 copies, but it won't stop him doing another.

Is your outlook on music -- including as a listener, writer and performer -- different now because of the time you've been away from the grind of trying to make a career of it?

Yes, very different. A lot less grind is way for the better. I have a house, children, a dog that escapes and chews my important papers, but I still have music friends, Bob Fay I've known for 15 years, Bob Pollard, people like that.

With the music stuff these days, I just come to the canvas and have at it, let it pile up, then if it looks like somebody is going to want a show or a record, I dig in and finish that *h&t up.

Will we ever hear the unreleased music you've been making over the past several years? How does it compare with your three solo albums?

Chapter Music, a label out of Melbourne Australia, run by Guy Chapman, is set to put out a solo album in early 2010. It may be vinyl only, . They also will be putting out a Cardinal record of some description.

The unreleased stuff is pretty hi-fi for the most part, at the same time more on the front-foot (meaning more aggressive, or savage) than some of my other solo releases.

You mention having to play a different role in Cosmos with Robert Pollard because you had to provide him backing tracks. Do you take anything away from that experience that will affect your own music?

Oh, I think so. The stuff I've been writing in the last few months has been a mixture of either solo, Cosmos, or Cardinal. It all starts out at the same place, piles of lyrics on scraps of paper and mounds of musical ideas made with whatever comes to hand, then a period of sifting, winnowing and contemplation. The difference I think this time is the volume of stuff I have lying around because it tends to just pour out on a Friday or Saturday night and accumulates, then gets seized upon if there is a need to beat it together for a project.

Labels: Monday Interview, music