The High Llamas

Under the direction of multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and arranger <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">Sean O'Hagan</a>, the High Llamas have developed a very specific sonic fingerprint -- Baroque '60s melodies, sweeping orchestral strings, and warmly bleeping vintage synths all commingled in smooth harmonies -- that helped define the indie sound of the '90s and has proven to be influential to quite a few artists in the decades that followed. The group released albums throughout the decade that balanced <a href="spotify:artist:6P7H3ai06vU1sGvdpBwDmE">Steely Dan</a>-styled soft rock songcraft (Gideon Gaye), circular arrangements (Hawaii), and trippy easy listening music (Cold and Bouncy) but never strayed far from <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a>'s original idiosyncratic template. Later albums did see <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> making some stylistic leaps, such as 2003's mostly acoustic Beet, Maize & Corn and 2016's theatrical Here Come the Rattling Trees. After <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> released his second solo album, 2019's Radum Calls, Radum Calls, the High Llamas returned with Hey Panda in 2024, a recording unexpectedly influenced by mainstream pop and R&B sounds.

<a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5bH10AS61OHo7F4UxSaGSp">Cathal Coughlan</a> founded <a href="spotify:artist:38RLX1nwz4aF9CQPTizSXb">Microdisney</a> in Cork, Ireland, in the early '80s and achieved a measure of popularity with their literate and often politically tinged brand of indie pop. After relocating to London in 1982, <a href="spotify:artist:38RLX1nwz4aF9CQPTizSXb">Microdisney</a> continued to release critically acclaimed albums until late 1988, when the group disbanded. <a href="spotify:artist:5bH10AS61OHo7F4UxSaGSp">Coughlan</a> went on to form <a href="spotify:artist:5SVi16bImV92NOhYtThYk1">the Fatima Mansions</a>, while <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> channeled his creative energies into his own music. <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a>'s debut solo album, High Llamas, was released in 1990, and the <a href="spotify:artist:3oDbviiivRWhXwIE8hxkVV">Beach Boys</a>-inspired instrumentation (and general West Coast smoothness) of the record provided a glimpse at where things were headed. <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> then formed the High Llamas as a vehicle to indulge his Baroque pop/<a href="spotify:artist:3oDbviiivRWhXwIE8hxkVV">Beach Boys</a>/space age electronic interests, and released Santa Barbara in 1992.

Right around this time, after meeting the band at one of their shows, <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> hooked up with <a href="spotify:artist:3Rj0tDHoX7C5NFq5DKIpHt">Stereolab</a>, remaining with them as a full-time keyboardist until the release of 1994's Mars Audiac Quintet, but continuing to guest on subsequent records. The High Llamas released Gideon Gaye in 1994, and followed it in 1996 with Hawaii, an album that fused European avant-garde music with an idealized West Coast sunshine pop aesthetic. These two records boosted the High Llamas' profile, as did <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a>'s ongoing association with <a href="spotify:artist:3Rj0tDHoX7C5NFq5DKIpHt">Stereolab</a>. Along with his helping craft their albums, the group's Mary Hansen guested on the High Llamas' 1999 album Snowbug, as well as 2000's Buzzle Bee. <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> also collaborated with <a href="spotify:artist:3Rj0tDHoX7C5NFq5DKIpHt">Stereolab</a>'s Tim Gane on a one-off side project, Turn On, from 1996 and found others to work with, including <a href="spotify:artist:1CnRyfYlaqT9dOP0d9bJsM">Palace Songs</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2vJObElaIZWYDLpiXiJMo9">Cornelius</a>, and a host of other notable artists throughout the late '90s. His mastery at re-creating the sound of a very specific period of <a href="spotify:artist:3oDbviiivRWhXwIE8hxkVV">the Beach Boys</a>' career even earned him a meeting with <a href="spotify:artist:4Q82S0VzF8qlCb4PnSDurj">Brian Wilson</a> with an eye toward a possible collaboration that sadly never came to pass.

In 2003, the Llamas' seventh album, Beet, Maize & Corn, delighted listeners with its almost exclusive use of string, brass, and woodwind arrangements, elements that would carry over (but not dominate) their exquisite, early 2007 effort Can Cladders. Toward the end of that year, Gane and <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> collaborated a second time for the soundtrack to the French comedy La Vie d'Artiste. Along with the High Llamas and <a href="spotify:artist:3Rj0tDHoX7C5NFq5DKIpHt">Stereolab</a> -- whose records he continued to appear on until their swan song, 2008's Chemical Chords -- <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> loaned his talents out to a wide range of artists throughout the decade. String arrangements for a number of <a href="spotify:artist:0FOcXqJgJ1oq9XfzYTDZmZ">Super Furry Animals</a>' albums, a variety of instruments on <a href="spotify:artist:1pRY0BbjvkboNNQduT3icz">Kassin+2</a>'s Futurismo, and many more projects kept him very busy. He also co-created a series of installations with Jean-Pierre Muller that paired the artists' visual images with <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a>'s arrangements. The music from one of them, The Musical Paintings, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a> in 2008.

It wasn't until 2011 that the High Llamas returned. The band opted for a warmer, more overtly '60s-inspired sound with Talahomi Way. After that album, <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> returned to providing arrangements for artists like <a href="spotify:artist:7Lf3LOZp3U3u2f6cWMd3AH">Paul Weller</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0dLSQG3IV62UNVhWUe6mx6">Gruff Rhys</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0c1ZRpPtz3T0prAjbXg1E8">Alexander Von Mehren</a>. The next High Llamas album, Here Come the Rattling Trees, began as a theater piece revolving around characters <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> invented while bicycling around his Peckham neighborhood. The group performed in pubs and theaters in 2014, then recorded the musical portions for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a> to release in early 2016.

He spent the next few years working on records by <a href="spotify:artist:3KNQV3MQsTnUfJaVpZUfCk">Kassin</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5Xx27g4aSstcsU3WF4waDC">Domenico Lancellotti</a>, while also rejoining <a href="spotify:artist:5bH10AS61OHo7F4UxSaGSp">Coughlan</a> to perform <a href="spotify:artist:38RLX1nwz4aF9CQPTizSXb">Microdisney</a> songs at a pair of concerts. The reunion went so well that <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> asked <a href="spotify:artist:5bH10AS61OHo7F4UxSaGSp">Coughlan</a> to provide vocals and lyrics; he contributed each for three songs on 2019's Radum Calls, Radum Calls, the first album under the <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">Sean O'Hagan</a> name in 30 years. The typically delicate and tuneful record was issued by longtime label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Drag+City%22">Drag City</a> in October of 2019. <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> continued to work with a variety of artists ranging from fellow old-timers <a href="spotify:artist:1goerABWhGQPWKhMCZeJ68">Tim Burgess</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:6OiHleP2bHM18dXq4aZQWt">the Coral</a> to more up-to-date acts like <a href="spotify:artist:67xyhWIvYQK5qr6b0gElst">Rae Morris</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4wyNyxs74Ux8UIDopNjIai">King Krule</a>. He also did the score for the 2022 film Funny Pages. Along the way, he decided to record another High Llamas album, this time heavily influenced by contemporary pop and R&B sounds his children played for him as well as his long-time love of producers like <a href="spotify:artist:0IVcLMMbm05VIjnzPkGCyp">J Dilla</a>. It also felt like a natural progression from the R&B-influenced song "Wild in the Streets" that he and his daughter Livvy released in 2020. Along with the usual sounds one might associate with a High Llamas release, this time there are glitchy electronics, Auto-Tuned vocals, and arrangements that have a glossy sparseness. <a href="spotify:artist:2EEw2tt8AJcH9qXUeB96Oc">Will Oldham</a> contributed two co-writes, <a href="spotify:artist:67xyhWIvYQK5qr6b0gElst">Rae Morris</a> and Livvy O'Hagan provided vocals, <a href="spotify:artist:3yBP9gfyXm9T4oaqSNKAKg">Fryars</a> (who had worked on "Wild in the Streets") helped with mixing, and <a href="spotify:artist:4dMtztditoMOlTzkFdqWRk">O'Hagan</a> succeeded in bringing the band's sound into the 21st century. Hey Panda was issued in early 2024. ~ J. Scott McClintock & Tim Sendra, Rovi