Piecing Together the Cracked Fragments: A Conversation with Bill Orcutt

Something powerful draws humans to create new expressions from the shredded remnants of a past existence. As far back as the second half of the third millennium BC, ancient Mesopotamians pieced together colored stones, shells, and ivory to craft novel temple artwork. Jumping forward, the Alexander at Pompeii, the Lion Hunt at Pella, and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul are all a part of this artistic lineage in which stories are told through the immense beauty created by reconfiguring broken pieces into a new whole. This approach to art is also not limited to merely the visual. As shown through the sheer breadth of his upcoming three night residency – March 20, 2026 through March 22, 2026 – at Roulette Intermedium and his performances at the Big Ears Festival a week later, guitarist Bill Orcutt is also a maestro of musical mosaicry. 

Consider his group, The Four Louies (Fake Estates, 2024). Most people would never even think of combining a controversial work by minimalist master Steve Reich and a 1950s Rhythm and Blues song turned 1960s pop hit with incomprehensible lyrics. But that is precisely what Orcutt does with The Four Louies. Live, he leads a thirteen-member ensemble in combining the maddening gradual augmentation of “Four Organs” with the raucous groove of “Louie Louie.” And, somehow, it all works. The shards of each piece are even better when finally put together.

Alternatively, one could point to Orcutt’s How to Rescue Things (Palilalia, 2024), where solo guitar meets samples of old “beautiful music” strings. The recording’s title itself seemingly references the idea of reshaping the perception of its parts. And the gorgeous otherworldly recording contained therein provides an unusual perspective that seemingly transcends both stylistic norms and time itself. 

However, to some extent, both projects merely reflect larger trends in Orcutt’s work. His computer music projects have been released on his Fake Estates – a name that evokes a shattering of perceptions and superficiality. These recordings, like the studio version of The Four Louies, are molded out of an open-source program Orcutt designed himself, fittingly called Cracked. His other recent works have mostly come out on his main label, Palilalia Records, arguably one of the greatest guitar-centered labels operating today. Palilalia is unlike any other record label in that it seeks out artists actively desiring to move their axe to new areas of sound. This has led to not only several fascinating solo guitar records by a roster of artists but also the acclaimed Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet with Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish. 

For Orcutt specifically, it again goes back to the idea of building out of brokenness. For years, his instrument has had only four of its normal six strings. In the eyes of some, his instrument is something that needs to be “fixed.” To him, it opens a world of great opportunity. His distinctive sound – a melding of free improvisation, blues, punk, the noise rock of his band Harry Pussy, and more –  is also carved off of existing forms and blended into a new, vibrant one.  

We sat down with Orcutt to discuss his process for crafting musical mosaics and what listeners can expect from both his Roulette residency and Big Ears performances. 

PostGenre: You are presenting a lot at your upcoming residency at Roulette.

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Bill Orcutt:  Yeah, that’s true.

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PG: How did the residency come together?

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BO: Kind of piecemeal. Cyrus Pireh, whose record [Thank You, Guitar (Palilalia, 2025)] I released, emailed me to see if I wanted to do a show with him at Roulette. I told him I would. I’m especially excited about bringing The Four Louies to New York. At the time Cyrus emailed me, I had just done it in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and was in the mindset of wanting to take it somewhere else. [Roulette’s Associate Artistic Director] Matt was also excited about presenting Four Louies there.

That performance grew into two nights and more performances by artists in New York whose records I put out. Then we added the Sunday performance so the trio could play, and so I could have a duo with Mariam Rezaei. It all kind of fell together over time.

PG: As far as The Four Louies, the work combines Steve Reich’s “Four Organs” with Richard Berry’s 1957 R&B hit “Louie Louie.” Where did the idea for such an unusual combination come from?

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BO:  They’re both in the key of A. But, in general, I don’t know where the idea came from. Where do any ideas come from? When they do come, it always feels like a miracle to me that I can start with nothing and suddenly an entirely complete idea will pop into my head. And that includes the entire cover art and title. But I don’t know where the ideas come from.

The context for how The Four Louies came to be is that I was trying to make a new Cracked record on Fake Estates. I often go to the Agnes Martin room at SF MoMA. I always come out of there thinking that the paintings are music; that they’re sound. From there, I’ll go home and try to make something. I always fail when I do. And that is what happened originally for Four Louies. I was frustrated with not being able to make an idea come into reality. But then, out of nowhere, another completely unrelated idea popped into my head. And that was basically The Four Louies.

I quickly figured out that though the tempos of the Reich and Berry pieces are not quite the same, you could cheat it. The keys are the same, and both are organ-driven. “Four Organs” uses maracas, and “Louie Louie” doesn’t, but it does work really well with them. And even in terms of chronology, the two came out pretty close to each other in time; within a few years of one another. It seemed like they were destined to be together.

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PG: “Louie Louie” was a huge hit, but most people did not understand the lyrics. “Four Organs” was incredibly polarizing. It is interesting to see them side by side, as it serves almost as a commentary on music criticism itself and how so much of what is in the real power of music transcends words.

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BO:  I’m not really criticizing criticism, but I do love the story of the riot that “Four Organs” caused the first time it was performed. A woman came to the stage and banged her umbrella to demand that the musicians stop. So great.

It’s also fun for me to have Willie Winant playing maracas with The Four Louies. It’s funny to me because he’s such a talented musician, and to just relegate him to maracas for thirty minutes is funny. Especially since he worked with Reich for a while, too.

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PG: The idea of recontextualizing musical ideas is present in much of your work, not only with The Four Louies. How to Rescue Things puts together samples of old easy listening recordings and your freer-sounding guitar. Now you will be presenting a duo with Mariam using samples on turntables. What most interests you in recontextualizing things already in existence and putting a different direction or spin on them?

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BO: That’s a good question. Obviously, something is going on because I keep doing it. From the beginning, I have always borrowed ideas or sounds from here and there. I have also made record covers or references to things outside of the music I was working with. I read a lot, and that folds into what I do. I don’t know if I have an overarching philosophy behind it. I’m a bit of a magpie. It just happens.

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PG: As far as How to Rescue Things, in particular, how did you come up with the idea for that record?

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BO: I’m always looking to deploy the guitar in new ways I haven’t explored before. Because I’m a jazz fan, I was aware of albums from the ‘40s and ‘50s like Charlie Parker with Strings (Clef, 1954), where jazz players would add some string sweeteners to what they were doing. Those projects often struck me as weird and funny. From those, I had the idea, almost as a joke, of something like ‘Orcutt with Strings.’ I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what kind of strings I should use and how the project should sound.

After listening to many different types of string recordings, I thought that gospel strings might work well. I listened to a lot of gospel records, including . Elvis’s gospel records, which I had never listened to before. Elvis’s records were great, but weren’t right for the project. I ultimately realized that I needed something more like a big band string section of the type that I remember from when I was young. That final realization ended up working for the album. From there, I was able to narrow down recordings and found what I thought was perfect for the album. I then wound up using those recordings, after cutting them up and looping them in different ways.

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PG: Although you did not use gospel recordings, there is definitely a spiritual element to How to Rescue Things. Is that something you intentionally set out to put on the record, and which may have initially driven you to gospel recordings?

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BO: I don’t know. There’s more there than I originally conceived. Because the original idea was just ‘Orcutt with Strings,’ at some point, I decided to go beyond the jokey title. The album wound up being more than I initially intended. But where that element comes from, I don’t know.

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PG: OK, and then as far as the duo with Mariam Rezaei on the third day, do you feel that you will be responding somewhat similarly with a turntablist as with the prerecorded material on How to Rescue Things because you are incorporating pre-recorded works in both, or are they wildly different because Mariam adds her own artistic voice?

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BO: It will be the first time Mariam and I play together. She originally approached me about putting out a record by one of her groups with saxophone, drums, and stuff. But I told her that, other than ones I am on, I really only enjoy working on solo guitar records. And then we hit on the idea of her doing a different kind of guitar project by playing record samples on turntables. She proposed making the samples entirely out of my own recordings and has been doing a solo turntables show live around that idea for a little while now.

As for our performance, she happened to be in New York while I was at Roulette, and it seemed like a good rare opportunity for us to play together. Also a rare opportunity for me to play against myself. And that’s how that came about. I’m excited, But I have no idea what it’s gonna be like.

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PG: Do you think playing against yourself will feel strange?

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BO: Yes,  I do. But I’m looking forward to the opportunity. I have thought about it and tried to imagine what it will be like. I’ve heard some of the stuff that Mariam has been doing, so I have some sense of what she might do. But her work has also been evolving. So, I’m not exactly sure where it will all wind up.

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PG: Since you mentioned your label releasing solo guitar albums, where did the name Palilalia Records come from? Palilalia is a type of speech disorder where you repeat your own words or phrases.

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BO: It is. Well, I always tell people that I only chose the name because I could easily get a .com extension on that word. [laughing] But the name comes from an interest I have in involuntary sounds and trying to find a way to incorporate them. At the time, I would watch people with palilalia on YouTube, documenting their disorder. And it occurred to me that the sounds they were making were musical. And I could see parallels with how we musicians document ourselves on YouTube. I felt a connection was there. That’s how I wound up using the name.

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PG: So, why did you decide to start Palilalia Records instead of using your existing one, Fake Estates?

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BO: That’s a great question. You’re right, Fake Estates predates Palilalia. But I don’t know. When I started making records again after stepping away for twelve years, I needed a label. I needed a place to release my music and, at that time, Fake Estates was completely dormant. It had only existed for two releases.

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PG: What do you enjoy most about running your own label? Presumably, it’s one thing to release your own records, but quite another thing to present other people as well.

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BO: Uh-huh. To be honest, I love fucking around with my little label. It’s a lot of fun. It’s also a lot of work – a shocking amount for what we achieve. But it’s also great fun. And, now, we are almost at a hundred records. I just sent off PA 097 to be pressed. I don’t know, maybe when I get to number one hundred, I’ll decide to go in a different direction. But, for the time being, I enjoy it.

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PG: At Roulette, you will also premiere a new quartet work. What can you share about it?

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BO: It is interesting because I was putting off making more music for a four-guitar record. It’s been five years since I recorded the studio record with that group [Music for Four Guitars (Palilalia, 2022)]. It took a while to write more for the group, both because I don’t like to repeat myself and because I didn’t really understand how I made the first one. It kind of worked magically; I made the quartet, not fully understanding what I was doing, and it ended up being successful. What would happen if I tried it again? It might be really disappointing.

Eventually, I realized that I couldn’t reconvene the group and have us play the same material over again. I needed some new music. So, I just followed the same procedure that I had done to make the first record. And what we will be performing is what came out the other end of the meatgrinder.

Before I started, one thing I did was listen to all the discards from the first record; all the material that I wound up rejecting as not being up to snuff. I listened to it as a baseline for how failure in this context sounds. I can definitely say that the new pieces are better than the discards of the previous record. It’s also interesting because I think there were things I was trying to do on the first record that weren’t working, wound up in the discard pile, and ended up in the new pieces but in a different form. I don’t know if that’s a sign of progress, or what exactly, but it was fun to make the new ones. Shane [Parish] already transcribed them. Every morning, I’ve been playing and listening to the recordings we have made of them. Unlike the other members of my band, I can’t simply look at paper and perform. I have to memorize the music. I’m really enjoying playing the new ones too. There are some moments that sound really great and are fun to do. I’m having a good time with them.

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PG: What is it about the guitar quartet format that you enjoy, especially given some of the hesitancy you mentioned? In general, they are not an incredibly common setting.

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BO: The quartet initially came about because a friend of mine with a guitar quartet asked if I could write something for his group. I told him I would, but seven years ended up passing without me being able to figure out how to do it. By the time I figured it out, his quartet was gone. So the music ended up being my music.

But guitar quartets are great if you enjoy playing the guitar solo. It’s like playing solo four times. There’s also all these other elements you can add if you enjoy repetition, which I do. You can have repetition, but also add additional variations on top of the repetition. There are all kinds of things to have fun with working in the quartet format.

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PG: Since you mentioned composing, do you think your work as a computer programmer has at all shaped how you write music?

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BO: Probably not. Obviously, when I’m writing computer music, it does. For that, I have a concept, and the execution emerges from the coding. The coding really is part of the composition. You start with an idea and raw materials, and then the composition emerges from the execution. But with the guitar, I think my process has always been the same, which is separate from programming. I usually start with a concept. If I want to make something like X, I keep trying to figure out how to get to X.

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PG: Not to ask you about why you have only four strings on your guitar; people have asked that enough.

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BO: [laughing]

PG: But do you feel the fact that you use fewer strings pushes you a little in terms of how you compose?

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BO: Absolutely. I started playing with only four strings randomly. It continued only because I showed a friend that I was doing it. He thought it was cool and that we should start a band. Had I not shown the four strings to him and had he not then offered to start a band with me, maybe it never would have continued.

But having gone down that path, there’s no question that working with less strings provides you with a sound that’s simply different than using all six. Just as using extended techniques or some other practices make you sound different from the standard six string guitar. By necessity, the absent strings make you do things differently than you normally would. And at this point, I don’t think I even have a guitar that’s set up with six strings. I’m not interested in the missing strings anymore. They just get in the way.

PG: To go back to your guitar quartet, two – Shane Parish and Ava Mendoza – of the three other guitarists in the group will also perform solo sets during your evenings at Roulette, along with solo performances by Cyrus Pireh, Chuck Roth, and Kris Gruda. While you just released a solo – albeit with four guitar parts – record, Music in Continuous Motion (Palilalia, 2026), and will perform solo at Big Ears, you have no solo set scheduled for Roulette, unless you count How to Rescue Things. Why not?

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BO: There just isn’t time. We’re packing so much into the three nights as it is that all of the performances are already truncated. The guitar quartet would normally play for around an hour, and we’re doing half an hour. Everybody is playing shorter than they normally would. Shane’s record [Autechre Guitar (Palilalia, 2026)] runs close to an hour, and he, too, will only play for about thirty minutes. Everyone will give only a little taste of what they normally do. Plus, I figured that I’m already featured enough on both nights and wanted to get as many other musicians in as I could.

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PG: You will also present a duo performance with Chris Corsano. You and Chris have recorded thirteen albums together now. What do you feel makes your communication with him so strong?

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BO: I’m not sure. It just is. The last time we played together was in Chicago last summer. It was our first time playing together in a while, maybe a year or so. But it’s funny because during sound check, it immediately felt like a real reconnecting. We still sound great after all these years of playing together. It was a really wonderful feeling to play again with Chris. And we’re coming up on our fifteenth anniversary of collaborating together. We’re trying to figure out some way to commemorate that.

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PG: At Roulette, you will also present the trio with Steve Shelley and Ethan Miller. How did that group come together?

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BO: Ethan put the trio together. He organizes events and musically directs them. He hires a bunch of different musicians from different backgrounds and puts them together as ensembles. I played in one of his Grateful Dead ones and another one he did. After, I had said to him that it had been since high school that I was in a trio with a bass player and a drummer. He said he could make that happen. Then the pandemic hit.

But at some point, Ethan told me he had talked to Steve Shelley and that Steve would like to do a trio with Ethan and me. And so, all three of us showed up in [Los Angeles] and played together for a couple days. Then we  did a show and recorded it, which is coming out in a few weeks.  Coming up, we will be doing a couple of shows opening for Tortoise and then a couple of days in the studio too.

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PG: So you will be making another trio studio album?

BO: We’ll see what happens. We have a single that will be out this month. The three of us will also play together at Big Ears and do a tour out of it, from New York down to Knoxville.

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PG: In addition to the new trio recording, do you have any sense of other projects you would like to explore in the future?

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BO: I have a bunch. I keep a list. I have some time this summer that I’m trying to keep open to explore some of those ideas. But you never know what will work and what won’t until you do it. You may be barking up the wrong tree. But I have some ideas. I have some ideas for collaborators. Ultimately, I have to sit down and see what happens.

Bill Orcutt will perform at Roulette Intermedium from March 20 to 22, 2026. The first night will feature the US premiere of How to Rescue Things, the premiere of a new work by the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, and solo performances by Shane Parish, Kris Gruda, and Chuck Roth. The second evening will feature the US East Coast premiere of the Four Louies, a duo of Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano, and solo performances by Ava Mendoza and Cyrus Pireh. The final evening at Roulette will feature the Orcutt Shelley Miller trio, a duo of Zeena Parkins and William Winant, and a duo of Mariam Rezaei and Bill Orcutt. All three nights will also be available for streaming on Youtube. Bill Orcutt will perform a solo set at the Big Ears Festival on March 28, 2026. Orcutt Shelley Miller will perform at Big Ears the next day, March 29, 2026. More information on Bill Orcutt is available on Palilalia Records’s website.