We were lucky to catch up with Robert Mohan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Robert thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I actually got my first guitar when I was pretty young. I think I was about 7 or 8 (?). It was one of those things that I knew I wanted to learn because I was drawn to it. Sort of like this mystery that I wasn’t quite sure how to access…because I was so young, I just set it aside for a few years. There was a guitar in the house that I would sit in front of and pluck the strings without fretting the strings. Picking it back up again the second time around, it clicked for me. I started to learn simple chords and play along with songs I connected with. I was on the cusp of my teenage years so perfect timing to play music and write angsty songs.

I’m not a rare case by any means but I didn’t start with formal training. I was very much self-taught. I will admit that I took a few lessons but felt like things were moving slowly. In hindsight, I wish I would have stuck with the formal training because I missed out on some of the fundamental mechanics of playing guitar. On the opposite side of that idea, I also had the freedom to explore and hone my own techniques.

From there, it has been a process where I am always learning and improving. I don’t expect to suddenly put the guitar down one day and proclaim that I am some sort of guitar shaman. In fact, over the past five or so years I have really been investing in the concept of American Primitive guitar and the history and lore that surrounds it. You can look up John Fahey or Robbie Basho to get an idea of the style. The term primitive relates to self-taught expression…not being formally trained and relying on feeling and the unknown to create music. It’s exciting and in some ways aligns with my own approach to guitar playing. I sort of felt like I found my tribe.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been playing music for well over 20 years now across a few different genres. I’ve been in some very short-lived punk bands, Death Metal bands, and more recently solo acoustic projects. My current project, Night Owl started as a means to release a collection of acoustic songs I had written in a time of in-between. I was living at a friend’s house in Cincinnati and found myself writing a number of songs at night when everyone was asleep. In fact, the last track on my first album was recorded in their dining room on an upright piano they had. It was a good time to just focus on songwriting. Some of the musicians I was heavily influenced by at the time were M. Ward, Jackson Browne, Sun Kil Moon, and Six Organs of Admittance. Sonically that was where my head was at.

After a short while, I moved out to San Francisco with my girlfriend (now wife) because she is from that area and got a job offer out there. Being in a new city kicked off this want to create and release the songs I had. That’s when I fully took on the Night Owl project. While out in SF I was able to be part of its vibrant music scene and work on a couple of albums. That’s where I really learned to perform solo to an audience. I had not done that before. I was always with a band. I haven’t looked back since.

I moved back to Cincinnati about 5 years ago and continued to write music and play throughout the city. I released a pandemic record titled “What Good News Will This Morning Bring?” and just released my 4th album Empress inspired by Cincinnati.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Connection – that’s all I am looking for in the art I create. If a song resonates with someone I feel like I have done my part. It’s scary throwing something you create out into the void but to have someone latch onto it out there for their own reasons makes it worthwhile.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I would say the amount of work it takes to be a solo artist out in the world. Mostly I choose to do this alone because I’ve done the band thing and I like being self-sufficient. Rolling up to a gig and only needing to worry about a guitar, pedalboard, and some guitar cables is pretty freeing. On the flip side, I have to play the part of booking agent, promoter, graphic designer, web designer, social media person, etc. – the list goes on. I see a lot of other musicians out there hustling too. What I am getting at is if you see someone in front of a mic at a venue/coffee shop, know that it probably took a lot of work/planning for them to get there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nightowlnoise.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nightowlnoise/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nightowloh
• Other: https://nightowlnoise.bandcamp.com/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/6khKmbMt4afVHGG419NPVL?si=A3jkWYvXTZiEfX-50rM9SQ&dl_branch=1&nd=1

Image Credits
Nikita Gross (all images)