Moodsis moodsis i am trying
Moodsis moodsis, i’m trying to write about money. We had a meeting yesterday about our future & that of the recording industry at large & we determined that thru perseverance, greed, the ultimate in sham we can begin working on a new inspirational record. We were playing QC w/ the GHOST AND MRS MUIR and everyone was there and it was a time of great joy and celebration. But what is the first step to new record
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January 29th, 2010 at 7:57 am
Tell me what the band is currently up to. Is this Guelph show part of a string of dates, or are you possibly trying out new material?
It’s part of a miniature tour. We spent time with Vish in Sackville this summer, at the festival there & he put the Guelph concert together. But we’re playing a 5 shows, Ottawa, Guelph, Hamilton, Toronto, & one in Chicago on Sunday, & a wasteful trip back up – 5 golden rings. This is our last tour playing the Clues Record, we have been touring on and off since it came out in May. We’ll to start work on a new recording next month to get out as soon as possible.
The album has been out for about eight months. It got great reviews, but did it fulfill the expectations you had for it?
I think it’s been enough time that we can hear the record & feel proud of it. I’m very glad we’re still a band and can make another. We didn’t exactly set out to make avatar opus record… phantom tollbooth. I remember on Nick’s birthday, just after we’d decided the record was done, there was a dinner at the Thai place on the corner and there was an announcement of the record title to the group gathered there around the table, but the title did not stick, only lasted a couple of days, and we stripped it to just call it Clues Record. I wish we had given it a longer title… I’ve tried to call it The Kite Album at home. I remember leaving mixing the record to fly the kites, swine, back mastering, adding singing over the mastered record. Once we’d finished it, felt like a mystery novel and we were scratching our heads a little, not sure what we made. It could be more polished. I do wish there were two or three more songs on it & in hindsight I’m not convinced it should end with a piano song. There is a heartbeat beat on Haarp I blush a little & sometimes what I think of as expressive playing & songs breathing is just a song slowing down. I dunno how it would sound on testing ground commercial radio in the south, next to Halo. I dunno if we would even be allowed to try to make a record like that. Digital dulcimer. I was in my parents car last week and THUNDER ROAD came on and then a The Beatles song and The Drums were near inaudible and it sounded impossible, I was surprised, didn’t know how they achieved that 3D sound and was newly introduced to bedrock & minutes later near the end of the song I realized my sister had blown out the front left speaker with Empire State of Mind & though the stereo was panned & faded so the left could come from the back seat, I was hearing an ideal mix. I’m glad we’ve gotten those songs out & it’s been months of performing that record & the songs have made more & more sense & now I’m fine to never hear them again. It shouldn’t take much time to make a good record. I don’t know why we don’t have a new one out already, it isn’t a gamble but an offering. My friends outside of the city like the Clues record, my father gave me the honest critique & I agree with him.
Has the band’s attitude or dynamic changed at all since the album came out?
When we started Clues – AP & I had some songs & a friendship and would casually do shows and started inviting people to play eventually, just the people we knew who seemed wide open… I don’t think that’s a particularly perfect way to have a band though… We’ve lost members, gained members, there were some months of questioning the whole thing. Finishing that record and a year of touring around, I think we have made it past careless, cocky years. We were sure then that we could shape this however we want. I mean within the group there is a lot of shared responsibility and I’ve seen many rock guitarists from behind. So it’s not so easy to remain casual when people are devoting so much time, ideas to the band… none of us are interested in backing or being backed… an ambassador, the face of. Tiger woods collective. Clues utopian intentional community. So now it feels like we’re more of a group… secret society. Making the first record, we were so careful with each other navigating ideas for songs… and I foresee bigger badder egos, more more miis in the monitor. This will make for a better record I foretell. I think we’re still very open to different kinds of music. I was at the market and I ran into a friend and he was asking about the band & smiling and said, “You haven’t imploded yet?” Actually for the most part, for the last couple of months, things with the band have been surprisingly (& relatively) positive and easy… & we mostly talk about the prospects of new work, cds still allow for secret tracks. Secret tracks will revive the music industry.
Obviously, right now there’s a lot being written about the ’00s being the decade of the Montreal scene. What’s your perspective on that?
So as of this week 2010, all that’s over…? It certainly seemed like a special time for some very popular bands… got known outside of the city. Now Berlin & Knoxville & like all the hyped places, it would seem we can’t sustain. And people had some funny ideas… I think some of us have now turned back in upon, pulled up the covers. Cause now it seems that people just don’t care as much about the pop bands and reverb from a couple of years ago. Maybe people feel they can go back to work… have shows & do not focus on labels finding them or kissing paying off… oh feelings…. There have been mythic figures, giants… worlds they’ve tiled… hilarious kinds of ambition… Coldplay was coming to study the records. Bands in Boston suburbs were adding midi orchestra to their records. A handful of artists were real well known spokespeople and much of what people tried to do that was different would be compared to the pillars, and that was unfortunate. People make fun of each other, science of the mind.
What was your motivation to start Villa Villa Nola? Is it the sort of retail outlet the artists you work with require?
I just wanted a place for friends and I to release records without funds, infrastructure – shipping, wasted material. I’d never really talked to a label and it became clear that at least in terms of offering our music for sale… we could do that ourselves… Ultimately it’s just a technical solution for getting music into the world. The problem is — because it’s somewhere between a store and a label… some of the records on there don’t get pushed or heard as they deserve… and some of them are too expensive. I’d like the thing to mostly be for digital only releases… then all the records could cost 5 dollars. There are some artists that like the limited reach of VVN & some who might be frustrated by it. When we go on tour, it is really hard to keep releases coming but I think most of the people we work with appreciate the potential of no cost & immediate worldwide release. VVN sells some important and really great music. New releases are coming out this week & throughout the spring and will continue til the end of all time.
Lastly, I notice that kites seem to play a role in the band’s visual image. Is this fair to say, or am I off-base?
Ben and I had talked about the kite cover & I’d imagined car sized kites of sewn together fabric so they’d have bounced more & look like balloons anime. But I suppose we’d have required a plastic or parachute material for that or quilted cut up balloons… paper was the more humble approach. Leyla made the kites, she painted & built them, put in the wood and I think she tested flying them. She plays in Yomul Yuk. We were mixing the same day then – blocks over – flying kites in the snow – blocks over – discussing symmetry in the cover and the implications. Lions of industry. Olivia (from Wiid) and I had built some in school but hadn’t flown them. Ben & Don (CST) and I went and flew them in the pasture near my house. It was snowy and windy & I believe we all got some swine that day. We’d intended to use a photo of the kite in the air but the photos we got of the kite outdoors were too dramatic: snow landscape, a hovering fragile homemade art. The collage we chose in the end seemed to work better as a cover, meaning-free-enough object.
March 10th, 2010 at 1:42 am
Hey, good luck with your new album, whenever that comes out. When you go on tour again try to come play calgary all ages! Me and my friends missed out last time since it wasnt. Theres a new all ages organization in calgary too, http://www.comrad.ca