Marrow is John Nefario, Lily Zein, & Dallas Borealis
Produced by David Earl, John Nefario and Lily Zein
Mixed by David Earl at Pyramind
Marrow interview:
1. Congratulations on finishing the "Quiet Desperation" CD! How does it
feel to be finished?
[Coda] Finished? Um, sure, we're finished with the album itself, but we
have so much other stuff going on around it that we can't relax - the
videos, both for screen and performance, getting ready to f*ck shit up on
stage, finding hot models to dance with us - you know - the normal
stuff... [Coda]
2. What was the inspiration behind the album?
(Lily) The inspiration was really ourselves and how much better we are
than everyone else. It's SO hard to be Marrow. But seriously, we're
definitely on our own intellectual high horse right now about religion,
"spirituality" in general, and inner demons that we really wanted a place
to expel all of our own demons - you can't run around Wal-mart telling
everyone you're an atheist, but you certainly can sing about it!
3. What was the process of creating the album?
(Lily) First Johnny and I would try to drink as much as possible on a
friday night. Then, around 1pm on a Saturday, we'd eat as many pancakes
as possible. With bacon. Lots of bacon. And coffee. Lots of coffee.
Then we'd get to the task of deciding the fate of our newest character -
the whole album is a series of character studies, either of people we know
and love, or of ourselves. We were very cold and calculated about the
whole task, taking a freudian approach, and being the freud on the couch
dissecting the characters, even if the character was one of us. after our
discussions, I would write the lyrics and shout them out to Johnny for
approval. After that, the rest of the weekend would be spent writing the
song - typically the drum programming or bass lines would come first, and
much to Dallas' chagrin (Dallas winces) we love melodic bass lines, which
makes mixing a little more tough...Sundays were usually the days we would
revisit and write the melodies - which are just as calculated as the
character studies. Johnny and I are very influenced by the Gershwins/Cole
Porter when it comes to melodic content, which is something that we really
wanted to bring to the rough, industrial music we know and love. Really -
how many vocoders can industrial music take?
4. What tools did you use to come up with Quiet Desperation?
(Johnny) We produced all the initial tracks using Logic Pro into a G5 with
Mackie HR 824s monitors. A little ES2, a lot of EXS24 and maybe when we
wanted to calm things down a bit we'd bust out the ED6. Oh and lots of
Reaktor and anything else Native Instruments. When it came to vocals,
we'd sing into a Blue Baby Bottle into our Motu 828. Nothing too fancy.
In "Sad Young Men" the sound of ice shaking in a highball glass is Lily's
Mojito that she was shaking during her vocal takes. We liked it so much
we ended up tracking it in a rhythmic way. When we were tracking we were
in a place that we'd squeal like pigs if that's the effect we were looking
for.
5. What was the decision making process like?
(Johnny) Well, during the writing process, Lily and i have become so
comfortable writing together that it's almost like one person with a
really LOUD conscience. The "decisions" in this phase were really more
preferences, or who had the strongest leaning towards writing something a
certain way. "NO NO NO, the bass line has to modulate DOWNWARDS".
During the mixing, it was a different bag. Once Dallas got involved it
just became more of a two against one if there was a decision to be made.
Again, the three of us have worked together for so long that there's an
awful lot of trust, and really, it became mostly a matter of, who do we
trust the most to make this specific decision right now.
6. Any memorable moments in the studio?
Um, sure - when we'd finish a long day of pouring out our hearts and
voices and being so emotionally spent, and then our upstairs neighbors
would start a full night of Madonna karaoke. that was always a blast.
7. What's the plan from here?
D.C. al Coda
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