[melophobe was happy to meet up with Sarah Rabdau and Matt Graber of Sarah RabDAU and Self-Employed Assassins at their rehearsal space/recording studio/home in Malden on Tuesday. After listening to some un-mixed material from their forthcoming album, we started chatting while Matt finished setting up a drum kit and Sarah got herself settled at her keyboard.]
melophobe: How many shows did you log last year?
Sarah: Not very many (laughs).
Matt: The two of us?
Sarah: Like six.
Matt: Yeah, not that many. Not that many.
melophobe: It’s a good start.
Matt: Well, I’ve been playing with Sarah since May of ‘06, and we haven’t done that many shows, maybe ten to twelve.
Sarah: For me, without an album, without the product, I have a hard time saying, “Can we have a show? Here’s [an older album] that doesn’t sound anything like what I do right now.” So the whole thing was that we were getting to know each other as players and then, once the album comes out, then that’s when I really want to be playing more shows in different cities.
melophobe: How do you guys know each other?
Sarah: I play in this other band, Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women, and Ad had actually introduced my old violin player to me, and I guess . . . .
Matt: I’ve know Ad for a while . . . , like friends through other people . . . we’ve seen each other play shows many times, and I was actually in Israel. I was there for two years, almost, and then I planned to come back and I wanted to start playing, find people to play with right away, ‘cause I hadn’t been here for a while. Then I emailed him, or . . . I think I found him on MySpace and I think I was asking about playing shows with him, “Hey, I don’t know if you need a drummer let me know; if you know anyone, you know, any good musicians looking . . .” and he said, “Check out my friend Sarah.” So I think I just listened to her music and I think I just wrote her.”
Sarah: Which is weird, because drummers don’t write me, “Hey, can I play with you?”
Matt: Yeah! So, we were emailing while I was still in Israel, then I came back, and actually you got a show pretty quickly, and asked me to do it, and then we just practiced a couple times for the show.
Sarah: Before that, I had had just different drummers, nobody was consistent, everybody was just sort of temporary. So I would basically put together a band for a show, and it would get so frustrating because you could never do anything new or different or solidify anything.
melophobe: That must be incredibly frustrating.
Sarah: Yeah, it is. So it’s nice to not have to do that. Eventually, I want to add a third person. We had the violin player, but I’d like to add a bass, or someone who plays bass and keys, ideally . . . . I’m not a guitar person. [To Matt]: So you want to play something?
[Ed: First warm up piece: Cellophane]
Matt: Did it sound normal? Was anything too loud?
melophobe: It sounded pretty balanced to me.
Matt: Yeah? Wanna do, er, what’s it called? [singing]
Sarah: The new one?
Matt: No, not the new new one.
Sarah: Luxuries?
Matt: Yes.
Sarah: That’s kind of new. Ish.
Matt: It’s the second to newest.
Sarah: Ok, we’ll do that one.
[Ed: Second warm up: Luxuries of Poverty. Matt and Sarah giggle through practicing this one, laughing with each other and flubbing the occasional lyric. They’re very warm in rehearsal, reacting to each other as they warm up and begin experimenting.]
Matt: See, we like to mess up on purpose a lot in rehearsal.
melophobe: Well that way, it’s really well-practiced, for when it actually happens.
Sarah: Yeah.
melophobe: So that’s good.
Sarah: Yes, yes. But the other thing, we’re just two people, so we’ll [say], “Eh, we really know how to play it.”
melophobe: Has that bitten you guys at all? Has that ended up coming back to bite you in performance?
Matt: No, I mean, well, we mess up a lot, but it’s not . . . usually we don’t perform things where we actually don’t know them. It’s not like, there’s some area . . . if there’s something we need to work on, we’ll work on it, but if it’s a stupid error . . . . It’s usually not, it’s usually something different in performance.
Sarah: Yeah, you could get something right all the time, 100% of the time, and then for some reason, you’re recording, you’re at a show, and then your mind goes, “[sound to demonstrate your mind going for a walk without you]” and you just don’t know . . . .
Matt: But, it happens. We usually laugh at each other.
Sarah: That was the big thing. I used to get so, so . . . well, I still get really nervous before every show, but for a different reason. I don’t know why, I just do. Before it used to be that I would get so nervous that I wouldn’t remember how to do something or I would fuck up and everyone would know and be judging me, but now . . . mess ups can be kind of charming. You’re not perfect, even though Matt thinks he is.
melophobe: I think it gives an audience a unique experience, to get to be somewhere, where something is . . .
Matt: Well, it’s like our “thing.”
Sarah: Yeah! We’re the band that messes up!
Matt: We’re the band that can’t play anything right!
Sarah: Do you want to play the new new one?
[Ed: Practicing a new song: much more driving than the other stuff we’ve heard so far. Midway through, in a moment where drums have stopped and Sarah is finishing up a phrase, something happens and they don’t start again in the same place. Amid much laughing and head-shaking, Matt starts them right back up with a “1-2-3-4!"]
Sarah: Oops.
Matt: See, we got our signature mess up in there. On purpose. That was actually me that messed up there.
Sarah: I know, that’s actually really unusual.
melophobe: What a treat.
Matt: I was thinking of, you know we stop, and I usually go “1-2-3-4[hitting an open high hat on 4 so it rides into the next measure]: I think I was, I don’t know, I think I just sat there and thought, “Do I want to do that or not?” and by the time I made up my mind, it was
Sarah: Way too late? [laughing].
[Ed: They then went on to work on this song, working on whether a bridge would be appropriate and rhythmic density and variation. Following a later discussion of It’s Raining Men, and the incredible video therefor, Sarah and Matt went on to dust off some cobwebs on older stuff, even treating us to a couple of songs we hadn’t heard at their show. After a while, we all sat down to chat.]
melophobe: You said you were not performing as much waiting to finish the album . . . .
Matt: Not that we wouldn’t perform, I mean, I don’t personally do the booking for us, but it’s not that we’re not LOOKING for . . . we’re finishing, there’s work to be done on the album, and that’s the important thing. If someone offers you a good show, like, the Nicole Atkins thing, we’re definitely happy to do it. But I guess the first priority would be to finish the album.
melophobe: So how did that show come up? How did you guys get that? ‘Cause it was . . . pretty awesome.
Sarah: Yeah, it was really really random. The booking agent at TT’s . . . we’ve played at TT’s a bunch, but I [hadn’t ever] actually spoken with the booking agent there before, and she just emailed me asking if I wanted the second slot opening up for Nicole Atkins. [I think], “What? Who does that?” And at the time, I had actually never heard her, I mean, I’d heard OF her, but I hadn’t heard her. So, I went to her MySpace page and was completely blown away, and I YouTubed her Dave Letterman thing . . .
melophobe: . . . which was amazing . . . .
Sarah: Yeah. So, I was supposed to go out of town that day, but I changed it to the next day. It was just one of those things that never happens to me, that people just offer me good things.
Matt: And actually, when I was leaving, I heard the door guy saying to someone, “Yeah, Sarah always does really well here.”
Sarah: Yeah, they only tell you . . . . I’m kidding, ‘cause that show, everybody was . . . it was Praise Matt Night. After the show, I had two people run up to me . . . , “WHERE’S YOUR DRUMMER!? I HAVE TO TELL HIM HE’S AWESOME!”
Matt: Right, like Sarah never gets compliments.
Sarah: Nonono, so I said, “Hey Matt, how’s it going?” And it was typical Matt, “So how do you think we played?” [and I said] “It was ok, you know? . . . could’ve been better, it was kinda sloppy,” and I said “How do you think it went?” and he said, “I thought it was really good. It sounded really good. Yeah, people keep on telling me that the show was great.” [So I told him], “Yeah, they keep telling me you were great too!”
Matt: Whatever.
Sarah: And at the end of the night, there was this guy who’d been trying to come see us for two years . . . .
Matt: Actually, he was the guy who was talking to the door guy, when the door guy said . . . .
Sarah: Oh, really? Ok. He was so excited, [he came up ro me and said], “I’m so glad to finally check you guys out, it was so great,” [so I say], “Thanks so much, thanks, thanks.”
Matt: And he says, “I could listen to you drum by yourself!”
Sarah: Yeah, he was like [pointing to Matt] “And YOU! YOU, Matt, I could listen to you drum by yourself!” And I’m just, “Yeah, apparently everybody could.”
Matt: Oh come on . . . once in two years.
melophobe: This wasn’t the middle-aged dude we were talking to out front? We were talking about the show between each [act], and he’d say, “Oh yeah, and that Sarah, I know her from other stuff.” He said that a couple times.
Matt: Kinda grayish hair?
melophobe: Well, yeah.
Sarah: Oh yeah, that’s right, because he [Matt] wasn’t there [the night that the guy had seen me play before].
Matt: Yeah, that was the guy.
Sarah: Well, he contacted me a few years ago to send CDs for a benefit or something, so I signed some CDs and sent them to a benefit, [thinking], “This is a really bad giveaway.” Don’t you want someone really, really important and fantastic?
melophobe: Maybe he just stashed’em for himself.
Sarah: I know, I have like a secret stalker . . . nah.
melophobe: Well, he was being pretty open with us about it, so it’s not that secret.
Matt: That’s her first solo album. She has yet to give me a copy.
melophobe: Oh really?
Sarah: It’s not that good. I try not to give it away. It’s one of those things . . . I just keep it in a closet . . . . It’s not that bad, it’s just very different.
melophobe: I was reading that people had liked it . . . quite a bit, if I remember.
Sarah: Yeah, people did like it.
Matt: And I have heard a couple songs.
Sarah: Yeah, it’s just very young. It’s like me trying to be what everybody thinks I should be. I was keeping everybody in mind when I was making the record, and it sounds pretty, but it’s . . . . When people come up to you and are all, “Oh, yeah, it really reminds me of Sarah McLachlan.”
{mospagebreak}
melophobe: That’s what I was [going to ask].
Sarah: Yeah, it reminds of . . . a douche commercial. [E]very time Sarah McLachlan comes on, it just makes it really, really femmy-sounding all of a sudden. [But] I used to like Sarah McLachlan. That’s not my influence, you know? That kind of bummed me out that none of my influences, really, nobody could really pick up on it. It was always like this really adult-contemporary thing, and I didn’t feel connected to that.
melophobe: Who DO you feel connected to?
Sarah: I feel connected to Tom Waits, Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Kate Bush, Bjork . . . there’s other[s] . . . , like, David Bowie. Um, current bands, I love TV on the Radio, I love them. I love lots of complicated, not complicated, but lots of . . . sound everywhere.
melophobe: Like, really thick [sound]?
Sarah: Yeah.
melophobe: That, twenty-people-on-a-stage sound . . . .
Sarah: Yeah, I’ll often get to a club, and one of the bands will be warming up . . . and I[’ll] get band envy, I’[ll feel] really insecure right now.
Matt: I really like the duo thing, in some ways I like it better.
Sarah: I like it, too, I know.
melophobe: What are those “ways?”
Matt: Well, I mean, we just listened to the recording with the string instruments and it sounds great, so, in a way it would be good to have those instruments really actually playing, but I’ve always been kinda of the “less is more” approach. Sometimes I play too much, but in theory I try to have a less is more approach. I think the fewer people you see that can do something that big, it’s that much more impressive. Just seeing two people on stage that give like . . . well, like the Dresden Dolls. I mean, even though we don’t really SOUND much like the Dresden Dolls, it’s the same instrumentation, they have a pretty huge sound for two people.
Sarah: I guess that also kind of worries me, I mean, coming from the same town, people are always [saying], “Oh yeah, you set up and I assumed that it’s going to be like the Dresden Dolls,” so, of course, especially being from Boston . . . .
Matt: Honestly, in a way, that’s a good thing because we don’t. If we sounded like them, then it would be a very bad thing, I think. But it’s not a bad thing if people are expecting us to sound like them because . . . it doesn’t. And we don’t dress up and wear makeup and all that.
melophobe: What’s cool is that, watching the show [at T.T. the Bear’s Place], you guys seem so happy. It was by far the happiest performance I’d seen in a while, [with the] smiling.
Sarah: That was something from playing in [the last] band . . . I was not very happy before on stage, but I had never played in a band before. I just did backup vocals and occasional keyboard parts, but I always had so much fun with these five other people on stage. Granted, I had less to do, and I could drink and whatever. But I’d see pictures of [my and Matt’s] shows or someone would videotape it and I’d say, “Wow, we’re so fucking serious.” And I have a lot more to do, but I’m just all intense; it’s kind of a bummer. I think our old violin player, she was always trying to make it be more fun and funny. I just wanted to loosen up. I prefer to see people have a good time on stage rather than be really really serious.
Matt: I never realized it; people always tell me, in the past, that I look so happy, I didn’t really realize that.
melophobe: Every photo, pretty much, you were smiling.
Matt: I was smiling? Wow. I think I’ve always been like that, but I think I smile even more with Sarah. We always look at each other and just smile, and I’m not sure why, but we do it constantly.
[Ed: In rehearsal, Matt and Sarah do seem to practice having fun. They joke around with each other, they laugh while they’re playing, and they don’t half-ass a thing. I was surprised, really, by how much of her characteristic rocking-out at the piano Sarah does in rehearsal, but it seems to all be part of the fun they have in playing together.]
melophobe: So do you always practice facing each other?
Sarah: Mm hum.
melophobe: So then is it weird to get on stage and kind of . . . I guess you’re still kind of toward each other.
Matt: We used to do more of a normal band-type set up. But we’ve started, in the past five, six shows, doing more diagonal toward each other.
Sarah: Once we got rid of the violin, there were two people on stage it was weird to have him behind me.
Matt: I think this is better. It’s easier to play.
Sarah: Quite honestly, it’s probably not that different because we can still see each other, and seeing each other . . . . I mean, Matt has really good timing and I don’t, so just looking over at him and realizing, “I am so off right now!” just looking at him I can see where the beat is rather than just trying to hear where the beat is. Whereas, if he were behind me, that would just be weird. So it’s not that different from [facing each other].
Matt: It’s easier for me to lock in, I guess, when we can see, make eye contact.
melophobe: It definitely seems very . . . I don’t mean this in a boring way, I’m going to say “practiced,” but I only mean that you seem like you are able to communicate on the fly, which was pretty cool.
Sarah: It’s definitely something that had to grow. Even in the past six months to a year. Really when we started recording the album, we had to play to a click track for purposes of adding other instruments later on. And you realize how you can run on emotions and things that didn’t seem like they were that . . .
melophobe: Fluid?
Sarah: Yeah, [and] that much faster . . . . We would do weird things: . . . most people would speed up on the choruses, we would slow down. And we would speed up on the verses. So playing with a click track really made it more cemented, I think.
melophobe: This is where I run out of . . . Ok, so you played [an acoustic night solo] at T.T.’s, is that acoustic thing something that you do occasionally?
Sarah: Yeah, I probably should do it more often. I used to do them more. I don’t even remember the last time I did one. I think it was before I met you [Matt], so two years? And before Meredith [former violinist], so it had been a long time. I forget that I’ve actually written songs that I haven’t brought to the band before, so, I have, like that one song, “The Scientist” that I played; I had written it a long time ago and I had sorta never finished it, and on Friday before the Monday show, I [thought], “I should play that song.” So I pulled it out, and I had to listen to it a few times to remember it, and then I changed it to make it work. And sometimes you just need a little flame under your ass to get it done, you know? So I played it. I like the song now, before I liked part of it, but I like it now. It’s good to do solo shows sometimes. I think I can be a little extra sensitive I think.
Matt: Extra sensitive?
Sarah: Extra sensitive, like, play slower songs, cover songs that are a little more sad.
Matt: Oh, I can be sensitive.
melophobe: Are you both from [Boston]?
Sarah: No.
Matt: I’m from New Jersey. I came to Boston in ‘98 when I was 18 to go to Berklee College of Music.
Sarah: I was born in Virginia, lived there for a while, and then moved to Massachusetts for a while, and then moved to California for a while and then back here.
melophobe: Where in California?
Sarah: In Orange County.
melophobe: Oh yeah? In . . . ?
Sarah: Yeah, the OC, in Mission Viejo.
melophobe: Oh, ok. I went to school in, well, L.A. County, so, days like today, miss it a lot?
Sarah: Really? See, it was days like today [drizzly, gray, mild] where I . . . I like sun and everything, but I need to have clouds and rain and gloom occasionally. In California you’d have it for [about] fifteen minutes to an hour, and I’d wake up, “Finally.” And then the sun would be blaring in your face and you just wanted to go listen to sad music in your room somewhere and light a candle or something. I was sixteen. But this winter? I’ve had enough of winter.
melophobe: That’s really all I mean. You know, like an occasional spring day, or fall day that’s like this, great. But honestly, already.
Matt: I’ve never been to California.
Sarah: Really?
Matt: I’ve never been to the West Coast! The farthest West . . . I’ve been, like, right in the center, I’ve been to Kansas or Ft. Worth, Texas.
melophobe: Why? Why there?
Matt: Oh, actually, I was on tour.
melophobe: Ok. That’s a good reason.
Matt: But yeah, I’m waiting until we do our crazy U.S. tour to hit California.
Sarah: The first day that I went to California was the day that I moved there, so I thought it was going to be a little different. And then I got there and it was “What’s going on? Did we move to Florida? I don’t understand.” The pink houses thing.
Matt: Pink houses?
Sarah: Pink stucco houses everywhere, all the houses looking the same.
melophobe: All the houses developed in the last forty years.
Sarah: Apparently, the town that I lived in, it wasn’t even a town yet, because it was so new. But where I used to live is just so over-developed . . . I couldn’t even recognize it, apparently. I haven’t been back since I left.
melophobe: So, let’s see what else we have here. Well, when’s the next show?
Matt: Sarah?
Sarah: Well, we don’t have one right now. Basically, we have to try and finish this album within the next month. This album has been so fucking . . . the last time I released an album was about five years ago. Two years ago, I had asked [housemate and producer/engineer] Peter, was it two years ago?
Matt: Was it before I was playing with you?
Sarah: Yeah. Two years ago I asked him to record the album, and produce it, and then some things happened and he ended up going on tour for a year. I was going to try and find a different producer, but it just didn’t seem to click right. So it just took a long time, and it wasn’t happening, wasn’t happening, wasn’t happening. And then finally he came home from tour, and said, “Well, when I come home from tour, if you still want to do that, then I would love to do it.” So, ok, great. He has his own band, Count Zero, and he’s actually releasing his first solo record. But the thing is, he can write all these string parts, he can play every instrument, and he’s freakishly good at pretty much all of them.
melophobe: That’ll bring something to an album, certainly.
Sarah. Yeah. To have someone with the interest and knowledge of classical music along with more textural sounds, because he’s also a fan of textures and crazy wall-of-sound things . . . that’s why I wanted to work with him. So, finally, we started recording in September.
Matt: Is that when we recorded?
Sarah: In September, yeah. Then he’s been going on tour here and there, and then he goes on tour again in April, so I have to try and finish it in a month.
melophobe: And [then] when [would] it be released?
Sarah: Good question.
melophobe: Thereafter?
Matt: I guess it has to be finished first . . . .
Sarah: Originally I wanted to release it in May, but I don’t think that’s possible with it being finished in April. So maybe an end of the summer kind of thing.
melophobe: And then after it’s out, are you guys going to tour at all?
Sarah: I would like to. That’s the plan.
melophobe: With a nice record release in Boston?
Sarah: Yes.
Matt: Hopefully, yeah. Organizing the whole tour can be tough, but, if we gotta do it ourselves, we’ll do it ourselves.
melophobe: Where’s your favorite place to play in Boston?
Matt: That we’ve played?
melophobe: Yeah. Or, if you want, more aspirations, too. Where it would be fun to play.
Matt: Yeah, honestly, I like the Lizard Lounge a lot. I mean, it’s pretty small, it’s not like the most amazing sounding room, but I just like the set up. I like how everyone’s around you.
melophobe: With that little thrust of a floor?
Sarah: Yeah. I still love playing the Lizard. I don’t love it as much, I don’t think because, I wish that [the deep, seated end of the room] was [in front of the stage], and [the shallow part] was [to the side]. So we could see more people in front of us.
Matt: And the bar is in a weird place, but I do like the set up.
Sarah: I usually have a really good time, and they’re really great to the bands there, and I love that.
Matt: I don’t know, T.T.’s overall, we’ve been having good luck there, recently. It wasn’t my favorite place in the world before, but we’ve had really good shows there.
Sarah: Let’s not jinx it.
Matt: I’ve been playing with Sarah . . . almost two years, a year and ten months, and we haven’t done that many shows, but we really haven’t done any bad . . . they’ve all really been good, like as far as . . . people have come and we’ve been friends with the other bands. I don’t think we’ve been in one where we’ve been, “Oh, I wish we didn’t do that.”
Sarah: I’m sure there will be some. Don’t get your hopes up.
Matt: Yeah, but the ratio . . . if we do more shows, yeah, especially if we go on tour to places we haven’t played, unless we’re opening up for someone who’s established. But, you know, playing crappy shows is part of the initiation.
Sarah: I would love to play, and I like seeing shows at the Paradise, I mean, if you’re bigger . . . .
melophobe: Yeah, that’s what I was going to ask, favorite place to see a show, too.
Matt: Yeah. I’m really lazy about seeing shows. I’m, er, I’m quite lazy. Honestly, I like the Somerville Theatre a lot.
Sarah: I’ve never seen a show at Somerville Theatre.
Matt: I saw Joanna Newsome there. Actually, I saw a show at the Regent Theatre, I like that also. Basically, I sort of prefer sitting.
Sarah: You like sitting.
melophobe: I’m figuring that out.
Sarah: We went to a show on Saturday . . .
Matt: Wait, that was . . . I was not in a good mood.
Sarah: No, that’s true.
Matt: That was a different circumstance.
Sarah: That’s true. He’s [tells me], “I think I’m going to leave early,” and I said, “OK,” and then three songs in, he’s [says], “I’m leaving.” “WHAT!? Are you serious?” But it was a bad night.
Matt: Yeah it wasn’t . . . we went to see St. Vincent, who was awesome, and we went to see her at the Middle East Upstairs a couple months ago. I ended up leaving early, it wasn’t ‘cause she wasn’t good. The Paradise, main room, that would be a really cool place to play. I played there one time years ago just in a lucky circumstance kind of thing, and that was probably the best place I’ve played in Boston in terms of, you know, there was actually a band room that was actually nice, and maybe a basket of fruit. A basket of fruit!
Sarah: Having back rooms for the band is so, so, so helpful, that’s why . . . I mean, the Middle East Up is OK to play at, but there’s no back room, and if you need to warm up at all . . . . And I need to zone out, I can’t talk to people before I play, I’m just so . . . weird and need time to zone out and warm up and stretch, we both stretch, so when a club doesn’t have it, I’m fucking stretching while talking to someone I don’t want to be talking to, all, [whispered] “I can’t sing right now.” You can so blow out your voice before you go on stage just by talking.
melophobe: Well, maybe once the album’s out, back rooms a-plenty. So if you hit Dallas again, or Ft. Worth, rather, you should let us know, because that’s one place we’re trying to expand to. People keep saying that there’s a pretty good scene.
Matt: Texas is pretty far, so we’d have to have to be on a real tour to get that far.
Sarah: Do you have someone in Austin?
melophobe: Actually, we have a couple potential people, yeah. We’re working on that. And if you’re playing in Portland Oregon, let us know, because we know a bunch of people out there, too.
Matt: Cool, so if we’re planning a tour then I guess we’ll let you know, you can help us.
Sarah: That’s good to know. I’d like to take a West Coast tour.
Matt: We don’t play that often. The only out of town show, we did one show that was in Brooklyn, so we’re trying . . . . So we’re trying now, we’ve been talking about, even if they’re crappy shows, just to get into doing it, just to try to set up some small weekend tours where we go to DC or New York, Baltimore, whatever. So we gotta get on that. You know, just to meet other people and bands and get out and play.
Sarah: I think I prefer playing out of town. I think after a while you just get, even good shows, you get kinda tired.
Matt: I think we play every two to three months here. And honestly, I don’t think we need to play more than that here, we just need to play more than that in general, which means playing elsewhere. So if we eight to ten different places that we each played at every two to three months, that would be a nice amount. Then we’d have more to work with when we go to book the longer tour.
melophobe: You’d already have the contacts, have everybody in place.
Matt: Yeah, that’s our story and we’re sticking to it.
melophobe: [asking whether they’re going to play more, it being 9:30]
Matt: Nah, one of the reasons your not really rushing us or anything is we don’t have any shows scheduled so . . . I mean, practicing’s good, but, when there’s nothing to practice FOR, it takes a little less priority to it.
Sarah: We’ll be here and practicing the same songs, and I’ll be, “I’m bored. Honestly, I need to write a new song.” Because, no matter how . . . there’s only so much you can do. I mean, you can get tighter . . . .
Matt: It seems like we hardly ever have new songs, but if we played it all together we’d probably have . . . eighty . . . minutes worth of music.
Sarah [reacting to “eighty"]: Oh! I was [going to say], “What is he talking about!?” [thinking he meant eighty songs).
melophobe: That’s an entire catalog! At least a box set.
Matt: Everything we did on the album, plus three to four other songs.
Sarah: There’s about twenty songs. Nineteen to twenty songs.
Matt: It’s a good amount. I guess, from your perspective, not many of them are that new since we’ve been playing together, maybe.
Sarah: Right.
Matt: Actually, a decent amount have been.
Sarah: I used to write a lot more than I do now.
Matt: Quality, not quantity.
Sarah: Right. That’s very true. And I’m having lyrical problems. I’ve had lyrical problems for [about] a year, where I write a sentence or two and then that’s all I can write for that song for eight months, and then I have to come back to it, if I can come back to it at all. It’s bothersome. But that new song that we played, that we practiced a lot tonight, I’ve been working on that since . . . actually not that long in the grand scheme of things, since July or August, and the week before the show I finally had all the lyrics done, because I was determined to play it at the show. “We’re playing this song, goddamnit.”
melophobe: Is that your process? Is it lyrics, then music? Is your process . . . ?
Sarah: It depends. Sometimes I’ll just write words and if it sounds good I’ll keep them. I mean, I always keep it. But usually, I used to write that way where I’d write lyrics and then try to put it to music. But in order to typically get a melody that’s catchy at all, it’s best to write the music first and then try to get the words to fit it, or write new words for it. So that’s where I am now, with music first. And then, sometimes, I’m just spurting sounds that sound like what would fit in.
Matt: Honestly, I can’t even tell.
Sarah: Yeah, I slur anyways, but Matt says, “I thought this whole song was already written,” but I’m just [singing nonsense sounds].
Matt: Yeah, then I’m [asking], “Why aren’t we playing it?” “Because it doesn’t have lyrics.”
Sarah: “The chorus doesn’t make any sense!” Who cares.
melophobe: Just get up there and play something. Honestly.
Sarah: Yeah. I have three or four songs pretty much completed now, but they don’t have lyrics. So, one day.
melophobe: So, this was a nice little treat, it really was. Thanks for letting us come on in . . . barge in.
Sarah: I’m glad you guys could come by.
Hey Merseilles did a live web show at sonicbirds office gig on Friday that was pretty spectacular. Can anyone find a copy of that?
by Smallweed on Sat Mar 13, 2010 at 11.40 am from the entry: SXSW Send Off Show - Visqueen + Hey Marseilles - Neumos (Seattle, WA; Mar. 5, 2010)
I was thinking of looking up some of them newspaper websites, but am glad I came here instead. Although glad is not quite the right word…
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by Abbott on Sat Mar 13, 2010 at 06.00 am from the entry: Social Distortion - Showbox Sodo (Seattle, WA; July 17, 2009)
16 is great! jealous there was a fence at the market....
by nicole on Fri Mar 12, 2010 at 06.53 pm from the entry: sevendust + drowning pool + digital summer + the flood - showbox market (seattle, WA; Mar 07, 2010
Kelli Shaefer’s songs get stuck in my head non-stop. Every other day I find myself waking up with one in there. And that’s a good thing, she’s a talent!
by Siri on Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 04.37 pm from the entry: Artist Profile - Kelli Schaefer (Portland, OR; Winter, 2010)
Probably johnston has wrote a excellent article for the readers and are excellent photographs and thanks for sharing your thoughts
by fake tattoo on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 10.03 pm from the entry: The Reverend Horton Heat + Nekromantix – Wonder Ballroom (Portland, OR; Jul. 9, 2009)
ha, yes! the photogs in the front row were drooling throughout the entire set…
by chris on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 01.05 pm from the entry: Washed Out + Small Black - Mercury Lounge (New York, NY; Mar. 7, 2010)
nice pics Chris. Don’t you love it when the artist brings some cool light. It’s a bunch of low hanging fruit after that.
by colin on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 12.53 pm from the entry: Washed Out + Small Black - Mercury Lounge (New York, NY; Mar. 7, 2010)
