Wasn’t Lovers, Lead The Way recorded at home?
Kevin: It’s all home-recorded. When we mixed The Heat Can Melt Your Brain together in 2005 we didn’t go to Jackpot because..
You wanted to keep working at home.
Yeah, we reached out to you because we'd been reading the magazine for years and using it as a resource when we record. But we needed that sense of security of being in our own space.
Has music always been a part of your lives?
Anita: Oh, yeah! We met at a concert. It was only a matter of time before we started our own band. We were driving hours each way just to see each other....
K: Music has always been a part of our lives together – We grew up in rural towns in Alabama where the few musicians there know each other and play shows together at the VFW halls, Chucky Cheese’s or wherever. We got married and moved to Nashville, and somehow one of our cassettes ended up on the desk of a Warner Records subsidiary. That’s when major labels were buying up everything! They heard our demos, we got signed and all of a sudden we were recording in a major studio.
I didn’t know this story!
K: So, we made this record and it was emotionally like …Chainsaw Massacre in every way, shape and form.
A: We thought the producer was excited about us, but he was a self-described purist and he wasn’t into stompboxes at all. Feedback was not something he encouraged. I was into Sonic Youth and he just didn't get it. Every day we were slogging through. He thought we were doing everything incorrectly. This producer told Kevin that he should not sing. It took him a long time to have the same confidence about that. It was like a battle.
K: He told us how shit was going to go down and it was exactly the opposite of the way we liked to do things. Every day was a fight. Luckily, we were able to get out of that situation having learned all of the lessons. We had battle scars, but we were able to escape.
Did the album ever come out?
A: It was out briefly. The label went under within a year.
K: It was just a fart in a whirlwind.
And you guys are still together.
K: From there on out we realized we were responsible. We decided to take the helm of our own recordings.
K: We made Lovers, Lead the Way on our own. Just used our house to track in. We figured out, “Oh, that’s why there’s compression.” There wasn’t compression on anything! When I bought a computer is when it started to make sense because I could visually see everything. It helped me figure everything out.
What was that album recorded on?
K: Nuendo then. We use Cubase SX 3 now, same company. Same sorta layout. I worked at a communications center for a while and I befriended this really awesome computer nerd. He showed me how to work Nuendo and he also turned me on to Tape Op. Eventually it made me realize that we needed to pay attention to songcraft in addition to just ‘recording’. I felt like I knew enough about phase, limiting and how to get sounds. If you hear a sound in your head, you usually know enough relatively to know how to get that sound. I do that the same way with songwriting. I know enough to know how to get the songs I want.
I thought Lovers Lead the Way was really interesting. It’s very ornate. If you look at the lo-fi movement, if there was one, everyone was recording on 2-track cassette. Here’s the same idea of recording at home, but then it struck me that you guys were going over the top instead of making something tiny and minimal.
A: To me, the way we put that album together and kept layering it, it felt like collage art.
K: The shit we were listening to then was out of control! Def Jux had just hit the scene – I love that Cannibal Ox record. In fact, that’s why we’ve worked with Emily Lazar [The Lodge]. She had mastered that album. We’re working with her again on this record – she’s awesome! So we were listening to that Air record – 10,000 Hz Legend. Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin, Spiritualized's …Floating in Space – all these monster albums with huge budgets – and we had an 8-input sound card! Seven of which actually work! How can you go toe to toe sonically with these motherfuckers when you have an 8-input sound card?
No one told you that you couldn’t!
K: Our ambitions have always been a little bit too big for our sonic britches because we’re a two-piece band and we make these layered, indulgent records. We slowly figured out during the making of Lovers… how to make that uniqueness work for us. Then also, with our last album Rose City we tried to make a more straightforward song-oriented album.
And bringing in a rhythm section.
K: Yes, for the live shows that year. We still recorded it all ourselves. To be honest, I shredded this rotator cuff playing drums touring Get Yr Blood Sucked Out. We toured with The Shins and on our own for a couple years straight and as a drummer I hit really hard. I needed a change. For Rose City I decided to play bass live instead and be up front with Anita rather than be immobile behind a drum kit. So for 2009 I was bass-player guy, and Evan Railton handled live drum duties. Corrina Repp played guitar and percussion live and sang harmony. With Rose City it was the first batch of songs we decided to record fairly quickly and simply. We didn't want the album to sound or feel like it had been tinkered with until it was dead.
You can make a very ornate piece of nothing!
A: Totally. I really love the guitar sounds we’ve gotten so far on the new record. It’s been so satisfying. It ( the sound I want) has been pretty easily obtained with each song, including acoustic guitars which can be a struggle sometimes, getting them to sound rich and full.
K: I use this process now: If it’s not right, right out of the gate, fix it immediately! Once we track it, it has to fit immediately. So, if the tone is not working we go back to the amp and adjust the tone. If it’s not in the mix right off the bat, it’s out. We don’t have the luxury to sit with it for two days until it works. On other albums we've done, mix-wise, there were at least one or two “rescue missions” right out of the gate. Not this time! I feel like we’re finally “rescue mission free” on this current album! We’ve got a mastering date set. We have deadlines. Putting the pressure on is what’s helping us. We did the same thing with the Blue Giant album we put out last year.
A: I have to have a deadline. It works. Otherwise I just procrastinate!
Tell me about the building here. I remember seeing it when it was just a garage with a little room above it; it was pretty beat up.
K: Man it was gnarly! When we bought the house, they told us we should just bulldoze it for more yard space. But we were just crazy enough to say, “No way. This will make an awesome studio!” It was in grim condition.
A: It was obvious that people had been squatting up here. They’d even set the place on fire!
K: We toured and saved our pennies and worked on the studio a little at a time after releasing The Heat Will Melt Your Brain. We were able to finish it with the help of a synch off that record.
When you say “synchs” you mean stuff getting licensed to TV and movies.
K: Yes. We haven’t sold a ton of records, so when those checks come in we feel like we have to use it wisely. We invested it into this studio. We felt that the studio would be our nest egg.
A: It was probably 2007 before we could afford to run electricity out here.
K: Talk about a “never again” process! It was a pain in the ass at every turn. I wanted to do it right and use the right kind of foam or whatever. It's just cost prohibitive! I didn’t worry about sound getting in, because this neighborhood is pretty quiet.
You don’t want to bother neighbors though.
A: We practice all the time and luckily it doesn’t bother anybody. That was my main concern.
K: The back wall is brick. We can rock at full volume, and the neighbors didn’t even know we were in a band! They saw us loading out one day and asked if we were in a band! As you can see, we’re still not done. The handrail is an issue. Especially when you get a band like Red Fang who recently tracked some vocals and guitar here and they may be drinking a little!
But you’re not exactly open for business?
A: I will say that we don’t have the window where we can see each other through the glass. It’s not that kind of studio!
But this is your space to make your records. You’ve got two active projects going at the moment, plus a few friends who have worked in here.
K: We kind of had a breakthrough. I recorded Agesandages. We were in this downtime before the Blue Giant tour. Everyone was passing on recording Ages because there wasn’t a label initially, so not a lot of dough. I didn’t have a lot of time before we left, but I told them I’d do it if they got their shit tight. That’s the thing about them live – they’re just so rad. They just need a well-documented live recording. They’re a seven-piece band ranging from seasoned professionals to newcomers who’d never set foot in the studio. It was a breakthrough for me to figure out how to record them. Just to be able to see that we could do it in a place like this was kind of cool. To not have to be somewhere…
…where the clock is ticking?
K: Yeah. We’ve been there before right?
I hate those studio owners! [laughter]
K: Are you kidding me? If we had the money, moving forward, and we were able to circumvent this? You better believe it! At the end of the day, you can do anything you want with your life, you just can’t do everything. That’s part of the problem with indie music – you have to do everything, but you can’t do everything well. Something is going to suffer. The one thing that really shouldn’t suffer is the songwriting side, but it often does because you’re worried about emails or the fact that you have to figure out Illustrator for your layout, or fix the crackly in your bass input. But getting out here and being able write and record constantly helps a lot. For us, for where we are in our careers and our lives, we have to look at the bottom line on pretty much everything.
And you guys don’t have day jobs.
K: We don’t now; this (making music in our studio) is it. Things get prioritized real quickly. We’d probably both love to have a snack room with a cheese plate! [laughter]
A: I thought that if we were fortunate enough to make records that we would go into other studios and learn about the process. It was never really my vision to be in our own studio for every project. But it was borne out of necessity and I've embraced it. We also had this attitude of, “We’ll figure it out ourselves.”
I think the records keep sounding consistently better.
K: I feel that you get certain skills and now I’m at a point where I sorta get it. It’s all culminated in figuring out how to get the best tones.
There are a lot of skills that don’t require buying new equipment.
K: Totally. We still use the same PC from 2001!
A: Yeah, we don’t do that a lot around here.
K: We get better at the things we already have. I have a cheat sheet printed out of problematic frequencies! [laughter]
I take longer breaks in between sessions than I used to. And then I go back in and feel like I have to reacquaint myself.
K: It’s weird when we come of the road. We got home before Christmas and I realized I hadn’t drummed since 2009. The last time I drummed was on Rose City. All of a sudden, not only did I have to be up to snuff but I had to come up with bitchin’ parts and be able to play them live! Not to mention record them well. We’re trying to marry all of what we’ve learned constantly. All of that is coinciding with be able to capture it live in a better way.
Part of it too, is they way you tour as a duo. You have to build tracks that you can play that way.
K: We’re fully embracing it now. To us, tracks aren't a crutch, it's another way to be creative with a batch of songs for a tour. We used to tour with sample pads and triggers and using an iPod. From now on we’re going to use Ableton Live. I want to be able to run Anita’s guitar through a [Korg] Kaoss Pad and play off of her vocals. We’re knee deep in that now.
Besides our work together, have you worked with other engineers?
K: Totally, yeah. Zack Reinig, who has worked at Bear Creek. He’s a rad dude. He did sound for Sleater-Kinney. We got to play with those ladies once and that’s how we met. He came over and, same situation as you, we were mixing Get Yr Blood Sucked Out. He came over with some badass monitors and cabling. We put them up next to these Behringer Truth monitors (that I still use). It’s all I can mix to, because I know just exactly how shitty they are and I know all the problem areas. I can tell the low end immediately. When you mix on these, you have to downplay certain frequencies. Like I got used to looking at fine art with crappy glasses.
How’s the new album [The Future Will Destroy You] coming along?
A: We’re really confident in this record.
How many songs?
K: We’ve got 10 rising to the top. I feel like it’s the best one we’ve done. Then again, I feel like that after every record!
A: We’ve been doing a lot of high-fiving!
It’s probably nice having this space.
A: It’s changed our lives! There’s nothing to hamper either one of us being creative.
Last time I saw you, you were recording in your living room and your house was in disarray.
K: Music invades our lives.
Do you try to put limits around it, like no talking about the band after 9 p.m.?
A: Not really. We try, but it’s pretty impossible!
K: We discuss how our songs hold up when it comes up on the iPod shuffle. I feel like I over-think things in the mix. I’m trying to decide what parts are louder. We’re really paying attention to rhythm and beats.
What do you see in the future, besides getting the album out and hitting the road again?
A: Well, we’d like to be able to go back and forth between Viva Voce and Blue Giant. We want to take turns focusing on each project and stay fresh. It’s cool to be part of a five-piece band sometimes!
Blue Giant is definitely more collaborative. Is it nice to “back seat” it a little bit?
K: It’s like being able to get wasted and let somebody else drive. You don’t have to worry about writing the perfect part – you can trust your bandmates and hand it over. It’s nice with Blue Giant; we can just show up at the studio with any engineer and just record an album. I don’t have to touch a knob, and that’s great. But I feel different with Viva Voce. You are what you are, and me recording us has almost become a part of the band. The studio itself it our third member!
