 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
the album was written on the back of some intensive touring - a couple of trips to the u.s, our first forays to australia - probably the most prolific stretch of live performance by the dimmer band -which up until this point had been mostly a studio affair and quite low key performance wise - ever. while the last album also featured a band, that line up had two weeks of rehearsal to prepare. the band that recorded this album has been together 2 or 3 years and we've developed into a hot, and together, unit. sorry but the dimmer band 'rocks'. i wanted to capture that on this record. i felt it was a drag that the dimmer records thus far didn't really represent the roar and the outerspaceness we were/are capable of live. i'm quite happy that those qualities have been captured here. i also wanted to make a return to the more experimental vibe evidenced on our first album which remains my favourite dimmer record to this point. i liked that record because it was brave and unafraid and because it didn't sound like anything, or anyone, else. while "degrees of existence" is sonically a different beast altogether i think it has that sense of trying things while still dealing in 'songs'. i'm not interested in music that goes from A to B to C in a fashion you've heard a million times before. i'm not interested in pastiche or ripping anybody off. i'm not interested in 'irony'. i'm also not interested in becoming a 'family favourite' , a musician a 'country can be proud of', going on game shows or gradually diluting my music as i weary with jadedness and age. fuck that. i wanna make the kind of music that i'd like to hear - and that involves originality, vitality, and, yes, the sense of trying things. thank you james, kelly and dino for the soul and effort you guys have poured into this music. and to gary and mikey who stepped up to the drummer plate when dino went to berlin. (i feel lucky that i had access to three of the finest drummers in new zealand - well anywhere really - people of immaculate taste and execution !) every musician on this record knew where the music was coming from and finding people with that level of perception and intuition ain't so easy .. some notes on the songs.. 1/ "degrees of existence" - it's pretty pumping this one but i don't know if it's 'angry' or ' negative' or 'accusatory'. it's more saying what's right for you ain't necessarily right for me but good luck to you wherever you may be or whereever you may be heading. i like it's sense of wide open spaces . musically to me it conjures up images of driving thru arizona which is one of the most memorable drives i've been involved in anytime/anywhere. 2/ "nowhere i want" - this is about stuff you're probably better off not knowing - "what i don't know can't concern me". i like it's sense of barely suppressed panic and overall air of anxiety ! i was imagining i was a heart broke frank sinatra walking down the rain swept street, hands in pockets, shadow stretched beneath the streetlights, with the whistling bit at the end. i thought maybe the whistling bit was a bit out of tune but then i heard otis' whistling at the end of "dock of the bay" the other day and he's Really out of tune. that made me feel better. 3/ "comfortable" - this is possibly my favourite song on the record. i'm proud of the fact that the song builds and slow burns all the way through despite having the exact same vocal melody on every line and despite the fact that it's so sparse musically. i really like the lyric. and i like the guitar at the end - how it further articulates what's already been said. that's what music should do. 4/ "cold water" - this is a song about sideline critics - you know, those people who diss what other people do without ever coming up with anything, or any alternative , of their own. i find this kind of thing EXTREMELY Irksome . criticism or cynicism is the easiest thing in the world but, you know, What Have You Got ? put something better on. put up or shut up etc etc...you get the drift.. 5/ "can't cut through" - this is actually a left over from the last album but we never quite got it together then. somewhere in there there is the sound of blocks of wood being banged together - times ten - which is an old trick employed by the glitter band in their old records from the 70's. glitter production - they really had a sound going on there ! i think this is a good pop tune.. 6/ "dark night of yourself" - this is another of my favourites. i really like the lyrics here, i really like the fucked up chorus and i really like the lost lonely guitars at the end. go james ! go me ! one of the guitars at the end is the sound of dino drumming his sticks on james' fretboard while james plays the notes. for some reason it's come out sounding like the horns on the theme to "coronation street" which can only be a good thing. i actually recorded myself pissing into the toilet and had it running thru the second breakdown there for a while. this was at a stage when i was getting up at 5 in the morning and working on the record and when i was possibly a 'wee' bit out of my mind but i don't know - it just seemed rhythmically and thematically correct ! i called this track "wees" altho nick the engineer later amended it to "special fx". i was eventually talked out of including the track but somewhere i feel a bit sad that i didn't become possibly the first artist to piss on their own record. i don't know, maybe i can go guest piss on someone else's. add a bit of echo and it's a pretty rad sound ! 7/ "wrong bus" - "wrong bus" is a good and righteous title for an instrumental . we've all been on, or wasted time waiting for, the wrong bus. i've had this riff lying around for ages so it's good it's finally found a home. the riff is very cop show. tom watson's trumpet gets pretty bad ass in the middle and i really like the ominous and spooky twist at the end.. 8/ "bless" - sadly i became quite addicted to fox news during the whole american election palaver last year. but i was totally fascinated by the way they would spin events i had witnessed with my own eyes. it was a great illustration of the power and bias of media and how people will believe anything you put in front of them as long as you say it hard and often enough . "bless" is a spin off from that. i think it's actually a song about colonisation - how certain powers think they have the right to go other places and impose their will and belief systems on other people without any regard for those people or their belief systems - so convinced are these powers that their way is Right. 9/ "analogue real to real" - me and my girlfriend had been having a rough time and having bad communication via cyberspace. then one night, during all this, we had a very intense midnight pash outside by a pool full of croaking frogs. it made me think - FUCK THAT CYBERSPACE SHIT, THIS is what it's all about. that's pretty much what "analogue real to real" is about. 10/ "too far gone to care" - somewhere on our myspace page i referred to our second album as campfire music for warped little scouts. i can imagine this song could be sung around a campfire except this time it's a sexy campfire with shayne surrounded by The Ladys ! i can just picture the video! anna, hannah, rebekah and kelly all sing on this song and although they all have very different voices i like how they've all melded into one kind of Super Lady and you can't really pick out the one individual singer. the whole challenge of this song was to make every element laidback but still convincing at the same time. we eventually got there. i really like kelly's flute - it's kind of girly and totally right for the song.. 11/ "what would i do.." - i like this song very much too. i love the delicacy of the middle part and how it goes all stewy and warped before reemerging for the outro. this song is about people trying to control you on one level or another as well . i am proud of this song. so there we go. sorry to rabbit on but it's nice to have a forum or outlet to talk about what you do/ what you have done and why . so much press stuff consists of the same uninspired and unenlightening basics - where did you record the album ? how is it different from the last one ? what are your touring plans ? - which is as boring to answer as it probably is to ask. i, shayne, and dimmer, hope you enjoy this record.
|
|||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
