Monday, November 29, 2010

EIC'S10Q'S w/Brian McBride

"..a beautiful hush with ominous & disheartening tones.."


Brian McBride
Ataractic Milieu

Brian McBride Bio:
Brian McBride has been a member of Stars of the Lid since he met Adam Wiltzie in Austin Texas in 1990. McBride had a radio show on the local college station. As he described it to The Weekly Dig in fall 2002: "I used to record any sound that caught my ear. The sounds of in-need-of-repair ice cream dispensers in large cafeteria rooms would eventually be mixed with other found sounds on a four-track recorder for radio broadcast." This use of sound as a raw material and source of information has been a continuing theme in McBride's musical endeavors. With Adam Wiltzie in Stars of the Lid, McBride has recorded a number of albums and toured North America and Europe since the mid-90s. Mcbride also contributed to two albums by the hushed pop band The Pilot Ships. As one half of Stars of the Lid, Brian McBride has contributed to the essential drift music of our time.

His debut solo album, When the Detail Lost its Freedom was recorded mainly on an ASR X keyboard sampler. The instruments recorded were guitar, piano, vocals, harmonica, trumpet and strings. There were no synthesizers or keyboards used in the creation of the album. There's a lot of sampling in the sense of capturing a tone, isolating its tuning, and playing it on the keys of a piano. Guitars become piano-esque. Room noise becomes room noise played on a keyboard. And you can actually make out some guitars. When the Detail Lost its Freedom is a collection of individual pieces and therefore released from the Lid's uninterrupted architecture. The album was recorded somewhere in between Los Angeles and Chicago, always at home, in random moments of duress over the last four years. The final mix was arranged from December 2004 to January 2005. Music guests included two singing ladies, an ex-wife and a fiancee, two guitarists, notably Mike Linnen who did the soundtracks for All The Real Girls, Manic, George Washington, and Undertow, The Morgan Park (Chicago) Step-Up Trumpet Section and violinist Eden Batki, referred to as The Inland Empire Symphony Quartet on the credits.

When the Detail Lost its Freedom is a recording that sheds light on the notion of "picking up the pieces and moving on." It is a record of Brian McBride "getting it out" in the midst of some overwhelming situations, a recording made during a move from Chicago to Los Angeles. The strong emotions the recording sessions tried to channel do bring a sense of awkwardness here that made it through to the finished product. As McBride describes the recording process: "In retrospect, it probably has to do with some of my weaker moments. Which is all fancy code for: it was therapy during a divorce and a move to a city which thrives on sucking the life of out people's souls." As with Stars of the Lid's recordings there is a synthesis of different instruments ­ or maybe a reinvention through some gross mutation (of different guitars, violins, trumpets, harmonicas)—which then become the pooled tones for extended, and melodic development. What you get are nacreous songs that pack a real emotional wallop, are reminiscent of Stars of the Lid (and lots more), and that earn a space on your shelf all to themselves.



Hello, how are you?
Fine, thank you

What are you currently listening to?

Chet Baker’s record that was put together for the film "Let’s Get Lost" and the crickets from my porch.

How old were you when your interest in Ambient/Classical music spiked (enough to make you want to do it yourself) ?

In my early 20s I had a radio show. I also had a four-track recorder. I used to walk around with portable handheld recorders recording everything from fire alarms from a distance to the sounds of cafteria ice cream dispensers. I’d bring this stuff home and arrange things on my four track using delay pedals and reverb. Eventually I’d bring that stuff to the radio station and layer it with other minimal sounds (Environments records, tv/film samples and maybe something like a Zoviet France record).

Do you generally listen to downbeat music?
I listen to music all over the map. Mostly it’s relatively relaxing or down tempo-ish. During the summer I work with high school kids and I usually try to play something more uptempo for them as they’re working. They usually joke that my sense of up is pretty down. But I can listen to the Beach Boys, Rapeman, ELO, Skeeter Davis or some Joe Meek recording and be pleased. Usually the more up tempo stuff shows up while driving. Like right now, I’m on a plane and I’m listening to Jesus Lizard’s “Mouth Breather” to drown out a couple of mouth breathers behind talking really loudly about which are the best casinos in Vegas. My life is often a series of Larry David moments.

You originally composed your latest album “The Effective Disconnect” for a film titled “Vanishing Of The Bees”, how did this opportunity come up for you?
Maryam Henein & George Langworthy asked me to. George and I had crossed paths before in Austin during the early ‘90s. We both worked at the same radio station.

To the people that haven’t seen the film, can you please explain the plot as well as what kind of atmosphere you were trying to achieve with the music?
I’ll let the filmmakers explain it:
“Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables. Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees. Filming across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting options abound and after years of research, a definitive answer has not been found to this harrowing mystery.”
While recording, I tried to adhere to two guiding principles: I knew that I wanted the music to convey a sense of fragility given the subject matter. And I also purposely tried to not overwhelm the film, wanting to provide them something that emphasized their ideas more so than creating some type of music video.
George and Maryam asked me to concentrate on four different themes. Some themes I was better at than others. The ‘gloriousness of the bees’ was a tough one for me. Communicating beauty can’t really be forced. You don’t want it to become something that seems ornamental or overdone.

Can you name a genre of music you wish you had attempted but never did?
Big Band Swing probably. But more subdued. Like a Perry Como / Xavier Cugat thing.

What is Stars Of The Lid up to these days?
We’ve been writing new material. We have been for a while. Another record will happen someday. But it’s only gonna happen when it’s ready. There’s little point in hurrying patient music.

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?

Morricone’s "L'Assoluto Naturale". It just has so many memories attached to it.

Are you living your dream?

Not yet but maybe someday. The day I can move past coaching debate will be a dream I won’t want to wake up from.

Thanx Brian(s)!

Brian McBride and co. are currently working on the next Stars Of The Lid album, perhaps we can get another solo release (or two --
a little off subject, but I'd love to hear another Dead Texan release..) in there while we wait? 'Til then I suggest you take in anything & everything Brian McBride has to offer...

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