Mavelvis on XRNR
In my position as the webmaster for bjpercussion.com I am always looking out for some content to fill the empty www with. As you may have seen, there is a link on the page that brings the visitor to a section called "words"! so here I shoot a couple of easy questions at you. Be brief or most diffuse.
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Question: After listening to the material on XRNR and following the musical development, one question comes to mind: When you go producing such music, we have to ask where did it all begin?
Answer: I was in a rock band while living in New York City. Do you remember the nineties? Well, we were all about "keeping it real". No keyboards!, "oh, except a B3, that's OK" when I went out with Cirque du Soleil in '99, my first tour was solely in Europe. Man, it was all about electronica over there. A couple good friends on the tour were DJ's and it seemed to be their goal to get me to somehow, really "Hear" their music. To hear what they heard. One night it worked. I immediately knew that I needed to add these elements to my songs. When I was back in New York, writing XRNR, my old band mate, Paul stopped by to check out the new stuff. He was appauled at the site of a synth and a sampler in my studio. It's a big laugh with us now.
Q: The bandwidth of musical styles on XRNR seems borderless. Are you eclectic?
A: Maybe, a bit. If you think of an Ohio farm boy who travels and sings with Cirque is eclectic. I think of myself as Mr. Magoo.
Q: Looking back through your portfolio, are there any periods that you could describe as particular highs...
A: I won the Music Award while accompanying an artist from Cirque du Soleil at the Monaco Fesitval du Cirque. It was quite literally the first time I ever truly felt like "life" had given in for a short moment and said, ""Ok, you a singer!, now leave me alone!" or, something like that... but, man I was very proud about that for weeks after.... OK, I am still proud of it.... OK, I want to be buried with that trophy, damn it!
Q: ...or low points..
A: ...it was the morning of January 1st, 2000... I was in Madrid with Cirque, and I woke up to a phone call which informed me that my very special and talented cousin, Timmy, had killed himself the night before. I loved that kid loads. The song on XRNR, "part of the show"" is for him and quite honestly, probably from him. I wrote the words at his grave stone. The lyric, "I'd give you ten of my angels and still you couldn't defeat me" is from one of his many poems and it's written on his grave marker which is shaped like a tear.
Q: ...and how does the way of the world affect your songwriting?
A: Well, of course I write stuff from my own impressions of the life that I experience, or what I personally dream of. Sometimes it's fun to write from the imagination of how someone else would see a situation, but with XRNR, I had the profound feeling that I was remembering songs that I had learned and forgotten a long time ago. There was a different taste to the experience. I remember saying to myself when trying to write a line, "what was it?". Maybe XRNR is from a world that affected me a LONG time ago?
Q: If you had to pick a favourite track from XRNR what would it be?
A: Place Matt!!! I know, it's not on the "EP", but..... Ok, on the "EP" it would be "Let's Shoot a Video" ...it's all about that ride cymbal!...
Q: Could you describe the process of recording the album?
A: I wrote and recorded the "demo" on a four track tape machine... sent the tracks to BJ and Sebastien who were in Detroit at the time. They came down to my place on their break before going to Boston and we recorded drums, loops and guitars on nine of those tracks at that time... a few months later I went to Montreal and recorded strings, new vocals, backing vocals, more guitars, etc.... a few months later, I flew from Tokyo to Montreal to cut bass guitar, trumpet, and start some mixing...since then, I have been mixing in Montreal on most every break in between cities that I can possibly get my engineer, Rob Heaney, and producer, Michael Picton to attend...the summers are tough as Rob goes out with the McGarricle Sisters on tour during these months... But this coming year, XRNR is due to be Born!!!!!!!
Q: To the people out there who are hungry for real music: When will the full version of XRNR come out?
A: Is this a trick question?
Q: On to the more intimate side of Mavis Jennings: If you could turn the clocks back, what do you think you might have done differently?
A: Everything and nothing, really. I think we all look back at the past and try to haggle at points with decisions that were made the outcomes that followed...OK, maybe not all of us, but I do, I must admit. But in the end the decisions we make are made from the material we possess to make the decisions at the time, ... one thing to be careful of is looking in the rear view window too long, because you are bound to crash into the obstacles in front that you could have easily seen had you been looking ahead.
One other thing on this is that it seems now that the same experiences keep coming around and around until I finally remember to go through the current "similar" experience with this equation -->>> grace=wisdom+goodness .......sincerely, try it yourself....yeah, I know it's tough sometimes.
Q: What five albums would you want to find if you were stranded on a desert island with enough food, water, a huge royalty cheque for 'XRNR' and a fantastic CD player?
A: Shouldn't this question be sent to Benoit Jutras in Ireland? Hey, could I trade the five albums for the all the music equipment behind curtain number 2?
Q: And what, may we ask, are the five albums you listened to most recently?
A: I've been listening to "The Thrills" new album... and I love the latest "the Zutons" album A LOT! Every once in a while I got to take my dose of anything, Neil Young... I love the new dvd, by the way.
I went through a vintage, Stevie Wonder week recently.... yes, you are the sunshine of my life, too!!
Did you check out the new Tears for Fears songs? My juries still out on those, but I listened a couple of times...
Oh, and PJ Harvey I got her new one in my ear a lot..
Q: Can you remember your first stage and/or studio experience?
A: Yep, I grew up in a trailer park in Pataskala, Ohio and my very young parents would throw parties quite often.. at these parties I remember using a jump rope for a microphone and shouting out the latest "Tom Jones" hit for the people... this in itself wouldn't have been a really memorable experience had it not have been for one of my mother's best friends' alert need to manage the situation when ever I would sing. I would start to sing and invariably everyone would start talking and going on with their party... this was a BIG, NO, NO when Jerry Lennington was around, especially when she had a couple of drinks in her... when Jerry was around, all my performances were received by a very silent and attentive crowd.
Q: Do you have any pet hates at all?
A: Not really. I hate to see a pet abused.
Q: The modern technology has its benefits yet with every benefit there seems to come a detriment. Recording equipment has become very cheap, the internet enables everyone to publish their music. But has music benefited or suffered from that?
A: Answer A: Yeah, I think the biz is changed and yet, it's the arguably the same. The "money" in the music business, today, looks to be invested more and more in fashion and visuals than in any musical innovation.. or "message" innovation... I see and hear so many "rebel bands" these days that are doing and saying all of the same things... same, same, same... and then comes along someone with the prettiest body or the nicest face, and the best song writing and production team that money can offer. I don't believe anything has changed in the music business in this way... but, it seems to me that perhaps we have seen more balance in the past between musical artists who were giving us style and beautiful appearance and artists that were seemingly sent to the planet to rock us! "let's shoot a video" , from XRNR, is about this subject...
I must say, however, it doesn't matter to me in the end... I feel like the industry focuses on what their audience wants, and that's fine with me... basically, it's all a show... just like a Cirque du Soleil production is a show...
The cool thing about the internet is the fact that we can share our recorded music so easily with the world... I say, let's give it to the world, I mean, hey, music is a gift that was given to us... as for the recording costs, they are cheaper, so they should more easily covered by revenues from live performances...etc...
...and if this still isn't enough money for you, you can always start your own traveling circus, hey?
Answer B... No, I don't think the technology has hurt music.. the good stuff will always find it's listeners.... good music seems to have a life of it's own...
Q: Who did you work with on the album and how did these people influence the music?
A: The project was started with a song demo that I sent to BJ, the drummer on Quidam and Sebastian Theriault, the guitarist on Quidam. They listened to the tracks and really worked mostly on the song, "Until The Sun Dies", before they got to the studio. They came up with a brand new idea to slow the song down and created an awesome groove for the tune. Later, when they came to Ohio, we went through each song, one by one and worked on ideas and parts. Both of these men completely exceeded my wildest expectations. They are both such gifted musicians. It was with BJ and Seb that XRNR really found it's footing and started to sound like something very special to me. I played the tracks we had for an earlier band mate of mine that had played keyboard on Quidam, Michael Picton and he agreed to take over in a producers role to complete the rest of the needed tracks to finish off the recordings. Michael brought in Rob Heaney to do the rest of the engineering and mixing of XRNR. Once Michael and Rob came into the picture the doors opened for more and more musicians to come in and play their tracks at Fast Forward Studios in Montreal. Backing vocals, strings, flamenco guitar, bass (upright and electric) and horns were all added, by session players in Montreal. This, leaving only synth tracks to be added by Michael, later. Now, we are mixing and are ready to put out the "EP" version of XRNR while the rest of the "full version", or "LP" version is being finalized. We are all very excited for you to hear both versions.
Thanks so much for your time and efforts.
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More info on Mavelvis and XRNR
To the XRNR iTunes Store
To Mavelvis official webpage
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