The Birth

From Squirrel:

I'm so excited. I can't hardly wait for next week. There's something incredible about something that's been in the making for over 5 years finally being "made". Done. Officially. Without gushing over the people who made it possible, I'll remain composed for another week and some days and save the emo for Tuesday, November 16 - our OFFICIAL WORLD-WIDE CD RELEASE!

Slight tangent, but still very related...

I was reflecting just the other night with some friends of ours who used to be in a band together (hint: this band included the infamous Lawson White on percussion). This band was short lived but it's legend will live on if only through various basement and coffee house mini-disc recordings (still in the hands of band members and some die-hard fans like myself, shameless), a gem of an EP and of course word of mouth. During their hey day, this group of fine musicians polished a handful of their favorite tunes and took them to "the studio". Without knowing the exact number of hours spent there or over how many years these tunes were in the making, it's safe to say that it was a labor of love in all the best ways. Imagine 5 guys geeking out over real time arranging in the recording studio, adding big percussion to their unassuming combo as well as the occasional "trash" cymbals (does any of this give it away yet?). All of the energy paid off musically, if I do say so myself, to produce a killer record.

But here's where the story takes a nose dive. The record was never able to make it past the mixing phase of post-production. I might even be wrong about that. It was "laid down" but any polishing that's done after recording in the studio costs mucho mula and sadly, there was none left to push it forward. Although the raw version of this album would suffice for a die-hard fan like me, it wouldn't hold the same water out there in the field of glitsy, professionally produced recordings. Some would say "just put it out there" as is - however, these 5 guys were much too proud to release a half-polished record. So... it remains in album limbo, a place that is the home to countless incredible works of art and almost-finished productions. Last time I checked, I'm still logging at least two tracks (that I know of) in this musical purgatory and I'm sure those won't be the last. It's a sad story that so many of us know too well - the need and drive to make a recording of your music only to see it stunted by the expensive steps involved to get it DONE.

I'm definitely not saying that post-production is inflated or that we're being jipped as artists by our engineers and producers. On the contrary, they're not paid enough for what they do! However, as the record-making world has changed drastically (and the world of record stores, companies and buyers-not-burners), it's no secret that the artists themselves are losing in the battle to both produce albums as well as plain old perform as we used to! And, it becomes an upward struggle when one faces the question "should I record an album?" - a question which carries much more weight than simply whether or not to literally record an event.

Luckily for us, there has been a silver lining! Namely, our record label New Amsterdam Records, as well as an extremely supportive group of donors and organizations (including Argosy Foundation) who've all come together to help push this album into the world. Though we haven't fully funded the making of this album and are continuing our fundraising efforts, the birth is t-minus 4 days away! It's happening. It's happened.

Although janus has taken the past 4+ years to create "i am not", this labor of love is about to drop. And, believe it or not, we're already talking about our next baby. I've heard that there's a hormone the body produces after birth that makes the woman forget about all the pain and suffering she went through to get that baby born - specifically to prepare her for birthing the next one. Maybe it's not just true for the creation of humans?

Spark!

I LOVE mid-western cuisine. Weird. ? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm 6 months pregnant, but the focus on white, cream and cheese-based toppings and bases... LOVE it. The images prove: beautiful. Check out the walleye hogie with a side of chili!! Okay, so Nuiko's dish is a little more "healthy" per-say with the mound of wild rice (real wild rice, she pointed out), I can hang with that, too. As the only non-midwesterner in the trio, this was truly my first introduction to the area. Minneapolis is a special place for sure. I've been to Chicago before but never west of there. My last trip with janus there was dedicated to a tour of soul food, which feels somewhat different to me (being from south of the Mason Dixon) and less mid-western. But I'm learning! Psyched to experience more come our winter tour through Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. I wonder what my post partum taste buds will think then?

SPARK was amazing. If yall don't know about it, you should really look it up: http://spark.cla.umn.edu/ Super cool line-up of performers and composers. It felt pretty underground and the audience, who seemed mostly to know each other already, a group of people I wish we'd had more time to get to know. Next time we'll plan to stay - we missed Fred Frith's performance on Saturday! Bummer. Fred, won't you write us a trio? Pretty please??

We played Kevin Ernste's Numina for the second time now. Another perfect venue for that one: the Love Power Ministry. Something about that piece being done in a church makes it all the more creepy. I'm thinking it needs to be played exclusively that way. Kevin's writing is unlike anyone else's I've played - his combo of live electronics, processing our acoustic sound and the way he highlights the trio are all really special characteristics. You have to check it out. Maybe soon we'll have a recording for you!

Ready.

I believe, as I write this, that a master of our cd is well on its way to the manufacturers. The cover art is done, thanks to the excellent eye of Jen Boyd at Brij Design, the master sounds great, (thanks to both Lawson White and Vic Anesini at Sony) and I, for one, am ready to get this out in the world. This album has been on the boards since I was officially asked to join janus, a little under four years ago. Since then, there’ve been a myriad of address changes, miles driven, and deadlines met for the three of us, and it has felt, at times, that this album has had much too long a labor. Despite it’s slow percolation, though, I can (amazingly) still bear to listen to it all-Seeing as how I really dislike listening to myself in any recorded context, I think this speaks to both the strength of the material on the album and to Lawson’s awesome editing and mixing. We play the release show on the 29th of October at Joe’s Pub (just confirmed!) with Big Farm (who just finished recording their first album (and who we’re thrilled to be playing on a bill with)), and the actual disc drops on November 16th on New Amsterdam Records. Can’t wait!

Refresher Course

Last week, after some truly ridiculous stuck-in-Texas, too-high-winds, unfortunate-words-with-airline-personnel, eff-this-I’m-getting-in-the-effing-car, disaster-areas-in-Connecticut moments for janus, Beth and I met with Cornell composer Kevin Ernste to record sounds for a piece he’s working on (To be premiered on April 28^th at Cornell!). We had a pretty good time, as his approach to the harp is totally fresh. Essentially, it is what it is, a huge box with vibrating strings on it. And all the strings work the same way-you can pluck them, bow them, rub them, hit them, even blow on them (although it takes a pretty gusty wind) and they produce tone and overtone (see Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ for a lesson on vibration (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTM48pwoXAo)…um, ok, so on watching that for the first time in…15 years?...it is not exactly how I remember it. But yes, that is essentially what you see when I play the harp. HA!)-you can find various harmonics by dividing the string into equal parts (called nodes) Anyway, after getting some notated passages from both the viola and the harp, that is exactly what we did. Beth was kind enough to allow the use of her bows to play around with overtones, and we set up the harp in a yoga studio with some resonant wood floors, after which we stomped and yelled and tried all sorts of crazy shite to get the instrument vibrating. Kevin let out some pretty impressive full range yells into the back of the sound box, which was surprisingly effective with a close mic. All in all, a sort of fantastic exploratory experience into an instrument I thought I knew pretty well, but haven’t even started to discover…can’t wait for the results!

Archipelago series post!

Below is my blog post for www.sequenza21.com for the 2/26 New Amsterdam Records "Archipelago" series at Galapagos:

It’s not often that I’m involved in both sets of an evening’s lineup. I’m Beth Meyers and I play viola in janus (also Amanda Baker, flutes and Nuiko Wadden, harp) as well as QQQ (“triple Q”) which is Monica Mugan, acoustic guitar; Jason Treuting, drums and percussion; Dan Trueman, hardanger fiddle. These two acts have shared the stage before about a year ago at Joe’s Pub for QQQ’s album release. But this Friday we’ll share the bill as part of a special New Amsterdam Records and Galapagos series called “Archipelago” at Galapagos Art Space 2/26, 8pm.

The series presents “cross-genre chamber music” and as a member of both janus and QQQ, I can’t think of many other ways to describe each group let alone tie the two together! One group was born from music by the likes of Claude Debussy and has been moving steadily away from classical notation and performance practice as we find the future sound for flute/viola/harp. The other ensemble (please refer to us as a “band”) draws it’s inspiration from folk music written for Norwegian dance and “picking” on the porch as much as it does from contemporary pop/groove and classical counterpoint. So, this “cross-genre chamber music” is a good place to start.

Okay, so there’s another thing that ties us together besides me. It goes without saying that we’re all friends, too. janus was formed in 2002 when Amanda and I were at a party that my then boyfriend, Jason, took me to. One of the first conversations Amanda and I had was about how much we loved the Debussy Sonata for trio and how we’d love to play it together. The story goes that the trio was formed in January (hence, janus) after playing the Debussy and anything else we could get our hands on. Turned out there wasn’t much music out there. But, lucky for us, we were both friends with lots of composers from our respective schools (Eastman and Yale) … and the rest is history.

As for the tale of QQQ… again born out of love for a sound (and in this case my absolute infatuation with all things fiddle - and of course drums) the band came to life on Thanksgiving, 2006. It wasn’t all my doing of course. I was first introduced to “Trolstilt” at the CMA conference a few years before where I also met Dan and Monica for the first time. I have to admit I was not only blown away by the interesting tunes this duo performed on guitar and fiddle, but completely in awe of this instrument I’d never seen or heard before. It’s hard to say which aspect of the hardanger fiddle is more striking, it’s delicate and ornately detailed body or it’s other-wordly sound. I think I bumbled a little while meeting them and definitely said “how can I get one of those?” A few years later while performing a show at Princeton with my now husband, Jason, the four of us got to talking. Apparently Dan had been dreaming of adding a low sound like viola to the duo and drums were the icing on the cake (or the cake itself?). Dan had a few tunes he wanted to play and Jason wrote a few tunes… and history.

But, as much as we’re all friends (in QQQ’s case, two married couples) and part of these two “genre-bending” ensembles, the sounds from these two groups couldn’t be more polar-opposite. At Friday’s show you’ll here QQQ, a band that writes it’s own music, premier two new works:

Dan’s “From Ort”, is a suite of songs featuring vocalist, Daisy Press, and animation by Judy Trueman. This piece is a tribute and memorial to Trueman’s great-uncle, Ort, from Wausau, Wisconsin, who died in 2008 at the age of 102. Ort, whose family was from the Enstad farm in Norway, was a huge fan of the hardinfele (hardanger fiddle). He was also a record keeper, and compiled a huge book of information about the family tree. Judy Trueman, Dan’s mother and Ort’s niece, used photographs from these records to create a beautiful “animated painting” that will accompany the tunes.

From the other side of QQQ’s sound comes a collection of pieces titled “11 words” by Jason, inspired by 11 of the new words added to the Webster Dictionary this past year. These short tunes also call for Daisy to join forces with the band. But like QQQ’s debut album title “Unpacking the Trailer…” hints, it’s hard to know what you’re going to find from words like agroterrorism, abdominoplasti, hoody and crunk. Personally, I’m really looking forward to “yogilates”. The set will be rounded out with a tune from “Unpacking” featuring just the band.

Following QQQ, janus, who collaborates with and commissions composers to write for the group, will take the stage and present music from it’s forthcoming debut album due to drop sometime in Fall 2010. The program features works by Anna Clyne, Cameron Britt, Ryan Brown, Angelica Negron and Jason Treuting as well as a few other surprises. One of the best things about working with so many different composers is that we continue to discover new sounds through their composition. This album is no exception as you’ll hear from these tunes that feature us playing our flutes/viola/harp, adding a little banjo and percussion here and there (literally in the harp), singing and performing with electronics and video… we’re a far cry from Debussy these days!

So, “cross-genre” covers many bases: from janus’s classical chamber music roots to Dan and Monica’s folk background and Jason’s 2 and 4 backbeats in QQQ. Maybe someday soon we’ll have a 12^th word to add to the dictionary that encapsulates this genre of new sounds into a few syllables. For now, “new” also works. Thanks to New Amsterdam Records and Galapagos for programming these two great groups on the same show! Looking forward to sharing a lot of new music with new ears.

-Beth Meyers

Let's reflect for a moment, shall we?

This was our original recording at the So Percussion Space in 2007.
A little makeshift, but we managed to get a demo cd out of it. (Many, many, many thanks to the So guys for allowing us to take over.) Below, however was my mental state when we finally wrapped that experience.









Observe, if you will, the luxurious conditions we just finished recording in.






A little less spastic, a little more sane. We've been lucky.

from in the recording studio

I really wanted to do this because it's just not the same post-recording. So, I'm sitting behind Lawson White at the console of Clinton Recording Studios on 46th and 10th Ave. We're in studio A, which, if you haven't ever been here before is a @$*^ing unbelievable room to make a record in. This room was the home for recording artists including Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, REM, Chick Corea, Sonny Rollins, and Ringo Starr to name a few of the greats. Needless to say, we're humbled by the spirit of this room.

Right now I'm sitting in the sound booth instead of behind the mic because Amanda and Nuiko are laying down the harp percussion for Ryan Brown's "Under the Rug". It's a one-person part but Nuiko's harp is so resonant that she has to sit there and hold on to it so Amanda's knocking doesn't bring out all the vibrations these expensive mics easily pick up. It's a pretty special moment for me to be able to have this perspective which is completely polar opposite to the feeling of being in that big room. I have to relay to you the picture that's laid out in front of me, too. There are no less than 11 mics on tall stands that I'm sure all have impressive technical names and numbers I could only dream of. The visual of them all growing toward the ceiling is like a herd of giraffes reaching up for the birds ear to our sound. And if you squint your eyes it starts to look a bit like a war - the mic stands some sort of army of machinery that has us surrounded. I'm sure they're all necessary to capture the sounds from our 3 instruments (additionally 4: harp percussion, 5: banjo and 6: voices occasionally) - and to grab the "room sound" from a stereo sense. If you're following all of that, then you may have had a recording experience of your own. Or, you might geek out about how some of your favorite albums were recorded. The where, when, weather, and even time of day can be heard if you listen carefully enough. I just heard a stomach growl, so I guess you can even hear what's on the menu. If you believe me, then you'll hear it, too.

The girls are about done with the percussion sounds then it's off to re-record Caleb Burhans's "Keymaster" which was recorded back in the winter of 2007 at the So Percussion rehearsal space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. A far cry from Clinton. Good thing there were a few other reasons to clean up that recording, which gives us a reason to lay it down in this heavenly setting. Not to say that the So Space wasn't an incredible experience in it's own right (complete with Lawson's make-shift console set up in the back corner of the space, gargantuan felt baffles surrounding us and taking turns turning the heat on in between takes as it was the middle of the winter). We're keeping one of the tunes we recorded there, which also happens to be the title track for the album - Jason Treuting's "I am not (blank)". It's pretty fitting to keep that recording from 233 Norman Ave in Brooklyn not only because Jason's So Percussion resides there but also because that recording of "I am not (blank)" captures exactly what I was referring to earlier. You can totally hear the temperature in the room, the feeling that we really wanted to be there regardless of the circumstances causing our fingers to numb. Jason's piece also asks us to put ourselves in it in a different way than the other tunes on the album. We're improvisers for much of the piece and when it comes to capturing these kind of moments, we already did.

So, it's 1pm and we're on schedule. Just finished Ryan's piece, Caleb up to bat. The rest of the day also includes recording "unintelligible" whispering and backing claps (which I'm MOST excited about from these 3 recording days) for Ryan's piece, crumpling paper for the end of Angelica Negron's "Drawings for Meyoko" which we otherwise finished up yesterday morning, and all of Caleb's piece. The last part of today is something I'm looking forward to so much. We're planning to lay down our version of a piece by David Lang called "Little Eye" which was originally written for "solo cello and 4 non-percussionists". We've thought a lot about how to record all of this music these past 3 days both from a purist standpoint as well as from the side of using modern technology to it's fullest. How do I put this? We want to make a great record that appeals to our ears while still performing relatively what's possible live. This can get hard when you start to use technology at all, right? For example, once you're performing with electronics or a "tape part" then you're already running into issues of balance (especially for the bass of the harp). In this case, we're adding some claps for Ryan's piece where we wouldn't all be able to clap live. But, why wouldn't I want to clap, too? 3 claps just sound better than 1. That's probably the most mild example from this album recording experience. On the other end of things, we're planning to cover 4 non-percussionists with just 2 members of the trio. No apologies. I'd forgotten that So Percussion recorded Steve Reich's Drumming at the Hit Factory a number of years ago (R.I.P. Hit Factory ... apparently Drumming was the last record that was made there). Anyway, Drumming is scored for 9 percussionists, 2 singers and 1 piccolo player. Done live, you absolutely need 12 people. So Percussion is 4 people and they did it themselves. Well, they invited singers and piccolo to record. Only so much magic is possible.

So, you can make magic happen in the studio. I'm witnessing this as I type and will join them in the room after the Indian food is ordered. We're about to record some whispers. Listen carefully...

Sticks and Stones

Having played together for several years now, we janus girls have learned a lot about each other’s tendencies and quirks. Being very fond of nicknames, I like to take these discoveries and turn them into suitable nicknames. Here are mine for Nuiko and Beth.

Last August, Nuiko and I were driving to a train station in CT to pick up Beth. Even though it was a summer weekend in New England, the traffic was minimal compared to the jammed highways and streets of New York. Nonetheless, with each cautious and careful lane change I attempted, Nuiko, sitting in my passenger seat, was “kind enough” to crane her head back and check my blind spot. She was very consistent with her supervising and it felt like I was in the rigors of driver’s ed rather than in the too familiar enclave of my own car. For such a chillaxed person, I thought it unusual that Nuiko be so vigilant in her self-assigned duty. Her nervous behavior prompted me to think back on other times I’ve been in the driver’s seat and I recalled her looking over her shoulder often making sure I wasn’t about to create a mess of metal. So then I had to ask myself, “Is it possible that I am a bad driver? Could she be looking over her shoulder in terror because she thinks it entirely possible that I’d run into another car?” Not being one to beat around the bush, I immediately asked the question of her. She denied any conscious involvement in being my official lane approver and stated that she in fact, thought I was a very good driver (yes, really). Having the spotlight shone on her for the rest of the ride, she realized herself that with each maneuver I attempted, she did indeed swivel her head and peer into the back seat. Even amongst our fits of laughter over her paranoia, Nuiko continued to verify our safety all the way home. Thus, Nuiko has been named Blindspot or BS for short. She takes pride in helping us all drive and making our American roadways that much safer. Thanks BS.

If any of you know Beth, you know that she possesses endless amounts of energy. She has a very small frame and flits about from one gig to the next usually while carrying at least one instrument and at the bare minimum, one heavy bag. There are two stories that come to mind that together, sealed Beth’s nickname. Last fall, we had a noontime rehearsal at Nuiko’s place and since Beth had come from teaching a Pilates session, she brought a lunch to eat before we began. She was in her usual high gear mode, eating pretty quickly all the while talking about her most recent social annoyance. I looked up from our muffins to discover that Beth had gathered some food to one of her cheeks and studying the protrusion I thought to myself, “Huh. Beth could be hoarding nuts like a squirrel.” Thinking about this a little more, I came to the realization that there was more truth behind my squirrel thought to be considered: she is prone to fits of sudden, unexplained movement, she chases other squirrels from one tree to the next (hypothetically speaking), she is always hyper-alert and she swishes her tail and emits a caw to warn her predators. Yup. Girl a squirrel. Around that same time, we were in rehearsal when we came to a particularly laborious section. Beth said something about being annoyed and in a freaky display of defense, made one of her eyes protrude from her head while her eyelid came about halfway down on the other. Classic squirrel face. Done deal.

I have a nickname too but I think it is based on a silly misconception. It’s best left to my bandmates to explain if they so desire. One hint: it involves a creature attracted to light – its kiss of death.