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  Simple Complications Interview: Part I 1/8/09 First off, where did you record the album? I recorded this album in my basement on my computer using Nuendo. My dad owns a bunch of recording equipment, so of course I get to take advantage of that! How long did the record take to make? I guess it officially started in March of 2008 when I did the original demos and was released in early December, so about 9 months in all. It went through different stages though, some more intense than others. What were the different stages? I recorded some early demos in March, just me and an acoustic guitar. I think there were 20 or so songs on the demos, some more complete than others. At the beginning of the summer I had written some more songs, so I took those and the original demos and narrowed them down to 18 songs that I wanted to work on. I spent most of the summer working on the instruments. I was also working full time, so I would leave for work at 6 in the morning, get back around 3, and then record until about 11 or 12 at night. It was a pretty grueling summer. By the end of the summer I had narrowed it down to 13 songs and had about 90% of the instruments done along with scratch vocals. I left the project alone for about a month or so while I was at college, but when I was off on fall break for a week, I was recording 10-14 hours a day. That was probably the least relaxing break ever, but I finished the vocals and the remaining instruments. During this time I also cut the last song to give me the 12 songs that are on the album. After that I was coming home every weekend to mix which ended up taking much longer than I anticipated. I finished mixing in mid-November. Then it took about a month to have it mastered and mass-produced. I didn't have the finished product until the Monday before the release, so December 8 I guess. How did you determine which songs stayed and which got cut? As I began recording, it was obvious that some songs needed a lot more work than others as far as arrangements, lyrics, or just structure. Six of the eight that I cut were because of that; the songs weren't really done. Of the other two, one song called So Easily just seemed out of place. It was an older song and didn't really fit with the other songs. The last one to get cut, a song called She Sleeps, basically got cut because I ran out of time. There was a rough version of it, but I didn't like the take and didn't have time to redo the whole thing. Looking back, it's interesting which songs made it and which ones didn't. There were some songs that I didn't think would make the album but did. Alone was one of those, but once the music started coming together I realized I had to keep it. I'm really happy with the way that one turned out. There are also some songs that I thought would make it but because of time restraints I couldn't really finish them. Maybe they'll see the light of day in the future, who knows. Did you have a theme or vision for the album? At the beginning of the summer I just wanted to record because I had so many songs I had written. I didn't necessarily plan for an album, but that was always in the back of my mind. As far as a theme, most of the songs were written during my freshman year at college. You know, moving away to college, there's a lot of change and uncertainty, a lot of doubts that I was feeling, but there's also a lot of hope and opportunity. Although it wasn't intentional, I think you can really see threads of that in all the songs. How did the name Simple Complications come about? "Simple Complications" is a line in the song What's Coming Up. It's a paradox that kind of summarizes the confusion and uncertainty you can see in some of the songs. I think we tend to over-complicate things sometimes, things that ought to be simple we make really complicated. Or things that seem really complex at the time turn out to have a simple answer. Things aren't always as simple as they seem, but more often I think things aren't always as complicated as we make them! This is your first solo album. How does playing solo compare to playing in a band? As a solo artist you have the final say in how the songs end up, the structure, how things sound, things like that. With a band though, there's more creativity because everyone is giving input, everyone has some say in how the song turns out. It's more democratic, and I think that makes for better songs. That's why I asked other people to come in and play, so they could give me suggestions or a different angle or approach for a song. Some of the songs I had a pretty firm idea of what I wanted, but for most of them I would ask people for their suggestions, and more often than not I followed them! I think this album turned out way better than it would have if I had done all the instruments. So which parts did you do? I did all the guitars and the main vocals. I also played a little bit of keyboard and percussion. I did all the engineering and most of the mixing, but even those I had some help with. Tell us about the people who helped you in making this record. Ah, there are so many! Well, aside from me, the person who probably put the most work into this record was Pat Martel. Pat and I were in my old band Off Limits together. This time he basically functioned as a producer as well as singing some backup and playing mandolin and piano on a few tracks. Also Eric Meyer, the bass player in Off Limits, did all the bass guitar. Then there was Mark Misulia who did the drums. I asked Mark to play based purely on what other people had told me about him, I'd never actually heard him play. But he came in and we did the drums in three days which is incredible. Nothing in recording ever goes that fast, but I'm really happy with the way the drums turned out. Then Jaime Carbo sang the female backup vocals and Jen Nicholson played violin on Down Here. On the technical end of things, Kevin Hamilton helped a lot with the recording. He would basically run the board while I was in the other room singing or playing guitar. Dyre Christensen came in and helped me with EQ and mixing. I also borrowed gear from a bunch of people; Andrew Madigan, Paul Mercer, Lara Kent, I can't even remember everyone. I did a photo shoot with a buddy from high school, Sam Ganger, and then my sister also took some pictures in the studio. There's also a picture, the picture behind the CD that was taken by Seth Wheeler, but he took it on Kevin Hamilton's camera, so I thought Kevin took it and gave him the credit on the album. Sorry Seth... Finally, when can we expect to hear new music from you? Well, I've already played some new songs at my shows. I might record a song or two during the spring semester, but I'm going to focus more on promoting Simple Complications. Once the summer comes I'll start thinking about a new release. I have a few ideas in my head, but it's too early to say. In Part II, Clint will go into more detail about the first six songs on the album. Check back soon! Top of Page |