Posted on Friday 20 August 2010
By Alex Schaaf | Photo by Daniel Brielmaier
Menomena, a trio hailing from Portland, Oregon, have been on the scene since 2003 with the release of their debut album I Am The Fun Blame Monster!
First off, how does it feel to have an album coming out and to be gearing up for a big tour after such a long gap between Friend & Foe and Mines? Does it feel different this time around, like you have a bigger audience or that there’s more attention this time?
Ah yes, The Gap: unfortunately not just a sweet place to by clothes anymore. It took so long between these last two albums that it’s becoming almost impossible to gauge if there are any of our fans left. They’re probably all grandparents by now, so it will be interesting to see how that will work. We sound nothing like Jimmy Buffett. Sorry, I’m already tripping over my own lameass non-answers at this point. Basically, when we tour, it will be interesting to see if the former fans still come out to see us, and if there are any new ones along the way. As for right now, I’m too pessimistically skeptical to assume we’ll have a music career in three months. Fingers crossed though?
Can you talk a little bit about the creation of Mines in general? Did you record it yourselves, or did you have any help from outside producers or engineers?
We did all of the recording ourselves again. Actually, that’s not completely true. I had help from a trio of close friends (Matt Dabrowiak, Benjamin Weikel, Jesus Christ) recording drums one day, but the other 98% of it was recorded solely by us. We mixed it all ourselves too, up until last couple weeks before we finally submitted it. At about that time, our engineer friend Jeff Stuart Saltzman intervened and helped us finalize the mixes and master the darn thing in his animal-ridden house. I love how most band record, mix, and master entire records in the same time it takes us to “finalize” something. Actually, I don’t love that fact. I hate it with an absolute passion.
Were most of the songs on this album written around the same time period, or do they come from different stages of creating the album?
All of the songs but one (“Lunchmeat”) were written after we released Friend & Foe. So that leaves THREE years to write and record the other 10, which of course means it took THREE grown men to write THREE-point-THREE THREE THREE songs per year for THREE years (how many peeps are in the Holy Trinity again? CREEPY!). None of that information is anything to be proud of. But to be fair, Brent and I did write and record a total of THREE other non-Menomena albums with our coattail-riding solo projects. Boy, do I wish coattails paid the bills.
When making the album, do you come up with a bunch of songs, and create the tracklisting after the songs are all done, or do you figure out which songs you’re going to keep right away and only work on those? If the first case, how many B-sides do you end up with after picking the final tracklisting?
We have quite a few B-sides this time around. I think I personally submitted about 25 song ideas for this album, Brent about 17, and Justin about 5. So that minus 11 should be roughly (emphasis on “rough”) 36 songs that didn’t make the cut. Subtract about half of those for being absolute garbage (not in a Shirley Manson kinda way…or wait, maybe so) and another half of those that ended up on RamonaThereof albums, and you’re down to 9, to which I need not mention the square root of. So yeah, we’ve got about 9 kinda-gems that are slowly making their way out there on vinyl and as digital bonus tracks. And while I’m crunching numbers, I should also point out that while Justin may have put the least amount of material on the table, he has the highest percentage of songs to make the actual record (4/5 = 80% – thank goodness for calculators). We’re all jealous of him.
Which was the quickest song to come together, from initial ideas to final mix, and which one took the longest? Any interesting stories behind the writing/recording of specific songs?
Brent wrote chord progression to “Killemall” a couple years ago, and we’ve been playing live it for awhile now. I guess you could say that one came together pretty quickly in the process. Justin had a similar experience with “Queen Black Acid“, which also happens to be his drumming debut on a Menomena record (he’s better than I at most things in life, drumming being no exception). As for me, I assembled a little instrumental piece out of the leftover loops for “Five Little Rooms.“ It was originally supposed to be just a noisy instrumental finale to the parent song. I emailed it to Brent for approval, and he wrote back (yes, we avoid actual human interaction at all costs) the next day with a mix featuring fully fleshed-out vocals, complete with Tool-style backwards reverb effect. Why can’t we just be sober? I loved it, and it became “Sleeping Beauty,” my personal favorite on the album. Since you didn’t ask.
Brent released a solo album as Ramona Falls last year, and you’ve had your own solo work as well. Do you think having these solo albums helps when you come together to make a Menomena record, as far as knowing more clearly what each person is capable of contributing, or is it just a totally different aspect that you don’t think about when you’re together as Menomena?
I guess I’ve never known what it would be like if I tried making Menomena music without having Lackthereof; my unmentionable solo project. Lackthereof predates Menomena and has always been there simultaneously for me, just in case I feel like making an album of music that doesn’t require massive personality conflicts to produce. But I know the equally irreplaceable talents of Brent & Justin make Menomena “Menomena”, so I’m totally content with my solo career just sort of hanging out somewhere in the shadows in the meantime. Remember when Chris Cornell went solo? Yeah, no one was too stoked on that. To answer your question though, the solo records definitely help the more prolific songwriters in this band stay mentally productive, if nothing else. Thankfully, Ramona Falls and Lackthereof are still rather obscure compared to Menomena, which is still relatively obscure compared to uh, Justin Bieber. If it ever got to the point where the three were competing for any of our attention, I think it would be the final conflict that broke this monkey’s back. Self references rule!
According to several reviews of Mines, the new album seems a bit more cohesive and comprehensive than the previous two, in terms of the focus being less on the methods of composition and the interesting textures and more so on the songs themselves, and the improved songwriting that’s on display. Do you agree with this?
I agree. Our songwriting should get the “Most Vastly Improved” award. Ha. No, I actually don’t know how to answer that. I guess I’d be more curious to know if YOU agreed with that statement. All I can say is that we worked our asses off for years on this thing, paying more attention to the minutiae of the structure and overall sound than ever before. But tons of bands have made a lot of overwrought albums with that formula. I hope Mines is an exception. It’s quite a major sigh of relief when someone tells us they spent a lot of time with it and still like it. It’s more validating that ever to hear that sort of thing right now, because it makes the end inch closer to justifying the means.
Previously: Photos: Menomena – Empty Bottle, Chicago
Menomena is on tour next month including stops in Madison at High Noon Saloon on Friday, September 24th and at the Metro in Chicago on Saturday, September 25th. You should really go.
MP3: Menomena – “Taos”
MP3: Menomena – “Five Little Rooms”
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Buy: Menomena – Mines
