14 August
Dear Liz Harris,
I have been a fan of your music under the name Grouper for a long time, but I think it was only when I came to record my own songs and make my own album that I began to understand the intricacy of your ‘less is more’ approach to building soundscapes. It has been intriguing to discover that a song is completely remade in the process of recording — even though I begin recording with completely finished song structures and chord progressions. In trying to find low-budget and lo-fi ways to create atmospheric soundscapes, I have come to a new appreciation of the delicacy of your production and song structure.
I wondered what your thoughts are on the somewhat ubiquitously clean and shiny production that seems so prevalent in everything from pop and country, to more indie styles of rock today? Personally, I find that if the production of a song is too ‘new’ and ‘shiny’ sounding, it becomes less interesting to me. It’s something like picking up a novel, and finding that though the plot is extremely interesting, the authorial voice is too similar to another writer (or a literary movement) to hold my attention. When I began recording my own album, I embraced the more DIY aspects of my production (and still do) because I think it adds to the rooting of a recording in an artists’ oeuvre, helps add a signature, authorial quality to the work and also gives it a more interesting relationship with the music being made in parallel to it. For example, I find that The Kills’ album No Wow has a much more interesting relationship to all the other rock music made at a similar time (2005) because they decided not to use reverb on any of the vocals. Even though these vocals (as proven by experiments done by the band since) sound ‘better’ with reverb, the lack of it is a key part of this album, and a good example I think of how ‘better’ isn’t actually always better in terms of production.
It also seems to me that throughout my life, home recording and recording without a studio has become much more accessible, and it would be a shame not to open ourselves to all that it can offer us. I have never recorded in a studio, and the use of different spaces (people’s homes, garages, even different rooms within the same house) has added to my projects in ways that I would never have discovered if I had been recording in a studio environment. I have included sounds of weather in my work, diegetic sound from neighbours, all sorts of extra small touches that wouldn’t have happened in a studio. The use of different spaces has also offered me ways to explore how to add to each instrument, for instance finding which room is best for vocals and which for guitar.
With all these thoughts in mind, I would be really interested to hear how you yourself view your use of production throughout your back catalogue. For me, your production is an intrinsic part of your music, and instantly lets me know that a song is yours even if I haven’t heard it before. Do you plan the production around creating more atmosphere or intimacy, do you build the production around individual songs or for album projects as a whole? All these questions are extremely interesting to me, and it would be extremely enlightening to hear from you. I wonder also, if you are conscious of your lo-fi, idiosyncratic production marking your music out compared to the shiny, less individual production style used in much of mainstream music today? Whatever the answer, I will continue to enjoy the uniqueness of your producing and the way it adds a whole new dimension and sense of feeling to your songs.
Yours sincerely,
Eleanor
Eleanor