Three Music Thingz with Mt Fog
Awooo, it's another rendition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their music-making.
Today we have Mt Fog! A band, or as they describe themselves, a "conscious mycelial network" in Seattle, WA, Mt Fog are Carolyn B. (voice, synth, violin), Andy Sells (drums/percussion) and Casey Rosebridge (bass). They have a beautiful new album out called Every Stone is Green. The band describes the album as a "Gothic tale (in the Brontë sisters' sense) about finding happiness, which is human-ness"; I would describe the album as haunting/spooky electronic goth pop, but not in a Spirit Halloween way, more like when you are in the woods and you notice how well-trod a particular footpath is, and you start thinking about all the people who walked there before, and matter of fact, who were the first people to decide to cut a path through here? What were their lives like??
Mt Fog
My favorite song off Every Stone is Green is "Look Inside." It's uptempo and I like a fast song. Also the synth tone is soooo good, buttery and juicy like a well-dressed scone. Something about it makes me want to run on the side of a questionably paved two-way highway in an underpopulated area. The lyrics broadcast a soothing self-affirmation, something to repeat in moments of doubt: "I think I’ll carry love and understanding / I think I’ll have affection / I think I’ll have affection / For me."
Carolyn shared the band's Three Music Thingz with me/the blog...below...the Thingz...
Fretless bass
Here’s what happens when you listen to the band Japan on repeat in your car: you become convinced that David Sylvian was improvising all of his vocal melodies. You also become convinced that your band must – must - have the fretless bass. (e.g. “My Career” by Japan.)
Goblin
Not the band, the concept. While making Every Stone is Green, we became enamored by the concept of things sounding goblin. For instance, a particularly mischievous drum part with strange rhythms and lots of toms: goblin. A bass part that hits notes unexpectedly but pointedly: goblin. A synth patch with elements of distortion, noise, delay: nearly goblin, could be more goblin. It’s hard to know if something is goblin but when it is, you know. Sorry, we aren’t available for further comment on this matter. See: hobgoblins; Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten; Nina Hagen.
A record player
One of the songs on our new album arose from a moment that existed within a skip on a record (specifically Gateway, the trio of John Abercrombie, Jack DeJohnette, and Dave Holland). Another whole sort of feeling arose when one day, accidentally, I listened to Andy’s collection of drum and bass 45’s on 33, and thought I had inadvertently discovered a new genre of mushroom-core. The thing is, when you have physical objects to interact with, and those physical objects make sound, they might be a vehicle for idea-making, experimentation, and, super important in this era of far too much smoothness, mistakes.
Thank you Mt Fog! Listen to Every Stone is Green here and check out the band's website.
And thanks for reading I Enjoy Music! If you like it, tell a friend.
