Picking the brain of David Mead.
Just to set up how this conversation started, MONO headquarters got an inside connection from a special friend of ours connecting us to Mr. David Mead. I wanted to see what he was up to, so I threw a couple of questions his way. Here is what we came up with.
MONO's mini-interview with David Mead
photo by Heidi Ross
MONO: Your most recent release, Almost and Always, is available through Noise Trade (part of it at least). How did that come about?
DM: I had known Derek Webb, one of NT's founders, for a few years but had kind of lost touch with him. Then I ran into him this past Summer just after I had finished recording A&A. He told me about NT and I was so excited about it that I rode my bike home, burned a copy of the album and brought it straight back to him. The timing was fortuitous because I had been pondering the possibility of giving the album away; NT has essentially made that possible while also providing the opportunity for me to gather email info that is sorted geographically so that I can stay in touch with the people who have downloaded the album.
MONO: The album seems to be a lot more intimate than your previous release, Tangerine. In many ways it's even more stripped down than Indiana, what spawned the release of this album?
DM: Conceptually, I was very inspired by an album called 'Nilsson Sings Newman,' an often overlooked record of Harry Nilsson singing the songs of Randy Newman. The arrangements on it basically consist of Nilsson's vocals and Newman's piano playing. Bill DeMain turned me onto the album around the time my marriage started to fall apart and it ended up kind of being the soundtrack for that situation. When it came time to record A&A, I decided I wanted to do something very similar; my life was in total upheaval and I had just quit drinking so I felt very raw and exposed. I thought that the best move would be to embrace that instead of covering it up or embellishing it with a lot of ornate production. I felt like the emotion of the songs and the situation would fill in the gaps. Plus it's a lot cheaper to utilize your own angst than to hire more musicians.
MONO: It really seems like you're having a great time when I listen to the tunes...with 6 records under your belt, has the process of writing and recording gotten to a point where it's just getting together with your boys/girls and pressing record? or is it the same as day one...jitters (if that was the case at all).
DM: It's a lot different than day one, that's for sure. It would be nice to think that albums get made in vacuums, but the reality (at least for me) has been that they are very affected by external circumstance, as I mentioned above. So the difference between doing an independent album of misguided torch songs at age 34 as opposed to a major label debut at age 24 is pretty noticeable. The most important thing that I have learned is to be patient and to stay relaxed while knowing that, at best, a great album is just a snapshot of a period of time, never the end-all-be-all. You never get everything quite right, it could always be improved upon, but the job is to capture the moment in which it occurred. Knowing this takes a lot of pressure off the process and makes the entire experience a lot more enjoyable for me than it used to be.
MONO: I don't have liner notes for the newest release, who did you bring in to help with this album? Where was the album recorded?
DM: The album was recorded and mixed by Brad Jones at Alex The Great studios in Nashville. Most of it was recorded live with myself singing and playing ukelele or guitar, Bill DeMain (who co-wrote nine of the songs on the album) playing guitar and Tyson Rodgers playing piano or glockenspiel. We brought Chris Carmichael in to do strings and Jim Hoke played woodwinds on a few songs. Brad overdubbed upright bass where needed. I also played my dog Stan's chest for percussion. He didn't seem to mind.
MONO: Can you list off some gear that you used for the recording? Guitars? Amps? I am a gear slut...this is for my personal satisfaction.
DM: I hate to disappoint, but the whole damn thing was done on acoustic instruments with the exception of one Nord lead overdub that Tyson did on 'Mojave Phone Booth.' I played a Favila Baritone ukulele and borrowed Bill's antique Martin D-28 for a few things. He played that and a Yamaha 12-string, mostly. Tyson played the studio piano, which I believe is a Borgendorfer grand. I don't know any info about Chris and Jim's gear but it's all very pretty and very old. Stan is a six-year old Beagle/Bassett mix with a cavernous chest cavity and a predilection for laying still or long periods of time.
MONO: Lastly, I wanted to feature on the MONOlog Blog...5 albums our artists are listening to currently that they find they are always spinning. Call it an introduction to your current itunes playlist.
DM: I am actually a crappy person to ask... I have been spending a lot more time with alternative activities than music listening, but here are some that still take priority over apartment improvement, hiking and bird watching:
1. The Silver Seas, 'High Society'
2. Harry Nilsson, 'Nilsson Sings Newman'
3. Madi Diaz, 'Ten Gun Salute'
4. Swan Dive, 'Until'
5. Cameron McGill and What Army, 'Warm Songs For Cold Shoulders'
MONO's mini-interview with David Mead
photo by Heidi Ross
MONO: Your most recent release, Almost and Always, is available through Noise Trade (part of it at least). How did that come about?
DM: I had known Derek Webb, one of NT's founders, for a few years but had kind of lost touch with him. Then I ran into him this past Summer just after I had finished recording A&A. He told me about NT and I was so excited about it that I rode my bike home, burned a copy of the album and brought it straight back to him. The timing was fortuitous because I had been pondering the possibility of giving the album away; NT has essentially made that possible while also providing the opportunity for me to gather email info that is sorted geographically so that I can stay in touch with the people who have downloaded the album.
MONO: The album seems to be a lot more intimate than your previous release, Tangerine. In many ways it's even more stripped down than Indiana, what spawned the release of this album?
DM: Conceptually, I was very inspired by an album called 'Nilsson Sings Newman,' an often overlooked record of Harry Nilsson singing the songs of Randy Newman. The arrangements on it basically consist of Nilsson's vocals and Newman's piano playing. Bill DeMain turned me onto the album around the time my marriage started to fall apart and it ended up kind of being the soundtrack for that situation. When it came time to record A&A, I decided I wanted to do something very similar; my life was in total upheaval and I had just quit drinking so I felt very raw and exposed. I thought that the best move would be to embrace that instead of covering it up or embellishing it with a lot of ornate production. I felt like the emotion of the songs and the situation would fill in the gaps. Plus it's a lot cheaper to utilize your own angst than to hire more musicians.
MONO: It really seems like you're having a great time when I listen to the tunes...with 6 records under your belt, has the process of writing and recording gotten to a point where it's just getting together with your boys/girls and pressing record? or is it the same as day one...jitters (if that was the case at all).
DM: It's a lot different than day one, that's for sure. It would be nice to think that albums get made in vacuums, but the reality (at least for me) has been that they are very affected by external circumstance, as I mentioned above. So the difference between doing an independent album of misguided torch songs at age 34 as opposed to a major label debut at age 24 is pretty noticeable. The most important thing that I have learned is to be patient and to stay relaxed while knowing that, at best, a great album is just a snapshot of a period of time, never the end-all-be-all. You never get everything quite right, it could always be improved upon, but the job is to capture the moment in which it occurred. Knowing this takes a lot of pressure off the process and makes the entire experience a lot more enjoyable for me than it used to be.
MONO: I don't have liner notes for the newest release, who did you bring in to help with this album? Where was the album recorded?
DM: The album was recorded and mixed by Brad Jones at Alex The Great studios in Nashville. Most of it was recorded live with myself singing and playing ukelele or guitar, Bill DeMain (who co-wrote nine of the songs on the album) playing guitar and Tyson Rodgers playing piano or glockenspiel. We brought Chris Carmichael in to do strings and Jim Hoke played woodwinds on a few songs. Brad overdubbed upright bass where needed. I also played my dog Stan's chest for percussion. He didn't seem to mind.
MONO: Can you list off some gear that you used for the recording? Guitars? Amps? I am a gear slut...this is for my personal satisfaction.
DM: I hate to disappoint, but the whole damn thing was done on acoustic instruments with the exception of one Nord lead overdub that Tyson did on 'Mojave Phone Booth.' I played a Favila Baritone ukulele and borrowed Bill's antique Martin D-28 for a few things. He played that and a Yamaha 12-string, mostly. Tyson played the studio piano, which I believe is a Borgendorfer grand. I don't know any info about Chris and Jim's gear but it's all very pretty and very old. Stan is a six-year old Beagle/Bassett mix with a cavernous chest cavity and a predilection for laying still or long periods of time.
MONO: Lastly, I wanted to feature on the MONOlog Blog...5 albums our artists are listening to currently that they find they are always spinning. Call it an introduction to your current itunes playlist.
DM: I am actually a crappy person to ask... I have been spending a lot more time with alternative activities than music listening, but here are some that still take priority over apartment improvement, hiking and bird watching:
1. The Silver Seas, 'High Society'
2. Harry Nilsson, 'Nilsson Sings Newman'
3. Madi Diaz, 'Ten Gun Salute'
4. Swan Dive, 'Until'
5. Cameron McGill and What Army, 'Warm Songs For Cold Shoulders'
posted by Pat at
11:25 AM
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