A PASSAGE TO CLEAR
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A PASSAGE TO CLEAR |
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HOW
THINGS STARTED
FROM THE JOURNAL OF JOHN MINER
STRANGER OF MY FIND
THE PROMISE
UNDERGROUND
A PASSAGE TO CLEAR
CLEAR
LOVE
SHADOWS OF STYLE
GOODBYE THE LIE
STRANGE Everyone,
at least in the progressive rock world talks
POETIC INJUSTICE
HEAVEN
COSMIC COBWEBS AND LOLLIPOPS
ALONE
HOW THINGS STARTED
A Passage to Clear came out of a continuation of the
creative momentum generated from The Rock Opera...I felt
a need to get back to roots in a sense and just start
making music again instead of having a hand in every
aspect of an enormous theatrical production including
sitting in the directors chair for the Charleston
performances of Heavens Cafe'..
Performing much of the record in small coffee houses
around town I was able to slowly assimilate the pieces
and get the music in order to start the recording process.
So again with me it's always about finding the right drummer.
That being the foundation of any rock record. After seeing
drummer Devon Lebsack perform with Jon Cornell's ska
band, it seemed he had the chops to tackle such an
undertaking....In between his studies at Berklee College
of Music we were able to get the bulk of the record done
in a relatively short period of time considering the
complexity of the project. Also I wanted to write the
whole record musically before any lyrics were to be
penned. ..then once that was done I started hunting
for vocal talent..I found Karen Marquart through a
friend who said "hey I know this great vocalist...her
name is Karen..." and I thought ok..she was doing kareoke
bars and winning all the local vocal contests....lets get
her into my universe and see what happens!....about three
quarters of the way through the record there were a few
tracks which seemed to just not be working and I think
Karen got frustrated...then a cold that lasted for months
motivation seemed waning and I told her I would look for
someone else to finish the remaining tracks...it really
seemed it was just not going to get done...and that.. I think
is my biggest fear as a producer..My friend Karyn Anderson
had a listen to where the record was and agreed to help
out...then right in the middle of all this my studio was
broken into and nearly everything stolen..It was a terribly
sad moment in life to have that happen...I couldn't do
anything for months....then having to replace all kinds of
vintage gear...and stuff..just awful..awful...Luckily the
master tapes were removed from the recorder the night before
and were not lost...that was truly a saving grace...So Karyn and I
just kinda went at it alone...it was very different and
at times uncomfortable for her to do because her vocal style
is strongly rooted in blues and she is a very passionate singer
with lots of nuances and character....which of course was thrilling
for me to try to bottle that lightening....but awkward
for her. Karyn is a strong Buddhist so we spent a lot
of time chanting and experimenting in quest of the clear
energy. When we finally got to the finish line it was
really a great feeling of relief and accomplishment. I think
A Passage to Clear is a very fitting name for the
record...I guess the day I make a record that happens
easily in two weeks with no drama or dire frustration is
the day I make a boring sterile lifeless record...!!
Stranger of my Find...I had been noodling around the guitar
for some time trying to find a series of chords that would be
similar in character yet encompass nearly the whole neck
of the instrument and somehow bring it all back together
into some type of musicality..Devon's idea to use heavy
Cuban grooves was very much welcomed and I don't think anyone
has ever heard a song like this...I really have no idea
what to call or categorize it in anyway shape or
form...And I'm in no way against doing that! Trying to find the
vocal melody was like trying to remove the sculpture from the
slab of marble...you know it's there but how do you get it out?
This was the first song I threw at Karen and it was no easy
thing to record.
I had experimented some with polyrhythmic structuring some
with Heavens Cafe'particularly on The Dark and I wanted to
do a little more exploring in that arena. This time I liked
the 7-6-7-5 meter and went into that ...basically
phrasing it around the bass line. I think Devon was
excited with this piece..I mean it's not everyday a
Vegas drummer is asked to lay down this kind of groove!
Devon again let the Cuban influence take charge
and gives another compelling performance. When it came time
for vocals I had worked out the melody in a way to smooth
out the piece and give it room to breath and air out a
bit. There were a lot of minor notes being played in the
guitar line so it really had no other option than to be
rather haunting I think. We recorded it fairly quickly
and painlessly and I did a duo with her toward the end
in what I call the "creepy part!" ....We just sang it
together into one mic...a small PL6 condenser I had laying
around and it just worked out real nice.
Underground started from a bass line I'd been toying
with and Devon just really felt a kinda jazz shuffle
thing to it.. which again was nothing close to what
I had in mind originally! Being a more experimental
record we just went with it and I decided to try and
darken it up with my favorite A minor tuning and use some
dark sounding chords on top.. Dark swing music!
Could this be a new genre? What kinda dance steps to
this I wonder.... The Vegas Lindy?
We brought in Ken Wenzel who in the scene is probably
the hottest young sax cat around to blow more life
into the number and Karen again did her sultry thing
and we got a song!I had met Ken out on the scene and
he played the role of Classical Man in the second run
of Heavens Cafe' at the Charleston Theater.. We even had
him blow some sax there as well...
Being the little instrumental piece between songs,
kind of a short medley of ideas, Passage
to Clear strangely became the name of the record.
When things were later strung together
it just didn't feel right to go from Underground
straight into Clear....hence the little interlude.
I had messed with this technique quite a bit on
Heavens Cafe' so it seemed the right
thing to keep a bit of that energy here as
well. The little country guitar piece was a
favorite of mine to play around campfires and
such and it seemed the right place for it here..
Erica and I had fun with the interplay between
violin and guitar near the end...
I think Clear is my personal favorite on the
record..just one of those songs that just works
from top to bottom. Devon's powerful drumming
sets things up nicely for the bass
and guitar lines. It's the first time
we hear Karyn Anderson and I really love the vocal
melody here..kinda a rolling Greek to middle eastern
flavored line backed by my punkish
shouting just underneath. I did a split
guitar track to attempt to keep up with
the energy level the piece was developing.
If Tributary ever releases as Greatest Hits
I hope this would be on it! The 7/ 8 thing at
the end I think helped to bring things back to
the previoussong and aided, I feel, in the overall
flow of things...We developed an even more
aggressive playing style with it live at recent
Art Rock Circus gigs..
Love started from a poem I had written about the
devastating news that they (The Government here in the USA)
is planning on shipping all the nuclear waste of the nation
60 miles north of where I live, across the nations highways
and within a stones throw of 25 million people. Karen's
voice so smooth felt like the tranquil soft desert
against the abrasive piercing guitar..the waste.
There seems to be a struggle and a back and
forth debate between forces of man and nature,
society and sociology and art and
science....and this still goes on today.
This one in particular I had been crafting for some
time and originally had penned it for my great friends
Kris and Karen for their wedding song first dance.
It seems a popular request when playing solo gigs
in coffee houses and such. I think it's just a real
pretty song and it adds nice contrast to the two
surrounding pieces. Karyn's voice is in nice form
here and you can really hear some complex nuances
in her voice with a close listen.
Goodbye the lie was a song that had been left over
from Heavens Cafe' and almost..and maybe should
have been on that record. Miche whom played the Guardian Angel
did the original version, but I wasn't really happy
with the mix and pre production so I did a different
take on it here.. I used three tracks of volume pedal
guitar and shaped that into a sad and introspective
story of love gone bad. The boomy kick drum is like
a pounding heart a bit out of rhythm....heavy and
haunting. Karyn actually cried while recording ... as
it had stirred up some recent emotions of her own.
I think we really got close on this one to bottling
lightening. One of my favorites on the album artistically
yet a difficult one to listen two as well.
about the difficulty of writing a song
in 13/ 8 meter...That was the experiment
here..Yes..a bit Strange. If you like this kind of
stuff you've come to the right place....if not ...skip to
the next track.
Things start to run amuck here...I read this poem at a
coffee house poetry reading night
then recorded some back tracking music
for it to aid it's climactic build...really
just a bit of abstraction to move things along.
This was actually the first song I had written
specifically for this record. We all want "Heaven"
in one way or another.. now or later...Karyn gives
another emotionally packed performance
and I think the ending of the song as it
builds and goes through the key changes worked
very nicely...It's really the kind of guitar work
I like the best...not so much gymnastics but
really "note selection"... is the challenge.
Here we just played around a lot, experimenting
recording different sounds and arrangements until
we got to something like this and it felt light,
dark, fun, and interesting.
Cosmic Cobwebs and Lollipops either makes perfect
sense to you or it doesn't...I'll leave it at that..
If Alone sounds familiar it may be because you
already own one of the Heavens Cafe' records.
In keeping with tradition I did a little rearrangement
of Never Alone with a bit of a twist and a shot of lime juice!