Fairy Tales for Ill-Tempered Children

Three Questions for Marianne & John Marc about their latest Album

1. What is exciting about this second record from EOG?

John Marc: I for one am really excited about this album. Mostly because it is both an expansion from our first release and a completely new musical direction. Well, a bunch of musical directions because we are all over the map.   
But  we  like  the  map,  and   the   structure of our band allows us to be whatever we wish. It reflects that fact that we each have some pretty broad musical tastes, that overlap very easily.
 
Marianne: For the second album, I drove to Colorado to visit John Marc and record vocals in person. It was November, and John Marc would split firewood every day or so to heat the house. He showed me how to split the logs with an axe but I still need more practice.
 
John Marc: We did get into Zen on the first record, in an abstract sense, as I try not to 'philosophize with a hammer' when writing lyrics. So it's only fitting that we had to chop some wood. I had arrived at the house for the first time in a couple of years, so it was a homecoming for me back to Colorado, but of course I had a handful of charming 100 year-old house issues right as Marianne was arriving to record the second record.
 
Marianne: At that time John Marc was dealing with serious leaks in the water pipes in the house, and had turned off his water service in the meantime. So every few days we bought water at the grocery store. I was glad I had my car and we didn’t have to lug water jugs by bicycle, John Marc’s usual mode of transportation.
 
We only had to lug the jugs of water from my car into the kitchen. And we both noticed and appreciated that making the album involved cutting wood and carrying water, both literally and figuratively.
 
John Marc: So we ended up walking all that Zen talk after all. [laughs] At at the same time these rituals grounded us, and recording a record for us is a ritual, we get into a very complimentary flow and the musical ideas arise of their own accord. For the most part anyway. Of course we also work hard to get our parts right. Marianne really nails those harmonies and gets into the editing zone herself when we are in the studio, which is my house, together.

2. The sound is different from the first, a lot more rock and roll and electric guitars. How to did you get these sounds?

John Marc: As someone who really enjoys playing acoustic guitar, the simplicity and warmth of it, when you track it, it's dry and real. Conversely with electric guitar, since you can make it sound any way that you wish, why shouldn't you? My only rule is that I have some analog in the signal line somewhere, to keep that warmth. Of course we love all the amazing post-production tools that we have.

Marianne: I used more harmonies on this album, more background vocals, which I love to do. And I would tell John Marc, I want this part to sound shimmery and diffuse, I want this part to cut through, or however I would hear it. Meanwhile he was researching historical studio techniques and then replicating them with digital tools. We don’t use any pitch correction, and I’m proud of that. I edit the vocal tracks and any overdubs I need to do, so I get to have a little fun on the computer too. We’re incredibly lucky to have digital recording and editing. We think about how long it would take to finish even one song if we were back in the days using tape and tape machines. I love that I can look at the waveforms on a screen and see what I’m hearing.
 
3. What kind of sound were you going for in the production of Fairy Tales? Is it a certain era or style?

John Marc: I listen to a lot of music, and I do have a predilection of late for 1973. I won't get into my 1973 Thesis right at this moment, but there is no question that particular era has many sounds I was going for in my instrumentation and production of Fairy Tales for Ill-Tempered Children.

Marianne: When I listen to the album it reminds me of indie rock in Chicago in the 90s, a lot of merging of influences like soul and country we heard as kids, blues and jazz, and 60s pop. When we’re recording, sometimes I imagine we’re back in the past, in the 40s for some reason, with classic vocal mics and gear. And I pretend we’re using valuable tape and studio time, to see if that gives me a better take. Sometimes it works!
 
John Marc: I didn't know you imagined that. That's really great. Our whole band is an act of imagination in a way, because there ends up being eight of us playing back at the same time. If we are ever going to play this music live, we are going to need human clones.
 
Marianne: Or we could get musicians to play those parts.
 
John Marc: That could work too.