Some theory relating to Treeball

I normally write something here about how the new Treeball album was made, and I will in given time.

Some back story first.

Scott Walker has been ever present on my stereo these last few months. There is something about his music that does not relate to any given time because it is beyond any given time — it just exists in its own place, the moods in the music beyond fashion and mere mortals. It moves me.

This is a place to start. I wanted to make an album that moves me. It’s easy, I cry in the movies quite openly and — although loath to admit it — can be quite sentimental. It’s hard admitting these things coming from the school of punk!

As a producer on various records, and even on previous Treeball albums, you tend to work on the songs prior to recording them, trying different arrangements, putting them through the mill, just to see what works out best. I wanted something different this time, a different feeling. We’ve always worked quickly, but this time I wanted to take that to the limit, first or second takes, from backing tracks to vocals. Mistakes are fine. But I also wanted it to be an arranged record. The idea was to arrange on building blocks. With just often drums and bass kept from the studio tracks laid down in March/April 2005, there was no rule as to what to lay on top. Some takes were incredibly sloppy, no one had really heard the songs prior to the recording session, so you can actually hear the band feeling their way through the chords. Songs like 8 O’Clock and Are You Ever Gonna Wake Me Up? really demonstrate this — and sound much better for it. We also had the band swap over instruments, so they were not performing in their usual roles. Michael, who normally plays the solo guitar parts, can often be heard playing drums and bass on a lot of songs. Janne, who normally plays drums, can be heard on bass and lead guitars on various songs. I normally just play rhythm guitar, on this record I’m playing a lot of lead guitar, keyboards and even glockenspiel. It gives the songs a certain something. The other major difference on this record is in the songwriting and the fact that it’s almost all duets.

But where is the moving bit? How did that come into it?

I read Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road in 2001. It was the most moving reading experience I’d had in many years, and — I’m not afraid to say — I did cry while reading it. Actually I cried as if someone had just ripped my heart out and spat it back into my face. The story of the Wheelers’ disintegrating marriage in a USA suburban town in the late 50s is at times grim, funny, realistic, disturbing and just plain sad. The book inspired me to track down Yates’ other books and read those. They are just beginning to be made available in Europe again after a long time out of print — and of the five I’ve read, the standard and beauty of the writing remains amazingly high. Astrid also read Revolutionary Road, and it had a similar effect on her too. A plan was afoot. I’m not afraid to say this all sounds very pretentious — and why not? I left my indie saddo credibility at the door years ago. And if you think so — stop reading now!

After the recording session at Pink Noise in March/April, I decided to record all overdubs at home. We had one microphone, a very old PC, an out of tune piano — and we were off. A lot of songs at this stage did not have lyrics. Maybe a rough chorus idea, but nothing really. We’d had the idea of making this album a duet album, and that me and Astrid would write our own lines for the record. Liars In Love is the title of a Yates short story, and it seemed perfect for what we wanted to base the lyrical tone of the album on. A lot of friends in our circles had just come out of long relationships, and we wanted to make an album that spoke about the end of a romance. Not a Hollywood drama, but a domestic romance, a real blood and guts, pay the bills romance. Something like the Wheelers’ suburban disentanglement — something dying in the pretty neighbourhood.

When the vocals were ready to be performed, we would write the words — this would give us no time to really think too much about the actual literary content of the lyric, or phrasing so much. We would sit across from each other and one would write the line that followed the next. What you hear on the record is a conversation in progress.

The home recording and mixing process took some 5 months on and off. We initially started with 20 songs, and after a while it became apparent I was not going to finish them all.

The 12 songs chosen for the record were finished by November.

Where is the moving bit?

Well, I can tell you this whole album moves me very much. I don’t tire of hearing it. Very strange for a record I’ve been involved with. It could be Michael’s mandolins on Liars In Love, or Astrid’s pizzicato string plucks on the same track. It could be Sanna’s great cello part on Janne’s song Under My Skin. Michael’s great lazy drumming on Are You Ever Gonna Wake Me Up? Or Janne’s very VU guitar line on From The Past, or Astrid’s vocals on 8 O’Clock. Maybe Aleksi’s bass line for Out of This Dark Room Comes Anything. Or maybe, it’s just that in the words of these songs I hear the truth.