“A composition created in the dark. A vocal piece destined to become a new kind of anthem. And quite possibly the most authentic song in the history of rock…”
In the latest episode of Themes and Variation, our podcast panelists share their takes on the theme “Songs With Limitations.” This time around, I (your humble host, Mahea Lee) am joined by co-host Martin Fowler and special guest, Lora-Faye Åshuvud of the band Arthur Moon to chat about musical constraints and the creativity they sometimes inspire.
This episode features selections from the catalogs of Dawn of Midi, Björk, and The Shaggs. How does a track sound when the instrumentalists are really listening? What makes the human voice so magical and appealing? And what does it truly mean to understand music?
For answers to these questions and more, check out the latest episode of Themes and Variation here:
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Episode 203 Highlights
1. Martin on Dawn of Midi’s unique creative process.
Martin: “They started by playing and improvising pieces in pitch black — like turning off all the lights in a windowless room, so that they’re essentially forced to only work with the sort of extreme tactile sensibility of hearing in a much more visceral way than if you can see what someone’s doing… if you can see what you yourself are doing.”
2. Lora-Faye on why the voice was the perfect writing tool for “Oceania.”
Lora-Faye: “The thing that’s so cool about the voice is that there’s no intermediary between the idea, your body, and then whatever gets recorded other than the thing that’s recording it — which is to say, like, I don’t have to hear the note in my head, find it on the piano, and then record it. Obviously, I’m not a piano player. If I were a piano player, I probably wouldn’t feel this way, but to me, that feels extremely exciting. You can just have the idea and get it out as quickly as possible and then continue to have ideas and move on and not be sort of mediated by [an] instrument. And I feel like I can really hear that on this record — the excitement of fast and loose discovery and the building blocks of an idea, all just sort of gushing out… is how it sounds to me.”
3. Mahea on “Philosophy of the World” and musical understanding.
Mahea: “There’s a big difference between understanding something and having a sophomoric knowledge of it. And I think when we think about “knowing theory,” it is that sophomoric place that most people are coming from — which is totally fair. But what people forget is theory isn’t meant to set rules. It’s meant to try to interpret the thing that came before… A lot of this ultimately comes down to the nomenclature — like, you know terms or you don’t know terms. But having a desire to learn and grow… that’s something that I think any good musician has, whether they want to learn theory specifically and call it that or not. There is an understanding of what they were doing here, The Shaggs… It’s just not coming out in the same kind of language that we would use now.”
Episode Playlist
With every new episode of Themes and Variation, we launch a new Spotify playlist that includes the songs mentioned in this episode and more. Here’s this episode’s Spotify playlist!
We’ll see you in a couple weeks with a new theme, new guests, and some new songs to break down. If you have any comments, questions, or theme suggestions, drops us a line at [email protected] or find us on Twitter.
