DT probes… High Places - an interview with Mary and Rob
High Places are Mary Pearson and Rob Barber of Los Angeles. Their music is a collection of noises both familiar and unnatural - what stands out is the warmth within each carefully glitched melody or percussive interlude, understated but at once at the forefront of their tracks. High Places are set to release their second long player High Places vs. Mankind in the spring. As the title suggests, Mary and Rob are set to explore the existential on the new record. If High Places’ 2009 single I was born is anything to go by, being in touch with your humanity is a very good thing.
High Places have an extensive European tour planned throughout the United States and Europe (dates below) starting in March. If you’re not convinced yet, check out the below - it should whet your appetite.
Anyhow…
Here’s DT’s interview with High Places.
DT: Your new record is going to be called “High Places vs. Mankind.” Does this confrontational title have a particular meaning? Can we expect a more provocative album?
Mary: The title is pretty tongue-in-cheek. It’s also a bit of a nod to all those great dub records like Scientist vs. Prince Jammy - Big Showdown, King Tubby Studio vs. Channel One Studio, etc.
Rob: Yeah… I also sort of like to interpret it like as a little more based-in-reality, human-condition interpretation of “Fearless Vampire Killers” by the Bad Brains.
DT: I read you guys don’t use laptops. You still manage to create very complex, yet careful and organic sounds without using well-known software like Max / MSP. Was this a deliberate choice for you?
Rob: Well, some REALLY crazy recordings have gone down in history, pre-computer. Electric Ladyland, Les Paul, Bebe Baron, King Tubby, Schoolly D’s first couple of 12”s. We aren’t against all these great tools that are available, but we certainly don’t want to be reliant on them for us to get out there. I personally HATE reading manuals. I just want to start hammering our the sounds that I foresee in my head. To record myself, I personally use a 13 year old program that really only captures the sound, and allows you to simply just cut it up, and move it around. I mostly like to experiment outside the computer, then just capture it and arrange it. That being said, we did actually get more comfortable with more traditional instruments on the new record. For example, on the first track, when you hear the first snare hit, it is just a simple 808 snare, through a bunch of spring reverb. I like to sometimes reference a really specific sound, because it is familiar and just makes you feel good. I also missed playing guitar. As far melodic brainstorming, guitar is the most direct way for me. We used tons of guitar in the past, but heavily shrouded in overdubs, which we had to rely on sampling in the live show. This record, I wanted to be more immediate and live-minded, but still hopefully lush and enveloping.
DT: Your music features abstract qualities in equal measure with beautiful pop moments. What’s the writing process behind this kind of sound?
Mary: Thank you. We pass a lot of small ideas back and forth. Those ideas eventually build into a bunch of layers, and then we edit them down together into a song format.
Rob: On this new record, we would both work separately, in very different ways, and then get together to take all these little pieces of recordings and trying to arrange them. It makes for interesting results sometimes when we come together with each of our parts, not having heard the others, and cosmically enough, they will fit together in an interesting way.
DT: You’ve toured with some really great artists such as Deerhunter, No Age, Lucky Dragons and Dan Deacon. Have you got any plans to release collaborative records with anyone? Or is there anyone you’d like to?
Rob: Well we have done a few splits, with Soft Circle, Xiu Xiu, and Aa. But as far as combining ideas with another person/group, that has only really been done live, with Lucky Dragons and Hisham from Soft Circle.
Mary: We’re always up for a good collaboration. I’ve always wanted to play bassoon with Antony or to make some beats for someone like Rye Rye.
DT: You guys recently moved to Los Angeles – there’s so much exciting and varied music coming from there right now. Did the music scene there play a part in the move? How do you think it is affecting / will affect your sound?
Rob: Well, it definitely is awesome here. I love so many people, all the rad stuff they make. But I have to be honest, if all these rad people lived in a place with humid gnarly summers, and rainy-just above freezing winters, and land-locked, nowhere near and ocean, I think we would have maybe not moved there. In other words, the weather, and the Pacific and the mountains and the desert, and all the wildlife and nature in CA definitely seduced us. The awesome stuff happening here is just the icing on the cake!
DT: You both have independent projects you work on alongside High Places. Has it been important to you to do other music outside the band? How has it affected High Places’ sound?
Mary: Our solo projects have been around longer than High Places, so it’s important to us both to keep them fairly active. I tend to use my project Transformation Surprise as an outlet for short recorded sketches and videos. Rob performs pretty frequently under the name The Urxed. The High Places sound has really always been the sum of our two parts. The more we work on music, be it for our solo projects or the band, the more we figure out about composition and recording, and I think that can only be positive for us.
DT: You both have artistic backgrounds, but from different perspectives. Rob yours seems more visual, and Mary you were classically trained. How does this affect the working dynamic of High Places?
Mary: I can’t tell if it’s the difference in our schooling or in our temperaments, but I do seem a bit more left-brained in my approach to art and music, and Rob seems more right-brained. One weird thing that can happen during classical music studies is that you find you’re not really listening to yourself play. You get so robotic sometimes playing off a sheet of music. Rob has taught me a lot about listening and thinking about music in terms of textures and colors.
Rob: But at the same time, I have learned a lot about proper music ideas from Mary, which helps in our song craft. Prior to HP, my music theory was like a purely aesthetic but in a gut-instinct-cave-person- banging-on-a-log approach.
DT: Which bands are making music that’s exciting you the most right now?
Mary: I can’t wait to hear the new Awesome Color record. That band is so talented, I know it will be great. I get really inspired by prolific musicians like Will Oldham, Beck, Jack White. They clearly have that creative impulse to release song after song, and to take on lots of projects.
Rob: Yeah Will Oldham for sure. We saw him randomly get up and play last night in this tiny tiny bar, and he just owned the room. He is heavy. I love music that is weird, but still makes you feel something inside, makes you move or it can make you feel intensely comforted. Javelin, Silk Flowers, Infinite Body, Hecuba, Lichens. I am really excited to hear what No Age is cooking up in the studio right now. Frankie Rose is totally doing pop music right.
DT: Do you have day jobs? Do you have any tips on how to effectively manage music making when faced with having to work for a living?
Mary: We don’t have day jobs anymore. I had a steady babysitting job for awhile when we lived in New York. I was really close with the family and they were super supportive of High Places. They never gave me a hard time for going on tour.
Rob: We are very fortunate, that being only two people, who are also both totally frugal, that we can get by on HP. I was teaching printmaking at an art school in NY, but then touring took over and I couldn’t commit to a whole semester. Best life change I ever made. It gets a little dicey financially, but we at least have our freedom. As far as tips…I know this might come across as a bit tuff-love, but I would have to say I definitely sacrificed my comfort and financial stability for my creativity. If I didn’t make that change, I think my brain would have severely melted down.
DT: What’s your favourite children’s character and why?
Mary: Ramona Quimby from the Beverly Cleary books. Pesky little sisters who love cats are the coolest.
Rob: So I guess that makes me Superfudge? “Flat” Stanley and Lamb Chop were pretty rad too. Charles Schulz circa 1950-54 was amazing. Oh, jeeze, there are just too many! We can’t forget most Jim Henson characters. Sid and Marty Krofft characters are pretty much the most bizarre creations of all time. OH! and DEFINITELY Charles Nelson Reilly as the evil wizard on Lidsville.
High Places full European tour schedule for Spring 2010:
03. 19 Los Angeles, CA The Echo
03. 24 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop
03. 27 Portland, OR Berbati’s Pan w/Bear In Heaven
03. 28 Seattle, WA The Crocodile w/Bear In Heaven
03. 30 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
03. 31 Denver, CO Hi Dive
04. 01 Omaha, NE Slowdown Jr.
04. 02 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club w/Tobacco
04. 03 Chicago, IL Schubas
04. 05 Columbus, OH The Summit
04. 07 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
04. 16 Madrid, Spain La Casa Encendida w/Javelin
04. 17 Barcelona, Spain LA2
04. 18 Valladolid, Spain Espacio Joven
04. 20 Paris, France Point Ephemere
04. 22 Milan, Italy Amigdala Theatre
04. 23 Pisa, Italy Fosfeni Festival (Citta Del Teatro)
04. 24 Dudingen, Switzerland Bad Bonn
04. 25 Prague, Czech Republic Bio Oko
04. 26 Zagreb, Croatia AT
04. 27 Graz, Austria Explosiv
04. 28 St. Gallen, Switzerland Grabenhalle
04. 29 Dijon, France Kill Your Pop Festival (Atheneum)
05. 01 Antwerp, Belgium Trix
05. 03 Brighton, UK Freebutt
05. 04 London, UK Cargo
05. 06 Glasgow, UK Nice & Sleazy
05. 07 Sheffield, UK The Harley
05. 08 Leeds, UK Brudenell Social Club
05. 10 Amsterdam, Netherlands De Nieuwe Anita
05. 12 Berlin, Germany Spex Festival
05. 13 Copenhagen, Den03.k Rust
05. 14 Stockholm, Sweden Debaser
05. 15 Malmo, Sweden Debaser
05. 20 Lisbon, Portugal ZDB
05. 21 Porto, Portugal Plano B
