Mentions of John in a Swahili Blonde interview
In an interview for Japanese magazine Loud, Nicole Turley talked a lot about her project Swahili Blonde and the creation process behind songs, which is certainly interesting, as it was only Omar Rodriguez Lopez who previously shared what his creative process of working with John looked like.
Were most of the songs written and recorded by yourself, and then you had the guest musicians come in and play? How did each guest musicians come about contributing to this project?
(ie, John Taylor (Duran Duran),John Frusciante,Laena Myers-Ionita (The Like), Stella Mozgawa (WarPaint),Michael Quinn (Corridor)
(Part omitted)
I would record all my instrumentation for the song first, do a rough mix, and then if I thought of any other instruments I wanted to add, I would send the mix to another musician, let them sit with it for however long they needed to, and if they came up with parts, I’d have them come in, record everything they came up with, and do all my edits, compositing, and mixing later- and I’d always record vocals last. It was a little different doing the Bowie cover. Stella and I had talked about wanting to do a cover together for fun- so her and I worked on the arrangement for Red Money from start to finish.
The people who contribute on the record came together randomly. Laena and I used to play in a band together years ago. She’s an amazing violin player (amongst other things)- so she was the only person I had in mind for the violin parts. That worked out perfect, as we’re both huge Raincoats fans, so we were on the same page, musically, for the violin. Quinn has a solo project on the same label that put out Man Meat (Manimal Vinyl). I was recording an EP for a friend of mine, and asked Quinn to come in and play cello on a song of hers. I really enjoyed what he did, so I gave him tracks of Dr. Teeth and LeMampatee, and said if he came up with anything to add, let me know and I’d have him come in to record it. John F and I always share what we’re working on with each other- he really liked what I was doing and wanted to play guitar on the record. Stella, I met through John F- we thought it would be fun to do a cover together, so we did Red Money. And I met John T through the label. Duran Duran had done a Bowie cover for Manimal’s Bowie Tribute Comp- so Paul Beahan (from Manimal) put me in touch with John T.
The song “Tigress Ritual” has John Frusciante and John Taylor credited as co-writers. How was that song created?
I wrote and recorded all the drums and drum machine parts first- creating the basic structure and foundation of the song. Then gave a mix of that to John F for him to do his guitar parts. Edited and mixed that, and then gave a mix to John T to come up with his bass parts. Recorded him, edited and mixed that, did the vocals last, and then worked on my final mix.
How about for the first song “Elixor Fixor”- how was that written?
I almost always write my songs, start to finish, on bass first. So for Elixor Fixor, I recorded the bass first (to a click track), then the drum machine, then live drums, then guitar, then the mini-moog. Did a rough mix of that, gave it to John F, and when he was ready, I recorded his guitar parts. Edited and mixed that, gave the track to Laena, and when she was ready, recorded her violin. Edited and mixed that, then did the vocals last. And then did further work on it, before finally getting the mix I wanted.
If you’re interested in the entire interview with Turley, full-length translation is available on the project’s Myspace blog. The piece is full of interesting insights and it’s hinting some things from the recent past.
You might also want to check out
Japanese edition of Swahili Blonde’s Man Meat to include remixes
Confirmation: John definitely not in Swahili Blonde anymore
Buy the regular version of the Man Meat album
Complete news archive on Swahili Blonde
