REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | BLOGS & PODCASTS

Innocent Words Magazine interviews Two Loons:

(1) How do you write songs?

Sarah: Well, there's no consistent formula. Sometimes it seems songs just decide they want to be in existence, and they just pop  through. I really don't feel like I write songs, I feel like the songs write  themselves.

Jonathan: Sarah's being way too mysterious about it! We've got a patent-pending song writing neural interface which I plug into my hippocampus and Sarah's amygdyla -- and for extra feeling, our  endocrine systems! The data are fed into genetic algorithms written in our AI programming Loongol, and transcribed direct to iTunes!

Actually, for the last two albums, almost all of the songs were written spontaneously in the studio while tape was running, and then we'd build on the original ideas. Most of the finished songs still have most materials from the very first songwriting take, and a couple of tracks ("Eyebrows Are Nature's Makeup", "Dixie it Up!" from "Nine Lucid Dreams", and "Sad Diamonds" from "Looking for Landmarks") are entirely, or almost entirely, the first and only take of the song.

So there's always a bit of the original spark of discovery from when the song first popped into being in the recordings.

(2) There seem to be some loosely connected themes running through your albums--is there some kind of connection among all the songs?

Sarah: I'm not aware of too many themes, except that I always write one song about a prostitute for each album. I have no idea why that is.

Jonathan: Musically, there's definitely a continuity through our albums; a consistent almost hypnotic, yearning, or dream-like quality, even in the more upbeat songs like "Monkey". Lots of layering. Sensuality. We hear from a lot of people that it helps them be creative, or relaxed, or thoughtful. Although it's definitely "pop" music, it's got elements of trance, classical, jazz, and european traditional music. I guess we're pretty consistently chill-pop with excursions to many other genres.

(3) Where did the inspiration for some of your song lyrics come from? (E.g., such as "Dixie it Up" and "Eyebrows Are Nature's Makeup"?)

Sarah: Stream of consciousness... sometimes observing my friends... sometimes it's personal... sometimes I don't even know what it means... sometimes I like to leave it open to the interpreter... and sometimes, it's extremely profound! And sometimes I think to myself "did I REALLY write that?" And sometimes I think to myself, "did I really write THAT?!".

Jonathan: I only wrote lyrics on one song on this album, so that's  all I can speak for. I wrote the lyrics for "Conseula" while wandering in the desert outside Palm Desert, CA in a near heat-stroke. The words to "Consuela" are the best lines from about 40 pages of scribbling I wrote over several hours in the 110 degree heat. Earlier
in the day, I was given an honorary MD by the Amercian
Medical Association for research I had done to help save my father from mesothelioma lung cancer. We had come up with a novel treatment method involving perfusing his pleural cavity with cis-platen and other anti-tumor agents. He had a plug drilled into his chest so we could flush the outside of his lung tissue with the toxic-cocktail, and the chemicals would attack the tumor, but not the rest of his body because the pleural membrane is impermeable to fluids. So, he ended up living 4 years after his diagnosis, instead of the 6 months he was given.

What does this have to do with the lyrics of "Consuela"? Nothing really! Except I was clearly in a very strange state of mind and  wandering in the desert like a beetle with three legs, and I had come to the inevitable and obvious conclusion that the owl, the scorpion and the rusted Chevrolet, were each very special, in their own way.

(4) Jonathan: Have your academic pursuits influenced your musical life in any way?

That's a great question, I've been wondering about this myself lately... I think the largest influences have been the work ethic associated with graduate research, and being enthusiastic about lavishing a tremendous attention on tiny details for hours, days or even weeks on end. That's definitely been a big influence in our audio production.

I think also that my fields of study have had an influence.
Much of my doctoral work had to do with how hybridization between closely related species could in fact create new species, and throughout all three Two Loons albums, we've freely hybridized many different genres of music to create something different that nonetheless always sounds like us. Have we created a new species in the Lair of the Loon? Perhaps!

I've taken great delight in putting hundreds of subtle almost subliminal sounds in our recordings. I think this comes from my delight in the complexity of the natural world. Even after years listening to "Looking for Landmarks", I still sometimes hear musical critters that surprise me!

I wish I could say that years of teaching and public speaking have made me a more confident performer, but they're totally different realms! I've had to learn to get over stage-fright independently.

(5) How did you decide to have so many guest musicians, and how do they help define your sound?

Sarah: It wasn't really a decision, it's just how it evolved. There were a lot of really good musicians around and available, and we wanted to experiment and work with them.

Jonathan: I'd agree. When a drummer like Matt Chamberlain walks up to you after a show, and says "you guys need a drummer, and I'd like to be that drummer" what do you say! You say "YES!" Matt brought a lot of our guests to us, also R. Chris Murphy, who was the initial
producer for our first record, introduced us to Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto. And Mell Dettmer, co-producer of all three albums has brought in some fab peeps too. After playing with people of this caliber, you get a bit spoiled.

World class musicians all.These players bring a tremendous amount to our music, absolutely. We are honored to work with them.

(6) Do you plan to tour in the near future? How do you perform songs without your guest musicians (or are most of them there)?

Sarah: Of course! We're working on it. Yeah we want to and we will. We're talking with our new manager, consulting with our new team, and coming up with the best way. We're always changing and evolving, and we never like to do it the same way twice, it's spontaneous. We don't try to reproduce the record, why should we do that? Live is live! Go home and listen to the record if you want the record.

Jonathan: For one tour, we actually had a backup band of seven or eight players from "Looking for Landmarks" sessions, thinking we needed to have a huge band to replicate the record. And then we did a tour with three players, and now we've gotten it down to just us and another player, Tom Armstrong, who plays drums, percussion and samplers, to augment Sarah's vocals and my guitars and loops.

And our ironic discovery: no matter how many players we have, we capture the essence of the recordings. And the fewer players we have, the more audiences are liking the live show.

The studio allows a musician to do things that are unimaginable in a live performance, and that's one reason we love being the studio. But the core feeling that Sarah and I put into our music is ALWAYS there, even if it's just her voice and me playing acoustic guitar.

(7) How does this album differ from your previous albums?

Sarah: It's more sophisticated, but less complicated. I think we knew ahead of time more what we wanted, we had a goal in mind this time. It was not meant to be as highly produced as "Looking for Landmarks".

Jonathan: Um, I think Sarah's right... I honestly don't know what else to say... it has a different title?

(8) While it sounds like you have many influences, can you name a few that come to mind?

Sarah: Everything is an influence! And sometimes it's hard to know.

Jonathan: I think my influences are actually from my emotional nature, and having grown up in a very rural and lovely part of the world. And being a voracious reader. And traveling. Experimental film. Visual arts.

Who I am as a person dictates what kind of music I like, and the music I make, more than the music I like influencing the music I make.

(9) How and when did you decide to start your own label, and what was the most difficult part?

Sarah: It was Jonathan's idea. It was his follow through, I'll let Jonathan answer. I thought he was crazy!

Jonathan: I clearly am crazy, but I'm hoping that I'm crazy like a fox! The traditional record label model is clearly outdated, so we're working on a bunch of new things that will work in this new world that combine my experience with the music industry with my backgrounds in statistics,
biology, and e-commerce.

(10) What are your plans for the future?

Jonathan & Sarah: Keep making more music, and get it to the people who want to hear it.

Jonathan: By whatever means necessary.