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Interview with Michael Harris, Belfast, 2008 09 26, page 5 ibth - Do you have a favourite live Jubilee song ?not necessarily one that would be your favourite on the record ? harris - Let's see. Man, that's hard ! Gimme a second to think about it. I'm really beginning liking to work with "Mannequin" live. Last tour it was really hard, and i didn't like it that much. I really like working with that, and i really like working with "In With The Out Crowd". Those two are incredibly rewarding to mix live. "I Don't Have An Excuse" is of course extremely rewarding as well. And i think that also – they haven't played it yet – but "The Mute" is gonna be the best. It's gonna be soo good ! So those are my favourites probably. The other ones are hard, because they're really dense in a way, you know the beat in a lot of those ones is really like.. there's not a lot of cymbal wash, there's a lot of percussiveness – i think it's easier to work with that, you know. ibth - There have been these changes in line-up between the january tour and now, with Robbi Gonzalez on the drums and now Troy Petrey and also Jeff Lynn, who was by then playing keyboards, but who now is playing the guitar instead of Evan Weiss. And also we're getting the idea that Aaron's playing a bit more guitar right now, while Mike is singing a bit more.. harris - Yes, all of that's true. ibth - ..and obviously there's that thing of them being five back then, while they're only four right now. How does all of that affect the way you're working with sound, all these changes ? Because Troy, for example, is drumming much harder and in a much more impulsive way than Robbi was ? And Evan was playingan acoustic guitar on some songs, while Jeff would rather be using a semi-hollow instead.. harris - Yeah exactly. I think it changes the sound in that, ultimately, there's less diversity in it now, because they're using less instruments, there's no acoustic, there's no keyboard, and the drums are really, really, REALLY forceful. I think it takes more out of me to keep the crowd interested. And it takes more out of them to keep the crowd interested. ibth - So what do you do to keep the crowd interested ? More fader pushing ? 
ibth - In a lot of these Jubilee songs there is so much stuff going on on every single level, that you'd need four or five pairs of ear to keep track.. harris - Yeah, it's hard to pay attention to four people playing a lot of different things all the time.. ibth - Yeah, that was exactly our question, how do you manage that ? Because i know that listening to these songs either live or the recorded version, it always feels as if one literarily having ones mind just basically jumping from one thing to the other – it's very enjoyable and very rewarding, but it feels almost demanding at the same time. harris - Yeah, it's schizophrenic. ibth - How do you manage that, given that you're doing that real time everyday for one hour ? harris - Usually, first of, i make sure that they can hear themselves the best that they possibly can in the situation that they're in. The 230 watt monitor in front of them, or whatever it is, it's just not adequate enough to really supply them with something they can hear. I try and make it so they can hear themselves the best they can, and i try and make the sound coming out of front of house the best i can. And then i kinda work from there, so i try and pay a lot of attention to those details, like i said, when they come in and everything. But it's really hard, you miss things all the time you know. Like a lot of time i find myself paying attention to one thing and i'm like "wait, why am i not paying attention to that, too at the same time ?". But you start to learn it, just like a language you start to learn, because i know their set so well, and then i find myself pushing things up and pulling things back that i otherwise would have to really pay attention to to do. ibth - So you basically make it easier for us to listen ? You're taking the hard work on yourself ? harris - Basically, yeah. ibth - It's paedagogics.. you're guiding the audience. It's like "Watch here, watch!" harris - Yeah exactly, but you have to, because otherwise, what's the point in live music, if you're not doing things like that ? And i don't know why.. but i see mixers all the time and they push their faders up and they sit there and they have a cigarette and they walk into the crowd and they hang out with their friends, and then later they come back. And it's like "This is music, it's movement." ibth - I know.. It's not static. It's happening. harris - You've got to be involved, too. Doesn't mean, you have to be like "yeahhhhhhh!" jamming out to it. But you certainly have to be paying attention, you know. ibth - Are there any Jubilee tracks that are recorded or written and you wish they were played live, but it hasn't happened yet ? Like "The Mute" you were talking about earlier ? harris - Yeah "The Mute" is a good example. That's one that i'm just dying to hear live, they soundchecked it a few times, but they haven't played it. Oh man, there are a lot. What's the other one.. erm, the title's not set.. yeah, "i love her until she talks" would be amazing, if they played that one live. But they probably won't this tour, so.. ibth - But they played it in that acoustic set in Sheffield ? harris - They did, but that was because it's easy to play it acoustic. I mean the full-on song, cause we did track that one with bassline, you know, and drums and everything. But that probably won't get played in its electric setup at all this tour. ibth - Do you have your hands in the building of the setlist in any sort of way ? Or is it just theirs ? harris - Honestly, i can put my input in it, if i need to. But a lot of it is based around tuning, if you've noticed.. so they try to stick certain songs that fit best together, that are in similar tunings next to each other so they don't have to grab different guitars all the time.. some of it is logistical things like that. ibth - Talking of tunings, and that's a bit of a technical question – "Rebel Hiss" has changed quite a lot.. harris - Yeah, it has. ibth - So, how did that happen ? And what happened exactly ? harris - Well the range that Aaron has to sing in is pretty high, if it's played in standard, which is E. And i believe it's moved down a halfstep. ibth - It sounds as if it went even lower now, no ? harris - Yeah, maybe a whole step now. His range just fits that perfectly, the highest notes he needs to hit, he can hit really well. So they moved it down and they slowed it down. And that's just the way the song should be, you know. I don't even notice that it's not in the same tuning anymore, because i'm so used it. But it's so much better. ibth - i think it changed the mood of the song quite a lot as well.. harris - It's a lot, honestly, it's not as "smily", it's not.. ibth - Yeah, it's sort of more mature, it's got more depth and heavyness to itself in a way. harris - Yeah, i agree. ibth - Is that something you pay attention to ? Namely doing stuff sound-wise that is about the mood or the atmosphere and that's not only about technical stuff ? harris - Oh yeah, absolutely. The perfect example is "I Don't Have An Excuse", or something like "Those Poor Devils". The entire song is based around mood, and if it's not paid attention to, the song doesn't come across the way it should. I try to keep Aaron's rhythm guitar fairly low, because of the tone of it. If it's too loud, it becomes a rock song without any rhythm aside from tambourine, and i sort of try and keep that relatively low, and i try and keep Mike's vocals pretty high, which i normally wouldn't do, because they don't like to have the vocals mixed in too loud and i don't like it, and i try to add effects to the things that i should.. like the tambourine, i usually put a bit of reverb on it, things like that. Just taste things. ibth - What sort of mix do you like and do they like.. so the drums have to be high, the vocals have to be low.. harris - I like a drum-heavy mix.. nd the vocals.. well, blended, more like an another instrument, as opposed to just a fucking.. ibth - ..karaoke ? harris - Yeah, karaoke night, i mean, come on. So yeah, i try and keep the vocals blended pretty well and i try and keep the drums pretty loud. The bass on stage is always really loud, so i try and keep it kinda middle of the road. I usually try and put more DI in than actual mike, because if i put too much mike in then the low end just gets out of control. ibth - Hold on.. so you're at the same time direct-injecting the instruments in the board as well as miking them ?? harris - Only the bass, because the bass sounds good that way, the guitars don't. ibth - Ok, makes sense.. i would have been surprised. harris - I've DI'ed a guitar plenty of times, it's not really.. can be good, but it's not usually. So yeah, i try and do that. ibth - Did you do anything special for the acoustic Sheffield gig ? harris - Oh yeah ! One, Troy put a towel over his snare, and it just deadened it a lot, so i think it made the mood a lot more somber.. even if they were playing really pop songs you know. I really liked that, and we tried to keep him from playing too many cymbals, we kinda kept it more rhythmic. As for Aaron's guitar, i wanted them to both have acoustics, they did too, but they couldn't. So they used one electric, the semi-hollow and an acoustic. So we just tried to keep it really pared down, really bare in a way.. and i tried to keep the vocals pretty drenched in reverb, maybe too obviously drenched in reverb..  ibth - No, it was working fine. harris - Oh good, i'm glad, cause i was concerned about that. ibth - That's another one of the concerts that we really dearly loved, just because there was, as you said, this whole somber, really intimate and warm.. this very open quality to it, and that was great.. very real. harris - I liked that too, and i'm glad i recorded it, and i wish i had just recorded the room, i recorded off the console, but i think that that was quite the wrong approach. I think it probably would have been more correct to just record what was coming out. ibth - Will you be around for the acoustic instore thing in Dublin ? harris - Yes i will, and that needs to be figured out. ibth - Crossing our fingers on that one, and very much looking forward to it. harris - Oh, it should be good, it should be real fun. (note : the Dublin in-store got cancelled.) ibth - Is there anything you especially enjoy about working with Jubilee, or is there anything that's especially nervewrecking ? harris - Yeah, no.. I mean there's nervewrecking stuff of course. I enjoy working with them most because they're my friends. What better job than to work with your friends doing exactly what you want to be doing, and to have an enormous amount of creative input in the process as well, not being a yes-man, or someone like that ? It's a dream in that way. It would be more of a dream if we could make it a sustainable situation for ourselves, but that'll come, that'll come on time. And it'll be all the better because we've gone through this. We've gone through the strange shows. Very strange shows. |
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Jubilee (ju.bi.lee), n. : 1. A rock'n'roll band from L.A., Ca., currently composed of Aaron North (vocals, guitar), Tony Bevilacqua (guitar, vocals), Jenni Tarma (bass), Troy Petrey (drums.)2. Jubilation; rejoicing. 3. A season or an occasion of joyful celebration. 4.a. A specially celebrated anniversary. b. The celebration of such an anniversary. |
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