Toy Tugboats, the new album from Annuals sister band Sunfold is out today. They’ll be kicking off the tour tonight at DC9. We had front man (and music theory textbook writer) Kenny Florence give us a little preview of the album. Sweet.
“Oregon” was one of the last songs on Toy Tugboats to be written and recorded. Like most of my newer compositions, I wrote almost the entire song in my head during a travel day on an Annuals tour. Since I was going to be living in a van for the next few years of my life, I figured that I would start using that time to strengthen my mental faculties and try to be creatively productive. A lot of songs come to artists all at once in a flash of intuition, as it sometimes happens with me. But with this song, I simply told myself I was going to just follow my brain wherever it would take me, without using an instrument or my voice. So I picked a starting pitch and a key and just followed it. That was how the guitar melody came about…like watching a pattern being woven through melodic space.
The words came later when I realized that I had come up with the idea while driving through Oregon, one of my favorite states. I tried to describe the mindset I was in while I was weaving this melody.
This song was actually the last song to be written and recorded for the album. I came up with the idea while we were at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, NC recording the second Annuals record. It was recorded at our studio (Terpsikhore) in Raleigh as soon we got home. So that would be around February of 2008.
With “Shrinking the Sphere” I wanted to write a song that changed keys a lot without being uneasy to listen to. I think it’s important to remind people that pop songs can be built up of more than the same old seven notes! Also, I like to incorporate elements of many styles of music into my songs, without sounding too much like any one of them and this was an attempt at something like that.
By contrast, “Sara”, as we all refer to it, is the oldest song on Toy Tugboats. It was written back in 2005, when I was 17. It was recorded over the span of three years in four different studios. There’s really not much time to record for Sunfold with all of our busy schedules.
The most common questions I’ve been asked about this song are about the subject matter of the lyrics and the title. Well, Sara Halo is the name of a recurrent female character in my subconscious life who pops up in my dreams from time to time, always sending me into periods of heightened subconscious activity. Whenever I think of Sara, my mind is drawn in many directions, due to different subconscious associations I have made with her, including Alice from the Alice in Wonderland Disney movie and the broad idea of winter in the United States.
DC9 7/22
The Jackfields
Sunfold
Space For Space
Doors @ 830pm
Show @ 9pm
$8/$10
eh, sorry for the n00b question but is there any way to make the imeem stuff play the full length of the song?
July 22, 2008 at 4:22 pmN. - they should be full length versions…
what if you go to the actual page of one of the songs:
http://www.imeem.com/byt/music/51eF42fg/sunfold_oregon/
July 22, 2008 at 4:32 pmnope this afternoon tried that and even tried registering/logging in and still only 30 seconds……….but now at home it will do the full length without needing to go to the website Weird! Maybe it likes the macbook better than my work computers >_>
July 22, 2008 at 11:45 pmCALE! i can help you with ur imeem streaming problems. email me! wabramson@imeem.com
July 23, 2008 at 1:28 amJust bought the CD, it is well worth it!!!! Check out Sailed off to Sea, that is my favorite song on the album. The lyrics are amazing,
July 23, 2008 at 3:01 pmIndeed the album is amazing. Expect a lot of great things from these guys and Annuals.
August 1, 2008 at 9:30 am
Wow. Great listening session. You can definitely hear the American Football influence on the rhythm section in “Oregon” and even the guitar tone. Good songs.
July 22, 2008 at 3:27 pm