‘New EP’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next are Jason & Tina from The New Things, who have just released their second EP, Just For You!.
When/where was the new EP recorded?
We record everything at home in the garage and the lounge – both are acoustically treated in their own ways, nothing flash. We rehearse thoroughly, then put down the drum tracks in the garage. Everything else tends to get done in the lounge, on top of the drum tracks. I bought a drum machine from Ben Woods and have used that on much of the Pink Chocolate EP. It is also used on ‘Chateau Tongariro’. Dave Morgan joined us and was keen to replace country rock pattern 2 on ‘In Time’, which gave me the chance to remix it, as I’d always wanted to. We recorded eight or so drum and bass tracks in the garage in December, with Scott Viner playing bass. When Scott left the group there was a delay while we reoriented with Dwayne Diack. The rest of it came together as the singles, Chateau Tongariro – which was really quick to record between just Tina and I, Fire & Ice, then Mount Joy. We completed ‘Domestic Sysiphus’ and ‘This One’s For You’ and the ‘In Time (with Dave)’ remix all in the first week of June in time for our EP release date. I’ve set an ambitious personal goal of one track released each month until we have the album.
Who produced/engineered the EP? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
Tina and I are the production team. While it’s my rig and I do the engineering, I wouldn’t be able to make the extensive range of aesthetic decisions that we make without constantly referring to Tina’s judgement. It can get stupidly pedantic, and I need someone who can operate at a more material level when I’m trying to make decisions in a mix. We are in the process of setting up Tina in a more hands-on production space – this will save me having to ask her stupid questions all the time. My role may well become more of an engineer’s role: I have formal production experience that is useful for getting the straightest technical line to the desired aesthetic point, and for tidying up fine points. Tina’s imaginative expression of the material is probably hindered by having to mediate the mixes through me all the time.
We work together quite closely but often don’t really know how the tracks will come out. We have an idea about it, but then the fickle course of the production process develops the idea very differently. For us, recording is a way of finding out what potential the song has, and how we want it to be heard. It’s like writing to find out what you think. I often have arrangement ideas that it’s just not sensible to bring to the band in the garage. Those get a chance to come out in the recording process. It is unlikely that we could work in a studio – it’s just too expensive to relax. An advantage of going to a studio is that we could do a recording that was very much how we play it live, due to having more channels to work with. That might be an approach for the album, but I still think we’d demo the tracks at home as part of pre-production rehearsal.
Did the shorter format of an EP give you the option to experiment in any way with your sound or with different forms of song-writing?
Tina and I tend to write the songs together and bring them to the band, but that may change with the current band. We don’t consider the EP format to be short: this one has six songs on it, and between the two we could have released an album, but we want the first full album to be an arrangement rather than a compilation of isolated recordings. We are really focused on getting our material out and available. There will probably be another EP before the end of the year. Some of these songs have been floating around for a long time. We’re actually just trying to get them recorded, have some merchandise, and move on to new material.
Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
I use a pretty simple mic set up – in small spaces, less mics is better. I bought a jazzmaster pretty much specifically to record Mount Joy – I need the whammy bar, and I’m southpaw so I couldn’t borrow one. It’s become my gigging instrument, very versatile. I also designed a Bass Vi that Weta Guitars built for me from parts I’d collected, and that has a place on all the tracks except In Time (with Dave). Dave has great drums for recording, Dwayne decided the bass sound would be fretless, Tina loves her Telecaster, Sarah is a cellist branching out on the Hammond you hear on Domestic Sysiphus. There’s a bit of brass on this album too: Lindsay Thomas’ trombone on Domestic Sysiphus, and Tina’s wild trumpets on This One’s For You.
Is there a particular track or theme that the EP was formed around?
Tina decided it would be called Just For You! Like the children’s book from the 70s with the hedgehog, and ‘This One’s For You’ became the almost title track as a result. Doing it yourself and doing your own way, in life or in music, has been the main theme. Nothing is really given or expected, the rug is always being pulled.
Where do you see the EPs place in growing an audience online? Do you see it as a progression towards an album or a separate entity?
Yes, yes, and yes!
Which digital platforms is it available on?
Pretty much all of them I think – we’re distributing through Gyrostream, don’t really know how they stack up but we’ll work that out. We mainly pay attention to our profiles on Bandcamp, Deezer and Spotify.
Are you doing any gigs or promotion for its release?
Yes we’re doing a few jaunts about te motu. We are going on tour in support of the EP:
Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland at Whammy on 20 July and Underground on 21 July. Then Kirikiriroa/Hamilton at Last Place Saturday 22 July and Ahuriri/Napier at Paisley Stage on 29 July. Other dates might be added later on.