W&H would unequivocally recommend both MICHAEL CARPENTER and MARK MOLDRE'S work individually, but put the Sydney-based duo together in THE SUPAHIP and you have the beginnings of a studio partnerhsip made in pop heaven.
Michael and Mark's new album "Seize The World" (out on the Big Radio label) is a positive treat for lovers of great pop, especially those of us who continue to love the likes of The Beatles, Brian Wilson, The Byrds and Big Star. But, regardless of the boys' self-confessed 'retro' leanings, "Seize The World" sounds fantastic in the present day. Eager to learn more about the duo's modus operandi, W&H used the marvels of e-mail to have a lengthy chat with Messrs. Carpenter and Moldre, and discovered two tremendous blokes as well as super-talented musicians.
W&H: What was the catalyst for you making a record together? I know you must have got to know each other previously as I know Michael produced Hitchcock's Regret's excellent "Her Life In Reverse" album, so was the making of that record a factor?
MC: One of the great things about being a producer is meeting and working with great talented people whose creative vision you understand quickly... it doesn't happen often, but pretty soon after i met Mark, and got to know him, i realised that we had many things in common musically, and further to that, we seemed to become very good friends very quickly. So beyond HLIR we stayed in close touch (despite him living a few hours away), talking often and catching up whenever we could. I also got Mark in to sing on a few of the songs on my Rolling Ball album, as well as a Beatles cover i did for a tribute record.
In conversations we spent a LOT of time talking about our
favourite artists, and some of their best records... obviously The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Crowded House, Ron Sexsmith to name just a few. I can't remember exactly how it happened, but i think we started joking about 'making a record together', and then as the conversations went on, we started throwing around ideas like 'write the songs together', 'keeping it pretty stripped back' and 'doing a song in a day'. The rest is history, although Mark may have another point of view on all of this as well...
MM - Well, I really enjoyed the process of recording 'Her Life In Reverse' with Michael, we discovered we had a similar love of music from the '60s and early '70s and we spent lots of time talking about the records we loved. I hadn't met Michael up until recording the album - only heard him mentioned through the grapevine at Laughing Outlaw Records.
It was Stuart Coupe (LO Records supremo) who actually suggested that I should give Michael a call - he thought we'd get on well and he knew that I was looking for a producer to work for the second Hitchcck's Regret album. Anyway, we got on like a house on fire - and we began discussing the idea of doing something together probably for a year before we got around to starting it. So to answer your question, yes, the time I spent working with Michael as a producer certainly paved the way for The Supahip recordings.
W&H: Do you envisage The Supahip as a live band at all? You've both so many commitments as it is that it's hard to imagine you fitting it in, but it would be great...
MC: We've been slowly rehearsing as a 2 piece.. Mark on guitar and me on bass. We always intended to do shows, but you have to understand how hard it is to make doing shows worthwhile in Australia. The lack of radio and media support we get, it's hard to get anyone interested in anything new i'm doing, and i know Mark's having similar frustrations. Plus, we both have
children, and lives and jobs and other bands and the studio.
Despite that, we have our debut live show booked for September 21 here in Oz. We're not sure yet whether we'll just add a drummer or i'll play drums and we'll find a bass player, or whether we'll just do it as a 2 piece. I know we'd both LOVE for the album to somehow be successful enough for us to go and do some shows in the UK, Spain or in Japan, but i guess we'll see. Anyway, if we get enough opportunities, i know we'd both like to do as many Supahip shows as we can.
MM - Hmm, funny you should mention that...at first we wanted it to remain fairly anonymous - and we weren't even really concerned whether or not the recordings would actually be released or put together on the one album - we just did it because we wanted to. But now that it's out there as a package, a bunch of songs played by the same two guys we kinda felt that we should get out there and do some shows - and yeah, it's really hard to fit in with our conflicting schedules, but we actually have a Sydney gig booked. As to what the line-up will be we're unsure - I mean we played all the instruments - so we have to go and find some like-minded members or work out how we're going to do it as a duo.
W&H: I love the idea of recording "a track a day" ...i.e going to the studio together with only the kernel of an idea and completing a song and mixing it all within the 24 hour time frame. Were any of the songs on "Seize The World" even half finished in terms of arrangement before you went into the studio?
MC: To be honest, there wasn't a lot that was finished. A funny story.. the night before the very first session, i was so excited about it, and nervous, as neither of us knew whether this would work, that i dreamed of a song i co-wrote with Mark. I woke up in the middle of the night and went and wrote some lyrics and a quick melody based on this 'dream co-write'. That song was
'Ultra Black Light', the second song we recorded for the album.
Some songs were definitely more developed than others... 'Satellite' was almost all Mark's, and so was most of 'Like Love' and 'Tulsa' and a few others. 'The Radio' and 'Something's Gotta Give' were products of me being up in the middle of the night with our baby. But things like 'No Tomorrow', 'Everything's Alright' and 'Hanging By A Thread' were either the product of
us joing bits together we had lying around, or actually writing songs with both of us in mind. And 'Let Go/Around The Sun' is a whole bunch of bits we had lying around thrown together!!
And just for the record.. we're not talking 24 hours here.. we're talking about getting started at 10, and finishing the track by about 7!! I think one song spilled over into the next day (i think i had to run off early or something), but tracks like 'The Radio' and 'Satellite' were started at 10.30am and finished by 3 or 4 pm!!
MM - We had a ball with this aspect of the project - althought it was a little unnerving at first. I would drive to Michael's studio, which is about and hour and a half from my place - walk in with my guitar and have to play him a small idea I had for a song and hope that he could see something in it. And honestly when songs are first conceived - in their early stages like that - it can be a little embarrassing to expose yourself that openly to someone else - so it took me a while to get over it.
Anyway, it became easier. It was always different for each song - sometimes I'd have a feel for a song and one verse and Michael would help me finish it. Or Michael would have a whole song almost finished and I would suggest a different feel or a different approach. Every singles song was a complete collaboration though -each of us would have ideas to improve or add to the song that was presented. It was a real challenge because we had to have the writing and rehearsing finished by lunchtime so we could start recording. You mentioned the 24 hour time frame - what actually happened was that I would arrive at Michael's at about 10AM and we'd have to be finished by about 7.30 that evening - so we'd be working pretty fast most days.
W&H: Personally, I love the concept of people from different cool bands collaborating the way people did in the 1960s, which is similar to what you've been doing with The Supahip. What did you learn about each other and/ or your approach to making music from recording these songs?
MC: I learned many things from this project, but i think the thing that had the biggest impression on me was how good we could be if we removed all the ego/pressure/fashion/money etc from music making. This is the ultimate in self indulgence.. we literally did this because we wanted to, for no one's benefit except our own.
And from a production point of view... as i make a
LOT of records as a record producer, i learned to trust my ability, trust my instincts and to make decisions early!
MM - Michael finds the groove to a song really fast!!! You should see him hop onto the bass or behind a drum kit and just nail a feel! It was a real eye-opener for me - and a pleasure to watch.
He has a real natural sense of what the best feel is for a song - he also works really fast when he's on a roll, sometimes it's hard to keep up. It can take me a bit longer sometimes to find my way in a song and search for a guitar part or harmony or whatever, I really like to search - even if it means I lead myself up the garden path for a while...it's part of the fun for me.
But often your first instinct is the right one - and Michael's first instincts are pretty finely honed. It can be a little nerve-racking sometimes to pick up the bass or the guitar after he's just put down a fantastic drum feel in one take. When he wants to he just picks up the Hofner bass and it's McCartney - it's really amazing.
W&H: You made the album in "HyperRetroSonic", according to the sleevenotes, and in some cases (songs like "Satellite" spring immediately to mind) you really have evoked an atmosphere similar to albums like "Revolver" and "The Notorious Byrd Brothers". Were albums like those in your head when you were
making "Seize The World"?
MC: Oh ABSOLUTELY. We unapologetically would say 'this track should sound EXACTLY like Revolver' for example. We were very inspired by the attitude and production of many great records from the late 60's/early 70's.. to the point where we'd use as few mics on the drums as we could, and commit to sounds very early. There's almost no doubling of anything on the album, so it's all very bare and stripped back.
And we both LOVE the whole 'hard panning' thing.. you know.. drums over to the left, guitars to the right etc. In fact, on this album, there were only ever 3 panning positions, left, centre or right. That was our nod to the way records used to be made. On
most of the songs, when mixing we'd be balancing usually a maximum of 8 subgroups.. like we were mixing an 8 track tape machine.
Sometimes we went a bit more than that, but on a lot of the tracks, you'd be surprised at how few tracks we used. In this unlimited track world, it was great to use 4 mics on the drums for 'Everything's Alright' and when mixing to be mixing essentially 7 individual elements/tracks.. drums, bass, acoustic, electric
guitar, 2 vocals and tambourine!!
MM - Definitely. We decided early on that this record was going to be crafted in the same way as the records we both loved. We particularly talked about Paul McCartney's first two solo albums ('McCartney' and 'Ram') a lot.
We loved the fact that there were restrictions on those records - like recording on a 4-track in the kitchen as McCartney did on that first solo record. Yet the homey vibe and the wonderful, yet sometimes quirky songs the restrictions. I mean obviously 'Revolver' has had a huge influence on nearly ever songwriter who has ever laid pen to paper - and it's true that when we sat down to record "Satellite" it was with 'Revolver' in mind - that was the fun of the project - we were laughing at the fact we were being so blatant about it. It was sort of the point in the first place.
W&H: Inevitably, one of the biggest arrows your detractors will fire at you is that your records are very 'retro' and reminiscent of the mid to late 1960s, thus simply trying to rehash those times. That's certainly not my take on it, but what do you feel about such criticism?
MC: We don't care!! Like i said.. we did this because we wanted to... total self indulgence at all times. I can't stress that enough..
We were just entertaining ourselves. We expect that some people will yawn at the whole retro thing... the unfortunate aspect of that though is that the retro things was just a door that opened us up to writing different material than we normally would, and making a different, and in a lot of ways better record than we normally do. If people miss that point because they don't like their drums panned to one side, it's their loss!
MM - It doesn't worry me too much. It's the music that I love, it's a time when songwriting wasn't so boxed in by genre. Records were extremely diverse. The business side of thingsdidn't seem to matter so much (even though in reality that was probably not the case).
I don't know - sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong era. The music of that period just means more to me. And Michael and I made a decision to make a certain type of album and we stuck to our guns - and I'm proud of that.
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I'm sure we'll cop plenty of critics who'll say that this album is not relevant today. For me it's just always about the songs, no matter when they were written. And, at the same time I think we're kind of poking fun at ourselves and being a little tongue-in-cheek - with a name like The Supahip! Come on! That's the ultimate irony - we're SO not hip or super!!! 'Hyper Retro Sonic'!!!??? It's all nonsense really...just two nostalgic music lovers having a good time in the studio...
W&H: Another thing that strikes me when listening to songs such as "Tulsa" and "Let Go" is how playful they are, maybe more so that any of your work I've heard previously. Did you bring the groove out in each other?
MC: From the first day to now, every aspect of this record, and our friendship, has been a fun thing. As it all went on, we would goad each other into being sillier and sillier, which is how we ended up with tracks like The Radio and Falling Backwards, or all those silly mellotrons on Tulsa.
There was nothing either of us would suggest that would seem silly to us, and ultimately that was so liberating creatively. And literally everything worked. I mean, we did a 'kazoo horn section' on 'Let Go'! I'm glad you mentioned 'Let Go' actually.. we basically came in one day and said we'd like to write an 'epic'.. like Band On The Run or Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey or the second side of Abbey Rd. So we did!
MM - I think we did bring out the groove in each other. I particularly can take an overly serious approach to writing sometimes - Michael's music tends to sound a little more joyful than mine. So I think Michael helped me loosen up a bit, I think.
On the flip side, I think I encouraged Michael to experiment a bit more and search for quirky, wacky sounds thathe normally wouldn't incorporate in his music. It was funny to see how far we could push each other.
W&H: Now, a sticky subject: Nik Kershaw. Even though he was hugely popular in the mid 80s (and always evokes a drunken, last day at college incident in this writer's mind), Mr.Kershaw's not generally regarded as a credible artist to cover - at least in this part of the world. Yet you've made "Wouldn't It Be Good" sound fantastic. Why did you decide to tackle this song?
MC: We knew we wanted to do one cover on the album, and Mark actually suggested it. When i think about it, it was an odd choice, yet as soon as he suggested it i knew it was perfect.
It IS a great song, and i've always loved Kershaw's version, and have my own dodgy memories of it. But i also knew that by the time we got around to recording it (we made a rule to not record
the cover until we had most of the album of original material recorded) our Supahip sound would be in place, and i think it shows us off very well. Another track with not much in it too.. drums, bass and a couple of guitars!
MM - Michael always wanted to have at least one cover on the album and we both knew that we didn't want to do the obvious thing and throw a tune from the '60s on there. So we were trying to decide what to choose.
I heard "Wouldn't It Be Good" on the radio and thought I heard something in Nik Kershaw's voice that reminded me of Michael. So I mentioned the song to Michael and he lovd the idea. It was a song that he had always loved - and he knew the guitar solo off by heart - he'd earnt it years before.
Strangely enough, it proved to be a harder song to record than we had imagined. I'm really happy with the end result though. It's actually a really interesting song - the chord progression is quite strange - it's really well written and the chorus is just classic!
W&H: "Seize The World" is out on Big Radio, which - if I have this right - is Michael's label. Michael, you're an amazing musician, a super producer, songwriter, play in other bands and already have your own studio: what's the secret behing managing to wear so many hats at once?
MM - Over to you MC...
MC: Yes, Big Radio is my label. The secret is necessity. Someone has to do it! A smart man would take on less, but i think that man would also achieve less. There's a lot of music to be made.. a lot of things to achieve.
And sometimes the only way to do things, especially as i've gotten older and 'less attractive' to other labels, is to just do them myself. I do wish i had more time and resources to devote to all the hats i wear, but i've stopped giving myself a hard time about that. I can only do what i can do..
W&H: You've also included mono mixes of most of the songs as well as the more lavish studio mixes. I actually can't decide which I like better as the mono mixes are maybe a little punchier in places. Do you prefer the stereo or mono version of the album yourselves?
MM - I love the mono mixes, that was also an idea of Michael's right from the start - 'll let him explain the technical details between the two mixes - I just loved the fact that we added and subtracted things from the mono mixes - just so they'd be quite different - something for the trainspotters.
MC: Like most things on this album, the mono mixes started as a joke.
At the end of the first day of recording, as we finished the mix to 'Like Love', with its wide panning and all, i thought it'd be funny to have a straight mono mix. It only took 5 minutes to centre everything and re-balance things a little. So we started to get into the habit of doing it for every song.
Sometimes the mono mix would need to be different.. like on 'Something's Gotta Give' the stereo version has double tracked drums. But on the mono, having both drum tracks playing at once sounded crap.. so we just bought them in and out at different spots. As for preferences, i think i'm split.. i think the mono mixes of 'Satellite' and 'Something's Gotta Give' are better.. certainly more punchy and driving.
Lately i've found myself more interested in hearing the mono versions.. maybe because we only ever gave them a tokenistic listen when we were doing them. Listening to them though,
the record seems very old.. it sonically reminds me of a record from 1967, which makes me happy!
W&H: Have you any particularly memorable anecdotes from the making of "Seize The World" you'd like to share with our readers?
MC: There were so many great moments... real 'this is what life is about' moments during the making of this record. I really mean that. It was a wonderful expereince. I just remember us laughing ALL THE TIME... which in itself is interesting to me, because this album certainly happened at a difficult time for me personally, and reflects some of my most desperate lyric writing in tracks like 'Everything's Alright', 'Something's Gotta Give', 'Hanging By A Thread' and 'The Radio'. I'll never forget that aspect of it.
I do remember things like the 'Tulsa' day. It seemed like we could have tried anything that day and it would have worked. remember almost always that the lead vocals were literally recorded the first time we'd ever really properly sung these songs.. often with nothing in our headphones except an acoustic guitar and a click track... i love that you can hear the click track bleed at the start of 'Let Go'.. that makes me smile.
I remember the day of 'Let Go'.. Mark having a few different pages in his songwriting book marked, and me searching around in my book and through my demos for something to add, then the first time we started to join them together and hearing them work.. again, we just laughed til we were almost crying.
I remember buying some mics off Ebay that were supposedly the same as the mics the Beatles often used on drums around the time of Revolver, and using then on everything on 'Satellite', because they happened to arrive in the post THAT DAY. (They sounded terrible by the way, and were nothing like the Beatles mics, so i had to eq everything to within an inch of its like to make it sound useable!!!) I could go on and on, but i'm sure Mark will have some memories.
MM - We laughed a lot - we had loads of fun and didn't take ourselves too seriously. I think that comes across in them music in the long run. I don't have a particular story to tell - the whole experience just taught me a lot about how much you can enjoy being in the studio and it was my first proper effort at writing alongside someone else. I just hope we get to do it again.
W&H: Finally, what's next project-wise for both Michael Carpenter and Mark Moldre - or indeed The Supahip?
MC: Well.. the Supahip is now a living, breathing entity that will continue without question. Live shows are the next aim, but if people can't get interested in us doing live shows, we'll just start recording again whenever we find the time.
As for me, i have the next covers album, 'SOOP #2' almost
finished.. that should be out early next year. Then late next year i'm doing a compilation album to be called 'Oarfins'.. it'll have some leftovers and all my tribute and compilation tracks all in one place. That'll round it off nicely, and may be the last MC solo thing for a while.
Record producing keeps me busy, as does a young family, and i'm struggling to find reason or motivation to do another solo album in the near future, especially as the Supahip stuff seems to be more rewarding. That might all change of course in a year or so.. guess we'll wait and see.
MM - I'd love to make another Supahip record - hopefully it's on the cards - live shows are certainly up next for The Supahip.
I've just finished recording the new Hitchcock's Regret album, entitled "endless_intermission". Michael produced some tracks for the new record as did Tim Powles - drummer/ producer for Oz legends The Church. That was a dream come true for me as I've been a big fan of The Church since I was a teenager - I used to play in a covers band at school and we had about 4 Church covers in our set list.
Tim and Michael both make cameos on the new album and the sound is quite different for the band this time around. Shane Pex, who is my partner in crime in Hitchcok's Regret also produced some wonderful tracks. I'm really excited about where it's heading. Tim Powles maye be playing some live shows with us too. Lots to look forward too."
You can check out the band's website:
www.hitchcocksregret.com
...or the album is actually for sale on the Church's official website at:
http://www.thechurchband.com/shop/default.php .
And don't forget to check out The Supahip at:
www.bigradio.com.au
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