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| Clint Conley with Mission of Burma at Maxwell's. More here. |
That's the question the excellent documentary Not A Photograph: The Mission of Burma Story asked five years ago in 2006. It's safe to say we now know the answer to that question. Since reforming, Boston's Mission of Burma have released ONoffON (2004), The Obliterati (2006), and The Sound, The Speed, The Light (2009)--all to critical acclaim--paving the way for bands like Polvo, The Feelies and Dinosaur Jr. to make similar comebacks. All the while proving that reunions, and more specifically reunion albums, do not have to be embarrassing cash-ins.
Roger Miller (guitars/vocals), Pete Prescott (drums/vocals), Bob Weston (tape loops/producer) and Clint Conley (bass/vocals) make up one of the greatest success stories in the world of independent music. Fans in New York City will have the chance to catch Mission of Burma for FREE at the Beekman Beer Garden on August 7. As the band prepares for their upcoming fifth full length album, I had the chance to catch up with Clint on the phone to discuss the progress they've made so far on the new record, the status of his other band Consonant, and what it's like envisioning an end to Mission of Burma.
Roger Miller (guitars/vocals), Pete Prescott (drums/vocals), Bob Weston (tape loops/producer) and Clint Conley (bass/vocals) make up one of the greatest success stories in the world of independent music. Fans in New York City will have the chance to catch Mission of Burma for FREE at the Beekman Beer Garden on August 7. As the band prepares for their upcoming fifth full length album, I had the chance to catch up with Clint on the phone to discuss the progress they've made so far on the new record, the status of his other band Consonant, and what it's like envisioning an end to Mission of Burma.
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So I know you guys are working on, or have at least begun working on the new Mission of Burma album. What’s the progress so far?
Basically we’ve laid basic tracks down and a few overdubs. Roger has a very busy year this year with Alloy [Orchestra] due in part to the release of a new version of Metropolis. Which has been in high demand at festivals and what not, so they have the good fortune of being in great demand these days. So anyhow, Roger’s more or less booked up through December with Alloy stuff . And you know, we were pretty up to speed with some of these new songs so we thought we’d better get in the studio and capture them while we're semi-confident. So we did that and that’s where it stands right now. It was a pretty simple recording, Weston came out and we spent three of four days, maybe more…
That’s what I wanted to ask you, if Bob was producing this one too.
Yeah, he was at the board. We’ve done overdubs—on our last record—at this studio where we rehearse, which is a combination of a recording studio and a rehearsal space. So we just decided to lay the basics down there and see how that sounded, so you know... it sounds great.
I wanted to ask you about Bob’s tape looping actually. In the studio is it done kind of on the fly like he does it live or is it a little more musically calculated?
It’s a post-production effect. I mean, he’s not doing it while we’re laying the basics. It’s something that’s after the fact. But that’s a good question because I mean, certainly live it’s all on the fly as we’re going. And as far as I know we’ve never done it that way [in the studio]. Basically because he has his hands full with all the other crap. You know, he’s trying to make sure that everything’s right. He can’t be paying attention to things to too many things at once… he’s already overloaded.
Basically we’ve laid basic tracks down and a few overdubs. Roger has a very busy year this year with Alloy [Orchestra] due in part to the release of a new version of Metropolis. Which has been in high demand at festivals and what not, so they have the good fortune of being in great demand these days. So anyhow, Roger’s more or less booked up through December with Alloy stuff . And you know, we were pretty up to speed with some of these new songs so we thought we’d better get in the studio and capture them while we're semi-confident. So we did that and that’s where it stands right now. It was a pretty simple recording, Weston came out and we spent three of four days, maybe more…
That’s what I wanted to ask you, if Bob was producing this one too.
Yeah, he was at the board. We’ve done overdubs—on our last record—at this studio where we rehearse, which is a combination of a recording studio and a rehearsal space. So we just decided to lay the basics down there and see how that sounded, so you know... it sounds great.
I wanted to ask you about Bob’s tape looping actually. In the studio is it done kind of on the fly like he does it live or is it a little more musically calculated?
It’s a post-production effect. I mean, he’s not doing it while we’re laying the basics. It’s something that’s after the fact. But that’s a good question because I mean, certainly live it’s all on the fly as we’re going. And as far as I know we’ve never done it that way [in the studio]. Basically because he has his hands full with all the other crap. You know, he’s trying to make sure that everything’s right. He can’t be paying attention to things to too many things at once… he’s already overloaded.
