Love Of Everything
This is an interview with Bobby Burg of Love of Everything (psst, go to this link) who has been featured on the site a few times. He releases albums and ep's like it's his job, oh wait, he's a musician. Scratch that. Bobby Burg releases music all the time and never fails to let me down. His latest ep, Sooner I Wish was released on Polyvinyl Records back in August and is one of his finest releases yet.
Ryan Donar: You've been writing and recording songs under your moniker Love of
Everything for nearly over a decade now right?
Bobby Burg: That is correct.
RD: What influenced you to begin writing music?
BB: My family always encouraged my creativity. When my brother in law
gave my dad a karaoke machine with two tapes decks in it, I discovered
I could record my own music and it was all over.
RD: Your early albums have a very lo-fi, tape cassette feel to it,
what equipment did you use at first? What equipment are you using
now and how were you recording those songs/albums?
BB: I had a home studio and was using an ADAT 8 track machine that records
onto VHS video tape. I am consistently inconsistent with the way I
record. Sooner I Wish EP was done on a cassette 4 track. I bounced
a stereo mix of the music down, recopied the mix to the 4-track and
used to the other two tracks for singing.
RD: You tend to re-work and re-release your songs; do you feel
obligated to record them again for any particular reason or do you
just have multiple ideas for how the songs could sound?
BB: I got frustrated not having any one album that sounded the way the
band sounds live. Best in Tensions was a greatest hits album played
as we were playing the songs live.
RD: In 2005 you and Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie released a split, how
did that idea spark and who contacted who first?
BB: Phil and I met in Olympia,WA around the 4th of July 1998. My band was
on tour and Phil was drumming in Old Time Religion who were on the
show too, along with Mirah and Get the Hell out of the Way of the
Volcano(The Blow.) Microphones and Mirah were going to be touring
through Chicago soon and we exchanged info. They played the Empty
Bottle and stayed over at my house that summer and the next time
Microphones/Mirah played Chicago they played in my living room.
Things progressed from there and that's also how I ended up recording
songs with both Mirah and The Blow.
RD: You released Best In Tensions last year, that was your first
"studio" album correct? Where and how did you go about recording it?
BB: We did it at a studio mostly known for Metel called Semaphore that
some friends owned. Our friend Neil Strauch engineered the recording.
RD: You're ex-wife helped you on Best In Tensions and one of my
all-time personal favorites Ghosts & Friends, has this break up
changed your writing technique or how you feel about certain songs
that you have written in the past?
BB: Songs can behave like time capsules that allow you to revisit both the
happy memories and the sad ones, and hopefully you feel both
simultaneously.
RD: Matt Holland and you have recorded two ep's Kangaroo Trick and
Sooner I Wish already this year, are you building up to another full
length?
BB: Either another full length or another EP. I think the 4 song ep is
my preferred format.
RD: Nearly every song of yours has some sort of hook or punch line to it, something most musicians try to achieve but can't seem to get
down. In other words, your writing style is very original but show
subtle hints of your influences. Who are some of your inspirations and
why do they mean so much?
BB: The less the finished song sounds like the reference the better. The
voice mix on the entire Sooner I Wish EP is based on the first Ramones
album(the first tape I ever bought myself). The voice is doubled and
hard panned to either speaker.
RD: Sooner I Wish is perfectly pieced together with four new songs
totaling out at under nine minutes. Did you record this EP knowing
that these four songs were going to be featured or were there other
songs that didn't make the cut?
BB: Yes it is a deliberate collection of songs that we recorded right
after playing them on a 7 day tour. 3 Way Answers was written in the
days between tour and recording. I wanted to state the musical theme
of the 7" as concisely as possible on that song by stripping away the
guitar chords and playing the root notes along to the higher flip
flopping hook loop.
RD: Polyvinyl Records has released Sooner I Wish as a 7" on August 2nd, is this your first major label release? Are you still running recordlabelrecordlabel?
BB: Polyvinyl is the biggest label to have ever worked with Love of Everything that is for sure! Although record label is not active, it's waiting for me when and if I
choose to release something again.
RD: You play in the band Vacations with former Chin Up Chin Up members
Jeremy Bolen and Greg Sharp. You guys compose your songs with some
unique and traditional instruments played non-traditionally, how did
you three end up writing songs with ukeleles and toy xylophones? Is
there any new material from Vacations that we should expect?
BB: Vacations have a new album recorded and ready to go. Jeremy really
wanted to get away from guitar after doing Chin Up for so long.
RD: Aside from Love Of Everything and your power trio band Vacations,
you've been playing bass for Make Believe since the first EP was
released back in 2004. How did you find yourself playing bass for one
of the most inventive, obscure punk bands of the 00's?
BB: We started Make Believe right after a long Joan of Arc/Love of
Everything tour. I really wanted to play with those guys so I moved
back to Chicago from Brooklyn.
RD: In an interview I did with Tim Kinsella back in March I asked him
if there was any chance of another Make Believe album, he said he'd
like to 'think so but it would take several miracles to make that
happen'. Being a fourth of the band, what do you think the chances of
another Make Believe album? And has anybody heard back from Sam Zurick
yet? I understand he left for the desert?
BB: We saw Sam in California and he seems to be doing really well. I
would do make believe again in a heartbeat. I guess all it would take
is everyone in the band wanting to do it, being able to afford to do
it, and being available to do it at the same time. It seems possible
to me.
RD: Meaningful Work was recorded with you, Tim and Theo busting out a
new sound that fans of the Joan of Arc Family have not heard before.
How did you feel about that 7"?
BB: I think the singing really brought it together. It was the first time
I had written bass parts for Joan of Arc and it felt very similar to
writing bass in Make Believe.
RD: If you had to choose one or the other, would you
rather be Christopher Nolan's therapist or Michael Bay's assistant?
BB: Are those different guys?
The man's music is absolutely inspiring. Bobby takes pop to a new level and doesn't cheese it up but instead simplifies it into witty songs that could easily score Woody Allen's dreams. (Woody Allen circa 1975, nowadays I'm sure 'Yakety Sax' never leaves his speakers after what happened to his nose in the 80's) If you are unfamiliar with Bobby's music head over to http://www.joanfrc.com/bobby.html and check out all of the projects he has contributed to and created. Make sure to also listen to Sooner I Wish 7" as well as all of his past recordings. Countless gems. Hear for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-zkV3UTlUA
