Masks & Mirrors by Robert Leslie
back to basics with this one. album consists of ten tunes written here and there without particular intent from 2016-2017, recorded on cassette in the dead of winter round the end of 2017. big format switch from the maximalist approach of “sunny kindsa lies” - very sparse now, me and the guitar, going for that dry dusty kaleidoscope sound, both close and faraway, and a soft tape hiss like old heatpipes.
so, recorded them in the winter, and then spring and summer shimmering on in, all forms of chaos happy and unhappy, other projects to occupy me (my new band, “the jackson bollocks”, taking up a fair chunk), money troubles and injury and honeymoon love and so on. winter tapes got pushed back all this time as a result. seems it’s been about half a year now. anyway, better late than never.
the songs I picked for this album were born in following order: first “tell her”, february of 2016, brooklyn, winter nights and getting over dead love and all that. then “velvet room” in march - friend k. came by exhausted from work and I offered to write her a song to pass the time while she slept. used her sleepy mumbling to frame it. next, in june, came “fool’s gold” and “we got time”, written on the greek island of naxos over the course of a lonely drunk. “somewhere all the same” was written a few days later on the ferry back to athens. then came “o my luna”, written later in the summer to tease my vegan lil sis during a family fishing trip. “spider song”, in september, back in nyc. written out of sheer stragefright for a showcase I dreaded, trying to make sense of the weirding in the scene & myself & world at large, all that gradual gathering fear & hostility during election season. “flying”, january 2017, about a hedonistic ostrich tryst gone south over in new orleans. “masks and mirrors” arrived in may, getting a touch political what with the walls seeming to come down and familiar worlds unraveling. hung it on a dreamy arpeggiated waltzy guitar bit I’d written a while before, nursery rhyme feel to it, spanish summer courtyard in the 1890s or something. finally “she won’t need me”, in june, easiest damn song I ever wrote, about a good friend and part time lover who is rockin in the free world to this day.
there’s outtakes, too. six or seven of em, I’d wager. gotta leave something for future stamp collectors, but one of em is included in yer download if you buy the album here on bandcamp.
so, having spent most of my working time since winter on me and my buddy ed’s new band (our album release and first show was on june 30th 2018) I figured it was time to dust off ye tapes and get them ready for release. mixed them with a very light touch, kept away from effects, and then sent them off for mastering at analogcut studios in berlin. I made the cover art out of an old player piano roll, a bunch of chrystie’s auction catalogs, and some naked ladies snipped from a series of 18th century engravings based on marquis de sade’s “justine”. if the censors get me for that one lil lady, so be it. look at her go! the wee dear was too cute to leave out.
that’s all! off you run, songs! good luck to you!
Tracklist
| 1. | Fool's Gold | 3:12 |
| 2. | Tell Her | 3:22 |
| 3. | Flying | 3:33 |
| 4. | She Won't Need Me | 2:53 |
| 5. | Velvet Room | 2:33 |
| 6. | Somewhere All the Same | 2:51 |
| 7. | We Got Time | 2:51 |
| 8. | No Masks & No Mirrors | 3:37 |
| 9. | O My Luna (A Fish Ain't Meant to Fly Away) | 2:40 |
| 10. | Spider Song | 4:51 |
Credits
recorded & mixed by robert leslie, mastered at analogcut studios in berlin
many thanks to all the usual suspects, esp perry for the gift of old guitar magic and karl for his counterweight to the voices in my head
