“Not to go too far in depth, but in making Color of Glass we were going for creating a set of songs that are congruent in mood and feel, which reflect a style that is uniquely our own.
“In saying that, I understand how cliche that is, but we really wanted to focus on coming up with a sound that is a total experiment in minimal instrumentation and complex, enveloping moods that have a meaningful uniqueness. It’s taken us a couple of years to develop our sound—probably way too long to the point that we routinely get asked if we’ve broken up, since we’ve taken so long recording…”
—Eduardo Rodela, Miyazaki
In case you haven’t caught the talented Miyazaki sharing the stage with some of DC’s best—Ra Ra Rasputin, Misun, Lenorable, etc.—rest assured that synth-pop phenoms Miyazaki are still around and are releasing their long-awaited album Color of Glass tonight at DC9. Vocalist/Guitarist Eduardo Rodela took a few minutes to talk to me about the making of the album, from mood to mastering.
“For the album we wrote songs revolving around driving and rhythmic bass guitar and Rob Hart’s drum arrangements, which are layered with mine and Marisa Grotte’s vocals, synthesizer keyboards and guitar melodies that delve into creating moods that you can’t quite put your finger on, a feeling of uncertainty and of conflicting disposition.
“We recorded this all DIY, which is a monumental ordeal in itself, so we now have humongous respect for anyone putting together good quality recordings these days. We had a great deal of support from Brock Boss (of Ra Ra Rasputin) who helped with recording and mixing this album at the space we share in Takoma Park.
“I’ve been interested in low-fi, non-flashy, and almost non-compression of mastered tracks of earlier-era recordings like any Magnetic Fields album or David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, to the point where we wanted to find a mastering engineer who could do that for our recordings. We ended up mastering our tracks with Alex Kloss, who mastered one of our favorite band’s, Pollyester’s Earthly Powers album, whose sound and feel are similar in spirit to what we wanted.
“Our bassist Scott Bauer recently moved out west, so we were fortunate enough that our friend Omari Mayers-Walker was interested in joining the band. We’re excited to work with him, on account of his outstanding and unconventional taste that we’ve seen from his monthly DJ night Melange at Velvet Lounge. We’re pumped to be playing together for the first time.”
Miyazaki is supported by Motion Lines and Golden Looks tonight at DC9. Doors 8:30pm. Show 9pm. $8.
