Carrie Ashley Hill and Jeff Berrall (Caveman) release “Found You” on 7” with a video by artist by Liam Alexander.
“Jeff said to me laughing, “You’re tired, I’m broken.” Later that day I sent him a text, “I found you when I knew I needed no one,” he replied, “I found you when I thought I was done,” and that is how these songs came to be.
We decided to release them as a traditional A/B single on 7” which led us to Tyler Bisson and his 1940’s era lathe machine.
“Lathe cut records are made by ‘impressing’ the sound onto a plastic disc. When you make a lathe cut record, the process is instantaneous; you can play the record immediately. This is much different than pressing a record, which takes multiple steps. I cut each record in real time, individually. They are all, in essence their own master disc.
The cutting lathe is designed to physically cut grooves into a soft lacquer disc. That disc is created to make copies from, it is never played. We use the same machine, with a new plastic material, to create a playable copy. This specific machine was made in the 1940s for small studios to produce their own disc recordings. I’d say we keep that engineering spirit alive by modifying the machine to cut into the plastic.
The best part about lathe cut records is that you can make almost anything you want. With shorter runs, it encourages the artist to make something that is especially unique, and collectible. I like to give people the option to have odd sizes, shapes, labels or no labels, picture discs, hidden tracks, lock grooves, etc.
It’s a one person operation, which allows me to be attentive throughout the whole process. I make music myself, and I treat everyone’s record like my own.”
It’s rewarding to see our music etched so beautifully into this little, clear piece of plastic and hold it in my hand. It is my first time to release a proper record, and now CDs and digital releases pale in comparison. Mono is also a pretty magical sound as it emanates from the stereo, something like a warm haze that the voices float upon and rise above. We are really proud of this project and grateful to have talented friends like Liam Alexander to capture the spirit of our song in a video.
Liam is an amazing artist and one of my oldest friends, and at Christmas we made a pinky swear that he would make me a music video. Upon hearing “Found You,” Liam had a vision of children searching for something in the snow blanketed woods. Luckily, I had to come to know the awesome Jabour family last fall on my tour with Jane Herships—4 children in a house in the woods, so in late February, we drove up. They welcomed us into their family and let us take over their house for the weekend, wrangling a posse of 4-10 year olds. We gave the kids a map that I had hand-embroidered and sent them out into the woods to hunt for treasure.
So we now present to you our two songs that explore the arc of relationship, manually captured on a 7″, packaged with hand-screened artwork, and visualized in moving image.
Soon we will complete the circle with a treasure of a video for Washed Up Together, made by Elizabeth Skadden that marks the golden years when we finally slow down enough to put on a record at home and dance.”
—Carrie Ashley Hill
For information on how to order the “Found You” 7″ please visit StonedRuin.com or visit Norman’s Sound + Vision, 555 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (347) 529-5532.
Enter to win a copy of Carrie and Jeff’s lathe cut 7″ “Found You” by naming in the comments below your favorite couple performing as a duo. Carrie’s buzzed in with Emmylou and Gram, so there’s your bar! We’ll choose one winner with a North American mailing address a week from today, 8/12!
