chapter one: background check

richard arthur mcphail was born in biddeford, maine on june 27, 1970. he grew up in a coastal resort town called old orchard beach, maine. this was a sleepy town of 5,000 in the winter which transformed every summer into a busy tourist trap for around 50,000 quebecois who beached themselves like whales and strived for the perfect tan. he was your typical nerd. he played drums in the band, wrote plays, enjoyed painting and drawing, was a boy scout and failed in the categories of sport and popularity. after graduation, fed up with school and after a brief career attempt with the army national guard as a mountain infantryman, he moved to maine’s „metropol“ city portland and immediately starting working and saving as much money as possible to eventually go west and well you know „live the dream“. but in 1993 after about a year and a half in san francisco, fed up with the drugs and violence of the big city, he took the advice he had heard so often in his childhood : „if you don’t like it here, move to russia“ and moved to a country just a bit west of russia, called germany.

chapter two: the winds of change

wuppertal is a small rainy city in the mid west of germany and didn’t have much of a scene. so, not finding a band to play in and always a determined d.i.y. minded lad he decided start one up himself. mcphail had never played guitar in his life and wanting immediate results, tuned up a four string guitar (he decided 6 were unnecessary) to an open tuning and started composing. in 2005, a few years later, a few bands later and a few guitar strings more (now up to 6, but with the same open tuning) mcphail found himself living in hamburg, germany. he had already played synthesizers for ex-kraftwerk’s karl bartos (ironic, considering mcphail had quickly given up piano in his youth after about 5 hours of lessons) and had become a member of one of germany’s most critically acclaimed independent bands tocotronic.

chapter three: secret ingredient

this wasn’t enough though, mcphail needed his own baby again. but this time it had to be a music that achieved a sort of timelessness. something one could grow old with and it musn’t be confined in the borders it’s own genre. a type of album oriented independent rock (aoir), but how? mcphail set out to recruit some of hamburgs creme de la creme of indie rock to assist in this task. stefan nielsen, who was actually known for his keyboard work, turned out to be an excellent choice for bass due to his unorthodox approach to the instrument. but he also proved to be a stunning harmonist, counterpointing brilliantly many of mcphail’s vocals, and co-writing a new version of „houston“, thus helping one of mcphail’s discarded songs rise like a phoenix from the ashes. benny ruess, one of hamburg’s most influential independent music dj’s, was recruited on drums and his impeccable taste for music and great understanding for melody proved to be an important resource as well. veteran sound engineer and vintage synthesizer collector sunny vollherbst was recruited as allround engineer and sound designer and the workshop was complete. the songs were written. the songs were recorded, but some ingredient was missing. it was wished for the music to have an opulence, a progressiveness, an eeriness, something haunting, even pychedelic but it should still have one foot planted in the classic grounds of what we know as rock or folk music. in some ways this was all there. but most likely due to the overabundant use of synthesizers, attempting to achieve this etherealness in the music, the sound simply had too much "wave" in it and it was not wished to sound like just another 80’s band. the answer came while listening to „breathe“, the first track on pink floyd’s „dark side of the moon“: the pedalsteel. but pedalsteel not played like on countless country recordings of the past. pedalsteel with tons of hall and delay giving this old instrument something eerie and unidentifiable. promptly, a large amount of the synthesizer tracks on the recordings were overdubbed with pedalsteel and the glacier sound was complete. the record was mixed by thomas maringer, a label was found with the berlin label staatsakt and the debut record was released. but unfortunately hardly escaped the borders of germany. it was realised to reproduce the multilayered music live would be impossible with only three people on stage so a multi-instrumentalist would be needed to take over many of the guitar and keyboard parts. mcphail had just produced a demo of a brilliantly talented young woman’s band a few months before and this woman happened to be the drummer’s sister catharina ruess. with catharina on keyboards, lapsteel and guitar the band embarked on a german tour to promote the record. not many witnessed this spectacle equipped with a d.i.y. light show of fog, slides and a „laser“, but those who did were stunned and the word spread.

chapter four: the factory

feeling that next recording could use more of the dynamic that the first had lacked, it was decided to try and record as much live as possible this time and without the use of a click to confine the tempo either. but to stay true the orchestralness of the first record a quintet would be needed. this wouldn’t even have been conceivable in the old studio, considering it was the size of a bedroom, but now the space was available. mcphail had just rented a factory floor which had fortunately already been built into a studio where he could live and record 24/7. everything was painted white, a nod to andy and lou, and the upper room was born. the original lineup stayed on and catharina ruess who proved to be the perfect choice for the tour was asked to stay on as well. classically trained, she brought with her an additional harmonic perspective, a brilliant grasp of theory and a natural born talent of improvising. the group has additionally recorded some of her own compositions, which i hope we’ll all be hearing from soon. to complete the quintet sven janetzko was added to the roster on guitar and pedalsteel. also a talented multi-instrumentalist known for his work in numerous hamburger groups he turned out to be quite the composer as well. penning the music for „flanders revisited“. soundwise the goal was basically the same but should have a more earthed or organic sound. it was decided this time to stay away from synthesizers as much as possible using organ, mellotron, piano or wurlitzer occasionally with effects such as delay or vibrato to modify the original sound. it was a goal to try and leave more room in the arrangements this time so that at times more hall could be added in the mix achieving more perspectives in the sound. thomas maringer was once again recruited for the mix. this time in clouds hill studios hamburg equipped with a peripherie of vintage gear including an original emt hall plate the size of a compact car. the songs were mixed. release is pending (have to find a label first). and the rest is yet to be written.