Dreamy Pop

9 MP3 Songs
POP: with Electronic Production, POP: Delicate



Details:
[from www.calamine.com, nov. '05]

Hi everyone,

Julie here. Iâve been meaning to write for so long, but wanted to wait until there was something to write about. And now there is. The new record, What We Forgot to Remember, is done. Itâs being pressed as I write this, and should be in our hands in the next few weeks.

Itâs been a long time coming. The EP was recorded in 1999, the Sealab theme song in 2000. Please donât ask me what I was during between 2000-2005. All I can say is living, working, getting married, having a kid, burying a parent. I was working on songs, but I definitely fell into the âalways working but never finishingâ camp. No one imposed a deadline on me, and I didnât know how to impose one on myself. Thank goodness I got pregnant and committed myself publicly to finishing a record before I became a parent.

That was in September of 2003. I started getting up at 5:00 am, working on songs until 8:00, then leaving to go work my day job at 9:00. You canât make a lot of noise in a tiny New York apartment at 5:00 in the morning, so the demos, and the record that grew out of those demos, have a definite hushed quality.

We recorded in March 2004 with Eli Janney in NYC and then did vocals and mixing with Steve Raskin in DC. By this point, I was 7 1/2 months pregnant. After the recording (which took about 6 days), I left the record with Steve and came home to get ready. Andrew (Calamineâs bass player and father of aforementioned baby) and Steve did the first round of edits. After five more days of work, Andrew came home, too, and we left the record in Steveâs able hands to continue mixing and editing.

Henry was born in May, and, as expected, everything slowed down. Steve continued working on it between his own shows and recordings (Thunderball, Fort Knox Five) and in December handed the files over to Eli, who, in between parts of his own busy music career, did final mixes and pre-mastering work here in New York. It was a slow process, but with every round of edits the record improved, so we felt we were doing something right. By September, we were ready to master it. Eli pulled some strings and got Greg Calbi to master it. John Von Pamer did the artwork.

The record is full of sad songs because I write better sad songs than happy ones. Itâs full of slow songs, because I play slow songs better than fast ones. Some of the songs have been floating around for 10 years, some were written especially for this record. The lyrics are confessional, but donât ask me what they are about, because I really donât know. At one point during the process, I took them all and scrambled them up. The less they became about one thing, the better they became. Sometimes accidents made the best surprises.

The record has a definite feel to it. I like to say itâs ok if a bandâs songs all sound the same, as long as you like that particular song. I also said many times during the process that I wanted a record that could play quietly in the background, but that would also hold up to careful listening. I hope we managed to do all that.

I started playing music after my mother died in 1994. I had never sung in public, played guitar, or written a song, but I took a lesson from her life -- donât let fear stop you from doing something you want to do. Thereâs nothing worse then getting to end, looking back, and having regrets about something you didnât do.

I dedicated the record to Henry, but there are others who deserve special thanks. First is Andrew, who made it happen. Seriously, without him there would be no record.

I also want to thank all the people who have written to the band over the years, telling us how much they liked the music, sending encouragement and well wishes. Those emails and letters kept me at it when I wanted to give it up. They buoyed me when I started to lose faith. Maybe Iâll write the perfect song someday and topple a corrupt government. Maybe Iâll lift someoneâs spirits. Either way, itâs a reason to continue.

Thanks for your support,

Julie