Last year, Los Angeles pop trio The One AM Radio released their sweetly sad album, Heaven Is Attached by a Slender Thread, and in late December, they announced on Facebook that they were releasing every gratis track and video they posted in 2011 in one convenient bundle for free download (along with remixes done with bands like Class Actress and Baths).
Heaven Is Attached by a Slender Thread marked the first time that frontman and songwriter Hrishikesh Hirway had ever worked with an outside producer, Tony Hoffer of Beck and Phoenix fame, who mixed the record.
Hirway recently scored music for the Michael Mohan-directed film "Save The Date" which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
The One AM Radio — which also includes guitarist/vocalist Scott Leahy and multi-instrumentalist Fontaine Cole, dropped by The Alternate Side's studio for a very special session. Below, check out video performances of "An Old Photo of Your New Lover," "Sunlight" and "In A City Without Seasons" plus highlights of their chat with Alisa Ali:
Alisa Aiisa: Did you actually find an old photo of your new lover in a book?
Hrishikesh Hirway: It was not in a book but there was a moment when, yeah, I saw a photo. It was at a relative’s house and there was a picture on the wall and it was crazy. There was a whole context to their life that I had no idea or part of. No relevance in. But it wasn’t in a book.
Alisa: Have you also found new pictures of old lovers? Are you friends with old lovers on Facebook?
Hrishikesh: Maybe not. I could have been lurking. Miserable, old-fashioned internet looking. No, I’m friends with some of them!
Alisa: I understand that you normally record everything yourself?
Hrishikesh: Yes, we record at my apartment. It’s a tiny apartment. Like [this room] and a microphone. Pretty much what we have here [in this studio]. A guitar, computer, a couple of keyboards and some other stuff.
Scott Leahy: It gets really boiling hot in his apartment too. We can only do it in very short spurts and we have to take turns.
Fontaine Cole: And it gets too loud with fans or windows open so you have to shut everything off. But it’s fun. It feels more fun for me. I’d rather record in Hrish’s apartment in front of them instead of in front of a bunch of people I don’t know.
Alisa: Are you feeling uncomfortable now?
Fontaine: It’s my nature.
Scott: Fontaine has two settings. Uncomfortable and anxious (laughs).
Alisa: I understand that Tony Hoffer got involved with this process. He’s produced albums for Beck, Belle and Sebastian and Phoenix. Kind of a big deal. He got his hands on some demos for this new record? How did that happen.
Hrishikesh: Not that crazy. He works with Jeff who runs our label and Jeff was playing them in the office, Tony heard them and [asked to be] involved.
Alisa: That must have been so cool.
Hrishikesh: It was awesome. We didn’t have any real expectation of that. I’ve always made my records on my own. It’s been an insular process and I’ve liked that. It was actually hard to let other people in but also exciting. He mixed the whole thing. At the time that he said that he wanted to mix the record, he’d just done the new Depeche Mode record so it was crazy.
Alisa: Did you pick up any tricks from him?
Hrishikesh: Yeah, because I work really slowly, one of the biggest roles that [Tony] played was telling me to stop working on a song.
Scott: Cracking the whip.
Hrishikesh: And I’d be like, “No, I need to do this one last thing.” So I was there in the studio when he’d mix the record and I’d be doing last minute, finishing touches on stuff. He’d be like, “You have to give me the track now.” So I got to hang out a bit and see some of his process and talk to him. I’d ask him, “How did you make that sound on that Beck record?” Getting to hear some of those secrets was pretty cool.
Alisa: Were you stressed out?
Hrisihikesh: Yes. You let the babies go and that’s really difficult. The record sounds better than anything I could have mixed on my own, for sure. Tony’s skill level is amazing. But it’s tricky. It’s not like we went into the studio, recorded it for three weeks and gave it someone. Some of these songs we’d been living with in demo form for a year. And then to hear them a new way … sometimes I’d be seized by some kind of panic. But then you’d listen a few more times [and realize] it sounds really great. I think it was a great experience and I probably would want to do it again, but I don’t have that belief of definitely, I’m never going to work on this myself.
Scott: It wasn’t laid back in the least. I think it was more stressful.
Hrishikesh: I think I kid myself that I work better under stress, but I don’t think I actually do.
