My Favourite Things - I Am Constantly Learning And Growing

The13th AÑO: 4

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NÚMERO 38

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

MY FAVOURITE THINGS I AM CONSTANTLY LEARNING AND GROWING

[ Interview with Dorothea Tachler from “My Favourite Things” by Benjamín York ]

I AM CONSTANTLY LEARNING AND GROWING

3 It always seems that we are surprised that, upon finding bands we encounter along the way, we discover that they have several albums in their discography. My Favourite Things is one such band, having announced the release of their third album "Fly I Will, Because I Can" in July. This Brooklyn band was formed by Dorothea Tachler, the only continual member of My Favorite Things, though she draws on the talents of other musicians for recordings and live performances. We chatted with Dorothea Tachler and tried to get to know her better and get into her sonic world for a while.

Hello Dorothea, I am somewhat touched by the beauty of "Fly I Will, Because I Can". It is really difficult to find albums that surprise us and this is one of them.

Thank you so much. It feels so good to hear that!

Let's start with the beginning of everything.

You were born in Germany, but settled in New York. Strictly speaking from the musical side, what was it like to make the change from one city to another?

Musically, it was a liberation, to write in New York.

Maybe because I knew less people here, but also New Yorkers don’t criticize as harshly as Germans do, or give unsolicited advice. The attitude here is more like, you can do whatever you want. Of course, there is a very high level of musical professionalism. Which is also good: I always want to become a better musician. As a songwriter, though, I felt freedom and relief to let everything come out the way it has since I’m here. Even though I did developed my style here more, it didn’t really change it so much, I think, of course apart of being constantly influenced by all the music surrounding me, with the people I play, and the shows I see, which is, like New York’s people, blessed with a much bigger diversity than my hometown Munich.

How did "My Favourite Things" come about?

After playing in different bands for many years, and collaborating with others, I started feeling a need to start my own project, in which I write everything

alone. So I did - I started writing and recording those songs pretty much by myself, with some guests.

Drummers, mostly, which on the first two records at least, I often asked to play a specific beat, but on the new one, my drummer since 4 years Yoshio Kobayashi basically wrote his own parts. He’s a great drummer and an important part of the sound at this point.

So after the first record was finished, where I played most things myself, I put a band together to play the songs live. The members changed a few times, but we’ve played in this setup for a few years now, Michael Figgiani was in the band from I think the 3rd show on, and Yusuke Yamamoto has been playing vibraphone and synthesizers also since about 4 years now. Daru Oda, singer and multi-instrumentalist, played a lot with us around the 2nd album and is a bit busy with motherhood right now, but occasionally joins us. Everyone is an incredibly talented musician!

Why that name? Which are your personal favorite things?

That name is because I have a hard time having ONE favorite thing. Like, a favorite musical genre, or instrument. I wanted to play as many of them as I could, because - I don't have to decide! I have many favorite ones :) I’ve always had a hard time naming a favorite color/band/film/Ice cream flavor!

Some of my personal favorite things are instruments, music, art, literature, playing music with friends, connecting with people, having amazing conversations, laughing, creating, plants, animals, going to the beach/ being in nature With "My Favourite Things" you have two previous albums. “rarara” (2009) and “Tomorrow's Far Away” (2013). Although they are quite different from each other, they are also different with this new album, "Fly I Will, Because I Can" (2017). They surely belong to different periods of your life. Which moments are each album referring to?

Each album is like a diary, like a companion of the time I write the songs. My first album „rarara" was a lot about losing my mother and grandmother, which

left shortly after another, in the same year I came to New York. It was a lot of changes for me- turning my process into songs proved to be an amazingly helpful and therapeutical tool, besides it always makes me happy when a song is finished. Musically, it was exploring and playing around with sounds, ambient sounds, too. Like implementing the loud New York city sounds in the music. But these were hard to reproduce live on stage, especially small and fragile sounds like a breath or a Kalimba, which don't have a big chance against a drum kit. So after playing with the band for a while, it influenced the song writing, and so the 2nd and third album are much more implementing the band factor, and the pieces are generally more song oriented. For the ambient stuff, I started my project „Hunki Dori“.

The second album is in a way talking about addiction. Tomorrow’s far away when we say, I will quit tomorrow. Just this one last time, today, I will change things tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Its procrastinating, its just an excuse to not stop.

Because quitting bad habits is hard, and it forces us to really look at ourselves, which can be hard and many of us are really afraid of it.

The new album, „Fly I will, because I can“ finally deals with the aftermath of that - the „really looking at one’s self“ process. Yes, going through that process can be really tough, but there is a reward after, and it can feel like flying, just because one can, without any drugs or dreams, you just do it.

How would you define your music? Since each disc is so different, I suppose that both feelings and words may change.

Picking a genre/category for my music is hard for me, if that’s what you mean, because there are so many ingredients from several genres in there.

I would describe it more like a painting, and I just grab different colors or materials from whatever I want to play around with, or feel fit for a specific expression. Sometimes, when you start putting colors on an empty canvas, you can only see what the pain-

ting is going to be like. and then you add more colors or textures, which would be different instruments.

Words start in my head, as I’m processing through something I feel the urge to shape into something/ words.

Ha, you’d have to ask her :) I guess so, though. I really loved working with Uma. She is a very talented artist. I made music for her animation movie, which had a tiger in it - then I knew, she must do the artwork for my album!

Before we immerse ourselves in the world of "Fly I Will, Because I Can". You have recorded more albums. "Hunki Dori" sounds beautiful to me. Tell us about this instrumental project.

Thank you so much! I already explained a little bit how it became about. But there is more to it. It is less song oriented, more about „the moment“, if you will, being in the present, whereas the songs are kind of something that has happened in my past. I wanted to create music for meditation, or daydreaming, without words, so that the listener can let their mind wander.

Like watching clouds. you can see something in them, and different people might see different things. It is less about me, or myself as a performer.

It is maybe a bit like guiding a meditation, if you want to hear it like that. Anyways, that’s why I didn't want to put my face or name on Hunki Dori.

And now let’s talk about the music.

"Fly I Will, Because I Can" is a very beautiful album, with lots of light and warmth. I have the feeling that you have changed the direction of the band’s sound. While there are things of utmost sweetness that can be heard in the previous albums, the feeling I have is that in this album, you were able to expand more than litany of sound, with much more folk and dream pop than in the previous works. Is this the case?

I’m not sure. Everything is a natural process. Some of the earlier tracks were already a bit folky, like El Sereno on the 2nd album. I think it happened because I started writing more songs on the guitar and the autoharp. Often the song gets its main tone from the instrument I write it on. Before, some were written on ukulele or piano, etc, or guitar, too. Perhaps the recording and production quality is also getting more refined and shaped as I am constantly learning and growing in that regard, as well.

Then you have another project called "Dorako Tomorrow Is Now" (2010) in collaboration with Asako Fujimoto. The question is: How much do you enjoy collaborations with other artists? From what I can tell from your discography, you are very persevering in your career.

I have collaborated with many people in about ten bands over the years. In some of them, I was just playing other peoples material. I love collaborating with other artists! It brings a total different end result as if I’d did a piece by myself. It sometimes is also perhaps an energy I have together with that person. Asako is a good friend of mine, and with her, I sometimes felt like we are kids, just playing and having that creative freedom of putting things together that we liked. A song sounded to us like a porcupine, so we started really feeling that. Or we really liked pomegranates, so that became a song somehow.

The cover of this new work was created by Uma Sharma. Are you the one depicted in this picture?

The album has twelve tracks, ranging from folk and dream pop to shoegaze and a "disguised" waltz time. Do you feel that this is the album that you have wanted to make all along? I ask this because we hear a homogenous and captivating album and we have had a lot of time to think about it.

Perhaps this is the most honest one, in terms of „looking within, at my own self“ as I described before, even though all of them dealt with deep and honest emotions, like loosing a really close person. I think all the other albums were also the ones I wanted to make at the time. It is a bit hard to say it from now, because many of those songs, I started writing right after the last album was finished, but it took all that time to finish this new one, because NYC doesn’t allow for much free time if you ain’t rich….

Meaning, I am now again in a different place where I was when I started writing the songs for that record.

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Maybe it feels more homogenous because I myself, within myself feel more homogenous. I don't know.

How long did it take you to write the songs? Is there a specific process you follow in writing songs?

You do it alone?

Yeah, I wrote these songs alone. Sometimes it only takes a day or a few to write the basis of the song. the more time consuming process is recording, producing and editing it.

I love producing them. It is like coloring.

Sometimes perhaps I overdo it and could just let it stand as a guitar song. But why not put violins and flutes and harps and more vocals in it when you can?

I have different approaches to write songs.

Sometimes it starts with the words, when I’m really processing something and keep having the same thoughts in my head, it shapes into a song. That often

happens on the NY subway, or when I’m walking.

The other approach is similar, when I hear melodies or chord progressions in my head, or playing around with instruments until I want to capture something.

And now, after with the release of this album, what plans do you have for My Favourite Things?

Continue writing songs, making records, playing shows, hopefully going on tour, making videos, etc.

Is there anything else you’d like to add for our readers?

Thank you for reading all this if you made it till here.

Thank you Dorothea for this interview.

Thank you! It was my pleasure! :)

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