MIS+RESS - It’s A Beautiful Record

The13th AÑO: 4 | NÚMERO 41

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

MIS+RESS IT’S A BEAUTIFUL RECORD

[ Interview With Brian Wenckebach from MIS+RESS by Benjamín York.

Photography: Evagelia Maravelias. ]

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL RECORD

3 Brian Wenckebach is a musician who carries out this solo project that synthesizes in a collection of extreme beauty, sounds that could be framed in those bright and ethereal melodies that are hidden within the genre called soundscapes or instrumental dream pop. But to stay with the tag would be to take a partiality of the whole. The debut album contains ten unique pieces and that is the perfect soundtrack for a night with a shower of stars, or that moment of reflective solitude under a blanket of stars in the countryside or on a mountain, where the immensity of the cosmos makes us very small.

Hello Brian, thank you for accepting this interview.

To begin with, how did MIS+RESS come into existence?

I turned 40 years old and realized that I was a middle-aged father of 2 with a wife, house, and career. For many people, that should be the end of his or her story, but I didn’t feel done. I didn’t feel the creative spark extinguish. Most importantly, I didn’t want my children to grow up with a father who only spoke of the past. Though I had been working on music with Thee Koukouvaya and doing a lot of mixing and mastering work through Electric Blue Studios, I still wanted more. Most of my bands had been vocal-centric and emphasized electronics, so it made sense to go in a different direction. I thought it was time to use a minimal palette of sounds.

Why did you choose this name specifically?

I had a list of names that I was bouncing between while thinking about this project. I wanted to use something completely different than the other bands I had been in. Elika, my band with my wife, had always been the main focus, but Mis+ress was this hidden thing I was developing on the side. So conceptually, the name made sen-

se. The “plus” sign was added to help with internet searches and also as a vague reference to the group +/-. I wanted a signifier that carried multiple layers of meaning.

You have been making music for some years now and you have had several projects like Elika and Thee Koukouvaya. But this new project is different, more introspective. How would you define it?

I think you are right in noting the introspective nature of Mis+ress. It is simpler and more mellow and informed by agedness. The main thing was to demonstrate restraint. This began by utilizing the guitar as the sole source of sound generation.

Further, I wanted to keep it really, really clean so I tossed all the fuzz pedals into the back of the closet. However, coming from an experimental background, there was no way I couldn’t at least use some fx pedals, but overall I kept it minimal. No ridiculous shoegazer pedalboard or anything like that. All those boundaries ended up liberating me as I could focus on composition and emotion instead of obsessing over pedal combinations. The emphasis was on vibe and playing technique.

I have had the opportunity to listen to the whole album and the feeling that this gives me is that each song seems to contain a secret, as if there was a hidden story behind every track.

What can you tell us about this release?

There is an unrecoverable secret inside of the songs. I sort of imagine it like matryoshka dolls, except instead of dolls it’s a present. Open it up and inside is another present. On and on into infinity. The anticipation of getting something, wanting desperately to lay your eyes upon it, but you never find what the “it” is. To complicate things, the deeper you go the more the anticipation warps taking your farther away from the truth. It’s kind of like the harder you try, the more difficult it becomes until at last you realize you should just give

up.

How long did it take you to write these songs?

3-4 months, at night, when the kids were sleeping. Basically, I would put my son George to bed after our routine of cartoons, books and milk while my wife was nursing our baby Paulina. Once everyone was tucked in for the night, I would tiptoe downstairs, pour a nice whiskey and play guitar. On weekends, during the kids’ naps, I would go through the takes, edit, revise and mix. The initial ideas I would send off to friends for feedback because this really was uncharted territory for me. I have to shout out my buddy Anthony Crage for his invaluable commentary at the beginning of Mis+ress.

Are you planning to play these live? If so, would you need to involve other musicians?

I definitely intend to play shows. Part of the idea behind Mis+ress was that it would allow me to

perform again, which I have missed dearly since Elika was put on indefinite hiatus. Mis+ress was conceived as a solo project, so I wouldn’t involve other musicians in a live setting.

Under a mantle of ethereal dream-like landscapes and ambient dream pop you make crumbling fantastic sounds. From what I hear, there is a lot of layering work and layers of recordings. From the original idea for these songs, did you end up adding many more things to it?

The songs came together in a number of different ways. Typically, I would start playing around in a specific key and tempo. I’d listen back to these extended passages and isolate sections. Then, with those parts looping, I’d create additional layers. Most of the songs have 5 or 6 layers of guitar for each section. The densest tune on the album is probably 25 or 30 tracks, which might seem like a lot to some, but after working with mixes in the 1-200 track range, it felt extremely intimate.

5

What are you planning in the next year for Mis+ress and yourself in general?

I’d like to complete another album, secure a vinyl release (labels hit me up!), and play some shows. Personally, my wife and I are building a home right now which is such an incredible undertaking, so much stress but so much excitement at the same time. I am really looking forward to having a proper studio again. It’ll basically be the realization of the dream I have had for Electric Blue Studios since its inception.

A few months ago, you interviewed Ulrich Schnauss and I know you are friends. Have you also worked with him previously?

Ulrich has been a friend and supporter of my musical endeavors since the very beginning.

He’s collaborated on a track with Thee Koukou-

vaya and helped Elika in innumerable ways. We are currently working on something pretty dope that will hopefully see the light of day. He’s one of the very first people I go to for honest feedback, but more importantly just to share music with. Ulrich is a diamond in a world of dirt.

You have really amazed me with these ten songs. To end the interview, what did you feel when you heard the completed album, altogether, for the first time?

At the end it’s really just a sense of relief. By that point, you’ve heard the songs so many times that you lose perspective about what’s going on; obsessing over details that no one will notice. It is important to step away, let your ears reset themselves and come back later. I’m biased, but I think it’s a beautiful record.

The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA