Harmony: Deconstructing ‘Carpetbombing Deconstructions’

Harmony’s second album, ‘Carpetbombing’, comes with a digital bonus disc of ‘Deconstructions’ featuring a strong cast of Aussie collaborators. Below, Harmony leader TOM LYNGCOLN interviews Adalita, Mick Turner (Dirty Three), Pete Dickinson (The Spinning Rooms), Heinz Riegler and Virginia Bott (First Chorus: Band of Singers) about their specific contributions.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

Pete Dickinson (The Spinning Rooms) – ‘On Your Summons’

What is your connection, if any, to the band?
Tom and I have a long history of trying to give each other money and both of us being too proud to accept the other’s cash. I once tried to give Tom a $10 note to cover a round and he lit it on fire. He’s a strange man.

Did you have any preconceptions of what you thought you might do prior to hearing the song selected for you? Did these change upon hearing the piece?
We just knew that it would probably be in 3/4 time (it wasn’t) and that we would have to figure out what we were gonna do for the female harmonies. Upon hearing the piece I was most concerned about the unachievable high vocal note that Tom hits. Impossible. Joe (sax) ended up doubling a tenor and alto sax for the female vocal outro and it sounds beautiful. I remember everyone listening back to that and all being glad that we had at least one musician in the band.

Your deconstruction is even more fragmented than the original and really strips things back to its barest components. What was your approach to reinterpreting ‘On Your Summons’?
We really only know how to do things one way. We jammed the track for a while and then resorted to our usual bag of tricks. Actually, that’s ‘trick’ – singular.

‘On Your Summons’ was recorded [while] recording for your latest album Complicating Things. How did you find the process?
Recording with Tom can be disconcertingly casual. He’s incredibly inconspicuous in the room. He won’t give an opinion unless it’s asked for. Having said that, he will pipe up at the exact right moment if he thinks we’re overthinking things. Thank fuck.

“The only obligation I’ve ever felt towards Lyngcoln is in balancing the ledger.”

Was it a distraction from getting the album done, particularly considering that I was in the room anyway, helping to record the rest of the record? Did you feel obligated?
We initially told Tom that we were going in to record a 7” and then decided we wanted to push for an album. Among the band we talked about – if we needed it – chucking ‘Summons’ on there to fill it out, so we treated the song with the same total lack of scrutiny and preparation as we would have one of our own. But we really did want to do a good job with it. We’d never done a cover before and it was a real treat to think through someone else’s process. It got as much time and effort as any track on our album and I think, in a weird way, focused us on our own shit. The only obligation I’ve ever felt towards Lyngcoln is in balancing the ledger (see question #1).

Did it end up close to the way it sounded in your head? How do Spinning Rooms write?
I didn’t bother with trying to figure out what it should sound like in my head. We don’t work that way. We stood in a rehearsal room, listened to the song and then we played it. And that’s how we write, too.

What are you currently working on?
Knitting bones, marrying partners and having babies.

Heinz Riegler – ‘Unknown Hunter’

What is your connection, if any, to the band?
I was once forced to write a song with Tom at a songwriting workshop some years ago. We’ve been friends and I’ve felt connected to all his work ever since. Later I made him play solo shows with me and, during one of these at the Old Bar, a prototype version of Harmony raised its head. They totally ruined what was meant to be my moment in the limelight.

Did you have any preconceptions of what you thought you might do prior to hearing the song selected for you? Did these change upon hearing the piece?
No preconceptions, other then knowing that I’m not interested in making cover versions. I asked the band if they were cool with their song becoming unrecognisable. They liked/encouraged that thought.

Was there anything in the original song as performed by Harmony that influenced your deconstruction?
I like the drama in those voices. I wanted to amplify it further.

What was your process?
Became aware of approaching deadline. Drank coffee. Removed all the instrumentation bar the female voices, which were stretched, fused and bent. Added some badly played cello and processed the lot.

“If the listener commits to the long form, they will be rewarded.”

When writing longer pieces I start to sweat around the five-minute mark. How do you gauge how long to push the length of a piece and when things are to end? Does it simply come down to stanza and form (alternating patterns of four) or is it more instinctive and based on a natural progression of ingredients?
I believe in the good faith of the listener. I believe that if the listener commits to the long form, they will be rewarded. That works for listening to any sound, be it the air conditioner, the traffic outside your window or any key struck receptively on a piano.

Did you wonder at all what other people might be contributing?
Not while I was working on the piece. But I’ve enjoyed listening to all the contributions now that they’re collected and out there.

What are you currently working on?
A composition/audio installation for an exhibition titled Sunken Houses with photographer Brad Marsellos. (A small part of the piece for Sunken Houses actually includes source material from the Harmony deconstruct). Also in the middle of two new records that will be out over the second half of the year. And rehearsing for being on Dancing with the Stars.

Adalita – ‘Carpetbomb’

What is your connection, if any, to Harmony?
Well, I know Tom through Nation Blue and Magic Dirt touring together a lot and that’s how we met, through music. We did some incredible shows together and had absolute debauched crazy fucking times on tour. I was and still am such a huge fan of Tom’s. Everything he touches turns to gold. Tom is a remarkable musician and person. I admire the hell out of him.

Did you have any preconceptions of what you thought you might do prior to hearing the song selected for you? Did these change upon hearing the piece?
The song Tom picked for me couldn’t have been more perfect. As soon as I heard it I was like, “You know me, dude.” And he had it in his mind all along that it would be the one for me. It was a no-brainer.

What was your approach to reinterpreting ‘Carpetbomb’?
I just wanted to do a straight-up, real traditional-sounding verse-chorus verse-chorus song because the melody is just so beautiful and the progressions are simple but delicate and I just wanted to showcase that.

“I downed a few vodkas and got progressively more drunk as we did each take.”

We recorded your deconstruction at your place at the time. How did you find the recording and did it turn out the way you anticipated?
Hell yeah, it was awesome. Very relaxed and super easy. Tom had a lot of great equipment and was really efficient; it was nice to see him in an engineer/producer role. I was a little bit nervous though – always am when recording – so we sat in my backyard while I downed a few vodkas and got progressively more drunk as we did each take. So one version would be straighter than the others and then I’d do one where I cut loose a bit more or dug deeper. I really liked working that way ... quick and live and on the spot. You don’t have time to think which is good.

What are you currently working on?
Just writing madly – just feel like writing songs every day – so we’ll see what happens.

Mick Turner – ‘Big Ivan’

What is your connection, if any, to Harmony?
None, I’d never heard of them. One of my friends knew of them “a little bit.” Except after getting an email from a complete stranger, I did a version of their song ‘Big Ivan’.

Your deconstruction is very much in keeping with the new band you have put together that features Ian Wadley on drums, Peggy Frew on Bass and Caroline Kennedy McCracken on vocals. Did you have any preconceptions of what you thought you might do prior to hearing the song selected for you? Did these change upon hearing the piece?
I wanted to do a dancefloor version of whatever they gave me.

“It’s hard to pull apart a Harmony song.”

How did you approach the deconstruction?
I loved the song, their version, and felt inspired to do it. but it took me a long time to start on it. I was very busy with my own projects – new album coming out and overseas solo tours. Tom kept saying there was plenty of time, then gradually his emails asking about progress got less polite and more stoically frantic, then there was the one that gave a final deadline – end of the week. I thrive on deadlines; we were rehearsing for the full band so I asked Ian and Caroline and Peggy to come in early the next day and we laid it down.

Were there any components of the original song that you gravitated towards?
It’s hard to pull apart a Harmony song. All the parts that need to be there are there, and all sit together so well.

How did the changes come about, particularly the chorus, which now seems it was always written that way and has now completely contaminated our own rendition of the song?
Caroline took the lines that she found the strongest and focused on those, condensing it down a bit.

Where and how did you record this song?
At my Big Moth studio. Same setup where my recent album was recorded.

The bowed guitar parts are pretty incredible. Is that something that started in Dirty Three rehearsals or is it a new acquisition?
I’ve been bowing in my solo shows for awhile now. My new album has it all over the place. There’s no violin on that album; all those sounds are bowed guitar. I started doing it to mimic a cello sound.

What are you currently working on?
Paintings. I have an art show opening on April 3 at Brightspace Gallery, St. Kilda, entitled Surf Beach Postcards.

Virginia Bott (First Chorus: Band of Singers) – ‘Diminishing Returns’

What is your connection, if any, to the band?
We didn’t know each other until someone hooked us up, not even sure who. Tom was looking for a choir, I think, and this kind of thing is a major part of why we exist.

Did you have any preconceptions of what you thought you might do prior to hearing the song selected for you? Did these change upon hearing the piece?
No, of course not, no idea. It is always the song that asks for the treatment we give it, as far as taking a more simple or complex approach. I rarely know what I’m doing until an arrangement is finished and then can see what has happened. I was definitely curious about what Tom would pick for us – wondered what we’d do with all that guitar, what would happen without a kit.

As the most radically different deconstruction on the album, yet also one of the most accurate and faithful interpretations, what was your process for deconstructing ‘Diminishing Returns’?
I loved the raw elements in this song. The melody, the chord movement, the lyric; the chorus is killer; the beautiful arpeggiated guitar lines in the outro. The aim was just to bring these things out so they were really heard, which isn’t hard cos voices will really reveal a song, and to draw out the lament; we really saw it as a dirge. I also wanted to try and keep some of the rawness and abandon that the original has and avoid it taking too formal a tone or becoming too pretty. Someone suggested a vocal soloist in place of the guitar (Helen Metzger was the obvious choice here) and I wanted those arpeggios in the outro in it – what a bitch they were to transcribe – my best to the singers who had to sing them!

With so many members in First Chorus: Band Of Singers, how long did it take to pull the arrangement together once you had it?
A few rehearsals, I think, and it didn’t even feel like we fully had it when we came to record. It was a slippery sucker. As usual, I was still making last-minute changes during the session – poor singers. We were hoping for the best.

Actually as a member of a six-piece band who finds it hard enough, how do you cope organising so many people? Even rehearsing must be like being a sergeant in the army.
It is a massive undertaking; I often fail dismally but I still love it. They are a very funny group of people and though we get very serious, we laugh a lot too. I am the eighth child of 10 so the chaos and the attempt to make something out of it is somewhat familiar to me. In rehearsals with larger numbers, we actually assign a sheriff that can tell people to shut the fuck up however they want without offending anyone. It saves me getting abusive – and everyone else gets a turn. Man, how this band of singers can talk.

“You were either singing into someone’s ear, a wall or looking straight up.”

We recorded your deconstruction at a house in Brunswick. How did that come about and what are your memories of the recording?
We were looking for a stairwell that had really live sound and was large enough for us all. We looked at a few but there was this staircase with a very high ceiling in an old house on the creek, a friend of someone’s. A family lived there but they agreed to let us take it over. It had a tiled, whitewashed Grecian feel to it, falling apart, strange pictures. Quite narrow and steep. In the end it was a challenge because you were either singing into someone’s ear, a wall or looking straight up. We were so close to each other we could hardly see each other, or anyone but the people either side of you, so we had to really go by feel – a challenge with a song that expands and contracts with its own sense of timing like this one. It was hard to get a technically good take for this reason and I think we ended up going with the first or second take for vibe over accuracy – as is the way. We filmed it but all the footage was wiped and, as usual, out of 20 people we didn’t get one photo.

What are you currently working on?
I’m mainly doing Brighter Later stuff at the moment, but with the Band of Singers I have been indulging myself with a set of covers that not-so-bizarrely share themes of loss and death, the dark magic the Spanish call “duende.” The obvious culprits: Waits, Radiohead, Grouper, J Tillman, etc. We did a show recently for the Play Me I’m Yours Festival (pianos all over the city) and aired some of them there but it’s not complete yet. We’ll have a dark night of the soul when they’re finished, bunker in somewhere with an audience, turn the lights off, pass a bottle around.

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‘Carpetbombing’ is out now on vinyl, CD and digital through Poison City. Read Edward Sharp-Paul’s review and Tom Lyngcoln’s Track by Track. The other contributors to the ‘Deconstructions’ disc are TV Colours, Batpiss, Mikey Young, SPOD, Summer Flake, Sky Needle, BJ Morriszonkle, Simon J Karis, Qua and Miles Brown. Album launch tour dates below.

Thurs, April 3 – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane, QLD [w/Gentle Ben + Per Purpose]
Fri, April 4 – GoodGod Small Club, Sydney, NSW [w/Day Ravies + Angie]
Sat, April 5 – The Phoenix, Canberra, ACT [w/Hoodlum Shouts + Sex Noises]
Sat, April 12 – The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart, TAS [w/The Native Cats + Naked]
Sat, April 26 – Howler, Melbourne, VIC [w/Deaf Wish, Tyrannamen, Laura Imbruglia, BJ Morriszonkle + very special secret guest]