Meeting MOTION SICKNESS OF TIME TRAVEL

Motion Sickness Of Time Travel is the solo project for Rachel Evans and she’s been busy, releasing Cassettes and LP’s over the last couple years both as MSOTT and with her husband Grant as Quiet Evenings. Her latest, “Luminaries & Synastry” is lush, overloaded and haunting, a kind of uneasy Ambient and maybe the most perfect “band name as description”. When it came out a few weeks ago, and we spotted it recommended at local record shop Other Music we were smart enough to snag it. Turns out they weren’t lying when they demanded we “check this out ASAP” calling it “gorgeous”, saying it had put a “Hex” on them and promising the vinyl would soon be all gone.
The CD is just out now and we’re heavily hooked by the our now out-of-print vinyl pressing so we tracked her down to learn more.

THITH: What is your writing process? How long do you spend building up your tracks?

Rachel Evans: I don’t really have a writing process. Most of my tracks start off as improvisations. For MSOTT I do a lot of improvising over myself until I feel like the track is full enough and solid enough. Some tracks are done after two or three takes, other tracks can wind up reaching 20 or more layers of audio before I feel like they’re complete. Regardless, the majority of my music is made in one sitting. “Luminaries & Synastry” is one exception to that rule. With that album me & Brad at Digitalis did a whole lot of back and forth with the tracks. However, for my recent tapes on Hobo Cult & Digitalis, and my upcoming LP for Spectrum Spools are exactly the way they were, no going back & editing, just straight up improvised MSOTT.

THITH: How much is improvised and how much is specifically written? And how much only exists in the recording? Is there a balance between analogue manipulations that you perform and textures and sounds only created using editing software?

RE: Nothing is specifically written. Motion Sickness of Time Travel recordings are naturally stronger than a live MSOTT performance since I’m able to do a lot more manipulation of the sound in a recorded setting than I am in a live setting. That having been said, my recent solo performance in Asheville, NC I feel went really well, and was truer to my recorded sound than I’ve ever been able to achieve before in a live setting. To do this I incorporated 2 microphones instead of 1, and ran my second mic through my computer’s recording software using the effects that you hear on my recorded albums. It worked out really well. Although my recordings will always be “thicker” sounding since I’m able to layer more on an album than I am in real life, being only one person.

THITH: How do you play live? Do you like to create brand new pieces or do you perform the songs as written?

RE: Performing live is certainly interesting for me. It’s a different experience every time. With my recent solo sets I make notes to myself for pieces to perform which consist basically of a starting note/key and the sounds to start off with on each instrument. The vocals are always totally improvised and turn out slightly different each time. So the majority is improvised live, but at my last show I really wanted to try and recreate at least one piece from one of my LPs. I chose “Synastry” since its fairly short and has simple instrumentation. I found a similar sound to the main voicing used for that track on my new keyboard and just sort of picked it out while listening to that track. It worked pretty well. I’ve listened to that track enough times that I know my own words now, even though they weren’t originally written down or in my memory. I’m looking forward to doing another solo set in Atlanta Wednesday August 24th doing the two live improvised tracks and recreating “Synastry” again. It’s quite tricky trying to recreate the sound that I have on record, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.

THITH: Are you a gear nerd or more of a make use of whatever is at hand type? What is at hand and what gear do you obsess about?

RE: Well I’m not the biggest gear nerd ever, but I could probably fall into that category at times. I’d LOVE to own more gear, but of course whatever is at hand what I always end up using. I LOVE my dave smith mopho and my space synth deluxe. Those are my two favorite pieces of gear. I used to have a roland fantom workstation, which is what the majority of “Luminaries…” and “Seeping…” were recorded with. It was amazing versatile but so difficult to carry around. Plus, there’s nothing better than true analog gear. I hope to eventually own more analog synthesizers and maybe even some nice vintage gear too. I could obsess over old synths all day if I had the time and money to do it.

THITH: We’ve seen a few things where people have made connections between you Boards Of Canada and Grouper. It’s always funny to us when reviewers just seem to assume that you must only listen to things they hear as a reference. So, what are some things you’re always listening to or influenced by that sound nothing like what you do?

RE: Haha. It’s funny you mention those two artists. Boards Of Canada has actually been a big influence on me, but Grouper hasn’t been. I’m constantly asking myself where the Grouper comparison comes from… although I’ve listened to her music and really love it when the mood is right, it’s certainly not a big influence on my music’s sound. I’ve said this so many times before, but it never hurts to say it again I guess… Valet has been the biggest female artist influence on my sound. I’m still waiting for a reviewer to mention that! Obviously Emeralds and all their various projects have been a big influence for me. Other artists like Fennez, Tim Hecker and William Bassinski have been big influences too. I don’t think I sound too much like them, although I wish I did! On the topic of music that doesn’t really sound like mine but that has had an influence on my sound, I’d have to say the Breeders and Stereolab were both a big deal for me. And I was really obsessed with Pocahaunted and Best Coast for the longest time too. I guess if you melded all those things I mentioned together you might get something like what MSOTT is.

THITH: As the album came together, did certain tracks influence other ones or do you treat each one as it’s own universe?

RE: For “Luminaries” all of the tracks definitely influenced one another. The whole album is a universe all its own. And as I said, I worked a great deal back and forth with Brad at Digitalis on the “Luminaries” album. In many ways, I feel the album is much stronger because of that, and much more focused than it would have been if it’d been just me making the decisions.

THITH: You’re also making music, a lot of music, as Quiet Evenings with your husband(?) brother(?) Grant. How different is it to work on music together?

RE: Ha ha! Grant is my husband. We’ve been married since summer 2008, and started making music together as Quiet Evenings in early 2009. Making music with Grant has been such an amazing experience. Quiet Evenings is constantly evolving, and in many ways it influences my MSOTT sound a great deal. Grant has really helped me to become more comfortable with the idea of not thinking too much about music before I make it and just doing it. I never felt comfortable improvising until after I met him and we started making music together. Part of my journey in finding MSOTT’s sound has been in trying to copy the processes and things that Grant does in his own music. He’s been my single biggest musical influence of all time. I never would have started making this type of music at all if it wasn’t for him. He’s who got me into Valet and other female artists like that. With Quiet Evenings the two of us are really able to come together and bring our two different viewpoints of music to the table and share them. He really approaches things from more of an artists point of view, while I’ve always approached them from a musician or composers point of view. With Quiet Evenings I’m most comfortable being the artist and using sound like a medium rather than thinking of things in terms of keys or notes. It’s a whole other way of thinking about it. For that reason, I really feel like Quiet Evenings is the strongest music I’ve ever been a part of.

THITH: What is next?

RE: Good question! Lots of things… Grant & I have a split LP coming out in the next month or two on Aguirre Records (Belguim). One side is MSOTT, and the other is Grant’s solo project, Nova Scotian Arms. On the Quiet Evenings front, our own label Hooker Vision will be releasing a split LP with Seziki Tetrasheaf as a split release with our good friends at Rotifer Cassettes. That’s also due out in the next month. And solo MSOTT-wise, I’m currently finishing up my first double LP for Spectrum Spools which will feature artwork by Caroline Teagle (Tranquility Tapes) and will be mixed by John Elliott. It’s due out this December/January.

more MSOTT here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 at 22:47. It is filed under Zine Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.